Ann Martin - Claudia And The Phantom Phone Calls

"Hmm. Maybe I'll get a pair. Not for me, of course. For the baby. I'm sort of hoping for a G-I-R-L."

I smiled.

"I have to spell that," she added, "because Jamie wants a B-O-Y. How are your art classes? What are you working on now?"

"Two oil paintings. We just started using oils. I'm doing a portrait of Mimi and a still life."

"What's in the still life?"

"An egg, a checkered napkin, a wooden spoon, and a pitcher."

"An egg! That must be difficult."

"Yeah, it is. But I like working on it."

Mrs. Newton checked her watch. "I better get going," she said. "I'll be at the doctor's first for a quick checkup, then I just have to stop in at the post office and the grocery store. I'll be home by five o'clock, maybe a bit earlier. You know where the phone numbers are."

"Sure," I said. "Jamie and I are going to have fun. Want to play outside, Jamie?" It was a gray, dreary day, but it wasn't raining.

"Yea!"

I was glad he did, because I was just a little afraid of the Phantom Caller. I knew he usually struck after dark, and I knew he hadn't robbed anyone in Stoneybrook — yet — but I was^ still scared.

Mrs. Newton left, and I put Jamie's jacket on him. We went into his backyard. The Newton's yard is really good for little kids to play in. There's a slide and a swingset and a jungle gym, and the yard is completely surrounded by a tall stockade fence.

I pushed Jamie on the swing for a while. Then he jumped off and ran to the jungle gym to show me a trick he'd learned. I was facing the house, watching him, when I saw something that nearly made me jump out of my skin.

A light came on downstairs in the Newtons' house. It lit up the living room, but it didn't look like a living room light. Maybe it was in the front hall.

A chill ran up my spine.

I looked at my watch. Four o'clock. Mrs. Newton should have been with the doctor right then. Besides, if she'd come back, I would have heard her car pull up and the door slam.

As I stared at the house, the light went off.

I gasped.

Maybe it was some kind of illusion — like a

street lamp. But why would a street lamp turn on and then go off?

I decided to ignore the light.

Jamie stood up on the bottom of his slide. "Hey, guess who I am!" he yelled. He beat his chest and cried, "Ah! Ah-ah-ah-ah!"

"Peter Rabbit?" I said.

Jamie laughed. "No!"

"Superman?"

"No!"

"Not Tarzan/' I said.

"Yes! I'm Tarzan."

At that moment, the phone began to ring. I looked at the house.

"I hear the telephone," said Jamie. "Maybe it's Daddy."

I'd been hoping he wouldn't hear it. I hadn't planned to answer it.

Jamie ran for the house. "Come on!" he said.

I knew I should answer the phone. As a baby-sitter, that was one of my responsibilities. But I was too afraid. I stooped down. "Just a second," I called. "My shoe's untied." I took long enough untying and retying my sneaker so that by the time I caught up with Jamie at the back door, the phone was no longer ringing. "I'm sorry, Jamie," I said. "Look, if it was your dad, he'll call back."

"Okay." Jamie didn't seem too upset. He sat down on the patio and began playing with a dump truck. "Beep, beep! Beep, beep! . . . Hey, what was that?" he asked, holding still.

"What was what?"

"That noise."

"What noise?"

Pat, pat, pat.

"That noise."

I had heard it, too. Footsteps on the driveway, on the other side of the stockade fence.

I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to take Jamie into the house, but the only way to leave the Newtons' yard was through the gate in the fence. And the gate opened onto the driveway.

"Maybe it was the paperboy," I suggested.

Jamie shook his head. "The paperboy doesn't come up to our house. He stands in the street and throws the paper into the flower garden."

Pat, pat, pat.

"Hey," I whispered, "let's be spies. Let's sneak up to the fence and peek through the knothole by the gate."

"Okay," Jamie whispered back.

I took Jamie's hand and we tiptoed across the grass to the gate. Very cautiously, I closed one eye and put the other one up to the hole.

A brown eye was looking back at me!

I screamed.

Jamie screamed.

The person attached to the brown eye screamed.

That last scream sounded awfully familiar. "Kristy?" I said.

"Claudia?" The gate opened and Kristy came in, trembling.

"What were you doing?" I shouted.

"Trying to find you," she said. "Hi, Jamie."

"Hi-hi."

"I thought you were the — PC," I said, nodding toward Jamie.

"Sorry. Mom got home from work early today, so I'm off the hook with David Michael." (Kristy and her older brothers each have to take care of their littlest brother, David Michael, one afternoon a week while Mrs. Thomas is at work. A baby-sitter comes on the other days.) "I knew you were baby-sitting here," she went on. "Mom sent me over with something for Mrs. Newton and I wanted to see how you were doing. I was sort of worried about the — PC myself."

"Did you turn on a light in the Newtons' house?"

Kristy nodded. "Mom made a casserole for the Newtons since Mrs. Newton doesn't feel much like cooking anymore. I had to put on a

light so I wouldn't trip with it on my way to the refrigerator. Then I went back outside to look for you guys."

"1 guess that wasn't you on the phone then," I said.

Kristy's eyes opened wide. "The phone rang?"

"Just a couple of minutes ago, while you were walking around looking for us."

"Did you answer it?"

"No, we — we missed it."

"I bet it was Daddy," said Jamie.

Kristy and I exchanged knowing looks.

"Do you want me to stay for a while?" asked Kristy.

"Yes!" said Jamie and I, for different reasons.

Kristy can be a blabbermouth and a baby, but she can also be a very good friend.

Chapter 6.

That night, Janine helped me with my homework. She is picky, picky, picky. I bet teachers wouldn't even notice half the things she makes me correct. We were just finishing up when a great crash of thunder sounded.

"Gosh, it's late in the season for thunderstorms," Janine remarked.

"Ooh, but 1 love them," I said. "They make me feel all shivery. . . . Janine?"

"Hmm?"

"Remember when we were little and we'd crawl under Mom and Dad's bed during thunder storms? We'd pretend we were camping — "

"But we were really just hiding."

"Yeah," I said fondly.

"Very interesting, psychologically," said Janine. "The fear process — "

"Janine?"

"What?"

"Shut up."

Janine glared at me, then stalked out of the room. I knew Mimi had said I would have to work at being Janine's friend, and she was right. It would take a lot of work. How did Janine get the "fear process" out of something as nice as autumn thunderstorms? Even so, I resolved not to give up so easily the next time we talked.

I flicked on the radio and turned it to the local station. I listened to it while I worked on my still life. Maybe the weather report would mention something about the thunderstorm.

I dabbed away at the gray area under the egg. It's hard to figure out what shape shadow an egg will cast.

The music came to an end and I perked up my ears. "At the top of the news," said the radio newscaster suddenly, "is a local story. The thief dubbed the Phantom Caller has been spotted in a stolen car, traveling south through New Jersey. State troopers are tailing1 him. Details on the hour."

"All right!" I cried. "He's gone!" I was so excited that I turned off the radio, snatched up the phone, and called Stacey. "Guess what! Guess what!" I cried.

"What?" said Stacey excitedly. "Wait. Trevor called you, right? Oh, I knew he would. I knew it! Oh, Claud, did he ask — "

"Stacey, Stacey/' I said. "That's not it." I felt like a deflated balloon. "He didn't call. It's something else." Unfortunately, the something else wasn't as exciting as Trevor.