Crippled Detectives

(continued)

Chapter Ten
Mandrake

Mandrake was a well-trained Scottish terrier with a ear to hear all of our friends’ situations and rescue them at the time they most needed it. So he drove the Red Romer, Susan Simmer, and the Red Romer’s three men away with bites and scratches to the Red Romer’s hideout in Africa. He gave Susan a hard bad dog bite in her stomach. She was wrapped in tissue with herbs and wet cloths on her stomach, aching, wailing cries, hurting restlessly rolling on her side, screaming when thunder boomed and lightning flashed. The Red Romer spread acid on it and wiped it with cloths of iodine, washed it and bandaged it, wrapping her in cloths, sheets, and covering her with 37 quilts. She fainted and woke and screamed, but suddenly she fell asleep, and tossing and turning she whimpered in her sleep, and in the morning cried as if she were to die. Then she got better.

Chapter Eleven
Birth

Days after, the girls spied on Susan and RR (RR is Red Romer), and as they spied they grew more and more frightened because Susan after the marriage was pregnant. Her tummy bulged full and a villain child would come to chill their hearts. Even if they did not know if the villain child would be a boy or girl, it would be a villain for sure. Six to chill them: a baby, a couple, and three men of the Red Romer’s property. He had twenty more in the hideout cell, so it was twenty-three to chill. We spied and spied at her in her big bed and her ten maidens with robes, veils, nets, and long full skirts and white boots. The maids’ names were 1 Velma, 2 Elma, 3 Una, 4 Tete, 5 Toabta, 6 Ming, 7 Frofo, 8 Findally, 9 Minba, 10 Ashim, all dressed the same in ghostly dresses. Finally Ben said, “Why are we afraid of their baby? She or he can’t get us because they’re a baby and babies can’t hurt. Susan can’t hurt us, she’ll be busy with the baby. Red Romer will be busy with Susan, the maidens will be looking after her, and RR’s gang are making out orders, orders like, ’Build a baby bottle, a oven, a big brown crib, a cradle and soft quilt covering for the floor and walls, clean the place up, get Susan a heated pad, the baby’s kicking her stomach, build some rugs and toys, put on some dim-lighted bulbs for the light, get milk, cream, acid, butter, buttermilk, lots of food, pillows, quilts, mattresses, blankets, sheets, warming pan, iced sheets.’ That’s what he’ll be doing.” And Ben was right. RR was busy giving orders, thinking them up, telling his men where things were, and giving Susan pills to make her sleep. He got a robber doctor who helped give orders. Susan was wailing, “The baby’s kicking me from inside. Oh the pain, the pain, the pain. Help, it hurts, argheg ahhh eeeeeeek. Help, Reddy, ow. Reddy, Reddy, I repeat, come here! Ow, ouch, it hurts, OW, oh the pain. Make the baby stop, come before I get hoarse. Waaa, sniffle, sob, sob.” Susan never went out of bed. She ate and ate, wailed and wailed, read and read, slept and slept. She was nursed and nursed. One day she gave them such a hard day that they were sore by evening. “What a life!” they told each other. “Sometimes I wish I had not been born, I would rather die. But I trust old Redder, I’ve worked for him and there’s been worse times than this, packing for Africa, making bombs and firecrackers, stealing money, oil, and electricity. What a life! But if I ran away I’d be no better off, and it would make old Redder quite sad. But I’d love that that great chick Susan Simmer were mine. I’d give her satin, jewels, diamonds, silks and dresses, laces, meat, 92 flowers, candy, and who knows what else. Oh no, here comes another order. If I want to help old Redder, I better stop talking about Susan and get to work.” Susan’s maidens said the same things about it, and they almost panicked in nursing, feeding, and tending Susan Simmer. Those were bad old times!!!!!!!!

Chapter Twelve
Storytime

“Naptime for Anne, Ben, and Lisette,” cried the elders. Anne, Ben, and Lisette were 5, 4, and 3, so they had to take naps. Tall beautiful Sylvia and Lee carried them up the long stairs. They tucked them in. Then Lisette said,“Storytime. Tell us some of those mystery ones.” “Don’t we always?” answered the elders. Lee smiled pleasantly. “Sylvia is the good story-teller. I’ll listen along with you.” So Sylvia began.

This is the story of the haunted office. Every midnight when the moon and stars were out the moon winked to the office. When he did so a rosy glow filled the room and the old people jumped out of the photos on the desk and waited till the window opened and the stars ran into the room and the moon fairy in her moon shell carriage, with Pegasus to pull it, rode into the room, and the window shut, the carriage stopped, and Pegasus lay down on thin air. The moon fairy waved her wand and the dictionary opened and read to wisen the evening. It closed. Then the photo people danced around the fairy, the stars danced around the peacock feather, and the dried lavender perfumed the room, sweeting. But a warning came — dawn! The fairy rode out, the stars ran out, the window closed, the lavender hung tied to the rafters in the ceiling, the photo people ran into their photos, and the room became dark. And that’s the story. The end.

Lisette and Ben and Anne had fallen asleep. “Sleep sweetly and good night till we wake you,” whispered Lee and Sylvia. “Feel good in the morn.”

Go on to Chapter Thirteen