Figgs & Phantoms (18 page)
Authors: Ellen Raskin
“Thank you, Mrs. Lumpholtz,” Mona said. “Would you like to watch the parade from my window?”
“Don't mind if I do.” Mrs. Lumpholtz dragged a chair to the window as another visitor entered the room.
The girl scouts, dressed as pine cones, and their mothers, waving crab-apple blossoms, danced by.
“Hello, Mona, you're certainly looking better than you did the last time I saw you,” the librarian said. “I thought you might like this book.”
“Thanks, Miss Quigley.” Mona was delighted with the gift,
The Amenities of Book Collecting,
and even more delighted that the librarian was not angry with her. “How come you're not in the parade?”
The Amenities of Book Collecting,
and even more delighted that the librarian was not angry with her. “How come you're not in the parade?”
“Careful, Mona,” Miss Quigley replied in a pretended huff. “I forgave you once, when I learned you were only asking for a Conrad title, but if you are going to tell me that I have a natural musical talent and should be down there strutting to âBye, Bye Blackbird' I'll never lend you another book.”
“I didn't mean that, really, Miss Quigley,” Mona said.
“Well, I'll forgive you if you let me watch the folks making fools of themselves from your window.”
Mona didn't know whether or not to take Miss Quigley seriously.
“Make yourself at home, Rebecca,” Mrs. Lumpholtz said, moving her chair aside to make room for the librarian.
Bump Popham rode by in the sky-blue Studebaker followed by the tap-dancing Pineapple Slicers, carrying the star pitcher on their shoulders. Fido, still clutching his Joseph Conrad paperback, waved cheerfully up at Mona. He sneezed. Behind him Kadota led the performing Kanines, who stood on their hind legs and shook paws with one another.
Mona laughed heartily and Mrs. Lumpholtz and Miss Quigley applauded the perfect performance.
A papier-mâché Grubb Hill rumbled into view. On its pinnacle, dressed in pioneer buckskin, stood Gracie Jo, her eyes shaded with one hand, the other pointing to an imagined new town. At her side, also pointing, was a bird dog. Gracie Jo's imitation of a statue was so convincing that two pigeons came to roost on her head. Behind the float trotted an impromptu cortege of six stray dogs, a hog, two goats, and Noodles.
“Noodles!” Mona leaned out of her window and called to her runaway cat. Noodles looked up at the window and darted into the hospital so quickly that by the time the raspberry-red Edsel hove into sight the cat was purring in Mona's lap.
“We are the very models of a modern Major-General. ...” Romulus and Remus performed their act on the roof of the car.
“Bravo! ” Mona shouted. Mrs. Lumpholtz and Miss Quigley stood up to applaud the twins.
“I wish Uncle Truman were watching with us,” Mona said, reading her sign for the hundredth time.
“Don't worry about Truman, he's doing just fine,” Mrs. Lumpholtz said. “Harriet Kluttz hasn't left his side since the accident.”
“An ideal couple,” Miss Quigley said, and Mona decided she approved the romance.
The volunteer fire department's sirens blared.
“Excuse me, may I come in?”
Mona uttered a surprised gasp as the tall, birdlike man tottered into the room. She had thought Ebenezer Bargain was dead.
4. SAINTS GO MARCHING IN
S
IT DOWN and join us, Eb,”Miss Quigley said to the old bookseller.
IT DOWN and join us, Eb,”Miss Quigley said to the old bookseller.
“No, thank you, I just dropped by to give Mona some books.”
“Look, look,” Mrs. Lumpholtz shrieked. “There goes my little granddaughter.”
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