got back last night. We were on Vancouver Island looking for a new house in Port Alberni where my dad got a new job at the mill.”
Sophie’s stomach lurched. “You’re moving away from Maillardville?”
“Not until the end of the summer.”
That was a couple of weeks away, so Sophie wouldn’t have to worry yet about losing her friend. “So what do you want to do?”
“Want to play marbles?”
“I forget where I put mine. How about hopscotch? You can go first.”
“Sure.”
They drew the hopscotch squares with sharp sticks in the dried dirt path in front of the hedge. Jake found a piece of white china for his marker, and Sophie found a grey speckled rock that was flat enough not to roll away when she threw it.
“Look,” she said, showing Jake. “This rock has a wishing ring.” A narrow white band went right around the whole rock.
“So make a wish, why don’t you?”
Sophie shut her eyes. Now that she didn’t have to wish for a friend to play with, she wished hard for her very own bicycle, one with balloon tires and shiny fenders. “Okay,” she said, opening her eyes. “Let’s play. You’re first, remember.”
Jake stood on one foot and hopped through the squares. Before he had finished his turn, Elizabeth Proctor rode up on her shiny new bicycle. Again! Four times in one day! It was as if she were haunting Sophie or something.
“Wow!” Jake squeaked. “Love your new bike!” His eyes shone as he stared at Elizabeth. Sophie’s stomach felt very tight. Jake was her friend, not Elizabeth’s.
“Thanks, Jake,” Elizabeth purred, batting her eyelashes at him. “Can I play with you?”
For a second Sophie thought Jake might go off and play with Elizabeth and she would have no friend to play with. She grabbed her stick and scratched a big, deep cross into the dirt beside their hopscotch squares.
“Criss cross, double cross,” Sophie chanted at Elizabeth. “Nobody else can play with us. If they do, we’ll take their shoe and beat them till they’re black and blue. Criss cross, double cross.”
She stuck her hands on her hips and glared at Elizabeth with her angry Star Girl stare.
“Humph!” Elizabeth sniffed, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. “Who’d want to play with you two dimwits, anyway?” She flicked back her hair, got on her bike, and rode away, her nose even higher in the air than usual.
“Gosh,” Jake said. “She sure does look mad.”
“I don’t care,” Sophie said. “She’s nothing but a mean old snob.” But she didn’t feel very good about what she had done. She was the one who had been mean.
“Yeah,” Jake said, “but what a beaut of a bike!”
The following morning Sophie went next door to Jake’s house to play, but no one was home. Jake must have gone out somewhere with his family. Sophie sighed and dragged herself back to sit alone on the front porch. It was going to be another hot, muggy day, and again she had no one to play with.
She picked up one of her Star Girl comics and flipped through it. Star Girl was never lonely. She always had wonderful adventures, with people to rescue and bad guys to capture. That was what Sophie needed—a really exciting adventure. But she didn’t know a single person who needed rescuing. Even Jake’s cat, Gigi, was nowhere to be seen. She sighed again. Maybe if she had a cape, it would help.
Sophie went around to the back of the house and into the basement. A pile of boxes they still hadn’t unpacked sat against a wall. She rummaged through the boxes until she came to one filled with curtain fabric. The fabric was rumpled and smelled like mothballs. A few months ago she had used a piece for a Star Girl cape and had tried to fly off the chickencoop roof. It really hadn’t worked, so she and Jake had made it into a gigantic kite.
She pulled a piece of fabric out of the box. It was quite small, about the size of a large bath towel. Too small, really, to be used for any of the windows in their new house. It felt light and silky. She tied it around her shoulders. It was cool and settled around her comfortably. The fabric was white, like Star Girl’s cape, but didn’t have any stars attached to it. Would it work, anyway? She went back outside and around to the front porch to take a closer look at Star Girl’s cape in her comics.
Arthur came outside and flopped onto the steps beside her. Sophie pulled off her cape and sat on it. She didn’t want Arthur to see it and laugh at her.
He didn’t notice it, though. He sighed as he stretched his long, tanned legs and wiggled his bare toes. He was wearing his Jughead hat. He always wore that hat, except when he was sleeping or having a bath. It was covered with so many medals and badges now that it was hard to see the original brown colour.
“Boy,” he said. “Sure wish we were swimming at Deer Lake right now. It was so much fun yesterday, even though I had to leave early to do my paper route. But we can’t go back today because Joe has a special exercise with his army cadet troop and Henri is playing baseball down at Macan Park.”
“You don’t have to rub it in,” Sophie said. “Hey, look at this!” She pointed at the back page of one of her comics. “’You’ll never be bored again when you have your very own Star Girl Super Bounce Ball with Special Super Bounce Powers.’ Look, it costs just one dollar! I’d sure love one of those.”
“Ha!” Arthur scoffed, pushing back his hat. “You could buy one of those at Eaton’s downtown for fifty cents.”
“Not one like this one, you couldn’t. It has Special Super Bounce Powers. It says so right here. I’ve got to have one. I’m going to send away for it right now.”
“Thought you were saving all your money for a bike.”
“I am. But this ball is only a dollar. Say, Arthur, how about letting me help you with your paper route today so I can make some more money?”
“I don’t know, Sophie. Those newspapers are awfully heavy, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.”
“But I’m really strong. Just look at this muscle.” She flexed her arm and held it in front of his face. “I could help you carry them around.”
He looked at her, considering. “I’m getting kind of tired of doing all those papers, anyway, so tell you what. I’ll stack them into my bike carrier and wheel them around and you can deliver them to the houses.”
“How much would you give me?”
“Half of what I make.”
“How much is that?”
“Two cents a paper, so I’ll give you one cent.”
“That
