Benny woke to the smell of warm apple cinnamon waffles. He jumped out of bed. The first thing he did was look out the window. There was frost on the ground. Red leaves were falling from the old tree out front. But Sam was still missing.
When Benny came downstairs, Henry, Jessie, and Violet were already at the table. Mrs. McGregor set a full plate in front of Benny. “I hope you’re hungry,” she said.
“A little bit,” Benny answered.
“A little bit!” Mrs. McGregor put her hand on Benny’s forehead. “Are you feeling sick? Benny Alden has never been only a little bit hungry.”
Benny did not smile. He rested his chin in his hand. “I just keep thinking about Sam. I wonder if I will ever get him back.”
“What happened when you ran into the fields last night?” asked Jessie. “Did you find anything?”
“I wasn’t afraid,” Benny said. “I knew that the pumpkin head was Sam. I would recognize him anywhere. I ran after him. The head was floating around and screaming. But there was no body. Then all of a sudden it disappeared.”
“That’s very odd. How could that happen?” asked Jessie.
Benny shook his head. “I don’t know. One minute the pumpkin head was there and the next minute it was gone.” He took a small bite of his waffle. “Why would my scarecrow keep running away from me?”
“Scarecrows can’t really run, Benny,” Henry said. “Someone is playing tricks. I think your scarecrow is somewhere on the Beckett’s farm. If we can find Sam, maybe we can find out who is playing the tricks and why.”
Jessie opened up her notebook. “Do you have any idea who could be playing the tricks, Henry?”
“It could have been Jason,” Henry said. “He was not on the tractor when the pumpkin head was floating in the fields.”
“That’s true,” said Violet. “But maybe he just went back to get help.”
“Sally said that she saw the pumpkin head,” Jessie added. “And then after it disappeared, she showed up with a flashlight. So it could have been Sally, too.”
Violet poured syrup over her waffle. She remembered what she had overheard last night. “Don’t forget about Bessie. When I went to get my water bottle from the booth, I heard Bessie talking to someone on her cell phone. She was mentioning how the customers weren’t scared enough by the pumpkin head. She thought something worse needed to happen on the farm to scare people away.”
“But wasn’t Bessie in the booth all night?” Henry asked. “How could she have caused the trouble with the pumpkin head?”
“I don’t know,” said Violet. “I suppose you’re right.”
“No!” Jessie was writing quickly in the notebook. “Bessie was not in the booth all night. When Sally and I went looking for you in the fields, we saw Bessie in the cornstalks. She said she was there to help. But she was surprised to see Sally and me.”
Benny finished his waffle. He did not ask for seconds. He was thinking hard. “Maybe it was not Sally, or Jason, or Bessie,” he said. “Maybe Sam really is a haunted scarecrow!”
“But there’s no such thing,” said Violet.
Benny pushed his plate away. “Watch was afraid of Sam. Then Sam disappeared. Now he floats without his body. How can anyone make a pumpkin head float unless it is haunted?” Benny’s eyes were wide.
Henry, Jessie, and Violet did not know how to answer Benny’s question. The floating pumpkin head was a mystery.
When they arrived at the farm later in the morning, the four Aldens saw Mr. and Mrs. Beckett getting into their car.
“We’re off to the doctor!” Mrs. Beckett said. “It’s time to get a checkup on Mr. Beckett’s leg. We’ll be back soon.”
“Good luck!” Violet said. “I hope you get good news from the doctor.”
“Thank you.” Mrs. Beckett put her husband’s crutches in the back seat. She pulled a key from her pocket and handed it to Violet. “This is for the booth,” she said. “Would you children be able to open up the farm stand today? Bessie has called in sick again. That poor woman has not been well lately.”
“We would be happy to,” Violet said.
Mrs. Beckett smiled. “Thanks to your wonderful fliers, we sold a lot of pumpkins and flowers last night. You may need to get more pumpkins for the farm stand. You can pick them from the pumpkin patch. The mum plants are sitting in rows beside the barn. Choose whichever ones you like for the stand.” Mrs. Beckett got into the driver’s seat. She waved good-bye as the car pulled away.
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny headed into the barn.
“The wheelbarrows are in the back,” Jessie said.
“Hey! Look at me!” Benny called. He had climbed to the top of a big pile of hay bales.
“Be careful, Benny,” Jessie said.
Henry and Jessie each grabbed a large wheelbarrow. “I’ll give you a ride again, Benny,” Jessie said.
“Where did he go?” Violet asked. “He was here a minute ago. Benny! Where are you?” Violet heard Benny’s muffled voice. “I’m back here behind the hay bales. Come and take a look. I found something!”
At first, Violet could not find Benny. Henry walked all around the pile of hay bales. Then he pushed a few out of the way. Violet, Jessie, and Henry squeezed between the bales.
“It’s like a little room,” Violet said.
“With hay bales for walls,” Henry added.
“There’s even a hay bale desk over here,” Benny said. “It has a red folder and some papers on it, but the words are too hard for me to read. And there’s a map, too.”
“That’s a map of the Beckett farm,” Henry said. “There’s the house. The fields are all marked with their crops. And here is the farm stand.”
“I think I have seen that red folder somewhere before,” Jessie said. “But I don’t remember where.”
Violet looked closely at the map. “Something is wrong,” she said. “The farm stand on this map is too big and it is close to the road. The Beckett’s farm stand is much smaller. It is closer to the house.”
“And why are there pear trees on this map?” Jessie asked. “I do not remember seeing them on the farm. Also, the pumpkin patch is missing.”
“Look what I found!” Benny was wearing a long, black cape and running around the hay bale room. “It’s your missing cape, Henry. You must have left it in here.”
“But I didn’t,” Henry said. “I have never been in here before. I only thought this was a big pile of hay bales.”
“That’s what it looks like from the outside,” Jessie said. “Someone wanted this space to be private. We should probably not intrude here.”
“I like it in here,” Benny said. “It is almost as cool as our boxcar. I think we should build a hay bale clubhouse in our backyard.”
Henry smiled. “That would take a lot of hay,” he said. “But we should listen to Jessie right now. Someone wanted to keep this room secret. We should go.”
“Can I bring the cape?” Benny asked.
“I suppose so,” Henry said. “We can put it away with the other costumes.”
After Jessie, Violet, and Benny left the little room, Henry pushed the hay bales back into place. The little room disappeared once again. It only looked like a big pile of hay bales in the corner of the barn.
Jessie took the cape from Benny and folded it. She was about to put it in the bin with the other costumes when she suddenly remembered something. She had seen this cape last night. But Henry was not the one wearing it.
“Look out!” Benny called. He raced past Jessie pushing a small wheelbarrow. “I am going to beat Henry out to the pumpkin patch!”
Jessie followed her brothers and sister out to the pumpkin patch. They picked the pumpkins from their long, green vines. They piled them into the wheelbarrows. It was hard work to push the heavy wheelbarrows through the field and back to the farm stand.
“Benny and I will unload these pumpkins,” Henry said.
Violet and Jessie placed two dozen mum plants in a long, flat wagon. They pulled the wagon back to the farm stand.
“We are just in time,” Jessie said. “Here come the first customers of the day.”
Violet remembered the key that Mrs. Beckett had given her. She quickly pulled it from her pocket. She opened the door to the booth and stepped inside. She opened the window. She set up the sign with the prices. The cash box was on a high shelf. Violet stood on her tiptoes. As she reached for the box, she knocked the shelf. It came clattering to the floor.
Henry ran inside. “Are you okay, Violet?” “Yes,” she answered. “That shelf was loose. When I reached for the cash box, I knocked it down.”
“I will fix it,” Henry said. “Don’t worry.” Violet picked up the cash box. A newspaper had fallen to the floor as well. “This is odd,” she said. “This is an old newspaper from last month.”
Henry adjusted the shelf. He tightened a loose screw. “Maybe Bessie forgot it was up on the shelf.”
“Look,” Violet said. She showed the paper to Henry.
It was the “Help Wanted” section of the local paper. A red circle was drawn around one advertisement. It read, Office Help Wanted. Good Pay. Call Bolger Construction. |