"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club Mystery 016 - Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

Margo (seven) and Claire (five), who were busy dressing up Pow as a baby.
"Can you help us tuck him into the carriage?" Margo asked. "Every time we try to squish one part of him in, another part sticks out." Nicky was glad to stay and help, if only to avoid more teasing from his brothers.
Meanwhile, Byron, the third triplet, was trying to retrieve a Frisbee from the porch roof, with Mal watching anxiously as he climbed along the gutter. Vanessa, who's nine, was sitting on the porch rocker, oblivious to the chaos. She's wanted to be a poet for as long as any of us can remember, and she's happiest when she's scribbling in one of her notebooks.
When Mary Anne arrived with the Barrett kids, the first thing Buddy did was say hi to Pow. "He'll stay in the carriage if you give him a Milkbone," he advised the girls and Nicky. Then he joined us on the porch, and he and Mary Anne told us why they had come.
Almost instantly, all the Pike kids dropped what they were doing and came over to join the discussion. Vanessa turned to a new page in her notebook, in order to take down ideas. Byron came down from the roof, without the Frisbee but with two softballs he'd found. Claire and Margo set Pow free, and Nicky,
Jordan, and Adam made up and sat down to brainstorm,
ThatТs what Mary Anne called it: brain-storming. "We did brainstorming in my social studies class last year," she said. "ItТs the best way to come up with ideas. Everybody just shouts out anything they can think of, no matter how silly it is. You'd be surprised at the creative stuff we'll come up with."
Naturally, after that, there were a few minutes of total silence. Nobody wanted to shout out the first silly idea. Finally, I decided to jump right in. "We could send an airplane over Dawn's favorite beach, towing one of those big, long banners. It could say 'DAWN SCHAFER, PLEASE COME HOME TO STONEYBROOK'!"
"Uh-huh," said Vanessa, writing it down. Nobody else said a word.
"Well, you said we could say silly ideas," I said, blushing.
Just then, Buddy piped up. "If we put all our money together, maybe we could buy her a plane ticket home."
"Yeah!" said Nicky. "I have . . ." he dug in his pocket, "seventeen cents."
"And I have three dollars in my bank upstairs!" said Adam.
"I think itТs going to cost a lot more than that," said Mal gently.
"Okay," said Jordan, "speaking of planes, how's this? We'll hire a plane to fly over Stoneybrook and take one of those pictures from above. Then we'll frame it and send it to her."
"That's pretty expensive, too," said Mary Anne. "Anyway, it seems like it should be something we can make for her."
The kids continued to brainstorm, shouting out ideas for everything from a singing telegram to a giant mural to a care package full of homemade cookies.
"I've got it!" I shouted, after a few more minutes. I had been thinking hard, ever since Jordan had mentioned pictures. Since I have photography on the brain lately, my ears had perked up when I heard that word. "You know that book, A Day in the Life of America?"
"You mean the one where they gave a whole bunch of photographers one day to take pictures all over the country?" Mal said. "We have that book. It's pretty cool."
"Well, how about A Day in the Life of Stoneybrook?" I asked. '^We can set up a bunch of you kids with cameras Ч I'm sure we can borrow a few Ч and you can take pictures all over town. Then we'll make up an album for Dawn."
"Yeah," said Buddy, starting to grin. "Yeah! I like it."
Mal went to find the book. When she brought it back, the kids passed it around and looked at it. They loved it, so the matter was decided. We agreed to round up more photographers Ч all clients and members of the BSC Ч and we set our "day" for the following Sunday.
That night, Mary Anne couldn't resist calling Dawn. "The kids are planning a big surprise for you," she told her stepsister. "And you are going to love it." Then she called me, and we talked about the project some more. I think Mary Anne and I were even more excited than any one of the kids who had been over at the Pikes' that day, but none of us could wait for next Sunday.
Chapter 4.
Before I went home that Saturday, I borrowed the Pikes' copy of A Day in the Life of America. Later, when I sat down and looked it over more closely, I began to realize that our project was going to take a lot of planning. For the real Day in the Life book, the editors had asked two hundred of the world's top photographers to take pictures all over America during one twenty-four-hour period. From what I read, it took a major amount of coordination to pull that together.
We weren't using two hundred photographers for A Day in the Life of Stoneybrook, but there was still a lot to figure out. My friends and I spent every spare minute during that week plotting and planning for our big day on Sunday. First, we called around to find out which of our regular charges wanted to be part of the project. Then we rounded up all the cameras we could find, so that each kid would
be able to take pictures. I borrowed Janine's instamatic, and Mary Anne dug up her dad's old Brownie camera. The Pikes had a Polaroid, and Stacey and her mom volunteered their one-step camera. Shannon was going to use her point-and-shoot, and , Watson loaned Kristy his fancy Nikon, after she promised to take good care of it. We also withdrew some money from the BSC treasury to buy film and a couple of those new disposable cameras.
And finally, we sat down with the dub record book and figured out a schedule for the shoot. Not everybody in the BSC would be available that day. Logan was going away for the weekend with his family, and Stacey was going to New York to visit her dad. (She'd be coming back late Sunday afternoon, though, so we planned to meet her at the train station and take pictures of her arrival.) Kristy had a softball game with her team, the Krushers, first thing in the1 morning. Since many of the kids who wanted to be part of the project are also Krushers, we decided to meet on the ball-field on Sunday morning. We would take some pictures of the game, and then split up into smaller groups to cover the rest of Stoneybrook.
I woke up early on Sunday morning and, with my fingers crossed, jumped right out of
bed to pull up my shades. As soon as I saw the blue sky outside, I grinned. It was a perfect day, just what we'd been hoping for. I dressed quickly, in jeans and my Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt (no high fashion today; I was planning to work hard) and started to load my camera bag. I'd be shooting in black and white, since I wanted to be able to develop my pictures myself, and I had stocked up on film. I stuck two rolls into the outside pocket of my bag and loaded a third into the Minolta. Our Day in the Life of Stoneybrook was about to begin, and I was ready.
I was itching to start taking pictures, so I left my room with the camera around my neck. Just as I was heading for the stairs, I heard the bathroom door open. I whirled around, raised my camera, and started snapping away.
"Claudia!" cried Janine. "What do you think you're doing?" At least, thatТs what it sounded like. Her words were kind of garbled.
I lowered the camera and took a better look at her. She was wearing this ratty old pink robe that she refuses to give up, and there was a yellow towel wrapped turban-style around her head. Her voice had sounded funny because she was in the midst of brushing her teeth and her mouth was full of foamy white toothpaste.
"Oops," I said, trying to hide a grin. "Hey,
itТs all just part of our project, Janine!" I said. "Don't you want to be included? I see the caption saying something like 'Janine Kishi prepares for her day, looking forward to Ч ' hey, what are you doing today?" I asked.
"Going on a picnic with Jerry," she said. "And if you assume I'm going to reveal our destination, you're most definitely mistaken." She shook her toothbrush at me and stomped back into the bathroom.
Jerry is Janine's boyfriend. For a second I thought about trying to follow them and take candid shots without their seeing me, but then I remembered the very full schedule we'd made up for the day. There was no way I could fit anything else in. I shrugged and headed downstairs, where I quickly snapped pictures of my dad making waffles and my mom reading the Sunday paper. As soon as I'd finished my breakfast, I grabbed my camera bag and headed over to the ballfield.
The Krushers were playing BartТs Bashers that day. Bart Taylor, the guy who manages the Bashers, is KristyТs boyfriend Ч although she'd kill me if she heard me say that. She insists she's "not into that boyfriend-girlfriend stuff." The game was almost over when I arrived, and the scene at the field was totally chaotic. Buddy Barrett was on first base, and Suzi
was up at bat. Jamie Newton, who's four, was waiting for his turn to hit. He was holding a blue plastic camera (the kind made for kids) and trying to focus on Kristy and Bart, who were talking over on the sidelines. Charlotte Johanssen, who's nine, was leading cheers, along with Haley Braddock (also nine) and Vanessa Pike. Becca, Jessi's sister, had talked them into making a mini-pyramid for a picture she wanted to take, but the pyramid kept collapsing because the girls were giggling too hard.
I found Jessi, Mal, Shannon, and Mary Anne sitting together behind the backstop. "Have you guys started taking pictures yet?" I asked.
"Absolutely," said Jessi, grinning. "I caught Aunt Cecelia in her fuzzy slippers, Shannon took some pictures of her sister playing dress-up, and Mary Anne has already taken a roll and a half of Tigger playing with a catnip mouse." Tigger is Mary Anne's kitten.
"You should have seen Nicky this morning," Mal said, laughing. "He was trying to take a picture of Pow. First he tied this huge red bow around Pew's neck. Then he got set to snap a picture. He'd tell Pow to sit, and then he'd walk away a few steps in order to focus. But as soon as Nicky was ready to take the picture, Pow would get up, walk toward him, and stick his big old snuffly nose right
up against the camera. It was hilarious!Ф
Suddenly, we heard cheering on the field, and we all turned to see what had happened. An ecstatic Matt Braddock was circling the bases, while his sister Haley signed frantically to him. "WhatТs she telling him?" I asked Jessi. Matt is profoundly deaf, and he and Haley (and most of his friends) communicate with American Sign Language. Jessi has learned ASL better than anyone else in the BSC.
"She's saying 'ItТs a home run! We win!' " said Jessi. "But from the look on MattТs face, I have a feeling he already knows that."
"Now he'll really have something to tell everybody about at that picnic today," I said. Matt and Haley's parents were hosting a picnic for hearing-impaired children and their families that afternoon. The kids were mostly from MattТs school, which is in Stamford. Shannon and Kristy were going along, and they'd take pictures of the event for our project.
As soon as the Krushers and Bashers had finished their post-game rituals (lining up to give high fives to the other team, and then chanting "two-four-six-eight! Who do we appreciate?"), Kristy, Shannon, Mary Anne, Mal, Jessi, and I held a quick meeting.
"Do you all have your cameras?" Kristy asked, after we had congratulated her on the game.
We nodded and held them up.
"Film?" asked Kristy. When we nodded, she grinned. "Then letТs go for it!" she said. She and Shannon headed off with Matt and Haley, while Jessi and Mal rounded up Nicky, Vanessa, and Jamie Newton. The Jessi-and-Mal team was planning to head for the barber shop in town, where the triplets had haircut appointments.