After lunch Philip rushed to Emery’s house.
“Hi,” said Emery. “What’d you do this morning?”
“Oh, nothing.” Philip could barely keep from smiling.
“I had to push the babies around so my mother could buy food.”
“You got to have food,” said Philip wisely.
“I’d give up food if I could give up babies,” Emery moaned. “What do you want to do?”
“The playground was good the other day. They even had the water fountain working. Let’s go back.”
Emery agreed and fifteen minutes later the boys were climbing, jumping, and chasing each other at a mad pace amid a lot of other children. Philip occasionally glanced at the entrance to the playground. Finally, he saw what he was looking for.
“Look, Emery, here comes that girl.”
Emery paused and watched her approach.
“Remember,” Philip whispered, “you’re Philip and I’m you.” Philip didn’t want Emery to make a stupid mistake and mess up all his plans.
The girl smiled and looked at Emery. “Hi, Philip.”
“Uh, hi Janie.”
The girl looked at Philip. “Hi, Emery.”
“Hi, Janie,” said Philip.
Emery gave Philip an ‘I told you so’ look.
Philip shrugged and said, “No library today?”
“I was there already. I thought I’d come here and see if anybody was here.”
Philip explained what he and Emery were playing and the girl joined in.
After an hour the girl said, “Well, I have to go now and take my violin lesson. Say, why don’t you both come to the library on Saturday? There’s a pizza party. It’s free. It should be good.”
“Pizza? Free?” said Emery.
“Sure,” said Philip. “What time?”
“One.”
“Okay, we’ll be there,” said Philip.
“Bye now,” the girl said and walked away.
“See. I told you there was only one girl,” Emery crowed. “Same girl—library and violin lesson that one day. Same girl. Free pizza. She’s okay.”
Philip nodded and kept his smile inside.
~ * ~
Philip and Emery met at twelve-thirty on Saturday and started for the library.
“We did pretty good in our disguises,” said Emery. “We followed that girl without her knowing, then tracked her down without our disguises and figured out her mystery. That was neat.”
“Yeah, you sure were right, Emery.”
“After the library let’s get into our disguises again and follow somebody else.”
Philip nodded, thinking that after the library Emery wouldn’t be in any mood to put on his disguise and follow anybody.
The children’s room of the library was packed with children, there for the free pizza. Philip and Emery made their slow way through the children looking for the girl.
“There,” said Philip. “There she is.”
Across the room the girl was motioning to them.
Emery led the way. When they reached the spot where they’d seen the girl, she was gone.
“Where’d she go?” said Emery.
“Oh, there. I see her over there,” said Philip.
All the way on the other side of the room, the girl was again motioning for the two boys.
“How’d she get over there?” said Emery. He led the way again.
When they had fought their way through the crowd to the spot where the girl had been, she was gone again.
“Now where’d she go?” asked Emery.
“Oh, I see her,” said Philip and he pointed back to the spot they’d just left.
Emery stared at the girl and then looked at Philip. “How’d she get over there so quick? I didn’t see her pass us.”
“Hurry up,” said Philip, “before you lose her again.”
Emery trudged through the crowd, trying to keep his eye on the girl, but with all the children milling about and pushing, he lost sight of her. When he’d led Philip to the spot where they’d seen her, she wasn’t there.
“Now where’d she go?” Emery groaned, an exasperated edge to his voice.
“Oh, I see her. Over there.” Back where they’d just come from, the girl was waving to them.
“How’d... where’d... keep your eye on her,” Emery demanded, and with very little politeness he plowed through the crowd. When he reached the other side of the room, she was gone.
“Emery, she’s over there.” And Philip pointed back to where they came from.
“What!” Emery turned sideways to make himself small and skipped through the crowd. Philip hurried after him. Halfway across the room he grabbed Emery.
“Where are you going? She’s over there.” Now Philip pointed toward a side of the room where the girl had not been before.
“What is she doing?” Emery said angrily. “Playing hide and seek.” He started toward the girl. After he’d taken two steps, Philip grabbed him.
“Where are you going? She’s over there.” Philip spun Emery around and pointed in the exact opposite direction toward the room where the garden club was about to meet.
“What! What is going on?”
Philip gave sly waves in two directions.
“She’s over there,” said Philip, spinning Emery around and pointing.
Emery saw the girl approaching.
“No, she’s over here,” said Philip, giving Emery another spin.
Emery saw the same girl approaching from the opposite direction!
Now Emery spun himself around. Two girls. Two directions. One face.
Emery set his mouth in an angry line and turned slowly to Philip, who was laughing as quietly as he could. It was the library, after all.
A few seconds later the four children stood in a knot.
Philip took a breath. “They were twins, Emery. We had you so confused.”
The girls were laughing. Philip was laughing. Emery was not laughing.
“I suppose you think that was funny,” said Emery.
“Don’t be a bad sport,” said Joanie, smiling. “You know we tricked you.”
“Dope,” said Janie.
“Which one are you?” Emery asked Joanie, giving Janie a short angry look.
“I’m Joanie—the library twin,” she laughed. “This is my twin sister Janie—the violin twin.”
“Very funny. Very funny,” said Emery, not certain whether he should be angry or whether he should join in the laughing. It was a pretty funny joke, he had to admit—but he quickly decided to admit it only to himself.
“Oh, look,” said Joanie. “It’s time for the meeting and the pizza. That should make you feel better.”
All the children in the children’s room began moving toward the chairs set up in the meeting room.
Joanie pulled Philip aside. “Are you ready to do the other thing?”
Philip smiled evilly and nodded his head.
“Here,” said Joanie, handing Philip a piece of paper, “put his name and address on this form with mine and give it to the librarian.”
Philip did as Joanie said to do. This was going to be the best joke of all.