The next ten days were happy, busy ones. The children worked on the coming carnival with a will.
First there was a shopping trip. Mr. Baker took the children to a large store where they bought art supplies and penny candy for prizes. Naturally Candy had suggested the sweets for prizes. She said there wasn’t anything better, and the older children thought she was right.
The girls worked on the Clown Toss Game, the Fish Pond, and tickets. Fred, meanwhile, drew a very neat advertisement for the carnival. Mr. Davidson took it to a place that made copies. Then the children put the thirty or so copies at doors around the neighborhood.
Working together Jan and Fred came up with several good ideas for the Fun House. Mr. Davidson agreed to let them use the garage as the Fun House. Even with the garage door shut and the windows covered, it wasn’t very dark. So Fred and Jan decided to blindfold children who wanted to go through it.
Jan would lead people through two at a time, and Fred would make funny sounds. He collected some whistles and his little brother’s rhythm band cymbals to use for scary noises.
They set up ramps to change the slant of the floor. That would really be funny to walk on blindfolded, Jan grinned to herself as she thought about it.
Somewhere Fred got an old mattress. He added this to the path saying, “Everyone can fall over and bounce a time or two.” To prove his point, he did it a couple of times to “see if it would work.”
They also planned to have a large bowl of cooked spaghetti and one of peeled grapes. This would be a gooey thrill. Everyone would put his hand in to feel. Jan shuddered. Ugh! she thought.
Of course, they could only collect the things and wait for the day of the carnival to come. In the meanwhile, Mr. Davidson needed his garage for his car.
Even the weather seemed to help. Each day dawned hot, sunny, and dry. Jan hoped it would last until after the carnival. Rain would spoil everything.
Sometimes they worked at the barn. On those days they took a picnic lunch and all the things they wanted to work on that day. Nothing was left at the barn overnight. No one wanted to risk having someone smash the carnival things.
But they saw no one or no sign of anyone either. In fact the whole mystery of the barn was more or less in the background. Everyone was just too busy.
Several evenings they played softball on the empty lots. Quang never came back. Jan could hardly blame him. But she was glad to see that the older boys who had been so mean to Quang didn’t come either. She, for one, didn’t miss them a bit!
From all the practice, Susan and Julie improved. Soon they could hit and catch the ball as well as the others.
All at once, or so it seemed to Jan, it was Monday. The carnival was to be at one-thirty the next day.
It was a hot sultry day. The children gathered around the Davidson’s picnic table.
“Whew, it’s too hot for me,” said Fred.
“Too bad Mom can’t take us swimming today,” said Jan. The park was over four miles away, too far for them to ride their bikes.
“Is everything ready?” Julie asked.
They went into the garage to check once more.
“Tickets, games, prizes,” Susan counted off on her fingers. “Looks to me like everything is ready.”
“Why don’t we pack a lunch and just go play at the barn today?” suggested Jan.
“Good idea,” Fred agreed, “it’s usually nice and cool in the barn. Tell you what. Dad bought us a few new books. I’ll bring those and some old ones to read.”
“Great,” said Jan. She was already up the steps to the kitchen door. “Meet you two back here when you’re ready.”
Soon they were on the path to the barn. Today they didn’t bother to walk on stones across the creek. They splashed across, grateful for even that little bit of coolness. Not that there was much water in the creek. The very hot weather plus no rain in nearly two weeks had caused most of the water in the creek to dry up. In fact everything seemed dry to Jan.
It was too hot to hurry. They just sort of straggled into the barn one at a time and flopped down on the floor.
“I sure hope we have enough energy to have a carnival tomorrow,” Jan remarked. “This heat makes me feel like a limp noodle.”
“And you look like one too,” Fred said his eyes dancing. Then he had to duck as she took a swing at him.
“Careful what you say about me, Fred, I’m the one who brought the lemonade,” she warned. She was busy pouring a glassful for each of them. The icy liquid felt so cool and delicious in her throat.
Fred spread out his books on the floor. For awhile no one spoke.
They sipped lemonade and read peacefully.
Suddenly Fred sat up. “Listen,” he hissed.
Jan heard it at once. It was that same tapping noise they had heard on that other day nearly two weeks before.
“I think,” Fred whispered, “it is coming from under the floor. You all keep very quiet. I am going to catch our unknown visitor.”
So saying he slipped out the door. For a minute there was no sound. Jan found herself holding her breath. Then a shout was heard. In a minute all three girls were on their feet and out of the barn.
Jan tore around the corner of the barn to see Fred wrestling with - Quang! She heard Julie catch her breath as she too saw who it was.
Fred was larger, but Quang was wiry. Still in a few minutes Fred had pinned the smaller boy down.
“What are you doing here?” Fred demanded panting.
Quang just glared at him.
Suddenly Fred jerked him up and shouted, “Are you the one who smashed our club box and wrote that note?”
For a long minute the two boys just stared at one another. Fred was really angry, Jan could see. Quang’s eyes were blazing with his anger too.
Then Quang wriggled away from Fred and said huskily, “I come to this barn before you. I discover. You find some other place.”
He turned and started to run away. But he stopped at the corner of the barn and threw back, “For today you win. But I get you for this.” Then he was gone.
The children could only stare after him uneasily.