The next morning, the children loaded Grandfather’s car with recyclables, and he drove them to the recycling center. They unloaded the recyclables into the proper bins and said good-bye to Grandfather.
“Let’s walk around the outside of the recycling center,” said Henry.
“Good idea,” said Jessie. “We might find footprints.”
The children walked out the front gate of the recycling center and turned rightto follow the chain-link fence around the outside of the center.
Violet noticed that Mrs. Wickett was sitting on her porch, holding something in her lap. Violet waved. Mrs. Wickett waved back.
There weren’t any suspicious-looking footprints along the front of the recycling center. There were none along the side.
But as soon as the children turned the second corner, Henry raised his hand.
“Stop!” he said.
Benny, Violet, and Jessie crowded around Henry so they could see what he was looking at.
On the ground were two blurred footprints. The toes of the footprints were clearer than the rest of the footprints. The toes were pointing toward the back fence of the recycling center.
“Look,” said Benny, pointing through the fence. “The toes point right at the bags filled with leaves and grass on the other side of the fence.”
Jessie stared at the two prints. “The back footprint is a left foot,” she said. “And the front footprint is a right foot.”
“The two footprints are very far apart,” said Violet. “It looks like somebody was running.”
“We don’t have our camera with us,” said Jessie. Then she grinned. “But I do have one of my recycled notebooks!”
Henry pulled a small tape measure out of his pocket. Henry loved tools, and he often had some with him. He measured one of the footprints from front to back. “Exactly eleven inches,” he said.
Jessie wrote that in her notebook. Then she sketched the tread pattern of the shoe.
When Jessie’s sketch was finished, the children bent down to hold the drawing near the footprint.
“Good work,” Henry told his sister. “Now look at the top of the fence,” he said.
Jessie and Violet looked. “The top of the fence is fine,” said Jessie. “It’s not bent at all.”
“That’s right,” said Henry. He looked up at the sky. “It looks like it’s going to rain, so it’s a good thing we have this drawing.”
“Yes,” said Benny, “because the rain will wash everything away.”
Being careful not to step on the two footprints, the Aldens continued walking along the back of the recycling center.
Soon Henry raised his hand again and said, “Stop!”
“Wow,” said Benny. “More footprints! Look at them! They’re all on top of one another.”
“Hmmm,” said Jessie. She was looking through the chain-link fence into the recycling center. The footprints were opposite the Other Stuff bin that had been tipped over yesterday.
“I think we can draw some conclusions,” said Jessie. “First, these footprints were made by a different person. They don’t match the first set.”
“Maybe,” said Henry. “Or maybe they were made by the same person, but the person was wearing different shoes,” saidHenry. “There’s one way to find out.”
Henry pulled the small tape measure out of his pocket again. It took him a while to find a whole footprint. When he did, he measured it. “These footprints are only nine-and-a-half inches long,” he said. “They were made by a different person.”
Jessie wrote the information on another page of her notebook. “There’s something very different about these footprints,” she said. “Instead of being far apart like the other set, these ones are close together.”
“They’re all on top of one another,” Benny reminded her. “See,” he said, pointing to where one heel mark was pressed deeply into another toe mark.
Henry stood and examined the top of the chain-link fence. It still had the same damage he had seen the first day. “The fence is bent inward here,” he said.
“So somebody climbed the fence here,” said Jessie.
“And whoever it was kept slipping off,” Violet said. “Whoever it was kept fallingback to the ground onto his own footprints!”
“Or her own footprints,” said Jessie.
Jessie drew the tread mark of a toe and of a heel. Everybody looked at her drawing and back at the fence.
“You know what this means,” Jessie said.
Henry nodded. “It means we have two different people breaking into the recycling center.”
“One wears a shoe that’s eleven inches long,” said Jessie. “And the other wears a shoe that’s nine-and-a-half inches long.”
“Are the two people working together?” asked Benny.
“I don’t think so,” said Henry. “And I think each of them is breaking into the recycling center for a different reason.”
“Two people, two reasons,” said Jessie. “That makes sense to me.”
The children talked about their discovery as they walked around the last side of the recycling center. When they turned the final corner, they saw Mrs. Wickett leaning over one of the boxes people had left outsidethe center. She was wearing her bright red rubber boots.
“We’re about to take all those bags and boxes inside,” Henry told her.
Benny walked up to the box Mrs. Wickett had been bending over. A bottle of raspberry Doo-Dah Tea lay on top of the box. Benny thought that Mrs. Wickett must have put it there.
Mrs. Wickett didn’t say anything. She just stood there holding a brown paper bag.
“Is something wrong?” Violet asked her.
Mrs. Wickett let out a long sigh. “Yes,” she said at last, “something is wrong.”
The children waited. “What is it?” Violet asked at last.
Mrs. Wickett looked at the children. “I behaved badly yesterday morning. Violet and Henry, I’m sorry that I was rude to you. Will you accept my apology?”
Violet and Henry said yes.
“I was rude to Kayla, too,” said Mrs. Wickett, staring into the recycling center.
When it looked as if Mrs. Wickett mightstand there forever, Jessie spoke. “You would probably feel better if you apologized to Kayla,” she said.
“Will you go in with me?” Mrs. Wickett asked them.
The Aldens walked into the recycling center with Mrs. Wickett. As soon as they entered, they heard Kayla shouting.
The four children and Mrs. Wickett walked toward the main recycling bins. There was Chad, pulling plastics and glass out of the bins and throwing them on the ground again.
“Stop! Stop!” Kayla shouted at Chad. “You’re supposed to put things into the bins, not take them out!”
Chad stuck his head into the plastics bin and said something.
“I can’t hear you!” Kayla said.
Chad pulled his head out. “I said I lost something yesterday and I want to find it.”
Then Chad seemed to notice the Aldens and Mrs. Wickett.
“What are you doing here?” Chad asked Mrs. Wickett.
“Hello Chad,” she answered. “I’m here because I live across the street. You haven’t been in to work since the jewel robbery. What happened?”
“I quit,” he said. “I don’t want to work at a place that gets robbed.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Wickett.
“What did you do at Jonah’s Jewelry Store?” Henry asked Chad.
Chad started to answer, then stopped. “I sold jewelry to customers,” he said finally. As Chad answered, he kept looking into the glass bins and moving things around.
“You’re making me nervous doing that,” Kayla told him. “If you tell me what you lost, I’ll help you find it.”
“I can help, too,” said Benny.
Chad looked at everybody looking at him. “Uh,” he said, “I lost a pocket watch.”
“We’ll help you find it,” said Jessie.
“I never saw you with a pocket watch,” said Mrs. Wickett.
Chad frowned. “I don’t want anybody’s help. Just leave me alone!” He turned back to the bins and kept on searching.
Mrs. Wickett cleared her throat. “Kayla,” she said, “I owe you an apology. Even though you shouldn’t allow people to leave their trash on the outside of the fence, I shouldn’t have shouted at you. I’m sorry.”
Kayla seemed to think about the apology. “That’s okay,” she finally replied. “We all have bad days.”
Mrs. Wickett opened the brown paper bag she had been holding. “I brought some bottled tea as a peace offering,” she said. “Would you like some? It’s cold and refreshing.”
“Sure,” said Kayla with a smile. She accepted a bottle of raspberry Doo-Dah Tea.
Next, Mrs. Wickett offered each of the children a bottle of tea. All of the bottles had red labels.
Violet and Benny said no, thank you. Henry and Jessie each took a bottle of tea and thanked Mrs. Wickett.
“Chad,” said Mrs. Wickett, “I didn’t know you would be here, or I would have brought mint-flavored tea, too. I know it’s your favorite. Would you like a raspberry Doo-Dah Tea?”
“No, thanks,” said Chad. He stood with his back to the Dumpster for clear glass.
Henry thought Chad looked as if he was waiting for everybody to leave.
“Hey!” said Chad suddenly, pointing at Henry’s key ring. “What’s that?”
Henry lifted his key ring upward. “It’s my new key ring,” he said. “I bought it from Kayla yesterday.”
“I have more if you’re interested,” Kayla told Chad.
“Is that a diamond inset?” asked Chad. “On a piece of scrap metal?”
“No,” said Kayla. “It’s not a diamond, it’s glass. And I happen to like jewelry made from scrap metal.”
“Let me see it,” said Chad, holding his hand out to Henry.
Henry thought Chad had very bad manners. He demanded the key ring instead of asking, and he didn’t even say “please.”
Henry took the key ring off his belt and handed it to Chad.
And then, to Henry’s surprise, and perhaps to everybody’s surprise, Chad took a small magnifying glass out of his pocket. Using the magnifying glass, Chad studied the sparkling stone set in the middle of the key ring. Henry knew that jewelers used such magnifying glasses to look at precious stones more closely. Watchmakers used them, too. Henry just couldn’t remember what the small tool was called.
“Yep,” said Chad. “It’s glass.” He folded up his tiny magnifying glass and handed the key ring back to Henry.
“I’m surprised to see you carrying a loupe around,” Mrs. Wickett said to Chad. “If I’m not mistaken, I saw the name Jonah’s Jewelry Store on that loupe.”
That’s what it’s called, thought Henry. A loupe.
“So what?” challenged Chad. “I took a little something with me as a souvenir.”
Chad steals things, thought Violet. He took the loupe from Jonah’s Jewelry Store.
“May I see your key ring?” Mrs. Wickett asked Henry.
“Sure,” he said, handing it to her.
Mrs. Wickett looked at the key ring closely. “Hmmm,” she said, handing it back to Henry. “Very nice work,” she said to Kayla.
“Thank you,” said Kayla.
Violet could tell that the praise made Kayla happy.
“All my jewelry is very affordable because I make it out of old metal and glass—things I find in these recycling bins. I like to tell people that there are treasures in recycling. Not just in reusing all our plastic and glass and paper again, but in reusing everything.”
“Jessie and I each took a treasure home from the Other Stuff bin,” said Benny proudly. “And after we each took something home, somebody else took an old chair home.”
“Really?” asked Chad, looking at Benny. “What day was that?”
“It was Monday,” said Jessie.
When Chad didn’t say anything, Jessie asked him if Monday was the day he lost something.
“I’m not sure,” said Chad. “I’m just not sure.” Then he turned his back to them all and walked down the row of Dumpsters.
Mrs. Wickett turned to Kayla. “I would like to buy a piece of your inexpensive jewelry,” she said.
“Oh good!” said Kayla. “Let me show you what I have.”
The children watched as Kayla and Mrs. Wickett headed for the shed that was Kayla’s studio. The last thing they heard was Mrs. Wickett saying that something had to be done about all the recycling left alongside the public sidewalk each night.
“Something has to be done about it right now,” said Jessie.
“Yes,” said Henry. “Time to haul bags and boxes into the center.” |