Read Online The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline by Lois Lowry - Free Book Online

that, the way you would. Let me see. Vinnie DeVito's at the Little Hungary, of course, because he never gets home till midnight. But Billy and his mother are home; I saw them coming in from the park about five-thirty."
    "I wasn't really thinking of the DeVitos. How about—well, how about the other people in the building, Mom?"
    "Nobody home on the second floor. Did I tell you that Miss Edmond is in the hospital? Nothing serious, though; she had some minor surgery, and she'll be home next week. I sent her a card and signed all our names."
    Miss Edmond was the retired schoolteacher who lived alone on the second floor.
    "Who else, Mom?" asked Caroline tensely.
    Her mother said lightly, "The Carrutherses are definitely home. I can hear them. They're chasing each other around the apartment again."
    Jason and Nell Carruthers were newlyweds who had recently moved into the fourth floor. Caroline liked them. Nell Carruthers was an actress who sometimes made TV commercials; she was very glamorous on TV, where she used a hair conditioner and then cantered on a horse along a sunny beach. But in real life
she wore jeans all the time, and her hair in a long pigtail. Her new husband was lighting director for a theater. They ran around their apartment, laughing and shrieking very noisily in the evenings, playing tag or something.
    "And, ah, what about the fifth floor, Mom?" Caroline asked nervously.
    "Fred Fiske? I don't know if he's home or not. I haven't seen him this evening. Why on earth are you interested, Caroline?"
    "Stacy and I were watching TV," Caroline lied, "and they said that there was a burglar loose in the city. So I was worried."
    Her mother hooted with laughter. "Caroline, there are a
thousand
burglars loose in New York City. You know that as well as I do. Remember J.P. had his lunch money stolen just last week? And by a little old lady? That was the weirdest thing, a little old lady—"
    "Mom, be sure to lock all the locks on the door, okay?"
    "I always lock all the locks, Caroline. You know that. Relax. Did you do your homework?"
    "And the windows, Mom. Be sure to lock the windows."
    "Homework, Caroline. Did you do your homework?"
    Caroline sighed. "Yes," she said. "Bye, Mom."
    She hung up the phone and looked at Stacy. Stacy had unfolded the letter to Frederick Fiske for the
hundredth time and was reading it once more, holding it close to the lamp between the beds.
    "I think this is typed on a Smith-Corona typewriter," Stacy said, frowning. "What did your mom say?"
    Caroline twisted her hair and then wound a strand around one ear. She chewed her lower lip. "It's very bad," she announced.
    "What is? What's very bad? What did she say?"
    "She called him 'Fred.' Not 'Mr. Fiske.' Not 'the guy on the fifth floor.' But 'Fred.' You realize what this means, Stacy."
    "Right. It's bad," muttered Stacy, turning the letter over and over in her hands.
    "She's met him. She
knows
him. She's in danger."
    Stacy corrected her. "No, she isn't. You're forgetting what the letter says, Caroline. It doesn't say, 'Eliminate the woman.' It says, 'The woman's terrific.'"
    "That's true, too," said Caroline miserably. "She is. My mother's terrific."
    "It's the kids he's after. It says so right here. 'Eliminate the kids.' I'm pretty sure it's a Smith-Corona typewriter."
    Stacy got into bed and turned off the lamp.
    Caroline climbed under the covers and wrapped her arms around the pillow. She wished suddenly that she had brought her Stegosaurus. But not even a Stegosaurus was a match for Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Great Killer. "That's
me
he's talking about when he
says 'the kids,'" she whispered. "I'm sure of it. Me and J.P."
    "Slare stoxtox," mumbled Stacy sleepily from the other bed.
    "What?" Caroline lifted her head and peered through the dark.
    " SLAYER STALKS TOTS ," Stacy repeated. "Good night, Caroline."

8
    Caroline dreamed. She dreamed the same dream three nights in a row: first when she was sleeping at Stacy's, and then again for two