Ann Martin - Claudia And The Phantom Phone Calls

Chapter 9.

Spooked isn't the word. Mary Anne was practically out of her mind. She was just sitting quietly on the couch watching an old I Love Lucy show, when suddenly she got goose pimples all along her arms. She jumped up, turned down the volume on the TV, and listened. Nothing. Not a thing. Even so, she dashed upstairs to check on David Michael. He was lying on his side, breathing noisily, a box of Kleenex next to him. Mary Anne left the hall light on and went back downstairs.

She closed every open closet door and turned on two more lights. Then she closed off the laundry room, in case someone was hiding in there. Finally she pulled down the Venetian blinds in the den. But still she didn't feel safe, even though Louie, the Thomases' dog, was in the house with her.

What if someone sneaks inside while I'm watching TV? she thought. That was when she decided to rig up the burglar alarms. All three of them.

Now, the thing about Mary Anne Spier is that she may be quiet, and she may be shy, but she does have a good sense of humor and

a good imagination. You'd have to, to think up the alarms that Mary Anne rigged in the Thomases' house.

Well, actually, the first one wasn't much in terms of imagination. It was the alarm Mary Anne had described at our emergency club meeting the week before: a big stack of pots, pans, and cans from the kitchen built up against the inside of the door into the garage. If anyone tried to get in from the garage, the door would push the stack over and it would crash down, alerting Mary Anne, who would be able to escape out another door and call the police. The burglar might even be so startled that he'd turn around and leave.

Mary Anne finished her alarm, sat down in front of the TV again, and immediately decided she ought to rig up the front door, too. She was pretty sure a prowler wouldn't come right through the front door, but you can never tell with prowlers. She was out of pots, pans, and cans, though, so she had to think of something else. She looked at a shelf full of David Michael's toys and her eyes fell on a large bag of marbles.

"Aha!" she said aloud.

Mary Anne took the marbles into the front hall. Then she found a long piece of string. She placed the bag of marbles on a table next

to the door and attached the string to a little hole near the opening of the bag. She tied the other end securely to the doorknob. This was Mary Anne's idea: The prowler quietly opens the door; the string pulls the marbles to the floor; they spill everywhere, not only making a racket to alert Mary Anne, but causing the prowler to slip and fall when he steps inside.

Naturally, as soon as Mary Anne finished her second alarm, she decided she needed one for the back door. It was the only way she would feel safe. Then she would have all the doors covered.

Mary Anne had to think awhile before making that last alarm. By then, she was out of marbles as well as pots and pans.

What else could make a lot of noise? Mary Anne thought.

Blocks? Maybe.

Tinker toys? Nah.

Music! Music could be good and loud. The plans for Mary Anne's final alarm began to take shape.

First she tiptoed upstairs to Kristy's room to borrow her portable tape deck. Then she looked through the tape collection in the room Sam and Charlie share. She selected one called "Poundin' Down the Walls" by the Slime Kings and slipped it into the tape deck.

Back downstairs she sat on the rug in the den to think, the tape deck in her lap. How could she arrange for the tape deck to turn itself on?

She thought some more. How did she turn it on? She pressed the play button, of course. Okay. How could she get something else to press the play button? Better yet, how could she get the back door to press the play button?

In a flash of brilliance, she had the answer. Mary Anne leaped up and carried the tape deck into the kitchen. She sat down on the floor again and examined the skinny, rubber-tipped doorstop attached to the bottom of the back door. Perfect.

Mary Anne set the tape deck about two feet from the door. She lined the doorstop up with the play button. Then she opened the door. The doorstop hit the tape deck and the tape deck fell over. But that didn't stop Mary Anne. I need to ... to shore it up or something, she thought.

She dragged a heavy, round footstool in from the den and set it just behind the tape deck.

She opened the door again.

The doorstop hit the play button, and "Poun-din' Down the Walls" blared out of the tape deck. Mary Anne smiled. Satisfied, she hit the

stop button, turned the volume up to ten, and went back into the den. She curled up on the couch with her tattered copy of The Secret Garden and began to read.

She was in the middle of one of her favorite parts — the part where Mary discovers poor, sickly Colin hidden in Misselthwaite Manor — when she heard an ominous creak from the front hall. Actually, Mary Anne told me the next day, it was just a little creak, but her head was filled with the dark, shadowy hallways of Misselthwaite, so almost any noise would have sounded ominous.

Mary Anne looked up sharply. She jumped to her feet. "Louie!" she whispered urgently. Where is that dog when you need protection? she asked herself. She tiptoed to the den door and peeped into the hall.

There was Louie. He was standing at attention, staring at the front door.

The hinges creaked slightly.

Louie whined.

And all of a sudden the door flew open, pulling the marbles to the floor and scattering them loudly.

Louie barked twice.

But no one came in.

Mary Anne let out a sigh of relief. "It's just the wind, Louie," she said shakily, "like the

wind off the moors in Yorkshire," she added, thinking of her book. "I must not have closed the door all the way."

But Louie didn't look convinced. He sat at the screen door, silently begging to be let out to patrol the property. Mary Anne opened it for him, and then set to work gathering up the marbles. She put them back in the bag, but decided not to rig the alarm again. She settled for locking the screen door, and double-locking the inside door.

Then she returned to The Secret Garden. In the story, Mary was having her first conversation with Colin. Suddenly, Mary Anne heard a soft thud.

And then — to her absolute horror —

'Toundin' Down the Walls" blasted on in the kitchen!

Mary Anne let out a bloodcurdling scream as she gazed at the partly open back door. She was just about to make a dash for the front door, when Louie strolled into the kitchen, sniffed curiously at the tape deck, and headed for his water bowl.

"Louie!" exclaimed Mary Anne in a half gasp, half shriek.

She'd forgotten that David Michael had taught Louie how to throw his weight against doors. If they weren't latched properly, they opened,

which was occasionally useful to Louie. Mary Anne probably hadn't closed the back door tightly after she'd tested the tape deck alarm.

"Some baby-sitter I am," she scolded herself, "leaving doors open right and left for anybody to walk through."

"Bary Add!" called a voice.

Mary Anne looked around to see David Michael standing sleepily on the stairs, his old stuffed dog in one hand.

"Bary Add, cad you put the busic off?" he asked. "I do't like it. It's too loud." He blinked in the bright light of the hall.

"Oh, my gosh! I'm sorry, David Michael," cried Mary Anne. "I didn't mean to wake you up. Really."

She dashed to the tape deck and turned it off. "That was an accident. I'm sorry. . . . How are you feeling?"

"Stuffy. Ad by head hurts."

"Oh," said Mary Anne sympathetically. She remembered that Mrs. Thomas had said David Michael could have half a children's aspirin if he needed it. "Do you want some aspirin?" she asked him. "It'll make your head feel better."