Free Emmy and the Rats in the Belfry by Lynne Jonell

away. “I’ll just go up and get some rags and things.”
    She threaded her way through the crowd, careful not to bump any elbows. When she saw Joe, she grabbed him by the sleeve and towed him to the foot of the stairs, where Thomas met them with relief. “Come on !” he whispered. “Sissy’s got a letter from Schenectady!”
    At the kitchen table, Sissy could hardly speak for crying, and Raston wasn’t much better. Before them was a white square of paper, unfolded.
    Emmy looked closer. There was writing on it, spiky and thin, as if written with a claw dipped in ink. At the bottom was a strange red impression, like a smeared lipstick kiss from two very small, very thin lips, and below that was a signature.
    RATMOM
    â€œShe’s alive! She wants me to come visit her in Schenectady! Oh, Rasty!” sobbed Cecilia. “Just smell her perfume on the letter!”
    The two gray rats put their heads down close to the paper, sniffing deeply.
    â€œWatch it, you’re going to breathe in all that glitter,” Emmy warned. The glitter Ratty had dumped on Squippy’s card had gotten everywhere—the floor, the table, and even Sissy’s letter were covered with small, silvery scales.
    Joe peered at the letter. “Why does she only invite Sissy?”
    There was an awkward pause and then everyone spoke at once.
    â€œI’m sure she meant to invite you, Ratty.”
    â€œMaybe she was in a hurry, and forgot?”
    â€œ Anybody can make a mistake —”
    Raston flipped a careless paw. “She probably didn’t even know I was here.”
    â€œMy dear little squoochums,” Emmy read aloud. “My precious ratty darling …” She looked up. “That sounds like something Cheswick Vole might say.”
    â€œIt is a little weird,” Joe agreed.
    â€œIt’s a mother’s love,” said Raston, stiffly. “Look!” He pointed to the red smudge beneath the signature.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Joe looked at it with interest. “Blood?”
    â€œNo, it’s her kiss! What are you, blind?”
    â€œOh, it is !” Cecilia looked more closely. “What a pretty shade of lipstick!”
    Joe was frowning. “What I still don’t get is how your mother knew Sissy was here, in Grayson Lake. Schenectady’s pretty far away.”
    â€œThe postal bats must have told her.” The Rat shrugged. “They really get around, you know—flying back and forth—and I’ve never met a bat that wasn’t nosy. If some of them heard the gossip that Sissy was in Rodent City, and if they went to Schenectady afterward, and if they happened to run into Ratmom, and if they told her …”
    â€œThat’s an awful lot of ifs,” said Joe. “And if the bats heard about Sissy, why wouldn’t they have heard about you too, Ratty?”
    â€œWho cares?” cried Cecilia. “The point is, she found one of us, at least, and—oh, Rasty, we have to go to Schenectady! But how, that’s the question.”
    â€œThere’s the train … but it might be dangerous to ride in the cars. Too many people, not enough hiding places.”
    â€œWe could ride on the roof of the train—”
    â€œOr ride the rails!”
    â€œWe could mail ourselves in a box with air holes …”
    â€œBut that might feel too cramped.”
    â€œWell, you keep working on it,” said Emmy. “I’ve got to find some rags and a bucket.”
    Â 
    Emmy wrung out her rag in the bucket of soapy water and mopped the sticky patch of floor by the punch bowl. The party noise had only gotten louder, but Squippy’s voice rang out clear and shrill.
    â€œâ€¦ then Brian will take us straight to the train station after the party. He’s such a dear boy, and so responsible!”
    â€œI used to take that very train when I was a boy,” came the voice of Emmy’s father, “to