The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish Read online

  * * *

  When they returned to the brownstone, Isa and Jessie made lunch for everyone while Aunt Penny peppered Grandma with questions from Dr. Callie’s information sheet. This made Grandma even more ornery, and she retaliated by berating the kids all through lunch. When Aunt Penny suggested that Grandma lie down for a nap, they were all surprised when she agreed without an argument. The Vanderbeeekers gave a collective sigh of relief.

  “I’ll get them settled,” Aunt Penny said as she led Grandma and Grandpa up the stairs.

  Hyacinth was glad to be away from her grandparents for a little bit. She sat on the couch petting Franz and watched as Jessie took Pop-Pop’s blazer off the coat hook and put it back on.

  “I can’t believe Grandma thinks this is ugly,” Jessie said.

  “I can,” Oliver said, flopping on the couch next to Hyacinth. “If we like something, Grandma is going to hate it.”

  “It’s so weird that Mama and Grandma are related,” Isa mused. “They’re complete opposites.”

  “I think it’s because Mama didn’t want to be like her,” Hyacinth said.

  Jessie pulled Pop-Pop’s coat around her and heard a little rustle. She stopped and patted her chest. Inside was a pocket sewn into the worn lining. Jessie slipped her fingers into the pocket and pulled out an envelope.

  To Derek on his graduation day

  “What’s that?” Laney asked.

  Isa, Oliver, and Hyacinth leaned in to get a closer look.

  “It looks like a letter to Papa,” Jessie said. She flipped the envelope over and saw that it was still sealed.

  “Open it,” Laney said.

  Jessie hesitated. “It looks like Pop-Pop meant it for Papa. Maybe we should save it for him.”

  “Can I see it?” Laney asked.

  “Just be really careful,” Jessie said as she handed it over.

  Laney examined the envelope and then picked at the flap closure. That minuscule gesture caused the fragile seal to break.

  “I didn’t think you were going to open it!” Jessie said, grabbing the envelope back.

  “I didn’t think it would open so easily!” Laney replied.

  “I think we should read it,” Oliver said. “It’s already open.”

  “I don’t know,” Hyacinth said. “Maybe it’s private.”

  “It’s probably a happy graduation card,” Oliver said. “Like those cards Grandma sends us every year for our birthdays with a dollar bill in them. I say we open it.”

  Jessie looked at Isa, and Hyacinth held her breath. Then Jessie opened the flap all the way and gently removed the folded sheets of paper inside. The ink was faded and the lines very thin, as if Pop-Pop had scratched it out with a pen that was nearly out of ink. Jessie scanned it, then cleared her throat. “I’ll read it out loud.”

  Dear Derek,

  Tomorrow I will see you graduate. I have been imagining this day since you were a young boy. When your mother was alive, we watched you learn to hold your head up for the first time and we were filled with pride. And you continued to make us proud with every little milestone: sitting up on your own, saying your first words, feeding yourself Cheerios. And all along the way, we held a dream for you close to our heart. We dreamed that you would have the opportunity to go to college. We knew it was a big dream. You would be the first one in our family to go. There were many moments when I thought it would never happen. These past two decades have been filled with so many obstacles, but you have managed to overcome each one.

  Before you were born, your mom and I wanted to see the country. My father used to talk about his time at Whalers Cove when he was stationed there during the war. It sounded like a beautiful place: a shining, crystal sea; cliffs; dolphins that leaped from the waves. We had always wanted to go back there again with my dad so he could see it during peacetime. But then he passed, and your mother passed, and it was just you and me, trying to make it through the world the best we could.

  A couple of years ago, I had a dream. You were in it, your mother was in it, and so was my father. We were standing on a cliff, looking out at the ocean. I could taste the salt on my lips. And I remembered my promise to go to the sea.

  That dream and a long-ago promise are the reasons why I asked you to delay your start day at the computer store until the end of July. I wanted to give you the gift of this trip. I’ve planned it all out. Joe says that Ludwig is ready for us, and I’ve spent the last few months working on the itinerary.

  What do you say? Are you up for a journey?

  Love,

  Pop-Pop

  A long period of silence followed.

  “Wow,” Isa said. “Pop-Pop was planning a whole trip for Papa.”

  “I don’t think Papa ever knew about it,” Jessie said. “Pop-Pop was going to give that letter to him at graduation.”

  “I didn’t know Papa’s grandpa fought in a war,” Hyacinth said.

  “The Civil War?” Laney said.

  Isa shook her head. “Probably World War One? Or World War Two?”

  “World War Two,” Jessie said. “I don’t think he would have been old enough to serve in World War I.”

  “Wait, there were world wars?” Laney asked. “Like, the whole world was in a war?”

  “Yeah,” Oliver said. “There were two of them.”

  Laney shook her head. “That’s so, so terrible. And Papa’s grandpa had to fight in it?”

  “Well,” Isa said, “it sounded like he was stationed in America. So maybe he wasn’t in combat.”

  “Who is Joe? And who is Ludwig?” Oliver said, looking at the letter again.

  “Ludwig sounds like the name of someone’s owl,” Hyacinth noted.

  “I’m trying to think of where our great-grandfather could have been stationed,” Isa said. She took out her phone and did an internet search. “That’s a popular name. There are places called Whalers Cove in New York, Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington.”

  “That narrows it down,” Oliver said.

  While her siblings discussed the possibilities of each of those locations, Hyacinth took the letter and read it again, slowly. It made her sad that Pop-Pop never got to make that trip with Papa. It sounded like he had been working really hard on it. It sounded like a trip Papa would have loved.

  Hyacinth realized that all of her siblings were staring at her.

  “You have a funny look on your face,” Laney said.

  Hyacinth smiled. “That’s because I just got the best idea.”

  Six

  When Oliver glimpsed Hyacinth’s face, he knew what she was going to say. And Oliver was already prepared not to like Hyacinth’s idea.

  “You know how we don’t have a birthday present for Papa yet?” Hyacinth said.

  “I thought the party was his present,” Oliver said, repeating his reasoning from the morning.

  “It’s a big birthday,” Hyacinth said, ignoring Oliver, “and I think we should do something really special for him. She paused. “We should take Papa on a trip to Whalers Cove for his birthday present.”

  Isa, Jessie, Hyacinth, and Laney all grinned, and the dark cloud that filled Oliver’s chest got even heavier.

  “I love it!” Isa said.

  “That’s brilliant,” Jessie added.

  “A trip to the ocean!” Laney said.

  “What do you think?” Hyacinth asked, looking at Oliver hopefully. “I mean, it would mean a lot of work trying to figure out where Whalers Cove is, and—”

  “I think it’s a terrible idea,” he interrupted.

  Hyacinth’s face fell.

  “Why?” Jessie demanded.

  “Because that letter,” Oliver said, pointing to the piece of paper, “makes no sense unless we could ask Pop-Pop questions. Which we can’t, obviously.”

  “We can’t ask questions, but there are clues in this letter,” Isa said reasonably.

  “Like what?” Oliver said, unable to keep the words from coming out of his mouth.
“Some random place called Whalers Cove? People we’ve never heard of, like Ludwig and Joe? Going on a trip that will most likely cost a fortune? Trying to figure this all out by Saturday for Papa’s birthday, all while having Grandma and Grandpa around? And in case you forgot, I was supposed to go on a trip with Papa. And now you’re thinking of a whole big trip with everyone?”

  And because he knew he was being unreasonable and had hurt Hyacinth’s feelings, and because he missed his dad and was sad about the canceled alone time with him, and because his grandma always made him feel bad with her side comments about him, Oliver had the sudden need to disappear.

  He ran up the stairs to his bedroom and slammed the door. He climbed up to his bed and pulled out a sandwich bag under his pillow with the two cookies he had saved from dessert the night before. He was about to eat one when there was a knock on the door.

  Hyacinth peeked her head in. “Can I come in?”

  Oliver didn’t trust himself to say anything, so he kept quiet.

  Hyacinth stepped tentatively into his bedroom. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That was really insensitive of me to suggest a trip when your camping trip with Papa just got canceled. And my Whalers Cove idea is silly anyway. You’re right: We don’t have enough information about Pop-Pop or the trip. I know you’re having a really bad day and you probably don’t want to talk to me, but I just wanted you to know that none of us want to get in the way of your Adirondacks trip, especially me.”

  Hyacinth backed up and let herself out the door, closing it gently.

  Oliver should have felt better, but he only felt worse. He shoved the bag of cookies back under his pillow, no longer in the mood to eat anything. He looked up at the ceiling and stared at all the stickers he had collected from various fruits over the years: pink lady apples from the United States, avocados from Mexico, mangos from the Philippines.

  He started counting the stickers, something he did when he was trying to be un-mad. As it often did, the counting worked. By the time he had counted all 354 stickers, his feelings of disappointment had turned more to resignation and shame.

  Then he thought about what it might mean for Papa to know that Pop-Pop had been planning a trip for them and how special it would be to take Papa to that same spot his grandfather had loved.

  Hopping off his bed, Oliver headed into Jessie and Isa’s room. No one was there, so he pushed aside the piles of clothes Jessie had left on her desk chair and sat down to use the computer. He searched for Whalers Cove and immediately eliminated all the areas that were not by an ocean. He then ripped a piece of blank paper out of Jessie’s science notebook and made a list of the remaining locations, finding places in New York, Massachusetts, Washington State, California, Oregon, and Florida.

  Oliver left his sisters’ room, stopped by his to grab the bag of cookies, and made his way into Hyacinth’s. She was sitting on her bed, a bunk she shared with Laney. Somehow she had managed to get Franz up on the top bunk with her.

  “Hey,” Oliver said.

  Hyacinth looked down at him. “Hi.”

  Franz rested his head on the bunk railing, looking down at Oliver with his droopy eyes.

  “Sorry I was such a jerk,” Oliver said.

  “No, I’m sorry,” Hyacinth said. “I was insensitive.”

  “You could never be insensitive,” Oliver said. “You were thinking about something nice to do for Papa. You’re always trying to do nice things for people.”

  Hyacinth shook her head. “I got it wrong this time.”

  “Actually, I think it’s a great idea. Look, I did some searches on Whalers Cove locations.” Oliver showed her his paper. “If we do more research, I think we can find the exact spot where Papa’s grandpa was stationed during the war. Maybe we could take Papa there before school starts.”

  Hyacinth looked at the list. “I don’t know. That’s a lot of states. And there’s not even anyone we can ask about this. Papa’s parents are gone, and he doesn’t have any brothers or sisters. How will we know if we find the right place?”

  Oliver smiled. “Because even though we’ve never met Pop-Pop, he’s still our family. I think we’ll know when we’ve found it.”

  Hyacinth leaned down to rest her chin on Franz’s forehead. “I know what you mean. It’s like how I knew Franz was going to be my dog the first time I saw him. And how Papa knew that he was going to marry Mama just by hearing her voice over the phone.”

  Oliver nodded. Papa loved to talk about how he fell in love with Mama when he worked in his college’s tech help department and Mama called in about a computer problem. “Come on, let’s talk to everyone else. If this is going to be Papa’s birthday present, we have less than a week to pull it off!”

  * * *

  Down in the basement, Isa practiced the violin, while in the living room, Aunt Penny sat on the couch checking her email and Jessie taught Laney how to blow out the inside of an egg. There were a bunch of cracked eggs on the old plastic shower curtain they’d used to cover the dining room table.

  “I think we can keep the top hole little,” Jessie said as she put aside yet another broken egg, “but we need to widen the bottom hole. It’s too small to let the stuff go out.”

  While they were testing Jessie’s hypothesis, Oliver and Hyacinth came downstairs.

  “We have come up with a plan—” Oliver stopped in his tracks at the sight of Jessie with her mouth on the top of an egg. A trail of raw egg swung from the bottom. “What are you doing?”

  Jessie raised her eyebrows but didn’t stop blowing. She didn’t want to lose her momentum.

  “We’re making the eggs hollow so we can paint them,” Laney explained. “Ms. Abruzzi gave me a book with all these pictures of painted eggs because people living in Eastern Europe love to paint eggs and they call it pysanka. I want to try, and Jessie said she would help me!”

  Ms. Abruzzi, the children’s librarian at their local library, was always giving Laney craft ideas. For once, this activity actually interested Jessie, but more because of the science of egg blowing than the decorating.

  “That’s disgusting,” Oliver said at the same time a huge glob of egg innards squeezed out of the bottom hole and dropped to the table.

  Jessie lifted the egg triumphantly.

  Laney jumped up and did an egg victory dance while Oliver and Hyacinth looked at each other in mutual confusion. Over on the couch, Aunt Penny had fallen asleep despite the commotion and was snoring lightly. A moment later, Isa came up from the basement and made a face when she saw the dining room table.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry to break up this weird egg thing,” Oliver said, “but Hyacinth and I talked, and I’m on board with figuring out the Whalers Cove trip for Papa.”

  Jessie smiled. She had known that Oliver would come around.

  “I did a little research,” Oliver continued, handing Isa his list. “I eliminated locations that weren’t by an ocean.”

  “Nice,” Isa said, “but how are we going to find the exact location?”

  “Why don’t we split up the states?” Jessie suggested. “Oliver, you look into the locations in New York and Massachusetts; Isa, you do Washington State and Oregon; Hyacinth and Laney can do Florida; and I’ll do California.”

  “How are we going to find information?” Laney asked.

  “The internet?” Oliver suggested.

  Jessie held up her phone. “I’m going to do research on this.”

  “We don’t know how to use the internet,” Laney said, pointing to herself and Hyacinth.

  “It’s okay,” Hyacinth said. “We can go to the library.”

  “I can take you,” Isa offered. “I’ve got some books to return.”

  “Can you return my books for me?” Oliver and Jessie said at the same time.

  While Laney and Hyacinth got ready to leave, Jessie felt vaguely guilty as she brought down two huge science books that each weighed as much as Franz and put them next to a tall pile of novels that
Oliver had collected.

  Isa sighed when she saw the stacks of books by the door. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Don’t worry!” Jessie said as she brought the red Radio Flyer wagon from the basement and rolled it to the front door. “You can take the wagon.”

  “I want to ride in it!” Laney said.

  “You know I don’t like rolling that wagon to the library,” Isa complained as she watched Jessie load it up with books. “Carrying it up the library steps is such a pain.”

  “Use the back entrance,” Jessie suggested. “Where the ramps are.”

  “It’s been under construction for the last week,” Isa said. “I know that because I was just there returning your books three days ago.”

  By the time Hyacinth and Laney loaded their books into the wagon, it was too full for Laney to climb in. Isa, noticing that it was raining again, threw a tarp over the wagon and opened the front door.

  “Where are you going?” Grandma demanded, appearing at the top of the stairs.

  “Library!” Isa said, and Jessie watched her sisters rush away, the wagon bouncing behind them over the bumps and cracks of the sidewalk.

  “I’m fine, by the way,” Grandma said, glaring at Jessie. “Thanks for asking.”

  Jessie swallowed. Why hadn’t she volunteered to go to the library? “Hey, Grandma. How are you feeling?”

  “I just said I was fine,” Grandma snapped as she made her way downstairs, Grandpa following her.

  Aunt Penny woke up from her nap, rubbed her eyes, and asked Jessie whether it would be okay if she took a shower. Jessie gave her directions to where she could find spare towels, then turned back to her grandparents. Grandma was staring at the dining room table in horror. Jessie had forgotten about the eggs.

  “I was helping Laney with an art project,” Jessie explained. Grandma did not seem impressed.

  While Jessie cleaned, Oliver went to the kitchen and helped himself to a cookie from the Tupperware Mama had left on the counter.

  “Oliver!” Grandma chastised.