Journal entry:
Wednesday, 5:23pm

I just found out a very disappointing fact about Mrs Green, who owns the asparagus farm.

Every month or so she orders lots of books over the internet and today I had another three to deliver to her. As I rode my bike down their long dirt driveway, I saw Mr Green working on his tractor down the end by the old shed. As I rode over to greet him he said, and I quote, ‘Afternoon young Sophie, hope those are Mrs Green’s cookbooks’.”

Cookbooks?!? I thought.

Can you imagine my disappointment? I honestly thought Mrs Green’s enthusiasm was for genuine literature, but all this time she had been ordering cookbooks over the internet, and not inspiring romance or murder mystery novels at all!

As I rode back up the dirt road I wondered if all those cookbooks I’d delivered were all asparagus cookbooks? How many could there possibly be? 101 Ways to Boil Asparagus? 101 Ways to Steam Asparagus? 101 Ways to Pickle Asparagus?

YUCK!

My idea of Iris Green as the great reader of novels was obliterated.

Dad’s still been acting really strange again. This morning I caught him talking in code to someone on the phone. I tried to write some of it down on a scrap piece of paper. I showed it to Theo and Janice at school today, but they have no clue what it means either. Janice is meeting me at the big oak tree in the morning and we are going to do some spying of our own. Theo is going to try and make it too but he has a ballet class on Saturday mornings. Hopefully we can figure out what Dad is up to!