Free The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil Page B

little Chinese ballet shoes? Got 'em, any color you want for a buck! Jangly dangly earrings? Right here, miss—two for five dollars. We resist the urge to buy illegal movies that are still playing in the theaters, but I do pick up a beat-up-looking disc with a bunch of cartoons for Rebecca's little sibs and, well, a really cute belt and a pair of big sunglasses that I just
can't
resist.
    Margaret had agreed to go with me to Rebecca's, provided that I left her alone after school from four to seven so she could catch up on her studying. Her grandmother and parents went to Queens to visit some relatives, so she had three hours of serious “quiet time.” I was forbidden to contact her or bother her in any way. In addition to my temporary exile from Margaretland, Rafael is miffed at me for bailing on the dance. But the first thing he did after I told him that we weren't going was ask whether my friend Leigh Ann would be there. AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH! Is this the cost of “doing the right thing?” I may not be cut out for it.
    My dad, on the other hand, came through with a box full of miniature chocolate tortes, Napoleons, éclairs,
and
truffles. I may have lost the boy (temporarily), but I have the primo goodies.
    At Becca's we order pizza, and after it comes, as Rebecca predicted, her little sibs clamor to watch
Balto
yet again.
    “No! I can't listen to that damn thing one more time,” she says.
    “You said a swear. I'm telling,” says her little brother, Jonathan.
    “You're damn right I did, mini-man. No more
Balto
. Look, here are some cartoons that my nice friend brought just for you. There's Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. These are
classics
. I guarantee you're gonna love them.”
    Jonathan and his twin sister, Jennifer, whine, butafter thirty seconds of the Road Runner's “beep-beeps,” they are enraptured. (I just finished the “Word Power” in an old
Reader's Digest
in my orthodontist's office. I am
enraptured
by the word “enraptured.”) The disc also turns out to be a serendipitous choice (more “Word Power”). How could I have known that the Road Runner and his arch-nemesis Wile E. Coyote would help us with clue number two?
    “Okay here it is,” Margaret says, printing the letters on a sheet of newsprint torn from Rebecca's sketchpad.
    S
IE
AR
IS
OV
LE
RB
MA
HE
RT
DE
UN
OK
LO
    We all stare at it for a long, long time, nobody saying anything.
    “Is this the classical languages clue?” I ask. “Because I have to tell you: I've got nothin'.”
    Margaret and Rebecca both look hypnotized—that's how hard they are concentrating.
    “Is it a code?” Rebecca asks.
    “Maybe. But for now, let's look for easier solutions,” Margaret suggests. “What if it's a list of words, and he's only showing us two letters from each one?”
    “But there could be
thousands
of possible words for some of those,” Rebecca says.
    “Yeah, you're right. Is it, say, a famous quote? Or another Bible verse? That would narrow it down.”
    Rebecca seems skeptical. “I don't know. That seems
too
hard. Maybe if there were blanks to fill in the missing letters. That way, at least you'd know how many letters were missing. Do me a favor and write the letters out the usual way, across the page.”

    “I think that made it worse,” I say.
    “Are there
any
recognizable words in there?” asks Margaret. “Anything longer than two letters? What about every other letter? S, E, R, S, V, E—no, that doesn't work. Damn. Reverse? O, K, N, E, T Nope.”
    “Hey, wait a minute,” Rebecca says. “Let me see the letter. What was the first clue? The exact wording?”
    “‘Look behind L2324.’ Why?”
    Rebecca's brow furrows and she scratches herhead, thinking hard, eyes darting back and forth across the paper, and then, finally, a satisfied smile appears on her face.
“Look behind
—all right! I'm definitely onto something. Look at this. Take the last two pairs of letters.”
    OK
    LO
    “OK and LO, right? Now, move the LO up one row, in