“Beats me,” he said. “Just looks like grass to me.”
“Maybe it is just grass,” I said. “I think I’ve seen sheep there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Not really,” I said. “I suppose that shows what complete city slickers we are. I’ll ask Dad.”
“You think he’ll know?”
“Maybe, and if he doesn’t, he’ll have a great time finding out. Maybe he’ll even befriend Mr. Early.”
“That would be nice,” Michael said. “Though from what I’ve seen of Mr. Early, it would probably be a first. Meanwhile, I think I’ll go over and tell those people that they’re trespassing on Mr. Early’s land.”
“You really think they’ll listen?”
“No, but at least I can tell Mr. Early that we told them to leave,” he said, as he strode off.
That might help. Though I thought managing not to be around when Mr. Early discovered the interlopers was an even better plan.
Chapter 32
The bad thing about the chaos currently infesting our yard, and now spilling over onto the neighbors’ property, was that no one was in charge. Though there were still a few people around—mostly my relatives—who held on to the delusion that I was in charge, and could fix their problems and answer their questions.
The good thing was that these misguided souls were far outnumbered by people who didn’t know me from Adam and didn’t expect a damn thing of me. That was a comforting thought.
Probably a good idea to make myself scarce till things quieted down. And maybe when Chief Burke returned from his burglary investigation I could get him to clear out the squatters.
On the other hand, if we could just get him to open up the yard sale again, we’d have more customers than we’d ever dreamed of.
Michael reappeared, with Dad at his side.
“I ran into your Dad,” he said. “You were right—sheep. Some special kind that grows expensive Yuppie wool.”
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Dad said, beaming.
“The sheep?” I asked. “What’s so wonderful about them? I bet they’re just as clueless as ordinary sheep.”
“No, this!” Dad exclaimed, flinging his arms out with enthusiasm.
“Your dad is enjoying the yard sale,” Michael explained.
“It’s certainly surpassed my expectations,” I said.
“Meg, do you suppose it would work if we have a modest admission fee next year?” Dad asked. “If we charge even as little as a dollar, we could probably fund our SPOOR operations for an entire year.”
“You can charge as much as you like the next time we have a yard sale,” I said.
“Excellent!” Dad said, and walked off beaming.
“We’re having another yard sale next year?” Michael asked.
“I’d sooner reenact Lady Godiva’s ride,” I said. “Down fraternity row. You’ll notice I said ‘next time,’ not ‘next year.’”
“Ah,” Michael said, nodding. “That sounds more like it. Though we may need to have another sale if we decide to use your mother’s designs for the house.”
“No,” I said. “We are not selling off all our stuff to buy chintz or Louis Quatorze or whatever crazy stuff Mother’s excited about this week.”
“Well, wait till you see her drawings,” Michael said. “I think she’s finally trying to listen to what we want.”
“Listening to what we want is nice, but designing something we can live with is quite another thing,” I said. “Besides, what if what we want is to be left alone to muddle through decorating on our own?”
“Then we’ll tell her thanks, but no thanks,” he said, with a laugh. “After all, she can’t bully us into redecorating. I’ll go see what I can do about the trespassers.”
With that, he headed off again in the direction of Mr. Early’s field. I shook my head. Obviously, he still didn’t know Mother well enough.
I could worry about Mother later. Right now, I wanted to talk to Ralph Endicott. I even spotted him, standing across the yard. But as I was walking toward him, I saw Chief Burke coming toward me, a stern scowl on his face. I tried to look innocent, helpful, and glad to see him, while my brain raced to figure out what I could have done that would bring him all the way out here in such a bad mood. If he’d talked to the Hummel lady already, he should be pleased at what I’d found, not mad at me.
And why not simply tell him what I’d learned from Schmidt, sic him on Endicott, and be done with it?
I was opening my mouth to spill the beans but the chief spoke first.