PART TWO:
The day after my best friend, a doll named Princess Lulu, died from grisly murder, it was hot. It was fry eggs on the tin roof of the doghouse hot. Mommy wouldn't let us fry eggs on the tin roof of the doghouse. She said it was a wasteuhfood. Mommy hated wasteuhfoods, and would tell us about little Chinese children and African Children who didn't get any food at all.
After hearing that, I ate my eggs thinking about the African and Chinese children. It bothered me until I got in trouble for trying to mail them some eggs. I even made my own stamps. Mommy and Daddy were mad at me, but I heard them laughing with the mailman when they went into the other room.
The grownups were up all night, after Princess Lulu was murdered with gore. Pooky and Franklin, my two brothers, the Baker Brothers, and Tomas sneaked down the stairs to listen in. Pooky and Franklin were good at this and only got caught twice. If they could get to the first landing, they could hear everything, but always had to take it too far and try to see what was going on. They always tried to catch grownups drinking and kissing.
Tomas' parents and The Bakers and Mr. and Mrs. Watson were in the living room with Mommy and Daddy and the two little Watson babies. They were afraid that us kids would hear what they were talking about. But Daddy liked to "break out the good stuff" and that always meant that everyone would talk a lot louder.
The little kids were in my room. There was Belinda, Mikey, Dennis, and Bon Bon. Belinda was seven and the oldest. Bon Bon was the baby of our group. She was three. We played for a while, but the grownups kept coming in and tucking us up until we couldn't take it any more and fell asleep. Before I fell asleep I heard the grownups talking about the new people. The new people were behind this string of things happening.
I heard the big kids talking about a dead cat and a missing dog, and a house that was a moneypit. There was something wrong with the new people, especially that old gramma.
We kids had never seen the new people, but Tomas said that they were Communists, out to put flouride in our water.
That night, I dreamed about new people walking behind me and an old woman with a looking eye. That eye was a cold eye that stared and didn't move. I dreamed of eyes that didn't move and of an army of prim ladies in cotton dresses with big skirts and belts and with primrose flowers all over them.
I woke up in the early morning after dreaming that I was in the bathroom, having a pee. I woke up in the bed and the bed was wet. All the little kids were gone and it was still dark. I got up and took off my pajamas that weren't my favorites. My favorites had ballet girls on them. I wanted to be a ballet girl, but there wasn't money for ballet.
I stripped off my wet jammies and stuffed them in the closet, glad that Bon Bon and Mikey also wet the bed. I wouldn't get all the blame. I never worried about how my wet jammies always ended up back in the drawer, dry and clean, but remember Mommy griping about it and hoping I'd grow out of it soon. Mommy was never really mean about it.
I went to the window and looked out. There was a big moon, made of cheese, and it made a bright light on things. My window looked out over the back yard to the creek. I saw people at the creek. Two boys were playing with a slow dog. The dog didn't like it that the boys were poking at it. Then the boys were running as fast as they could. The slow dog was following them, but couldn't keep up, so the boys left the dog behind.
I went back to bed and slept on the dry part in my ballet girl pajamas. I dreamed about a big funny black crow. The crow was funny like a cartoon bird.
I woke up again and it was sunny. I smelled eggs and bacon and coffee and I heard talking. Lots of talking. There were people in the house again and cars were going up and down the street with engines running. I washed up and put on my favorite shorts, t-shirt and socks and tennies. Then I checked all of my dolls. They were all there, except for Princess Lulu, which made my heart burn. I cried a little, but the bacon and eggs and coffee made me hungry. I was going to find some flowers and make a grave for Princess Lulu. Maybe Pookie would help and Mommy would do the prayer.
Then I went down the stairs. I got to the landing and heard Mr. Sanchez, Tomas' Dad, saying that the new people were just fine. Their three smaller kids were staying with their grandparents for the summer, and would be joining them in time for school. Mr. Sanchez went over there to meet them. He said that the house was cleaned up, but looked like Sutro's Place in San Francisco. Creepy.
The father, Mr. Watson, was going to be the Agricotoro Inspector. The Agricotoro inspector must have been an important job, because everyone stopped blaming the new people. So whatever happened to those boys didn't have anything to do with the new people.
Mommy said that someone saw the Baker Boys just before dawn, making a racket and running toward the school to do some lawn mowing before it got hot. But the Care Taker, Mr. Jonas, said that they never showed up.
Someone heard a commotion down at the creek path that ran behind the gas station, so that's where they'd start looking. I was scared when all of the men got up to go down to the gas station to look for the Baker Boys. The phone rang and Daddy said "What? What? When?". Then he talked some more and left the house with the other men. After they left, I went into the kitchen.
Mommy was drinking coffee and trying not to cry. I didn't say anything and she gave me some eggs and toast and bacon. I asked about Pooky and Franklin. They were over at the Sanchez's house. Mommy didn't say any more about grownup things.
Later, we went downtown. I loved downtown and forgot about murdered dolls and missing boys as we went to the department store, where Mommy picked up some packages and looked at dresses. Then we went to the drug store with it's funny smells and bottles of grownup stuff. We went to the grocery store and I helped Mommy with what's for dinner.
I thought that Buhscehttis would be the thing to have. Mommy laughed and said "Fine, punkin', I'll make Buhscettis!" Then we went to the produce place to get peaches for cobbler.
And there were the new ladies at the produce place. A pretty younger lady with yellow hair and a face like Doris Day. But her face kept changing. Sometimes she had dead doll eyes. And a teenaged girl with dark hair who looked like she hated everything. She kept her arms folded. ...And there was an old lady with a dress covered in primroses. She had an eye that stared and didn't move. Her eye stared and stared and didn't move. I couldn't move. It was just like my dream, so I stared at her until Mommy whispered in my ear: "Don't stare, you! She has a glass eye!"
We didn't know anything about what happened at the produce place until we got home. On the way home, we drove past the new people's place. I was suprised to find out that they'd moved into the spooky house, where we weren't ever supposed to go. Mommy said that it was an "inheritance" for the New People. "Inheritances" always meant that people were rich. But it was still a huge, spooky house, just like in the movies.
Pooky said that it was haunted and worse. He went over there one night with Tomas and some other boys, but none of them would talk about what happened. They said that "No one would believe us!" "I wouldn't go within a mile of that place!" Pooky would always say.
When we got home, I heard bits and pieces of Mommy's conversations on the phone, and as her friends came and went. Aunt Le le was coming for dinner, so Mommy was making everything fancy. Someone had gone into the old quarry last night and had some kind of party. Then someone ripped all of the best flowers apart at the courthouse where they had flowers around the front. And someone killed Mr. Roushe's best milk cow with a big spike or something.
A huge crow went crazy and flew into a window at the courthouse just as the Judge finished sensensing Carly Banks to jail for doing something bad to his wife. No one really knew her. She never came out much.
The crow broke it's neck and died. It scared everyone. There were some funny things found at the quarry, and not "ha ha" funny.
No one found the Baker Boys that day.
I saw the silly little pony the next early-still-dark morning, after I wet the bed again. The silly little pony ran in circles on the creek path, carrying something in it's mouth. The pony put it down. Then the silly pony was playing with it. The thing was making tiny noises and flopping around until the silly pony picked it up and carried it off.
I went back to sleep in my magic dry ballet girl pajamas and dreamed about a dance at the produce place and a jumping monkey.
To Be Continued...
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