Cupcake Caper by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Author:Gertrude Chandler Warner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781453229149
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2011-02-14T10:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Setting the Trap

The next day, Mama Tova’s shop was crowded as usual.

“Don’t say anything yet, “Henry whispered. Benny, Violet, and Jessie were sitting at a small table in the center of the room, waiting for their cue. Henry was at the next table. He had a plan.

“I want there to be lots of people in the shop when Mama Tova comes over to talk to us,” Henry told Jessie.

“You mean just like the day we were here and she said that the recipe was under the flower?” Violet said.

Henry kept an eye on the door. “Yes,” he replied. “Just like that. I am hoping that the same person who heard Mama Tova that day will hear her now.”

The little bell on the door chimed and three more people squeezed into the shop. It was so packed that it was hard to move around and the tables were full.

“I think there are more people here now than the other day,” Jessie told Henry. “Maybe you should start.”

Henry agreed. “Okay. When I stand up, that’s the cue for action. Mama Tova will come out of the kitchen, and then you start talking to her. Got it?”

“We got it the first million times you explained,” Benny told his brother.

“Sorry,” Henry said. “I’m just a little nervous. It’s my idea after all. I want this to work.”

“It will,” Violet said. “It’s a good plan, Henry.”

Jessie noticed that a few customers were taking their dishes over to Alicia, ready to leave the shop. “You’d better get rolling.”

Henry stood up and yawned.

Mama Tova immediately came out of the kitchen. She’d been waiting there, watching Henry. She greeted the other customers as she slowly made her way around the shop. Henry had told her not to come straight over to them. She had to act the same way she did every day.

“How was your cupcake?” she asked a small boy. She smiled at him and moved closer to the table where Jessie and Violet were sitting with Benny.

“And how are you today?” she asked Benny.

“I’m terrific,” Benny said. The Aldens had lined up early to come inside. Mama Tova had offered to sneak them in, but they’d refused. They had to make sure it looked like business as usual in the shop.

“Why haven’t you eaten your cupcake yet?” Mama Tova asked Benny.

Everyone else had finished their treat. But not Benny. He kept looking at his, turning it around and around in his hand, smelling the chocolate cake part.

“I’m trying to decide the best way to eat it,” Benny explained to Mama Tova. “I could lick off the frosting and then eat the cake part alone.”

“That sounds like a good approach,” Jessie said.

“Or,” Benny went on, “I could peel off the paper and eat it from the bottom up.”

“Cake first, icing last,” Violet licked her lips. “That’s the way I like to go.”

“Or,” Benny kept going, “I could jump in from the side and make certain that every bite has both cake and frosting.”

“I see your problem,” Mama Tova said with a laugh.

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