Free Show Time by Sue Stauffacher

Keisha or Grandma anything to eat. It was four-thirty and Keisha’s tummy was grumbling. Again.
    He must have heard the growly noises. “Sorry. I never got to eat lunch today.”
    “Yes, well … there’s a peanut theme running through this whole case. And where there are peanuts … there are certain to be squirrels. Keisha?”
    Keisha pulled a clear plastic bag out of her backpack.
    “A bag full of snow?” Mr. Fox asked.
    “It wasn’t easy, I can assure you … but here’s the evidence.” Grandma took the bag and picked through thesnow to find a soggy peanut shell. “These are all around the base of the administration building, Mr. Fox.”
    Mr. Fox removed his glasses and examined the shell up close. “So you think students are eating these around the building? And attracting the squirrels?”
    “No. I do not. Keisha, show Mr. Fox what you found the other day.”
    Keisha pulled the piece of tar paper out of her pocket and handed it to Mr. Fox.
    “This looks like roofing paper,” Mr. Fox said, “that’s been torn off the roof.”
    “Keisha found it when we swept up the debris in the president’s office.”
    “I don’t know why it would be in his office,” Keisha said. “Unless an animal brought it in through the ductwork. And I don’t think it was torn, either. Look close. Those are nibble marks.”
    Mr. Fox set down his sandwich and wiped the corners of his mouth with his thumb. “You don’t mean to suggest that squirrels are nibbling our roof? This can’t taste good!”
    “A young squirrel will try anything when it’s hungry in wintertime,” Grandma replied.
    “Let’s go back to the peanuts. If students aren’t eating them … and we know no one is feeding them—president’s orders …” Mr. Fox slapped his hands on thedesk. “You’re not suggesting that it’s raining peanuts, are you?”
    “Yes, I am.” Not to be outdone by Mr. Fox, Grandma slapped her hands on her thighs. “In fact—”
    “It rained some peanuts just now, Mr. Fox.” Keisha pointed out the window over Mr. Fox’s head.
    “You’re having me on, Miss Carter.”
    “We’re not, Mr. Fox,” said Grandma. “Your back is always to the window, but we think it’s been raining peanuts on a regular basis around here. You don’t have to believe us. Check the evidence yourself. There’s a peanut on the ledge outside your window right now.”
    Mr. Fox twirled around and bounced out of his chair, just in time to meet a squirrel landing on the ledge and nabbing the peanut. “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” he declared as the squirrel chattered at him before leaping to the safety of an oak tree. Returning to his chair, Mr. Fox rubbed his bald head, thinking.
    “It’s raining peanuts. But why? And how?” He rubbed so hard he made the skin turn pink. Keisha watched Mr. Fox’s expression go from confused to angry. “And
who
would do such a thing? Surely not Sister Mary-Lee?”
    “No …” Grandma stroked her chin in a very wise way. “I don’t believe so. Sister Mary-Lee stopped feeding the squirrels when the president asked her to.”
    Keisha’s tummy grumbled in a very not-wise way.She had a fleeting thought about leaping on Mr. Fox’s desk, grabbing the uneaten half of his sandwich and rushing off with it like the squirrel.
    “Sometimes when people are lonely, Mr. Fox, they try to make friends with animals,” Keisha told him. “That’s what happened at the veterans’ hospital. It could be happening here, too.”
    As Mr. Fox turned to gaze out the window again, Grandma winked at Keisha. They both had a suspect in mind, but decided it was better for Mr. Fox to come to his own conclusions.
    Razi Carter was about to make CFH, or Carter Family History. Daddy had sung in the musical
Oliver!
at the Civic Theater, Grandma had had a walk-on part in
MAMMA MIA!,
even Keisha had taken a turn as “excess waste” in their school play about the environment—though she had a garbage bag over her head