Harriet Spies by Elana K. Arnold

Author:Elana K. Arnold
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

11

Shed Decorating

“AH,” SAID NANU WHEN WE got back to the B and B. “There’s my hat. And my sunglasses. I was looking for those.”

“I didn’t want to get a sunburn,” I said. When you’re as good at making things up as I am, you can sometimes do it without thinking. I bent down and undid Moneypenny’s harness. She padded into the sitting room and flopped on the rug, as if she’d just finished a marathon. Which maybe she sort of had, considering the length of her legs and how far we had walked.

“Harriet,” Nanu said, following us into the kitchen, “if you are going to borrow people’s things, you need to ask permission.”

“I’m sorry, Nanu. I’ll remember to ask next time. We’re going to make sandwiches.”

Nanu stood in the kitchen doorway, holding her hat and sunglasses and watching me get out the bread and the jam and the peanut butter and two flat knives. Clarence spread the peanut butter, and I did the jam. I was glad to see Nanu had gotten more olallieberry.

When we were finished, I cut the sandwiches sideways to make triangles, and we loaded them onto plates. I got out a bag of potato chips, too. “We can eat outside,” I told Clarence, and he went out through the back door.

“Harriet,” Nanu said again, before I joined him. “Just a minute, please.”

I turned around. Nanu looked unhappy.

“I said I was sorry about borrowing your things without asking,” I said.

“I know, Harriet, and I forgive you. But . . . is there anything else you might have borrowed, without asking permission?”

I didn’t like where this was heading. “I thought you believed me about the Captain’s binoculars,” I said.

“Yes,” said Nanu, “but, well, it does make me wonder a bit. If you should maybe think harder about whether you remember seeing the Captain’s binoculars before the yard sale.”

I felt a big hot bubble of mad rising up in my chest. If I were a garibaldi, I would have turned from orange to red.

“I’m not lying, Nanu,” I said.

“Okay, Harriet, I believe you,” Nanu answered. But the look on her face told me that maybe that wasn’t all-the-way true.

I went outside. Clarence was sitting at the iron table under the tree. His sandwich halves were still on his plate without any missing bites. As soon as I sat, he picked up the sandwich.

“Were you waiting for me?” I asked.

“Mm-hmm,” he said, chewing.

That was a nice thing to do. I really liked Clarence. But that just made me think again about how I’d be leaving Marble Island in a month or so. It’s hard not to get attached to people you like.

We ate our sandwiches in the shade of the tree. We listened to the tinkling wind chimes and munched the salty chips.

“What’s that over there?” Clarence asked, pointing at the shed with his sandwich.

“That was Nanu’s junk shed, but now that I cleared it all out, she says I can use it as a hangout.”

“Really?” said Clarence. “Can I see?”

“Sure.

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