Jane and the Fire – Part XVII

In 1958, young Jane has just moved to the city of Chicago, Illinois with her parents and cousins Billy. Jane and her friends are running from the Three Thugs when they get cornered. Fortunately, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Peele don’t recognize Jane and decide to visit the abandoned house again the following morning.

Jane closed the door and pressed her ear to it to listen as the two Thugs walked off. “We’re going to have to go back to the building tomorrow,” Mr. Bennet was saying. “Now that the market is over, there will be loads of people mingling there.”

“Right,” said Mr. Peele. “And forget about those kids. It was probably a prank.” Jane walked back to the loft space where the Landrys waited.

Over lunch she described what the Thugs had decided.

“And this time,” she added, “they’ll probably be with Mr. McCawley too. We’ll have to be careful.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t go,” said Paige through a mouthful of stew.

“What, are you mad? And let them get away with whatever dastardly plot they’re planning?” Don asked, sounding horrified.

“Although,” he said thoughtfully, “they might not go tomorrow. I heard that there is supposed to be snow tomorrow. The sky looks dark.”

“They will go tomorrow,” said Jane, “because they said they didn’t want anyone else to be there. If it’s snowing in Chicago, everyone will stay

home.”

“If it’s snowing,” said Paige, frowning, “we won’t be allowed out of the house. It gets so cold in Chicago. And Christmas is so soon, too.”

“What are you talking about so seriously?” asked Mrs. Joyce, smiling. She ladled more stew into their bowls. “Any holiday plans being made?”

The three kids exchanged guilty looks and busily occupied themselves with the stew. For the next few minutes, the flat was quiet except for the peaceful lunchtime babble.

The silence was sharply broken with a loud crash just outside the door. Mrs. Joyce hurried outside. Jane ran out with her. It appeared that Mr. Bennet had slipped on his front door mat and tumbled down the stairs and, for the grand finale, crashed into Mr. Peele by the opposite wall. The resulting equal-and-opposite reaction had thrown them both tumbling head over heels down another flight of stairs. The ambulance and firefighters were summoned and both Thugs were carted away to the hospital.

“It appears that they’ve broken one limb each!” Jane heard a neighbor say in shocked surprise. Another, more sardonic neighbor, Grumpy Mr. Almond, overheard too. “Is that all?”

“At least they’re out of action for tomorrow,” he grumbled to himself as he moved away. Jane heard him and looked up in surprise. What did Grumpy Mr. Almond have to do with the Thugs? Did he know what they were up to? She hurried back to report her findings to the Landry twins. “Well, we know they won’t be at the abandoned house at least,” said Paige. “Now we could explore a bit and play in the snow too!”

“And enjoy our Christmas too!” said Don cheerfully. “Merry Christmas, and to all a good night!”

What sorts of skirmishes will Jane get into after the holidays? Keep reading next month! 🙂