Free Katani's Jamaican Holiday by Annie Bryant Page A

rocking and singing together. There was a standing ovation and loud applause at the end. Afterward, we had to greet a lot of family friends and church folk. When I met Sister Lyn, I understood what Olivia meant. She was very old, bent over, even, but that woman could talk. She asked how long we were staying, then told Grandma everything she needed to see and do while she was in Jamaica. I could barely conceal my smile at hearing someone else ordering my grandma around.
    I thought I was going to have to pick my jaw up off the floor when suddenly Mr. Biggs marched over to us. Did he really think we’d talk to him after everything he’d been trying to pull? But then, even more surprising, Grandma acknowledged his greeting in the most polite manner.
    “How do you like Jamaica?” he asked in a hearty voice.
    “It’s beautiful,” Grandma replied coolly. “Everything is perfectly lovely.”
    I covered my mouth and suppressed a giggle. GrandmaRuby sounded like some fancy Englishwoman.
    He bent toward her and lowered his voice, but I could still hear what he said.
    “If you really come to help Faith, your only choice is to advise her to sell the bakery to me. She is getting too old and shaky. She knows she can’t keep it open much longer, so she may as well sell it now. You know, I’m offering her a very fair price…a very nice price. I am a fair businessman, after all.”
    For once, Grandma was speechless. Before she could recover, he bowed to her, put on his cowboy hat, and walked away. Because of his height and size he was already conspicuous. The cowboy hat was a bit much. If I were his fashion adviser I’d say, Mr. Biggs, lose the hat .
    “Did you hear that?” Grandma asked me. Her eyes narrowed, and I knew that her fighting spirit was up. “We’ll see about that, Mr. Big Man,” she said softly.
    CHAPTER 9
The Case of the Runaway Necklace
    J ust then, I saw Olivia beckoning to me from where she stood with a group of her friends. As I neared them, I heard a girl’s spiteful voice saying, “So the barrel come. You get new blouse and headband.”
    The speaker and another girl put their heads together and started whispering and giggling.
    Oh, no , I thought. Another set of Queens of Mean, just like Anna and Joline at Abigail Adams Junior High. Were they, like, everywhere ?
    Olivia just smiled at them, then she put her hand inside her collar to pull out the necklace and make them even more envious. Her face went pale. She turned to the side and patted the rest of her blouse frantically. Where was it?
    My heart began to sink. She beckoned me to follow her and, when we were out of earshot, she said in a very frightened voice, “I can’t find it. What will I do? It loss!”
    “You’re sure?” I asked. I also patted her skirt just tosee if the necklace had slipped off and gotten stuck in her clothes.
    “What I gwine do?” she wailed softly. “If Daddy ever finds out…”
    I was beginning to panic also. “Let’s think,” I said. “When was the last time you felt it?”
    “I don’t know.” She looked like she’d just lost her best friend. We were quiet for a minute, then she snapped her fingers. “It must have dropped off when I bent down and Ol’ Madda Bird’s dog chased us away.”
    “Oh, my gosh!” I exclaimed. “That must be what the dog was doing! When we were running away, I looked back and saw him sniffing something in the road.”
    “Oh, no! Suppose he mash it up!”
    “Let’s go look.”
    “We can’t just go like that. It will look suspicious. Let me think,” she told me, and began pacing in a circle.
    I tried to look around calmly, but I was feeling guilty. Maybe I should have tried harder to stop her. I felt even worse when I remembered that I was the one who had fastened the necklace. Maybe I hadn’t fastened it correctly, and that’s why it fell off. I wished the BSG were here. We could put our heads together and figure out what to do. What a mess!
    “I got it,” Olivia