儿童英语读物 Mystery of the Traveling Tomatoes CHAPTER 6 Poison Ivy!

The Applewood Café bustled 1 with lunchtime customers. As the Aldens waited for their orders, they discussed their visit to the armored car company and to the bank.



“The thief knew exactly how the real driver looked and talked,” Henry said. “That means he’d been watching the real driver. The thief might live right here in Greenfield.”



The smell of cooking food made Benny’s stomach rumble 2. To pass the time until the food came, he looked at the old photo of the café hanging over their table. For the first time, he noticed Duffy’s Garage in the background. The pile of old tires was higher back then. That was before Henry and Benny used them to build the planter for their potatoes. When Mr. Shea brought their food, Benny asked, “Does Duffy mind us using his old tires for our buried treasure?”



“We’ve never met Duffy,” said Mrs. Shea. “But Sally, the lady who sold us the Café, said he wouldn’t mind. He moved away and just wants to sell the place.” Benny poked 3 his spoon through the crust of his chicken-potpie. He was so hungry he barely stopped to blow on each spoonful before putting it into his mouth.



“Slowly,” said Violet, resting a gentle hand on Benny’s shoulder, “Remember your manners.”



Benny paused, his spoon halfway 4 to his mouth. It was hard to eat slowly when he was so hungry! Slowly he ate the pie, tasting each pea and carrot and zucchini and onion he had helped plant and grow.



When they finished, Mr, Shea brought them each a warm peach cobbler topped with a scoop 5 of vanilla 6 ice cream. Then he pulled a new picture puzzle from his chefs apron 7. “This one is extra-super-hard,” he said. “Good luck.”



The children bent 8 over the puzzle, looking for differences between the two photos of a toy store. “Benny,” said Jessie, “what’s wrong?”



Benny looked down. He didn’t even realize he’d been scratching his wrist. But now he felt it itching 9. And his arm itched 10. “Your skin is all red,” said Violet. “It’s covered with blisters 11.”



Now Benny couldn’t stop scratching. His arm grew redder and redder. The children called Mrs. Shea, who took one look and said, “Poison ivy 12.” She lopped off a piece of the aloe plant decorating their table. Thick gel oozed 13 out and she dabbed 14 it on Benny’s arm. It felt cool and soothing 15.



“Remember this rhyme,” said Mrs. Shea. “‘Leaves of three, let them be.’ Poison ivy has three leaves. Benny, did you go into any woods, or deep weeds?”



Benny thought and thought. “I picked up a toy car in the alley 16 this morning. It was in the weeds near the garbage cans.”



“That could be it,” said Mrs. Shea. I’ll go outside later and take a look.” She brought Benny ice cubes wrapped in a towel. He kept them on the rash while he ate dessert and worked on the puzzle. By the time they finished lunch and headed out to Sally’s Realty, both Benny’s rash and his tummy were feeling much better.



“An armored car, you say?” Sally was a large woman with short red hair and a hearty 17 laugh. “You’re looking for a place where someone could hide an armored car?”



The children nodded. They knew it was an odd question. “Well,” Sally said, “an armored car is too tall to fit in a regular garage. But it might fit into some of the bigger garages being built behind new homes.”



Henry shook his head. “A neighbor would notice an armored car pulling out of a garage. The person we’re looking for couldn’t risk being seen.”



“Let’s take a look.” Sally clicked through photos on her computer. “Oh, would you look at this.” She scrolled 18 through photos of the broken-down shop that was now The Applewood Café. “The Sheas have worked miracles with that place,” she said. “I sure hope someone buys Duffy’s Garage next door and fixes that up, too.”



“What happened to Duffy?” asked Jessie.



“A year ago, he packed up his things, said he was done fixing cars and moved to Florida. He told me to sell the place.” She clicked to a screen filled with photos of Duffy’s Garage. “Look at this mess. Duffy left old junk cars out back. No wonder no one wants to buy the place. In one year I’ve only had one person who was interested.”



“Who was that?” asked Henry.



“A stranger stopped in a couple of months ago. He was a big man, as tall as my hubby Harry 19. But he had long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. He asked if he could rent the garage to work on his car. I called Mr. Duffy and he said it was OK. We were hoping the man might like the place enough to buy it,” Sally said.



“Why didn’t he?” asked Jessie.



“I guess he just left town. One morning I came to work and found the keys to Duffy’s slipped under my door. When I went to check on the garage, it was all boarded up, just the way Duffy left it,” Sally replied.



Violet looked at the photos. “What happened to all these old cars in the back of the garage?”



“Well, I couldn’t sell the garage with that mess out back, so last month, I called Sam’s Scrap 20 Yard. Sam hauled everything but the tires,” said Sally.



The Aldens thanked Sally for talking to them.



“You’re welcome,” said Sally. “And could you do me a favor?” She handed Jessie some photos. “Please give these to the Sheas for me.” There were couple of old photos of The Applewood Café, before the Sheas bought it. There was also a batch 21 of For Sale photos of Duffy’s Garage. “Mrs. Shea said she’d put these up in the café,” Sally said.



“That’s a good idea,” said Jessie. “Maybe a customer will see them and want to buy the garage.”



Sally handed Jessie a key to Duffy’s Garage as well. “Give this to Mrs. Shea, too. The key opens the side door. I told her to just go in and show the garage to anyone who wants a look.”



“Benny Alden!” cried Mrs. McGregor. The Alden’s housekeeper 22 stared at the bright red splotches on Benny’s arms. “It’s poison ivy indeed. You go upstairs this minute and soak in a cool bath.” She checked the other children but only Benny had splotches. “And it’s a bath for you, too,” she told Watch, leading the dog to the laundry sink.



Poor Watch did not like baths. But Mrs. McGregor said he needed one.



“I’ll wash Watch, because he might have rubbed against the poison ivy,” she explained to Jessie. “His fur would protect him from a rash, but the poison could rub off on anyone who petted him.”



At bedtime, the children gathered in Benny’s room. Violet dipped the tips of cotton swabs into a bottle of pink Calamine lotion 23. Then she painted funny pink animals on Benny’s rash to soothe 24 the itching.



“This sure has been a busy day,” said Jessie, yawning. “This morning we found our ‘black gold’ tipped over and had to round up our worms. Then we followed the boot prints of the person who did it out into the alley.”



“And I found a toy car in the poison ivy,” said Benny. “And someone moved my green pepper plants.”



Violet finished drawing a pink giraffe on Benny’s arm. “And, at the armored car office, Edie Hope showed us the route the armored car usually takes.”



“And we went to the bank,” said Benny, who really wished he’d brought money to buy a candy bar.



“Then we biked along the armored car route,” said Henry, “from the bank all the way down to Main Street without seeing one place the crook 25 could hide an armored car. And we talked to Sally at the real estate office.”



Jessie brushed her hair. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but between running the 5K yesterday, and riding my bike today, my legs ache.”



“My whole self aches,” said Benny, flopping 26 back on his pillows. The children said goodnight and went to their rooms.



Benny couldn’t sleep. Part of the problem was the itchy poison ivy. But there was something else. Something Benny saw during the day wasn’t quite right. What was it? He closed his eyes. He thought of the picture puzzles he loved to solve. This time he pictured the two old photos of The Applewood Café—the one he saw in Sally’s real estate office and the one hanging in The Applewood Café. The photos were almost exactly the same. Almost.



Benny squeezed his eyes tight, trying to picture the differences. There was something else. Benny was sure of it. He just couldn’t see it. Tomorrow he’d put the two photos side by side and figure out what it was.



Watch jumped on the bed and curled up next to him. “You smell like shampoo,” said Benny. He slid an arm around his furry 27 friend, and soon they fell fast asleep.