Grandfather drove the children back to Jeff’s shop early the next morning. He couldn’t pull into the parking lot because Emily was standing there with a man dressed in black jeans and a black jacket. So Grandfather pulled up along the side of the road to let the children out.
As Benny got out of the car, he noticed Mrs. Thorton standing in the front window of her little yellow house across the street.
“Hey, there’s that lady who came into Jeff’s shop last night,” Benny said. He raised his hand to wave at her, but as soon as he did, Mrs. Thorton pulled her curtains closed.
“I thought Emily said she wasn’t home much during the day,” Jessie said.
“It looks like she’s home today,” Violet said.
“Why don’t you kids call me when you’re ready to come home,” Grandfather said.
“We will,” Henry promised as he hoisted his backpack up onto his back.
Grandfather drove away as the children walked over to the shop.
Emily and the man in black were still deep in conversation. They didn’t notice the children.
“Trust me,” Emily said. “I’m taking care of it. We won’t have to worry about that silly yo-yo much longer.”
The children stopped and stared. What did Emily mean by that?
“I hope you’re right,” the man in black said. He squeezed Emily’s hand, then walked down the sidewalk.
Emily turned to go inside. But when she saw the Aldens, she jumped.
“What are you kids doing here?” She scowled at them.
“We were just going inside,” Violet said. “Jeff asked us to come down here this morning to help with the yo-yo.”
Emily pressed her lips together, then said, “Well, it’s not nice to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations. You could misinterpret what you hear.”
“We know that,” Henry said. “And we weren’t eavesdropping. Honest.”
Henry wanted to ask Emily what she’d meant by “I’m taking care of it. We won’t have to worry about that silly yo-yo anymore.” But Emily already seemed angry; he didn’t want to make her any angrier. So he and his brother and sisters followed Emily into the shop.
When they got inside, they found Jeff pacing around the workshop, talking on his cell phone. He looked irritated.
“I don’t understand,” Jeff said into his phone. “Where would you get the idea I didn’t want that order of wood? Uh huh … A woman, huh?” He glanced over at Emily, who was hanging up her jacket and not paying any attention to Jeff’s conversation. “I’ll see what I can find out on this end and get back to you. I do want the wood, though, Karl. I want it as soon as you can get it to me.”
Jeff slapped his cell phone closed and nodded at the children. “I’ll be with you kids in a minute,” he said. He strode over to Emily. “Did you cancel that next order of wood?”
“I—” Emily began, her face turning red. She didn’t finish her sentence. But it was clear she had canceled the wood.
Jeff let out a breath of air. “Why in the world would you do that?”
“I-I didn’t think we needed any more wood.” She pointed to the yo-yo piece that Jeff had been working on. “It looks like we’re almost done. So when Karl called yesterday, I told him we didn’t need that other order.”
“We’re almost done with the one half of the yo-yo,” Jeff said. “We still have a whole other half to build.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize,” Emily said. “I’m so sorry.”
The Aldens exchanged looks. It seemed strange that someone who knew as much about woodworking as Emily would forget about the second half of the yo-yo.
Jeff softened. “Well, it was an honest mistake. And there’s nothing we can do about it now. Karl will get a new load of wood over here as soon as he can. It just won’t be today. In the meantime, Emily, why don’t you work on those cabinets. The Aldens can help me with the boards that we have.”
“Okay,” Emily said.
“Benny, would you like to run the video camera for me?” Jeff asked.
“Sure,” Benny said, skipping over to the camera.
“I’m just going to get some safety goggles for all of us,” Jeff said. He pulled a bunch of safety goggles out of a box and started handing them around.
“Hey, there’s something wrong with this camera,” Benny spoke up. “It won’t turn on.”
Jessie went over to help Benny. She pushed a button, then said, “Well, no wonder it won’t turn on. There’s no flash card in here.”
“No flash card?” Jeff frowned. He strode over to the camera and checked for himself. “You’re right, Benny. I don’t understand. I haven’t taken the flash card out of this camera. I’ve been recording on it for the last week.”
Jeff walked over to Emily. “Did you take the flash card out of the video camera?”
Emily glanced up from the cabinet she was staining. “Why would I do that?” she asked.
“Do you have another flash card?” Violet asked.
“Yes.” Jeff walked over to his desk, opened the top drawer and pulled out another flash card. “But I need to find out what happened to the first card. I recorded everything I’ve done on the yo-yo up to now on there. Without it, I won’t get credit for the record.”
“Did you copy what was on the other card to your computer?” Henry asked.
Jeff shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. I figured I’d do that once I filled the card.”
“I hope you find it,” Violet said as Jeff inserted the new flash card into the camera.
“I’m sure it’s around,” Jeff said.
Then they all got to work screwing boards together. Jeff’s plans showed exactly where each piece was supposed to go. The Aldens checked the plans every time they added a new board.
“Hmm,” Henry said, squinting at the plans. “Am ? really supposed to put another piece here? The drawing shows another piece, but there’s a note here that says to wait on that piece.”
Jessie and Violet gathered around Henry and studied the plans over his shoulder. There were a lot of extra directions written on the margins of the paper. The directions were written in red pen with a different handwriting.
“Who made all these red notes?” Jessie asked Jeff.
“Are we supposed to do what the notes say or follow the original plans?”
Jeff peered at the plans. “Just follow the original plan,” he said stiffly. “Those red notes were made by my former partner, Gary Richmond.”
“Were you and Gary going to build this yo-yo together?” Violet asked.
Jeff sighed. “At one time, yes. Gary and I always talked about breaking a world’s record together. Ever since we were kids. First we were going to build the world’s tallest house of cards. We were both good at building houses of cards, but not that good.
“Then we decided we were going to make the world’s largest pizza. But we couldn’t figure out how to bake it. A few years ago we decided we should go for a record that involved woodworking, since we both know something about that. So we started making plans to build the world’s largest yo-yo.”
“Why isn’t Gary working on the yo-yo with you now?” Violet asked.
“We had a falling out a few months ago,” Jeff said sadly. “We’re not friends anymore.”
“Can’t you just be friends again?” Benny asked.
“I thought so at first,” Jeff said. “That’s why I held off on building the yo-yo for a little while. But the more time that went by, the clearer it became that Gary and I would never be friends again. I knew that if I still wanted to build the yo-yo, I would have to do it without him.”
“What happened between the two of you?” Jessie asked.
Jeff sighed. “It’s a long story. But basically, we had a difference of opinion on where to take the business. He wanted to grow the business and bring in new employees. I prefer to stay small. This difference of opinion grew and grew until it finally broke up our friendship.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Violet said.
“Me too,” Jeff said.
“Does Gary know you’re building this yo-yo?” Henry asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jeff said. “We haven’t spoken in months. Look, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. If you have questions about the plans, just follow the original instructions. I don’t feel right using Gary’s notes when he’s not involved in the project anymore.”
With that, Jeff strolled over to the door and stared outside.
“What a sad story about Jeff and his friend,” Violet said. “I wish there was something we could do to help.”
“Maybe if we think about it for a while, we’ll come up with something.” Henry said.
“Maybe,” Jessie agreed.
The children got back to work. They screwed together all the boards that were left. When they finished, the first half of the yo-yo was almost complete.
“You kids did a great job,” Jeff said.
“Thanks,” Jessie said. “It was fun.”
Benny stopped the camera. “Do you want to back up what’s on the flash card, Jeff?”
“Since I seem to have lost my other flash card, yes, I think that would be a good idea,” Jeff replied.
Benny took the flash card out of the camera and handed it to Jeff.
“Thanks, Benny,” Jeff said. He rubbed his chin. “I sure wish I knew what happened to that other card. I’ve looked all over my desk for it. I just don’t know where it could be.”
“It’ll turn up,” Jessie said confidently.
“Hey, Jeff,” Benny said, reaching into his pocket. “Grandfather said you know a lot of yo-yo tricks. Can you show us one before we leave?” He handed Jeff his yo-yo.
Jeff smiled. “What kind of trick would you like to see?”
“What’s the hardest trick you know?” Benny asked.
“Hmm. The hardest trick I know …” Jeff had to think about it for a few seconds. “That would probably be the atom smasher.”
“Can you show us?” Jessie asked.
“Sure.” Jeff said. He dribbled Benny’s yo-yo up and down a couple times to get a feel for it. Then he threw a fast sleeper, picked up the string in a couple of places, and the yo-yo first flipped onto one string, then did a somersault, ran down another string, did another somersault and finally landed back in Jeff’s hand.
The whole thing happened so fast, the Aldens weren’t entirely sure what exactly they’d seen. But it sure was impressive.
“That was really neat,” Violet said.
“Thank you,” Jeff replied.
“I’m still trying to learn how to do a sleeper,” Benny said. “I haven’t been able to do it yet.”
“You keep working on it, Benny,” Jeff said. “You’ll get it.”
“Well, we don’t want to keep you from your work, Jeff,” Henry said. “When would you like us to come back again?”
“There’s not much more we can do until I get some more wood. How about I call you when I’ve got more for you to do?”
“Okay,” Violet said.
Jeff walked the children to the door. As soon as they stepped outside, they noticed the gray station wagon was back. It was parked in front of Mrs. Thorton’s house.
But this time it didn’t look like there was anyone inside.
“Hey, Jeff,” Henry said. “Have you ever seen that gray station wagon before?”
Jeff glanced over to where Henry was pointing. “Can’t say that I have,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
“It was parked behind our grandfather’s car last night,” Jessie explained. “In fact, when we left, it left, too. For a while we thought whoever was driving that car was following us. But then Grandfather pulled over and the person kept right on going.”
“Well, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to follow you,” Jeff said. “And I don’t know whose vehicle it is, unless it belongs to Mrs. Thorton’s son. I think I heard he was in town this week.”
“That’s probably whose it is,” Violet said. That would also explain why Mrs. Thorton was home during the day today.
“So it’s probably a coincidence that he happened to leave the same time we did last night,” Henry said.
“I don’t know Erik Thorton,” Jeff said. “But rumor has it he set out to break a world’s record a few years ago, too.”
“Really?” Benny asked. “Which record?”
“I can’t remember,” Jeff said, scratching his head. “I don’t even remember whether he was successful. But I know there were articles about it in the newspaper. You could probably find them if you were really interested.”
“Hey, Jeff?” Emily called. “Could you come help me move this cabinet?”
“Sure,” Jeff said. He hurried over to her.
The Aldens were about to leave when the phone next to Jessie rang.
“Could one of you get that?” Jeff called to the Aldens. He had one end of a heavy cabinet and Emily had the other. They were maneuvering it over to the back of the shop. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Sure,” Jessie said, picked up the phone. “Jeff’s Custom Furniture.”
A male voice said, “Tell Jeff to stop building that yo-yo!”
Jessie frowned. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” the voice said. “I’m warning you, if Jeff doesn’t stop, there will be trouble.”
“Who is this?” Jessie asked. “Hello? Hello?”
But whoever it was had already hung up.
“Who is it?” Jeff asked as he walked across the shop.
Jessie hung up the phone. “I don’t know. He didn’t give a name. He said, ‘Tell Jeff to stop building that yo-yo.’ And then he said, ‘I’m warning you, if Jeff doesn’t stop, there will be trouble.’”
Violet looked alarmed. “What kind of trouble?”
“I don’t know,” Jessie said. “That’s all he said.”
“Well, I don’t respond to threats,” Jeff said. “I’m not quitting this project just because someone calls up and tells me there will be trouble if I don’t.”
“Good,” Henry said. He didn’t want Jeff to stop building the yo-yo, but still, the phone call made him a little nervous.
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