The day began with Mr. Piccolo’s cheery whistling downstairs. Upstairs, the Alden children were all asleep, all but Benny, that is. Mr. Piccolo’s whistling meant it was time for him to get up.
It was early morning. Benny wanted to get to the kitchen early. That way he could help Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo get the dough started before Laurie Baker got there and scooted him out.
“Tomatoes, potatoes, burritos!” Mr. Piccolo sang out as he took jars and bundles from the big refrigerator. “Pull up a stool, Benny. I need a smart boy like you to measure out some salt, some flour, and some yeast. Do you know what to do?”
“I sure do, Mr. Piccolo,” Benny said with a smile.
“Today my old waiter, Nick Marra, comes back. There’s nobody to touch Nick when it comes to waiting on tables,” Mr. Piccolo said. “Unless it’s the Aldens, of course!”
“I can’t wait to see Nick,” Benny said as he sprinkled yeast over a big bowl of warm water.
A half hour later, Benny noticed Laurie Baker’s red hat go by the kitchen window. He jumped off his stool. “You don’t have to leave, Benny,” Mrs. Piccolo told him.
Benny disappeared upstairs anyway. He knew Laurie would find some way to get him out of the kitchen. He’d rather leave on his own.
It turned out the Aldens weren’t the only ones Laurie Baker didn’t want near the kitchen. When the children came downstairs later on, the Piccolos were out doing the day’s shopping for the restaurant.
Laurie was in charge, and she was arguing with Nick Marra. This surprised the Aldens. They remembered how easygoing Nick was. Nothing ever bothered this young man. No matter how busy the restaurant got, Nick always had a smile for everyone.
But that day, Nick Marra wasn’t smiling. His face was red and his bright blue eyes glittered angrily.
“If you hadn’t been away so long, the Piccolos wouldn’t have put me in charge!” Laurie Baker said to Nick.
“Well, they asked me to come back, so I’m . . . .” Nick stopped talking when he saw all four Aldens staring at him.
Jessie went over to Nick first. “Hi, Nick. Remember us? We’re visiting the Piccolos and helping them out for a while.”
The children were disappointed when they didn’t get one of Nick’s big smiles or even a friendly greeting. He mumbled a hello and that was it. Violet felt especially hurt that he was so unfriendly.
“Boy, she gets everybody mad, even Nick,” Benny whispered when the children slipped out to the dining room.
For the rest of the morning, the Aldens heard cross words between Nick and Laurie. Nick had his way of doing things, and Laurie had hers. But Violet couldn’t help wondering if there was something else bothering Nick.
After lunch, the Piccolos went home to rest. The Aldens were busy with the only job Laurie let them do in the kitchen, washing dishes. Right in front of the children, Nick and Laurie started fighting again.
“It would be easier to box up the take-out pizzas in the kitchen,” Nick argued. “They lose heat when you pack them up in the pantry.”
“I can’t have everyone underfoot when I’m working in the kitchen,” Laurie told Nick. “It’s bad enough with Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo.”
Nick’s eyes flashed with anger. “Maybe you don’t realize that you’re their employee, Ms. Baker. They were running this restaurant before you were born.”
“And they were losing money until I showed up to straighten out their business,” Laurie said. “Now I don’t need you to tell me what to do!”
The Aldens wanted to disappear. Nick Marra actually did disappear! He went right out the front door with a loud bang! Jessie, Violet, and Benny finished up their work silently then headed towards the stairs.
“Is the dining room set up for tonight?” Laurie asked before they got away.
The children nodded then shut the door behind them. They didn’t come downstairs again until they heard the Piccolos return right before the dinner hour.
“I hope you children aren’t coming down with something,” Mrs. Piccolo said when she came into the dining room. “I’ll make you some spaghetti before we get busy. You all look pale and hungry. My special tomato sauce will fix you right up.”
Jessie shook her head. “No thanks, Mrs. Piccolo. We already had something to eat upstairs.”
Mrs. Piccolo looked worried. “Something’s not right today. I can tell. Nick wasn’t himself. Laurie, well, she works too hard. But it’s you children I’m worried about. You’re too quiet.”
“We’re okay, Mrs. Piccolo,” Jessie told her.
Luckily for the Aldens, some dinner customers came in right then. In a short time, there were so many customers to serve that no one noticed things were not going smoothly at Piccolos’ Pizza.
Not once did Laurie look up at any of the Aldens, except when Henry stayed too long in the kitchen waiting for pizzas to deliver.
“Wait in the pantry,” Laurie said. “It’s too busy in here.”
Henry did as he was told. He waited for Laurie to bring the pizzas out to the pantry area. Like Nick, Henry couldn’t figure out why they had to box up the take-out pizzas away from the kitchen. But Laurie Baker’s mind was made up. The kitchen was pretty much off-limits to Nick and the Aldens.
By six-thirty, every table at Piccolos’ Pizza was filled. Mr. Piccolo was just coming out of the kitchen with a large sausage pizza when the lights flickered, then went completely dark. The customers let out an “Ah” at the same time. Only the battery-powered exit lights and the candles on the tables lit the dining room. They cast a soft glow over the nervous diners.
The Aldens heard Mr. Piccolo call out in a calm, sure voice: “Relax, everyone. No problem. Just a little blackout. Just sit tight. I have a couple of flashlights and emergency lamps right here. Nothing to worry about.”
Jessie peeked out the restaurant window. She expected to see the whole street in darkness. “It’s only the restaurant that lost its power,” she told Henry, who had just come back from his deliveries.
“I know. Everything went black just as I came in the kitchen,” Henry said.
“Where’s Laurie?” Jessie asked. “Does she have any light in there?”
“You know, that’s the strange thing,” Henry said. “The lights went out just as I got here, but Laurie already had a flashlight in her hand when she came up the cellar stairs.”
Even in the dim light Henry could see his sister’s eyes widen. “Why would she need a flashlight down in the cellar unless she knew the power was going to go off?”
“Just what I was thinking,” Henry answered. “But you know what she said? That she heard a noise down there and grabbed a flashlight so she could go and check on it. Then she tried to blame everything on Nick.”
“Nick? I’m pretty sure he was out here when the power went off.” Jessie looked over toward the kitchen and saw Nick setting up the emergency lights. “You know, Henry, now I’m not so sure. We were so busy, I don’t really know where he was.”
The customers grew restless. They wanted to go home.
“Listen, everyone,” Mr. Piccolo called out. “My helpers here, they’re going to wrap up your pizzas for you to take home. It’s take-out night for everyone. Nobody pays.”
A few people clapped. The Aldens couldn’t clap. They knew this emergency was going to cost the Piccolos a lot of money.
Mr. Piccolo went on. “On your way out, my good friend Benny Alden here will give you a coupon for free pizza when you come back to the restaurant. All right?”
“All right!” a few adventurous customers cheered.
Nick came out with a stack of pizza boxes. Laurie handed everyone a spatula. Then they all went around to each table boxing up the unfinished pizzas. As promised, Benny handed out free pizza coupons.
Mr. Piccolo sighed when the last person left. “What a night! We’ll have to get an electrician out here first thing in the morning to see what the problem is,” he said.
“Or who the problem is,” Laurie muttered under her breath after the Piccolos went into the kitchen.
In the low light, the children saw Nick glare at Laurie, but he said nothing. Shortly afterwards he left the restaurant with barely a good night.
When Mrs. Piccolo came out of the kitchen, Violet noticed she was crying softly. “What is it?” Violet asked.
Mrs. Piccolo took Violet’s hand and led her to the big white deep freezer. “My sauces. They will thaw out without electricity. The tomatoes are from our garden last summer. Special tomatoes for Piccolos’ sauce. We will lose more than money if we lose these frozen sauces.”
Laurie Baker was the only one of the tired group who didn’t seem upset by this. “Well,” Laurie said, almost cheerfully, “you can teach me how to make some new batches. We don’t even need electricity for that. We can start tomorrow.”
Mrs. Piccolo smiled at the young woman. “Ah, such a willing worker you are. But there are no fresh tomatoes at this time of year. The sauce would never be the same.”
Before Laurie had an answer for that, Violet came up with a solution. “Benny, Jessie, Henry. Go get your jackets, boots, and hats and follow me.”
“Where are you going?” Laurie Baker asked suspiciously. “Nothing’s open at this hour. You’ll never find anyone with a freezer for all the frozen sauces and meats in here.”
It was too dark for Laurie to see Violet’s ear-to-ear grin. “Oh, yes, we will!” she shouted before she went outside ahead of her brothers and sister.
Violet handed everyone a shovel. “Now dig as much snow as you can.”
“I get it!” Benny said after the first shovelful. “We’re not looking for a freezer, we’re making one! Just like we made a refrigerator in a brook when we lived in the boxcar.”
‘That’s right, Benny,” Violet cried. “Only now it’s a freezer, not a refrigerator. And we’re using snow, not a brook.”
Henry held up his shovel like a flagpole. “Let’s hear it for Violet! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!”
The Aldens cheered and shoveled as fast as they could to make their “outdoor freezer” for Mrs. Piccolo. They couldn’t see that Laurie Baker was watching them from the kitchen window and that she didn’t look at all happy with what the Aldens were doing. |