Audacity Jones to the Rescue by Kirby Larson

Author:Kirby Larson [Larson, Kirby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

The foursome huddled in their hidey-hole under the stairs, letting Bimmy’s words filter over them like dust motes.

Bimmy finally broke the silence with a giant exhaled breath. “I wouldn’t ask this of you unless it was important.”

“Do you think it’s really, really important?” asked Violet.

“As in imperative?” added Lilac.

“Maybe you misunderstood what she said.” Lavender blinked back a tear. “How could the Punishment Room hold any answers?”

“Now, girls.” Bimmy squared her shoulders. Her caramel-drop eyes bored into three identical pairs of pale blue ones. “Think of everything Audie has done for us.” At this declarative, she allowed for a period of quiet, so that each girl could reflect on what they had been given in friendship without ever a thought of anything in return.

The triplets had been no bigger than paper dolls when their befrazzled parents left them in Miss Maisie’s care. No one in the house had had a moment’s sleep until Audie stepped forward and discovered that, though they were identical, the triplets were also three unique little beings. Violet needed a lovey to soothe her to sleep. So Audie sacrificed Percy to the cause, tucking the much-loved stuffed giraffe in the babe’s arms. Lilac liked being toasty warm, a problem Audie solved by giving up her own baby blanket, hand crocheted in exquisite pink stitches by her mother. Audie swaddled Lilac up so tight that she took on the appearance of a little baby frankfurter snuggled in a pink wool bun. And, as it turned out, Baby Lavender required music to fall asleep. She was especially fond of “The Old Gray Mare.” So Audie sang and sang and sang until the smallest of the triplets finally gave up her battle against slumber and cuddled with her sisters in their specially rigged-up crib for three.

While the triplets’ memories cast back to their first days at Miss Maisie’s, Bimmy reflected upon her own arrival. Her folks were circus people, best known for a rather astonishing high-wire act involving a wheelbarrow, a goldfish bowl, and a tuba. After years of performing in fifth-rate circuses, their big break finally arrived: the chance to headline in the Sircus Swisse. All they had to do was accept the circus master’s three hard-fast rules: No dog acts, No bearded ladies (as a young man, his heart had been broken by Henriette the Hairy), and No children. Thus, four years previous, Bimmy had become Wayward Girl number 15, only six and ready to take a poke at the world before it could poke at her. Hers was the only dark face in the Swayzee sea of white. Bimmy had been standing in Miss Maisie’s parlor, planning her escape not ten minutes after her arrival, when Audie caught sight of her signing the School roster.

“Look, Miss Maisie!” Audie had pointed at Bimmy, whose hands were already clenching into fists. “She’s our first lefty!” And that was it. The end of Bimmy being assaulted by cruel names wherever she went. Labels that made bile rise up in her throat to recall.

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