Mystery of Drear House by Virginia Hamilton

Author:Virginia Hamilton [Hamilton, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4532-3724-3
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2011-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

14

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT the little fellows could be so rambunctious? That Mrs. Small, her arms full of groceries in the kitchen, would have a moment’s distraction. Often now the boys got away from her, running off like two wild pups. They were only going upstairs to see Great-grandmother and Thomas. And probably Pesty was with Thomas still as well. Shortly before, Mrs. Small had stepped up onto the front veranda and instructed Billy to take her key from her purse.

“Want to see Gray-grahma!” Billy had said, finding the key for his mama.

“Well, you’ll see her in a moment,” Mrs. Small had answered. She took the key, braced the groceries in her arms, and turned the key in the lock. “Now push, Buster,” she had told her stoutest little son. They had entered the hall, and she’d called, “Grandmother Rhetty, we’re home!” She thought she heard faint talking upstairs as she went on to the kitchen to set the bags down and put the groceries away.

She was thinking about how the boys seemed to like the nursery school. They could attend six half days or three full days a week. She thought she’d let them try it. I’ll talk it over with Walter. She thought of Thomas and Mac Darrow then and smiled to herself. With the twins in school, Thomas would have more time to make new friends.

Walter came home before she could gather the boys and go pick him up. He’d gotten a ride from someone at the college. Had his papers and books, his briefcase. “We stopped at the store,” he said in greeting.

Martha smiled. “Walter, I shopped, too,” she said. “I bought hamburger and chicken and cookies.”

“Chicken and lamb chops and cookies,” he said. “Well, hello!”

“Well, we can use everything,” she said.

Just then Thomas bounded down the stairs. “Papa, Mama, you will never guess in the world what happened!” he exclaimed.

“Thomas, is Great-grandmother coming?” his mama said, thinking her little boys must have Grandmother Rhetty in tow.

“I’m right here!” Great-grandmother Jeffers called. “I’m just not so fast.” Martha Small imagined that Billy and Buster were on either side of her, helping her carefully down.

But who would have thought the two little fellows would be in the exact spot to see something of what Thomas said their folks would never guess? Billy and Buster had got away from their mama when she came in with her arms full of groceries. They climbed upstairs in search of Great-grandmother, only to find her bedroom empty. They’d stood there for a moment, peeking in at the clutter.

“Gray-grahma,” Billy said, “not here.”

It was Buster who ran over to Thomas’s room, to find that she was not there either. Together the boys went to their own room. Finding it empty, they closed the door behind them. Billy banged on the door. “Come in?” he said, imitating the way his mother answered whenever they knocked on her door.

“Come in?” Buster mimicked. They giggled.

Billy ran down the hall, knocking on closed doors. “Come in? Come in? How you do? Yes.

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