فصل بیست و هشتم

chapter-28

“We’re still tied for first place,” Kyle reminded Sierra.

Sierra lowered her eyes. “But I let you guys down.” “Not really,” said Akimi. “Did you see any of us winning that last game? I thought the cockroach book was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, because they eat Cockroach Clusters at Honeydukes.” “We’ll win the next medal,” said Miguel. “You’ll see.” “Moving on to game six,” said Dr. Zinchenko, still stationed behind the circular librarian’s desk at the center of the room. “Please focus your eyes on the area between the lobby archway and the entrance to the Children’s Room.” Clarence and Clement came into the rotunda to clear a path. Spectators gladly moved out of their way. The musclemen were both pretty ginormous.

“Players?” said Dr. Zinchenko. “This will be another solo competition. Please pick one player to represent your team. A parade of costumed characters as well as stagehands carrying props will soon march from the lobby, promenade along the back wall, and exit into the Children’s Room. Your chosen player will assemble the characters and props into titles of famous children’s books. The player who can correctly figure out the titles and identify their authors the fastest will win our sixth medal, the ‘I Did It!’ ” “I played a mix-and-match game like this once in a magazine,” said Miguel.

“Good,” said Sierra. “You should be our player for this round.” “No way. You fall off a horse, what do you do?” “Bruise your butt?” said Akimi.

“No,” said Kyle with a laugh. “You climb right back into the saddle.” Miguel agreed. “This is your saddle, Sierra.” “I don’t want to lose another game….”

“You won’t,” said Kyle. “You’re our number one bookworm. In a good way.” “Not in the icky insect-that-bores-through-paper way,” added Akimi.

“Thanks,” said Sierra. “I think.”

“Let the title parade begin!” commanded Dr. Zin-chenko.

A recorded brass band struck up a Sousa march as a bizarre assortment of costumed characters and prop carriers strolled out of the lobby, around the edge of the circular room, and into the Children’s Room.

Kyle couldn’t make any sense of what he saw: A white knight.

Two stagehands rolling a chest of drawers on wheels.

A knitter working on a very long Christmas stocking that dragged behind her on the floor.

A plate of eggs colored green.

A girl carrying a shiny purple purse.

An actress dressed up like a witch.

A boy dressed like a poor orphan in one of Charles Dickens’s novels, carrying the letter “E.” Three waddling actors in penguin costumes.

A bouquet of daylilies.

An actor wearing a lion costume.

A slice of ham on a plate.

A man pushing a popcorn cart.

A paper moon.

And finally, one of the Alexandriaville reference librarians, Mrs. Maria Simon, carrying a crumpled copy of Time magazine.

“Oh-kay,” said Kyle. “That was kind of random.” “No,” said Sierra, her confidence returning. “It’s pretty easy. You just have to put the pieces together. I can do this.” “Good,” said Akimi. “Because I sure can’t. All I got was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.” “What?” said Kyle. “How?”

“Yo,” said Miguel. “One dude had a plate of green eggs, another had a slice of ham?” “Oh. Right.”

One by one, the teams sent a player into the Children’s Room. When it was Sierra’s turn, she went in and quickly came out with her list of book titles and authors: 1.Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

2.Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

3.Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes 4.The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis 5.Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater 6.Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

7.A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle “Whoa,” said Akimi. “Wait a second. How’d you get ‘Pippi Longstocking’? I remember the lady knitting the ‘long stocking,’ but how’d you get the ‘Pippi’ part?” “Easy,” said Sierra. “The Dickensian orphan boy was Pip from Great Expectations, and he was carrying the letter ‘E,’ making him Pip-E or, you know, Pippi.” “Brilliant,” said Miguel. “I would’ve missed that one. I might’ve missed Mr. Popper, too. He was the guy pushing the popcorn wagon, right?” Sierra nodded. “And, of course, Mrs. Simon with the crumpled copy of Time magazine was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.” “Nice,” said Kyle. “Way to climb back on that horse.” The other seven players eventually put together the same list of titles that Sierra had.

But none of them did it as fast.

The home team picked up the “I Did It!” medal, and just like that, they were back in the lead.