During afternoon recess, Francine called all of Fern's friends together on the school lawn so they could lend support to each other. This being an eventful week, many of those present had other concerns on their minds.

"He's a really nice, really cool boy," Muffy related to Jenna. "True, he used to be a girl, but nobody's perfect."

"Whatever," said Jenna. "As long as he doesn't ask me to marry him."

"I don't understand why only four people can visit your sister at one time," Prunella said to Alan, who appeared more emotionally troubled than anyone else at the scene.

"Hey, what's eating you?" George asked the distraught boy.

"I'm just worried about Fern, that's all," Alan replied glumly.

"We're all worried about her," said George. "If you're more worried than the rest of us, then you must be in love with her."

"Shut up," Alan grunted.

Francine summoned the group to order. "Thanks for coming, everybody. I called you together because I know you're all friends of Fern, and some of you are having a tough time because of the kidnapping, and I thought we could help each other. After all, that's what friends do. Now, does anyone have something to say?"

Arthur spoke up. "My mom's having another baby."

"That's nice, Arthur," said Francine glibly.

Beat raised her hand. "There's a rumor going around that I pretended to be a..."

"Whoa, whoa," Francine interrupted. "Let's stick to the subject. There are so many subplots going on now, it's easy to get distracted."

"You're just jealous because you don't have a subplot," said Muffy facetiously.

"I have something to say," Alan volunteered.

Francine motioned for him to begin. "I know this sounds trite," said the boy, "but I didn't know how much I cared about Fern until she was taken away."

"Someone's in love," Sue Ellen joked, and the other kids chuckled.

"Silence, please," said Francine. "Fern would want it that way."

"I want to say something," Buster chimed in. "Compared to Fern, we all stink at detective work. But that doesn't mean we can't put our heads together and try to think of a way to help the investigation along."

"Buster's right," said Beat. "Count me in."

"And me," said Alan, his spirits rising.

"Maybe my sister Odette can help," Van suggested. "She has experience with being kidnapped. And she just became a teenager, so she knows everything."

"The first thing we'll do is visit Binky and Molly," said Buster. "Maybe they can tell us why Mansch would kidnap Fern."

"We need a name for ourselves," said Alan. "We can't use FernBusters."

"How about ManschBusters?" Buster suggested.

"Or BrainBusters," Beat threw out.

"I don't like that one," said Buster. "It's like I'm the only one on the team who isn't a brain."

"BrainBusters it is," Alan declared.

----

Thrilled at the opportunity to perform actual detective work, Beat rushed to her apartment after school and filled a plate with leftover crumpets. "I won't be here for dinner, Mum," she informed her mother, who was removing clothes from the dryer. "I'm going to the detention center with Alan and Buster."

"You're not going anywhere tonight," came her mother's firm voice.

From the laundry room emerged a stern-looking aardvark woman. Beat could tell she was in serious trouble, but had no clue as to the reason.

"I thought we agreed that you wouldn't get involved with boys," Mrs. Simon lectured her.

"Alan and Buster are just friends," Beat insisted.

"I'm not talking about them," her mother continued. "Mrs. Molina called me today. She said her son Alberto asked you for a date, under the impression that you were a teenager."

"A date?" repeated the astonished Beat. "No, Mum, you've got it all wrong."

"You lied to an older boy about your age," Mrs. Simon accused her.

"No, I didn't!" Beat shot back.

Her mother's voice rose in pitch. "This is very serious, Beatrice. In your condition, you can't afford to take chances with older boys. I hate to do this, but you're grounded for the rest of the week."

Beat opened her mouth, but found she could neither speak nor breathe.

----

When Arthur and D.W. returned home, they found their mother seated in front of the TV, looking slightly pallid. "Mom, you're better!" the kids exclaimed in unison as they cheerfully hopped into her lap.

"I feel fine now," said Mrs. Read to her overjoyed children. "Your father has a marvelous bedside manner."

"Which means I can dodge anything you throw at me," came her husband's voice from the kitchen.

"Where's Grandma Thora?" asked D.W.

"She went home," her mother answered.

From the guest bedroom floated the now-familiar sound of Grandpa Dave snoring.

"Kids, there's something I need to talk to you about," said Mrs. Read seriously. "With the new baby on the way, and your grandpa staying with us, it won't be long before this house isn't big enough for all of us."

"We can make the house bigger, can't we?" said Arthur.

"Yes, we can." Mrs. Read took a deep breath that sounded more like a sigh. "But as you know, a lot of people have been moving into Elwood City lately. Property values have gone up, and it may be more economical to buy a bigger house than expand the one we live in now."

"Oooh," gasped D.W. with delight. She imagined herself in a gigantic mansion, with gilded hallways running all the way to the horizon, and a room for her unicorn toys, and another for her troll dolls, and another for her Mary Moo Cow merchandise...

"But if we buy a bigger house," said Arthur, "won't we have to, like, move?"

His mother nodded.

"Where would we move to?"

"We can move almost anywhere, since your father's self-employed."

"I want to move to Mars," said D.W. excitedly.

"I want to stay here," said Arthur earnestly. "All my friends are here."

"You'll make new friends," Mrs. Read assured him.

As the prospect of leaving behind his home and friends troubled him, Arthur fantasized about the situations he might face.

He stood at the head of a classroom with crooked walls and cracked plaster, facing a batch of the strangest-looking kids he had ever seen. Next to him stood an wraithlike old woman in a black dress. "Children," she announced, "today a new student has chosen to join us in this doomed exercise in futility which we call a class."

"Uh-huh," mumbled the disinterested pupils.

"My name's Arthur Read," he began, anxiety pulling at his heart. "My family just moved into the big house on Carter Street. Every time my mom has a baby, we move into a bigger house. I've moved three times in the past five years."

As he returned to his desk, sinister murmurs caught his ear. "What a weird-looking kid." "How do his glasses stay on?" "I bet he never gleeped nothin'."

Once he had seated himself, a bespectacled rabbit boy at the other end of the room pointed at him and glowered fiercely. "He's an alien!" the boy ranted. "He's come to destroy us all!"

"You're crazy," muttered a curly-haired cat girl.

"Don't take it personally," a green-skinned kid with huge purple eyes said to Arthur. "He calls everybody an alien."

Similar fantasy scenarios played in his mind for the rest of the day. He couldn't imagine leaving behind the only neighborhood he had ever known. What perils would he face in another part of the world? Would the show move with him, or stay behind?

----

Determined to contribute in some way to the search for Fern, Alan and Buster met at the detention center with Odette, who had arrived with her mother.

"Be careful, dear," Mrs. Cooper cautioned her long-necked daughter. "Leave staking out criminals to the police. We don't want to lose you again."

"Mom, I'm thirteen," said Odette confidently. "Nothing can hurt me."

It was visiting time at the facility, and eager inmates Binky and Molly were seated on one side of the plexiglass barrier while Buster and Alan sat on the other. An impatient-looking police officer stood at duty nearby. "Here she comes," blurted out Buster when he saw Odette walking up. The girl had grown several inches over the summer, and now appeared to be taller than anything in the room, including the room.

Binky lit up when he saw her. "What's the swan doing here?" asked Molly peevishly.

"I'm not standing by while some poor girl goes through the same thing I did," was Odette's reply.

"I'm not seeing her anymore," Binky reassured Molly. "It's too hard on my neck."

"Sit down, Odette," said Alan.

"I am sitting down," was Odette's response.

Once she had the attention of the three visitors, Molly began her story. "I haven't told you the whole truth about the diamonds," she admitted. "I don't want my dad to go back to prison. I believe Mansch is trying to frame him, and he kidnapped Fern to ensure our cooperation. He sent us this message."

The rabbit girl slipped the letter and newspaper clipping she had received through the opening, and Buster read it to the others.

"It doesn't leave much doubt," Alan remarked. "He obviously went to the trouble of finding out that Fern was a friend of yours."

"At least she won't end up as some guy's third wife," said Odette.

"But she's in danger just the same," said Molly, who spoke with a tone of contempt for the swan girl. "I think I should tell the police what really happened. I don't want Fern to get hurt."

"Not so fast," Odette warned. "If you give Mansch what he wants, he'll have no more reason to keep Fern alive. You must wait until the police find her."

"You don't know who you're dealing with, neckosaurus," said Molly insultingly. "Mansch is an expert criminal. When he hides something, it stays hidden."

"Odette's right," said Alan. "Mansch is dangerous. We can't let him get away with what he's trying to do."

"If Fern were here," Buster mused, "she'd be analyzing the drug Mansch used on Mr. England's dogs."

"I'm sure the police have tried that," said Molly. "I'm sure they're doing all they can. This is a kidnapping, not some lame mystery where someone writes your name all over the school."

Armed with the message Mansch had sent to Molly and not much else, Buster and Alan departed from the detention center, debating their next move. Meanwhile, Odette squeezed herself into the family Buick, and talked with her mother as they drove away.

"I don't get it, Mom," the swan girl pondered. "Why does God allow these evil people to do so much harm, when he has the power to stop them?"

"In his eyes, we're all evil people," was her mother's reply. "For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God."

Unsatisfied, yet not knowing what else to say, Odette remained silent until she arrived at home.

In a razed spot in front of the Cooper house, Van was watching with interest as Dallin played marbles with a boy Odette had never seen before. "Who's the fuzzy kid?" she asked her mother.

"That's Zeke England," Mrs. Cooper answered.

Zeke, the pom boy, laid down his agate and raised his head to greet Odette. He raised it some more. "You sure have a long neck," he remarked.

"All the better to dance with," said the swan haughtily.

"Zeke lives in the house near where Fern was kidnapped," Mrs. Cooper explained. "His parents are fine Christian people. They thought it would be a good idea for their son to associate with a good Christian boy like Van."

"He's not very polite," Odette remarked.

"I guess he's never seen a swan person," said her mother. "He doesn't get out much. He's home-schooled."

Intrigued by the strange boy, Odette squatted down next to the marble arena. Zeke looked at her and glanced up and down, sizing up her neck.

"That's my sister Odette," Van told his new friend.

"She's a swan," Zeke pointed out. "The rest of you are ducks."

"I wasn't adopted," Odette informed the boy. "I came from the same mother."

"I understand," said Zeke flatly. "Has your mother repented of her sin?"

All at once, three beaks fell open in astonishment.

"It wasn't a sin," said Odette indignantly. "Sometimes people are just born differently."

"What are you talking about?" Dallin wondered.

"It's none of my business anyway," said Zeke as he rolled a marble around in his fingers.

----

to be continued