Monkey Trouble (7 page)

“What do you mean, Henry?” Jessie asked. “Why is it important that there’s just one giraffe photo?”

“Because Blake only took one giraffe picture on his camera,” Henry explained.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Annika pointed at some other pictures. “See how I shot the butterflies from many different angles? And I have all these alligator photos?” She touched the pictures as she remembered taking them. “I like to take multiple shots of each animal to be sure I get a good picture.”

“That’s right,” Henry said.” He pointed as he explained. “Look carefully. Penguins and giraffes are here.” He poked at two photos. “One picture of each. That’s all.” He pushed those pictures to the side. “Then we had lunch.”

Jessie picked up the story from there. “After lunch we saw butterflies.” She pointed to the five beautiful pictures of the butterflies. “Then three pictures of hummingbirds. Four of alligators.”

“You two somehow switched cameras at lunch,” Henry said to Annika and Blake. He pointed at the first two photos. “Those are Blake’s photos from before lunch. He only took one picture of each animal. Then, Annika took pictures after lunch on the same camera. We can tell because there are multiple photos of the same animal.”

“How could we have switched cameras?” Blake asked, looking carefully at each of Annika’s after-lunch photos. “I had one camera in my bag and the other camera in my hand the whole time.”

“Didn’t you put the one in your hand on the table at lunch?” Benny asked.

“Good memory!” Violet congratulated Benny. He beamed a happy smile.

“That’s when the switch must have happened,” Henry said. “When everyone was picking up their cameras.”

Annika wasn’t smiling. She took a sad, ragged breath. “It looks like Blake really did win the contest.” She handed him the zoo pass and the first-place ribbon. “I’m really sorry about the mix-up,” she told Blake. “It’s a good picture and you deserve to win.”

“Thanks.” Blake took the prizes. He smoothed down his red hair with one hand and then went with Mr. Newton to get his photo taken for the zoo newsletter.

“This means we successfully solved another mystery,” Henry said to his siblings.

“Wahoo!” Benny cheered.

Jessie closed her notebook. “We did it.”

Violet was very quiet.

“What’s wrong Violet?” Benny asked.

“Just thinking.” Violet turned to Henry, Jessie, and Benny. “At the beginning of the tour, Blake had two cameras and Annika had one. And we always knew where Blake’s second camera was. He was saving it in his over-the-shoulder bag for the second day. Right?”

The other Aldens nodded in agreement.

“Then one of Blake’s cameras went missing. So he had only one, and Annika still had one. Right?”

Again, her siblings nodded.

“So one camera is still missing. Annika accidentally took one of Blake’s two cameras. But where did Annika’s original camera go?”

“T
hat is a good question,” Henry told Violet. He went running over to Mr. Newton. “Hey, Mr. Newton, can we see all the pictures from everyone’s cameras?”

“I thought the mystery was solved,” Mr. Newton said.

“We need to figure out what happened to Annika’s camera,” Henry explained.

“Ahh,” Mr. Newton said, pushing his glasses up with one finger. “I’ll go get them. The party’s nearly over, anyway. I was going to give the pictures to the students to take home.”

Mr. Newton went to get the photographs. When he came back, all the children gathered around as Mr. Newton passed the photos out to each of them.

“I can’t wait to see the shots I took,” Griffin told Matthew.

“I took better ones,” Matthew said to his brother.

Mr. Newton handed the twins two envelopes filled with the pictures from the cameras they shared. The envelopes were both marked Cho on the outside.

As the twins went through them, Henry stood over their shoulder looking. “That’s another great one of Simio,” he told Griffin, pointing at the photo of the escaped monkey. Henry watched as the boys flipped through all the other pictures. They were able to easily identify which ones each twin took.

“I think it’ll make things easier if we go around the room and look for Annika’s pictures,” Jessie said to Henry.

“Good idea,” Henry said.

“Let’s split up,” Benny suggested. “I’ll go over there.” He pointed at Nico, who was standing alone, looking at his pictures and giggling. He’d taken off his baseball cap, and each time he laughed, Nico’s shaggy hair bounced up and down.

Jessie and Violet each took opposite corners of the room. Henry noticed that Sophie was packing up her stuff, getting ready to leave. He headed over to quickly look at her photos.

“Can I take a look at your pictures?” Henry asked. When Sophie agreed, he took them out of her envelope and flipped through her pile. “You have a bunch of nice giraffe shots,” Henry told Sophie.

“Thanks,” she said. She took back the pictures and put them away.

A few minutes later, the Aldens got together.

“Nico took silly shots,” Benny told the others. “They are mostly of the kids in the tour group, not of zoo animals. So those couldn’t be Annika’s.”

“I didn’t find Annika’s pictures, either.” Henry said to his brother and sisters. “But I did see a lot of really great giraffe pictures. Everyone took some of the baby giraffe. Sophie showed me hers. She had a few that were taken straight on, from about the same place where Violet and I were standing. The baby was looking right at the lens and—”

“Wait a second!” Violet stopped Henry in the middle of his sentence. “Did you say
Sophie
had good giraffe photos?”

“Yes,” Henry said. “Pretty ones.” He put his hand over his mouth. “Oh no!”

The Aldens looked around the room for Sophie. She was almost out the door. “Stop! Sophie!” Benny shouted. “We need to see your pictures again.”

“You already saw them,” Sophie said. “My dad’s waiting outside.”

Jessie said, “It’s important.”

Violet and Benny stood in the doorway. Henry held out his hand until Sophie gave in, handing him the photos.

“You have lots of giraffe photos, but you couldn’t have possibly taken them, Sophie,” Jessie said.

“You didn’t have a camera the first day. That’s when we saw their habitat,” Violet said.

Benny added, “Plus, you don’t even like giraffes. You’re scared of them!”

Sophie’s face turned red. She opened and closed her mouth a few times to talk, but nothing came out. Finally she said, “Oh! I didn’t even realize it! These aren’t my pictures. They must be Annika’s. Mr. Newton, where are my pictures? I don’t have any giraffes on mine.”

“Those are yours,” Mr. Newton said, looking at the photos and the name on the envelope.

“Nope,” Sophie said, shaking her head. Her ponytail wiggled. “There must have been another mix-up. I don’t like giraffes. These can’t be mine.”

She tried to hand Mr. Newton the stack of photos, but they fell to the floor with a whoosh.

Henry bent to pick them up. “These are yours, Sophie.” He held up a picture of a baby chimp. “There’s your swimmer charm, dangling in the corner.”

Sophie lowered her eyes. She was caught.

“I am so sorry, Annika,” Sophie said. “I didn’t mean to take your camera. Honestly. I meant to take Blake’s.”

“What?!” Blake said, hearing his name and rushing over.

“Well,” Sophie began. “It wasn’t fair that you got two cameras. I didn’t want to enter the contest. I just wanted to have photos for memories.” She went on, “So after lunch, when you were putting your sack in the cooler, I took one of yours. They were both in your over-the-shoulder bag, and I snuck one out.”

“But Annika had already switched cameras accidentally with Blake. That happened before Blake put the one he was using that day into his bag,” Jessie finished. “So the camera you stole was actually Annika’s, not Blake’s.”

Sophie looked down at her shoes. “I feel very bad about the whole thing.”

“You shouldn’t have stolen Blake’s camera,” Mr. Newton told Sophie. “Even if you thought it was unfair for him to have two, stealing is wrong.”

“I know,” Sophie said.

Mr. Newton went out to the front of the zoo to find Sophie’s father, Mr. Webb, and explain what had happened.

“I suspected you all along, and I was right,” Blake said to Annika. “Well, sort of. You
did
take my camera—”

“But it was an accident,” Annika reminded him.

“I know,” Blake said. “I’m sorry I accused you of stealing my camera. I looked at the pictures you took, and I have to admit, you are a really good photographer. I’m happy you are going to be a photographer for the school newspaper.”

“Really?” Annika asked. “You didn’t change your mind, even though yours was actually the winning photo?” She seemed doubtful.

“No,” Blake told her. “Welcome to the newspaper staff.” They shook hands for the second time.

Sophie’s dad came into the room with Mr. Newton.

Sophie rushed up to him. “I’m so sorry, Dad. I took a camera that wasn’t mine. And I lied to some kids earlier and said I bought my own. Both things were terribly wrong. I—”

“Whoa,” Mr. Webb put his arm around Sophie to slow her down. “I want to understand what happened. Why did you take someone’s camera?”

“I knew we couldn’t afford one. And I wanted photos for my memory album,” Sophie explained. A big tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m really sorry,” she said again.

Sophie’s dad handed her a tissue. He said, “Maybe you could draw some pictures for the memories. You don’t need to spend money to make a moment special.”

Sophie nodded and sniffed.

“You are going to need to come up with a way to buy a new camera for Blake,” her dad said.

Mr. Newton had a suggestion. “When you aren’t swimming, you can come here and help at the zoo,” he told Sophie. “We can pay you to clean up trash and look for lost items.”

Sophie’s dad agreed that it was a good idea.

“Okay,” Sophie said, with a big sigh. “I promise I’ll work hard.”

After Sophie left the zoo with her dad, Annika and Blake thanked Jessie, Henry, Benny, and Violet for their help.

“We were glad to help,” Henry said. “And we’re happy that we were able to solve the mystery.”

“That’s right!” Violet said. “We were so close to having our first unsolved mystery.”

“But, with all the witnessing and rememberering, we did it!” Benny cheered, “The case of Blake’s missing camera is now closed.”

When Grandfather Alden picked up Henry, Violet, Jessie, and Benny, they were bursting with excitement.

“We solved the camera mystery at the zoo!” Benny said proudly. He threw his backpack into the trunk of Grandfather’s car.

“Congratulations! You always seem to solve the mysteries you encounter,” Grandfather said. He closed the trunk of the car and got into the driver’s seat.

When everyone was buckled in and ready to go, Grandfather started the engine. He was about to drive away, when suddenly Mr. Newton came running to the car.

“Benny! Benny!” Mr. Newton shouted. “I forgot to give you something.”

“We already have our popcorn prize,” Violet told Mr. Newton, as she patted her purse.

“And I got to eat the first piece of pizza like you promised,” Benny said.

“This is something different.” Mr. Newton reached into his pocket. He pulled out an official zoo employee name tag. Engraved into the badge was the name
Benny Alden.
And under that it said,
Assistant Zoologist.
He handed the badge to Benny.

“You were such a good helper,” Mr. Newton said. “Now you have an official title.”

Benny grinned while Henry pinned the badge on his T-shirt. “Thanks, Mr. Newton!” Benny cheered. “Can I come back to help again on my next school break?”

“Sure,” Mr. Newton said, adjusting his glasses on his nose. “I hope you’ll come and bring your brother and sisters, too.”

As Grandfather drove the Alden children home, Benny looked at his new badge. “This is better than winning a year’s zoo pass,” he said. “Much better! I’m an assistant zoologist now!”

Henry, Violet, Jessie, and Grandfather all cheered.

Benny smiled the whole the way home.

G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children,
quickly proved she had succeeded.

Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.

While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.