WHAT’S UP?

Things were not going the way Bean wanted.

Dino pulled a blade of grass from the lawn. “Look!” he yelled. “It’s the Mystery of the Piece of Grass!”

Sophie S. kicked off her flip-flop. “Oh my gosh! It’s the Mystery of the Missing Shoe!”

Prairie held her finger in front of her face. “I see a mysterious hand!”

Bean felt herself get hot and embarrassed. No one laughed at Al Seven. She was doing exactly what he did. Why was he cool and tough, while Bean was hot and embarrassed? It wasn’t fair.

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Ivy stomped her foot. “There are strange and mysterious things on Pancake Court. You just don’t notice them.”

Sophie S. and Ruby giggled. Trevor said, “You’re loonies. Nothing strange ever happens around here. This is the most boring place in the world.” Trevor and Ruby went to school at home. They got bored a lot. “I’ll bet you fifty cents you can’t show me one strange thing on Pancake Court. One!”

Bean looked quickly around Pancake Court for one strange thing. Houses. Yards. Cars. Mr. Columbi going to work. Two cats. A bicycle. Jake the Teenager and his shopping bag. Nothing strange. She had to think. She could say she had a buried treasure map, and then she could draw it really quick.

Trevor made a snorty sound. “It’s the case of the missing mystery!” he said. Then he laughed.

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“Bean’s hat is pretty strange,” giggled Prairie.

Bean yanked her hat off. “Come on, Ivy,” she said, as toughly as she could. “We have mysteries to solve.” Ivy nodded in an Al Sevenish way. “Look tough,” muttered Bean. Ivy rubbed her face, and they walked quickly away around Pancake Court.

Bean needed a mystery on the double. A lost puppy. Or a lost necklace. Or strange people hiding behind trees. Or smudged handprints on cars. Or anything. “Do you see anything that looks mysterious?” she whispered to Ivy.

“Mrs. Trantz’s rocks?” suggested Ivy. Mrs. Trantz had white rocks in her front yard instead of grass. Why would anyone do that?

“Not good enough,” said Bean. “We need something strange and mysterious, like—” She stopped. “That,” she said, pointing.

It was Dino’s house she was pointing at, but the house wasn’t the mysterious part. The mysterious part was a bright yellow rope that dangled from the roof of the house to the ground. One end was tied around the chimney. The other end was sitting in the middle of Dino’s front lawn.

“What is that?” asked Ivy.

“It’s a mystery!” said Bean. Whew! Just in the nick of time!

Ivy began to smile. “It’s a rope of mystery.”

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“Still not scared!” hollered Trevor. He and Dino were picking bark off sticks and throwing it at each other.

“Hey, Dino!” called Bean. “What’s that rope on your house?”

Dino stopped throwing bark and looked at his house. He frowned. “I don’t know.” He threw another piece of bark. Then he came to stand next to Bean and Ivy. “It wasn’t there before.”

“So this is the first time you’ve seen it?” asked Bean.

Dino nodded. Then he frowned some more. “Weird.”

“Strange,” Bean corrected him.

“And mysterious,” said Ivy.

Trevor threw a piece of bark at Dino. It bounced off. “What are you guys doing?” he asked, coming closer.

“I’m going to ask my mom,” said Dino. “She probably did it. Or something.”

Bean and Ivy and Trevor watched the rope until Dino and his mom came back. Dino’s mom looked busy. She had two pairs of glasses on her head and a sticky note on her shirt that said Don’t forget Friday!

“That,” said Dino, pointing at the rope.

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Dino’s mom looked up to the chimney. She looked down to the grass. She frowned. She went to the rope and pulled it gently. She frowned more. “That’s weird,” she said. Still frowning, she turned to Dino. “If you went up on that roof, there’s going to be trouble, young man!”

“I didn’t do it!” yelped Dino. “If I did it, I wouldn’t ask you about it!”

“Right. Sorry.” His mom shook her head. “I have no idea what it is. I didn’t put it there. I couldn’t, actually. We don’t have a ladder that goes all the way up to the roof.” She frowned again. “Strange.”

Bean looked at Trevor and wiggled her eyebrows, which was sort of like sticking out your tongue, but you couldn’t get in trouble for it.

Dino’s mom stared at the rope for a little while longer and then shrugged. “I don’t know. But I have to finish this e-mail. We’ll figure it out later.” She went back in the house.

Bean waited patiently until she was gone. Then she turned around to Dino and Trevor. “Well, whaddaya know?” she said. She put her hat on again. “We’ve got a mystery on Pancake Court!”