Black Jacket Mystery

“Boy, you have to tell me your secret,” Trixie Belden grinned as her best friend opened the overnight bag and began unpacking her things.
    “What secret?” Honey Wheeler, thirteen, the same age as her friend, wrinkled her brow, puzzled by the question.
    “I’m not surprised to see Brian running down the walk to help with your bag. After all, he is Brian— honorable and responsible. Plus, he thinks you’re adorable, but Mart, that totally confused me.”
    “Brian does not think I’m adorable,” Honey protested, blushing. “He’s just being a thoughtful host and Mart, well…he was just being nice.” The truth was, Mart’s behavior puzzled her too. When she’d seen Brian hurrying towards her, her heart had done a little dance inside her chest, but to see Mart, hot on his heels, was confusing.
    “Nice? Mart? You do remember who you’re talking about, right? Nice and Mart do not belong in the same sentence, unless you’re talking about food or Di. Mart is nice about both of those things. I wonder what Di would say about his chiv...chiv... chivalry?” Trixie managed finally.
    “Oh, don’t say anything. I mean…” Honey knew the Bob-Whites were all one big family and that helping one another out was part of that, but they all knew there was something special between Mart and pretty, funny Diana Lynch.
    “Fine. Whatever,” Trixie shrugged. “So long as the two of them slave away for the carnival I guess Mart’s weird behavior doesn’t matter.”
    Honey finished stowing her things in the drawer Trixie always left empty, and hung a couple of things in the closet. “Come on,” she said, as the voice of Trixie’s mother calling from downstairs had them both on their feet, “we should go help your moms.”
    “Okay, but don’t let Bobby see you or you’ll never escape his clutches.”
    “I don’t mind that one little bit.”
    “You don’t live with it.”
               
    “Next time, don’t throw yourself at the feet of those girls,” Mart Belden groaned as he slid under the covers of his twin bed. “We’ll be driven into the ground.”
    “A slight exaggeration,” Brian said, grabbing the text-book from his desk before getting into his own bed. “And with Honey on hand, I’m sure things will be fine.”
    “Well, they’ll be fun, anyway,” Mart quipped.
    Brian shot him a dark look. He hadn’t been impressed to find his younger brother trailing along behind him when he went to welcome their next-door neighbor.
    “She sure looked cute tonight, didn’t she?”
    “What?” Brian knew his voice had just risen in pitch and forced himself to take a slow, deep breath.
    “I was just remarking on the pleasing and appealing visage and form of our Miss Wheeler.”
    “Maybe you should keep your remarks to yourself.” Brian hadn’t missed the fact that Mart made Honey laugh and that the two were often joking and having fun.
    Mart’s blonde brows shot up. “Excuse me? I thought you found Honey both pleasing and appealing. My mistake.”
    “Of course, I find her…” Brian glared at his brother. “What is with you tonight anyway?”
    “I have no idea to what you are referring.” Mart affected a puzzled air. “Are you able to elucidate?”
    “I’ll elucidate alright,” Brian muttered, opening his book forcefully.
    “I do hope that’s not a library book,” Mart said.
    “Do you like Honey?” Brian asked after several moments of silence. Maybe his younger brother really was interested. Brian could hardly blame him. But Mart had always evidenced a decided preference for pretty, dark-haired Di Lynch.
    “Do you?” Mart returned, narrowing his blue eyes.
    Brian swallowed. “Of course I do. I like all of the Bob-Whites.”
    “And Honey is just another Bob-White?”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “I’m just trying to get a clear picture.”
    “Is that what you were doing when you ran after me tonight and tried to get to Honey before I did?”
    “Maybe,” Mart said infuriatingly. “Did it bother you?”
    Brian was about to answer with an emphatic no, when the image of Honey smiling up at him, thanking him for taking her bag slid into his mind. “Yeah, I guess it did.”
    “Why?”
    “You know why.” Brian growled. “How would you like it if I started running around after Di? Carrying her books? Taking her home? I do, after all, have a car. I could drive her home sometimes.”
    “Don’t you dare!” Mart said, before he could help himself.
    “Oh, why not?” Brian gave his brother a saccharine sweet smile.
    “Fine. You got me.”
    “So, am I going to get an explanation for this afternoon?”
    “Maybe I was trying to get a rise out of you,” Mart admitted.
    “Why? Am I such a terrible brother?” Most of Brian’s anger had abated. Mart was not chasing after Honey, and that was what really mattered.
    “No, quite the opposite. You’re the almost perfect brother. The perfect son, the perfect friend—”
    “Knock it off,” Brian interjected, flushing. “I’m nowhere near perfect. I don’t act like I think I’m perfect, do I?” The idea was pretty unpleasant.
    “That’s the most perfect thing about you,” Mart said laughing. “You act as if it’s completely normal to do your chores without asking, to run errands without complaints, to get straight A’s.”
    “Well, it is normal, isn’t it? I mean I don’t think that makes me better than anyone else. There are lots of things I’m not good at.”
    “Name them.”
    “I’m not very artistic,” Brian said promptly. “And I can be single minded, which isn’t a good thing. I do complain sometimes— you should know that,” he took a breath. “What does any of that have to do with you following me out to meet Honey anyway?”
    “Girls,” Mart said slowly, “have pretty much been making eyes at you for the past three years and up until now you have barely even registered the attention, let alone responded to it.”
    “What girls?” Brian demanded then waved his hand at Mart before he had a chance to answer. “Don’t bother. Look, Mart, I admit that maybe I pay a little more attention to Honey than any other girl I know. Do you have a problem with that?”
    “Me? Nope, no problem here.”
    “We’re all just kids.”
    “Right.”
    “But for now, how about you concentrate on Di and I concentrate on Honey?”
    “Works for me. Honey thinks you practically walk on water anyway.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous!” Brian lifted the text-book and held it in front of his face. That way his brother couldn’t see the smile of satisfaction on his face. Honey was staying under his roof and he intended to enjoy it.
 

    “I hope the ice carnival’s a success, Moms,” Trixie prodded the roasting chicken as directed, but she wasn’t really paying attention. “It must be just awful for Lupe and Dolores. I mean we were so upset when the horrorcane damaged the clubhouse at Thanksgiving and this is so much worse.”
    “I agree, dear. Close the oven door, will you?”
    “Sorry.” Trixie joined her mother at the kitchen table.
    “I do know that your friends are lucky to have the Bob-Whites on their side. You all work very hard when you’re on a project,” Helen Belden was proud of the young people and didn’t mind saying so.
    “We’ve already done so much and tomorrow’s only Monday,” Trixie said happily. “Brian and Mart are certainly proving useful,” she waggled her brows suggestively and Helen smothered a smile. There was not much, outside of Trixie’s tendency to get caught up in dangerous mysteries, that she didn’t know about where her children were concerned.
    “Well, I’m sure your brothers want to do their part,”
    Trixie snorted. “Want to get in Honey’s good books is more like it. Though…”
    “Though?” Helen prodded.
    “I guess I was a bit surprised last night. I mean Mart’s always seemed kind of sweet on Di.” That was an understatement.
    “You’re all a bit young for being sweet on one another, aren’t you?”
    A tell-tale blush colored Trixie’s cheeks. “Nothing serious or anything but…”
    “But you’ve sorted of paired, in a very casual, sensible sort of way,” Helen finished with a gentle smile.
    “Right. And I knew Honey liked Brian.” She shot her mother a quick look as if she regretted having spoken, but Helen merely nodded so she continued. “But even though Brian is kind of extra nice to Honey, I didn’t know if he really liked her. I mean, Brian’s never brought a girl home, even if he is the oldest and he gets out of school dances and things whenever he can.”
    “I think your brother likes to spend his time well and wisely.”
    “Honey said he was being a good host, that that’s what Brian is like and that Mart was just being nice. Nice?”
    “Your brother does know how to be nice.”
    Trixie’s expression suggested she didn’t completely agree.
    “Maybe. Maybe I’m doing what you all say I do and reading too much into it.”
    “Maybe.” Helen’s blue eyes twinkled, increasing the resemblance between mother and daughter. “Maybe not.”
    “Anyway, maybe the fact that both Mart and Brian were running after Honey—” Trixie broke off as her oldest brother entered the room. Blue eyes met dark and Trixie looked away first.
    “I might go see if Honey’s through reading to Bobby. I still want to go over a few things for the carnival.”
    “Do me a favor,” Brian said. “Can you kids please keep it down tonight? They gabbled on for hours last night,” he said, addressing his mother.
    Trixie wrinkled her nose at the ‘kids’. “Sorry, old man,” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking. You don’t even have feelings.” She stalked out and Brian turned to his mother and shrugged.
    “Will she ever grow up?”
    “Oh, I think she’s doing just fine. She and Honey both.”
    Brian flushed.
    “Of course, siblings can be hard work sometimes,” Helen said casually. “They don’t always respect one anothers privacy.”
    “You can say that again.”
    “Neither Trixie nor Mart mean any harm.”
    Brian took a seat at the table and looked over at his mother. “How are you so smart, Moms? You’ve got so much to do and yet you still seem to see it when one of us is out of sorts.”
    Helen hoped this was true. Of all of her children, Brian was the most reserved, the most reticent about expressing his feelings. She knew that didn’t make those feelings any less intense.
    “I think a little attention from you boys to the girls is fairly natural.”
    Her son ran his hand through his thick dark hair. “We’re teenagers. The girl’s aren’t even fourteen. It’s silly.”
    “Planning a wedding is silly, wondering about a date or thinking that one girl is prettier than all the rest is not so silly.”
    “She is pretty, isn’t she, moms? Not classically beautiful like Di. I can see that. But the fact that she’s so sweet and thoughtful, it makes her prettier. And she’s funny too. I like that. And smarter than she thinks she is. And those eyes…” he looked up and met his mother’s sympathetic smile with a rueful grin. “About that privacy stuff?”
    “Your secret’s safe, Brian.”
    “I do know it’s just a crush, but that’s normal, right?”
    “Perfectly, and do you want to know what I think?”
    His face closed, just for a second, as if he were going to say no. Then he relaxed and nodded his head.
    “Enjoy it. Just keep on being your own sensible self and you’ll be fine.”
    He stood and moved so that he could hug her. “Thanks. I needed that.”
    “It’s what I’m here for. Now, do you think if I make some hot chocolate you could take it up to those noisy kids.”
    He grinned and nodded. “I will make deliver it to the young women, personally.”
    “Want one too?”
    “Yes, please.”
    Helen went to the refrigerator for milk and busied herself at the stove. Her children were growing up and this was only the beginning.
 Trixie Belden et al belong to Random House and not to me. No profit is being made from these scribblings.