‘The Scream’ looked a lot like what Danny had expected. But, it also looked a lot different too. It was a man with a strangely shaped head screaming. But, it had a lot of red, orange, yellow, brown, and black colors too. They were both on the man’s face and in the background.
‘Wow!’ Danny thought. ‘Whoever painted this picture did a really good job!’ He walked down the hall to look more paintings. After looking at paintings for awhile, Danny figured he should head back to where Mr. and Mrs. Pickles were. Chuckie was probably eager by now to get to the Children’s Art Center.
As he was heading back down the hall, Danny heard a man’s voice coming from behind him. “Hey, kid! Could you come over hear for a moment? I need to ask you a question.”
Danny stopped, and hesitated. His parents had taught him and his sister Jazz to never talk to strangers. But it sounded like this guy really needed some help. So, instead of walking up to the stranger, Danny turned around to face him, and stood in the same spot a few feet away from the man. “Y-Yes, sir?” he asked, nervously.
The man smiled at Danny, and pointed to the directory map in his left hand. “Do you know where I can get one of those?” he asked.
He was a tall, skinny man, probably about six feet tall. He was bald with a bit of stubble on his face. The stranger wore a light blue button up shirt, with brown jeans, and black shoes. In a strange sort of way, it reminded Danny of one of those male school teachers you see in the movies.
Danny glanced down at his copy of the museum directory map, back up at the stranger, and quickly said, “A nice lady gave me one when I entered the museum.” He glanced back down at the map. “But, you can have this one if you want. I have an extra copy.”
Just to be safe, Danny set the directory map on the ground, and walked down the hall as fast as he could, away from the man. He heard the man saying, “Thanks, kid! You’re a real help!”
Danny smiled to himself. He enjoyed helping people.
J J J J
When Danny came back down the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles ran up to him.
“Are you okay, Danny?” Didi asked, concerned. “We saw that man trying to talk to you, and we wanted to make sure you were alright.”
Danny nodded. “I’m fine, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles. I stood a good distance away from him. He just wanted a map to the museum, so I gave him my extra copy.”
Stu sighed. “Well, that’s a relief!” he exclaimed. “Just remember to be careful if that ever happens again, Danny.” he said, sternly.
Danny nodded once again, and the six of them headed to the Children’s Art Center. It was a pretty big place, with lots of little kids there. Some were drawing and playing with clay at round tables. Some were painting pictures on easels. There were even a couple of babies in playpens scribbling on paper. The babies were amazed.
“Wow!” Susie exclaimed. “Look at all the art stuffs!”
“Yeah!” Tommy exclaimed. “It’s really big! And look, Chuckie!” he said excitedly to his friend. “There’s lots of pictures that babies drawed and painted hanging on the walls!”
Tommy was right about that. There were all sorts of drawings and paintings hanging on the bright, orange walls. All of them looked pretty cool.
Chuckie was grinning at all of the pictures. “How many of them do you think there are, Tommy?” he asked.
Tommy looked around the room some more, smiled, and shrugged. “I don’t know.” he replied. “Probably elevendey.”
Chuckie nodded. “That’s a pretty good guess, Tommy.”
“Thanks, Chuckie!”
While Stu and Didi were checking the babies in, Chuckie headed over to the drawing table. The others followed.
“What are you going to draw this time, Chuck?” Danny asked, once he got close enough to the round table.
Chuckie smiled at his friend. “You’ll see!” he exclaimed, taking a sheet of paper and an orange crayon from the middle of the table. He carefully started drawing.
About a minute later, Stu and Didi walked up to the four kids.
“Okay, kids!” Stu exclaimed. “Didi and I are going shopping for new parts of my latest invention.” Stu worked as a kids’ toy maker. Unfortunately, most of his toys never ended up working. But he never seemed to give up.
Didi quickly leaned down, and kissed Tommy on the forehead. “You be good sweetie.” she said in a cutesy baby voice. “We’ll be back in about an hour!”
Tommy smiled up at his mother, then turned back to try and look at Chuckie’s latest drawing. But, of course, he wouldn’t let him.
As Stu and Didi were leaving the Children’s Art Center, Danny suddenly realized something. He started searching through his vest pockets, then patted both his side and back jean pockets. “Uh, oh!” he cried.
“What is it, Danny?” Susie asked.
“I think I dropped the box of crayons I brought with me somewhere.” he replied. “They aren’t in any of my pockets!”
“Well, maybe you just dropped it somewheres in the Arts Center!” Tommy exclaimed. “We’ll helps you looks for them!”
Chuckie quickly slipped his drawing into his red folder, then the four of them started looking for Danny’s box of crayons. They checked behind the counter and in the bathrooms. They even asked some of the babies if they had seen it. But, no matter where they looked, they just couldn’t seem to find those crayons!
While the kids were still searching, two janitors in dark green suits came walking into the Children’s Art Center. Danny glanced up to have a look at them. One of them was the tall, bald, skinny man that Danny had met earlier. The other man was also bald, but he was much shorter and heavier than his friend. He was also wearing a dark, green baseball cap.
The tall man walked up to the counter where the young lady who was watching all of the babies was sitting. He smiled at her then said, “The regular janitors called in sick today, and we’re their replacements.” he explained. “We were told that the mops, buckets, and toilet scrubbers were in here.”
The lady smiled at the two men. “May I ask what your name is sir?” she asked. “It’s for security reasons.”
The tall man nodded. “I’m Zack, and this is my partner Jerald.”
The chubby man took off his baseball cap. “How do you do Madam?” he asked, then put his cap back on.
“Just fine, thank you!” the lady replied, looking at the list of employees. “Yes, you two are on the list.” She handed the museum keys to the skinny man. “Here are the keys to the whole museum, and to the janitor’s closet. Thanks for coming on such sort notice.”
“No problem!” Jerald exclaimed. “That’s what we’re here to do! Clean!”
They both headed over to the janitor’s closet near the bathrooms. As soon as they got the supplies they needed from the closet, the two men hurried out of the Children’s Art Center.
Danny then decided to look underneath the tables. He knew that the babies hadn’t looked there for his crayons yet. As he was searching around the tables, Danny spotted his box of crayons near the small entrance door to the Art Center. He crawled over toward the door, that way he wouldn’t pop up and scare any of the kids at the tables, and quickly grabbed his box of crayons.
Just as he was about to stand up, Danny heard a voice outside of the door. “What do we do now, Mark?” it asked.
Danny slowly stood up, and took a quick peek outside of the door. It was the two substitute janitors who had just left just a few seconds ago. But why did Jerald call the skinny man Mark? Danny was totally confused.
He slowly ducked down so the janitors wouldn’t see him. Danny figured he better listen in on the conversation. It could be important.
Danny heard Mark shush his friend. “Be quiet, Jasper!” he whispered. “We don’t want anybody listening in on us!”
‘Jasper?’ Danny thought. ‘He said his name was Jerald to the lady behind the counter.’ He put his ear to the door so he could hear them better.
“Who’s going to listen in?” Jasper asked. “The babies and kids in the Art Center? They wouldn’t understand what we were saying anyway. They aren’t very bright.”
Danny frowned at this. ‘Neither are you, buddy.’ he thought.
“You’re right.” Mark replied. “But, listen. This what we’re going to do. We’ve already taken care of the real substitute janitors. And I’ve got the map of the museum right here!”
Danny heard Jasper gasp. “Where did you get that?” he asked, with a surprised tone of voice.
“Well,” Mark explained, happily, “since we snuck in through the back door of the museum, I couldn’t walk to the lady at the entrance door. She wouldn’t have recognized us!” He paused, then continued. “So, I just asked this little boy where he got his map, and he was nice enough to give me his extra copy.”
“Anyway,” Mark continued, “that’s not important! I need to explain to you how we’re going to deal with The Mona Lisa!”
“Yeah.” Jasper sighed. “I’m sure she’s really pretty.”
Danny stuck out his tongue in disgust. He was startled by a huge slap.
“She’s not a person, Jasper!” Mark whispered, madly. “It’s a painting of a girl!”
“Oh.” Jasper replied, sounding slightly disappointed.
“Now,” Mark continued, “here’s the plan. We pretend we’re cleaning the floors, right? And then we’ll ‘happen’ to walk past the copy of The Mona Lisa.”
“Okay.”
“Then we’ll trade it with this copy of The Mona Lisa I bought from the museum’s gift shop. We’ll then get on an airplane, and go to the big museum to steal the real copy of The Mona Lisa. Are you with me so far?”
“Uh, huh.”
“Then we’ll replace the real copy of the Mona Lisa with the one hanging around somewhere in this museum, fly back here, go to our headquarters where our boss is, and we’ll be rich!” Mark laughed. “It’s a fool proof plan! Nobody can stop us!”
“That’s great, Mark!” Jasper exclaimed. “Except there’s one thing I don’t get.”
“What’s that?” Mark asked, irritated. “I thought I explained the plan pretty clear enough.”
“Oh, you did a good job explaining it to me, Mark!” Jasper said. “It’s just that, if we’re going to give The Mona Lisa to the boss, how are we going to get the cash?”
Danny was startled again by another slap.
“Jasper, you idiot!” Mark whispered, sternly. “Our boss is going to give us the money!”
“But where will he get the cash?” Jasper asked.
“Where do you think he’s going to get the cash?”
“Um, I don’t know.” Jasper said, hesitantly. “The money making place?”
Mark sighed. “It comes from…well, never mind! We need to get to work before the guards come back from their lunch break!”
Once Danny heard the footsteps start going down the hall, then fading away, he quickly stood up and ran past the art tables, trying to look for his friends.
‘Oh my gosh!’ Danny thought, panicking. ‘I just gave directions to two criminals!’
Rugphan
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