It wasn’t until Wednesday night in bed that Philip gave any further thought to the strange girl he and Emery had been following. They’d had a great day at Cosmo’s Playland going on rides, playing games, and eating hot dogs, cotton candy, kettle corn, and water ice. And the new roller coaster was just right—scary, but not too scary. And Emery’s mother had been so busy with her two babies that he and Emery had the run of the park on their own.
Philip considered what Emery had said about its being impossible that the girl was really twins. Philip disagreed. How else could the girl be in two places at the same time and have two different names and not know him or Emery when they met? Philip wasn’t going to see Emery until tomorrow afternoon, so he decided to go and spy on the girl’s house in the morning all by himself. If he could figure out what was up with that girl, and if she really was a twin, that would prove he was a better detective than Emery.
Just after ten the next morning Philip was peering through the chain link fence in the supermarket parking lot. It was a warm day, bright and sunny. Taking a break from staring at the girl’s house, Philip watched a teenage boy going around the parking lot collecting the supermarket carts. The boy slammed the front of one cart into the back of another and presto! they melted together and looked like one longer cart. The boy did it over and over until the line of carts was so long that it wobbled left and right when he pushed it. It looked like a fun job. Philip thought he might like to do it when he got older.
Then the girl appeared. Philip had a definite plan of action. The music school where he saw the girl who ignored him was a right-hand turn from the front of the girl’s house. The library where he saw the girl who talked to him was a left-hand turn. If the girl turned right toward the music school, he would let her go. If she turned left, he would follow her.
The girl came down the front path and... turned right. That had to be the girl who’d ignored him. Philip stayed at the fence, dividing his time between watching the girl’s front door and watching the teenage boy make long lines of wobbly carts.
About thirty minutes later the same girl—or a girl that looked and dressed exactly like the first girl—left the house. She walked down the front path and... turned left! Philip walked along inside the fence, keeping her in sight. When he got to the end of the parking lot, he waited, and sure enough, she turned in the direction of the library.
Now he was getting somewhere!
Philip was certain he knew where the girl was going, so he stayed far behind her. When the girl entered the library, Philip crossed the street and entered the library, too. He climbed the stairs to the children’s room and there she was, sitting at a wooden table looking at a book. He walked over to her.
“Oh, hi, Joanie,” he said, putting as much surprise into his voice as he could.
“Oh, hi, Emery.”
The right one!
“What are you reading?” Philip asked.
Joanie spun the book his way. It was a book about plants.
“I’m getting ready for Saturday’s last meeting of the gardening club. We pick a partner and they ask us questions then.”
Philip was not interested in talking about the gardening club.
“Can I ask you a question?” said Philip.
A loud “Shhhhhh” came from a high school girl who was reshelving books.
Philip pulled a chair out and sat next to Joanie.
“Did you ignore me when you were coming back from Oxford Avenue, or do you have a twin sister?”
Joanie gave a small laugh. “You must have seen my sister, Janie.”
He’d been right!
“I said, ‘Hello’, but she just gave me a mad look.”
“Janie hates it when people think she’s me.”
“Do you hate it when people think you’re her?”
She gave another small laugh. “No, I think it’s funny.”
“Why doesn’t she come to the library with you?”
“Oh, she’s the family musician.”
“Oh, right. She was carrying a violin.”
“She wanted to come to the garden club, but she usually has music practice on Saturdays. She’s coming this week, though. It’s a pizza party and I wrote her name down.”
“Both of you will be here Saturday?”
Joanie nodded. “It’s the last day. We get pizza and our packs of seed.”
Philip was getting an idea.
“Do you like playing tricks on people?” Philip asked boldly.
Joanie gave him a suspicious look. “What do you mean?”
Philip explained that his friend Emery—who he remembered to call Philip—had met Janie and then thought he had seen her in the library on Tuesday. “But he must have seen you. You didn’t talk to him.”
“Oh, I remember. He called me Janie and I said I wasn’t Janie. I was going to explain but he turned red and ran out the door.”
Philip started to laugh. ‘Turned red and ran out the door.’ How dumb!
“Look, he’s my best friend...”
“He’s your best friend and you want to play a trick on him?”
The librarian walked by and all of a sudden he remembered that Emery still owed him twenty cents for those late books. He wanted to play a trick on him all right.
“Oh, we trick each other all the time.”
“Funny kind of best friends,” said Joanie.
Philip rushed on. “You think your sister would help out?” His plan was growing clear in his mind. With a big smile on his face, he explained to Joanie what it was he wanted her to do.
Joanie thought it over and smiled. “Sure, it might be fun. I’ll ask Janie. I think she will. She’s the one who usually talks me into playing tricks on people who confuse us for each other. She really hates when people do that.”
Philip made his final plans with Joanie and then said good-bye. This could turn out to be the best school vacation he’d ever had!