"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club 009 - The Ghost at Dawn's House" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

After a few minutes, Gabbie handed her picture to Mary Anne. It was a huge, jumbled scribble. "Look, Mary Anne Spier," she said.
"That's lovely!" Mary Anne exclaimed. She was about to ask, "What is it?" when she remembered something we Baby-sitters Club members had thought up. Instead of saying "What is it?" when we can't tell what a picture
or an art project is, we say, "Tell me about it." That way, the kid doesn't know we can't tell, so his feelings aren't hurt, and he tells us what the picture is so we don't say anything dumb about it, like "I've never seen such a big elephant," when it turns out to be a picture of the kid's grandmother or something.
"Tell me about it," Mary Anne said to Gab-bie.
"Okay. This is my mommy," said Gabbie, pointing, "and this is the baby growing in her tummy."
Once again, Mary Anne raised her eyebrows. She almost raised them right off her forehead. "The baby in her tummy?" she repeated. She glanced at Myriah.
"Yeah, we're having a baby," said Myriah nonchalantly. "Not for a long time, though. I hope I get a brother. We have enough girls around here. ... R. C. is a girl," she added. "The only boys are Daddy and Chewy."
"Wow! That's exciting!" cried Mary Anne. Actually, she felt even more excited than she sounded, but she knows how sensitive little kids are about new babies. She didn't want Myriah and Gabbie to think that they weren't important, too.
Mary Anne wanted to ask a lot more ques-
tions, but she didn't dare. She also wanted to call the rest of us baby-sitters with the exciting news, but she didn't dare do that, either. She knew she'd have to wait.
"Do you two want to take a walk?" Mary Anne asked Myriah and Gabbie. "It's so pretty out. And yesterday was such an awful, rainy day. I'd like to go out."
"Okay," agreed the girls.
"Hey," said Mary Anne suddenly. "Do you know any other kids around here yet?"
"We know Kristy Thomas," said Myriah.
"Kristy Thomas," echoed Gabbie.
"Well," said Mary Anne, "I meant kids your age. Have you met Jamie Newton?"
"No," said Myriah.
"Or Nina and Eleanor Marshall?"
"No."
"Well, maybe you'd like to meet them. It would be fun to have friends around here, wouldn't it?"
"Sure," said Myriah.
"Sure," said Gabbie.
"And guess what Ч Jamie Newton has a baby, just like you're going to have. Only she's not a newborn baby anymore. Her name is Lucy. Do you want to see her?"
"Yup," said Myriah.
"Yup," said Gabble.
So Mary Anne walked the girls around the neighborhood. By the time Mrs. Perkins came home, Myriah and Gabbie had met Nina and Eleanor, Charlotte Johanssen, Mr. and Mrs. Goldman, Claudia's grandmother Mimi, and Jamie and Lucy Newton.
"Jamie has a new baby, just like we're going to have!" Myriah told her mother.
Mrs. Perkins glanced at Mary Anne.
"The news sort of slipped out," said Mary Anne. "I hope you don't mind." She showed Mrs. Perkins Gabbie's picture.
"I don't mind at all," said Mrs. Perkins with a smile. "I guess I just hadn't gotten around to mentioning it. But it's no secret." She paid Mary Anne and walked her to the front door.
"Are you going to come back again, Mary Anne?" asked Myriah. "I hope so, because I didn't get to show you all the stuff in my room yet. Or in my goofy sister's room."
Gabbie smiled charmingly at Mary Anne.
"Of course I'll come back," replied Mary Anne. "And I'll show you something special, too. Right now. If you go up* to your bedroom and wait by the side window, you'll have a surprise in a few minutes."
Mary Anne said good-bye to the Perkinses
and raced home. She flew up to her bedroom. Then she stood at her open window. There was Myriah in her window.
"Hi!" called Mary Anne. "We can see each other!"
"Hey!" said Myriah. "We can talk to each other, too!"
"This'll be our special secret, okay?"
"All right!" cried Myriah.
Mary Anne turned away. Having the Per-kinses next door still wasn't the same as having Kristy there. But Mary Anne didn't feel sad about it anymore.
Chapter 5.
"Bye, Jeff! I'm going over to the Pikes'!" I called. "I'll be back in a couple of hours. Call if you're going to go anywhere."
"I'm not moving!" he shouted back.
The weather was unbearably hot, even for Californians like us. It was almost a hundred degrees and humid. Our old house isn't really equipped for air-conditioning, but there is one unit in the den downstairs. Jeff had been closed in with it all morning. I think that if he could have, he would have sat on the air-conditioner.
I'm sort of in charge of Jeff while Mom's at work, but I can go off and do things. Jeff is almost ten, and he's fairly responsible. All either of us really has to do is phone so that the other one always knows where he or she is. And Jeff isn't allowed to have friends over if I'm not at home.
I made my way sluggishly over to the Pikes'.
Mallory, the oldest Pike, met me at the front door. "Guess what?" she cried. "All of us kids are here and I'm going to be the second babysitter! It was my idea, and Mom said okay!"
"Hey, Mal, that's great!"
Mallory is eleven and has always been a big help with her younger brothers and sisters. Until now, though, when all eight kids needed looking after, Mrs. Pike would hire two sitters. Apparently, she'd decided that Mallory was old enough to be one of those sitters. That was fine with me. All of us baby-sitters like Mallory, and we've sometimes thought that one day she could join our club. She's younger than the rest of us, but she'd be really good.
"Hi, Dawn," Mrs. Pike greeted me. "Let's see. Mallory's going to sit with you today. I'm sure she's told you that."