An Exciting Thing About to Happen

The tinkling of little bells woke Jessie Alden up. As she lay in her bed, she wondered whether she had dreamed the nice noises. She looked over to the window. It was very early in the morning. Her room was just beginning to brighten. The curtains billowed as a breeze blew through them. The bells sounded again and then Jessie remembered. She and her ten-year-old sister, Violet, had hung a mobile in Jessie's room the night before.

Violet's latest art project was mobile making. For Jessie's mobile, she had cut out pictures of amazing sites from all over the world. The pictures were glued to cardboard and then tied to strings hanging from a wire frame. Violet had added littlesilver bells on strings to hang among the pictures. She said she hoped her mobile would give Jessie dreams of all the places she might go someday.

Jessie listened to the bells, thinking it was almost like they were signaling her to get up. Soft footsteps sounded in the hallway as if someone was trying not to be heard. Jumping out of bed, Jessie darted over to her door and opened it. Her fourteen-year-old brother, Henry, and Watch, their dog, were just heading down the stairs. Violet and six-year-old Benny opened their own doors.

Jessie noticed no one looked sleepy. "Why are we all so awake?" she whispered.

"I was too excited to sleep late, but I don't know why," Benny said.

"I felt the same way, like something exciting was going to happen and I didn't want to miss it," Violet added.

"That's strange," Henry said. "I felt the same way."

Watch wagged his tail as if he were agreeing with them.

They stood there for a moment until Violet asked, "What do we do now? It's really early."

"First, we should go downstairs so we won't wake anyone else up," Jessie said. They went down to the kitchen. Henry filled up Watch's bowl with dog food. Watch wolfed it down.

"I'm just as hungry as Watch," Benny said. "What time is breakfast?"

"Not for a while," Jessie said. "Mrs. McGregor thought we would sleep late since it's the first day of spring break." Mrs. McGregor was the Aldens' housekeeper.

"How long is a while?" Benny asked. "However long it is, I don't think I can wait."

"I have an idea," Violet said. "Since it's finally stopped raining, it would be nice to go outside. Let's make our own breakfast and take it out to the boxcar to eat." The Aldens had their very own boxcar in their backyard. It was a special place for them. After their parents died, they had been scared to go live at their grandfather's house. Fearing he would be mean, the children had run away and found an old boxcar in the woods. They lived there until their grandfather found them. Hewas not mean at all, and he even arranged for the boxcar to be brought to his yard.

"I like Violet's idea." Benny jumped up and down. "We can have a breakfast picnic!"

Jessie smiled at Benny's excitement. "We have some blueberry muffins I made and there are some bananas. That would be a good breakfast."

"Perfect," Henry said.

"Violet, will you carry the muffins?" Jessie asked. "I'll take the plates and the bananas. Henry can carry the glasses. Benny, that means you are in charge of the juice."

They took everything out to the boxcar, squishing their way across the wet backyard.

"There is something about this morning that feels so different," Violet said as they laid out their breakfast. Rain began to ping on the roof of the boxcar.

"Except the rain." Henry sighed.

"At least the rain makes the air smell good," Violet said.

"I don't know if I've ever heard so many birds chirping this early in the spring," Jessie said. "Listen."

It did seem as if their yard was filled with birds. The children were quiet as they ate their breakfast, enjoying the sound of the birds.

"Sometimes I wish this boxcar was still attached to a train," Benny said when they were finished. "And that we were going someplace right now."

"I wish we could have an adventure this week," Jessie said. "We haven't had any mysteries to solve recently, and I'm ready for one. Anyone heard of any mysteries that need solving?"

"No," Henry said glumly. "I've even asked around. No one has lost anything or seen any strange things lately."

"It's like all the mysteries have been solved," Violet said, just as glumly as Henry.

"Don't be sad." Benny looked around at his brother and sisters. "It's still the first day of spring break. Let's play a game. Everybody close your eyes and imagine where you'd like the boxcar to go."

"There are so many places. It is hard to" — a rumbling noise drowned out the rest of Violet's sentence.

"Do you hear that?" Benny opened his eyes. "Is the train moving?"

Henry got up and went to the door of the boxcar. "No, it's thunder. Looks like it's going to storm again."

"Let's get inside before the rain gets too heavy," Jessie said. They collected the picnic supplies and got ready to run for the back door. Watch jumped out of the boxcar and then stopped, his ears perking up. He gave a bark and then dashed toward the front of the house. As he disappeared around the corner, he began to bark again.

"He's going to wake up the neighbors," Jessie said.

"Watch!" Henry called.

Watch didn't come back. He kept barking.

"We'd better go see what he's doing," Benny said. The four of them ran around the house to the front yard. Violet was in the lead, but when she got to the front yard, she skidded to a stop on the wet grass. The others nearly ran into her. "There's someone on our front porch," she said.

They could see a man standing on the top of the steps looking at Watch. Watch was on the walkway at the bottom of the steps looking back at the man.

He was an older man, about Grandfather's age. He was very small with a wrinkly face and silvery gray hair that stuck out from underneath a purple cap.

When the man saw the Aldens, he tipped his cap at them and smiled. Violet noticed the cap matched the purple bow tie he wore. He had a silver hoop earring in one ear and one front tooth capped in silver.

"Good morning, children," he said. "Lovely day, isn't it?"

Jessie wasn't so sure such a gray rainy day could be called lovely, but the man didn't even seem to notice he was all wet.

"Sorry about our dog," Henry said to the man. "Watch won't hurt you. He just barks at strangers sometimes."

"That's all right," the man replied. "I understand. Back when I was a pirate, I learned you can't trust everyone. Sometimes you need to bark at people just to let them know you are watching them."

Benny's eyes opened wide. "You were a pirate?"

The man's smile grew. "Some people called me that a long time ago. Today I'm just passing out flyers. I've put one in your door." He winked at them and then tipped his cap again. "Good day to you."

He came down the steps and patted Watch on the head as he walked by. The dog wagged his tail. The Aldens watched as the man then strolled...