Crippled Detectives

(continued)

Chapter Six
Our Trouble!!!

After they got better they were not well because they had a pain, a dreadful pain, that made them paralyzed when they ran, so they ate, sleeped, and did nothing but that until they were let back to their family. At the house they were cared for dearly until they went to their room, found the mirror, and remembered the Red Romer. So again we searched for the Red Romer, not his hideout for it was locked up, not his phone number for when he knew who was on the other end of the telephone he’d hang up, but what if we found him at a bank stealing money? But we did not know which bank he’d be at, at when, what time. The note when Anne pretended to be shot said to keep the police out of it, so they could not ask the police to find out where the Red Romer will be. We sighed. Maybe we were on a wild goose chase after all, but we did not know if it would be that hard after all, so we’d give it a try and try to find where he would be ourselves. So we thought hard for hours. Nobody came up with a answer. All sat with their head on their hands and their eyes closed. Suddenly Lee pointed to the Red Romer running through the field by them. “We better see where he’s going,” whispered Lee, so they ran after him. But ouch! They stood still. Then Lee was the first one to snap out of it. “Ouch, that paralyzing pain still hurts,” Lee said. “Oh he’s just going into his old tree house,” said Ben. “We ran for nothing,” said Lisette. “You bet,” said Sylvia. “Ouch ouch ouchety ouch,” said Anne. “Let us think right here. It will waste time to go back to the spot we were sitting in,” said Sylvia. So they thought for hours. But Ben said, “Silly sillies, we have to wait till that pain goes away.” And the others sadly regretted it was true, so they asked their parents when the pain would wear out. They said it would wear out in a month, so we made a calendar which had when the pain would go. Meanwhile we thought about our plans.

Chapter Seven
Waiting

Like any girl or boy in the world knows, it is not very pleasant to wait unless you have something to amuse yourself. They thought hard about the matter, their heads hurt from thinking, but they dare not complain to their pleasant elderly 15-year-olds, Sylvia and Lee, who were sweet as everything in the bazaar that was good, charming as new blown silver, pink roses with hearts, sweeter than Venus herself to Ben and Lisette. Anne was lovely as a white rosebud half opened but never took the place of their charming elders, so they did as their elders asked, and doing their thinking was their wish. But as I have not told you before, Lisette was the smartest thinker in the group, so one day she came up with a marvelous idea. “Let’s hide behind his tree house. When he comes down we can follow him disguised as grass and leaves,” she said one gloomy evening when everybody had almost given up and gone to bed. “Splendid idea, Lisette,” they cried. Ben, who was better than everyone in the art of clothing and costumes, made five lovely little suits embroidered with careful stitches with real leaves sewn on with dyed string, and grass and dandelions, buttercups, tansy, wild aster, pansy, and wild rose. So that night in their suits they waited and waited on the wildflowers, waiting for the Red Romer, their hair in net-like caps that Sylvia and Lee had made.

Chapter Eight
To Africa

But instead of going after the Red Romer, we found ourselves listening to the Red Romer talking to his band. He said:

“We’re going to Africa again.”

“How come?”

“’Cause this place is filled with cops.”

“But we can get the cops.”

“But there is a great chick there.”

“What is her name?”

“Susan Simmer.”

“Why the Simmer?”

“Because she simmers poison into drugs and drugs into food.”

“Wow, what a beauty.”

That was the end of the talk, that the Red Romer was getting married. So we wrote down all he said, scurried home, and slept.

In the morning our parents said, “You aren’t well. The doctor said you should go on a trip to a sunny place. The hot Congo, he says, is the cheapest trip.” What luck our friends have, if you don’t mind your author breaking in so promptly. But the Congo was where the Red Romer’s angel girl lives in her cell in a rotten basement full of dust and spider webs, rats and mice. She loves animals, so she gives her pets, as she calls them, cheese and bread crumbs, and they bring her poison and drugs to thank her.

The wedding was to be in a lovely meadow in the Congo. They waited. Soon Susan Simmer and Red Romer came and they talked with the men.

Red Romer: Somewhere the wedding will be.

Guy: Not in Paris. There’s Sylvia, Lee, Anne, Ben, and Lisette.

Guy: Not in town, too many cops.

Susan: How about here?

Red Romer: Great! You got brains, Susan.

Then all the robbers stole away and sent for the arrangements. It was to be at midnight at Spring Valley, nine months from then, and they would sleep together in Susan’s cell. So it would be at September 4th at midnight in Spring Meadow.

Chapter Nine
Robber’s Marriage

Now a robber’s marriage is loud and peaceful at the same time, but however you may think robbers are bad, their parties are wonderful. Cakes, pies, meat, and rice, with lace tablecloth and satin rug, paper lanterns and colored streamers fly here then there, balloons sway in the wind and big bells ring loudly, lace cloth flutters over rosewood table, and the bride comes in lace, roses, and ribbons, with veil over her face and train flowing in the wind, groom in a black velvet cloak and red silk robe and smiling always. After that the bride and groom take off their clothes and are locked together with gold and diamond and pearl chains and spread over with a black velvet cloth.

Go on to Chapter Ten