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Doodles’ Secret Door Another Cathy and Janice Story By Joe Pegasus
Copyright 2016
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2. Why Fairies Want Your Teeth
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“Doodles has a small door in her bedroom,” Cathy revealed to Janice. Cathy thought the revelation would distract her little sister from the string attached to one of her upper front teeth. Mom tied the other end of the string to a door knob. Janice, a bit worried, eyed the actions and the door knob. She barely heard a word Cathy said. Until Cathy added, " I bet you it leads to a hidden passage into a secret room.” That caught her attention. So much so that when Janice spun her head to look at Cathy the string went tight and out popped the tooth. Putting the revelation aside, Janice first yelped as the tooth flew away. Suddenly she cheered with glee. “That didn’t hurt at all!” Mom laughed as she undid the string from the knob. She handed it with the tooth attached to Janice whose tongue examined the new hole in her mouth. Jan tied the string around her finger. “It will be a keepsake ring to remind me of this great, pain free event.” Cathy united the extracted tooth and asked what Jan will do with the tooth. “I’ll place it under my pillow so the Tooth Fairy will buy it for a million dollars.” Cathy asked, " Think it’s worth that much, do you?” Mom laughed, saying, " That’s one of a kind. Only tooth in the world coming from Jan’s upper jaw.” “See?” Janice busted out with pride. She took the tooth over to her dresser. Taking a marking pen she wrote her initials on the tooth. “There,” she said, " Now even the Tooth Fairy will have a kind of one.” “One of a kind, dear,” Mom corrected. “That means it is one special among many of the same kind.” “Sure is,” Janice bragged. “Maybe I’ll keep it. It’s so special.” “What about your million dollars?” Cathy asked slyly. “Got a good point there, Cath.” Janice walked right over to her bed and stuffed the tooth under her pillow. Before doing so she proudly showed off the tooth one last time. “But it’s not my idea really,” Janice announced. She placed the tooth under her pillow. Cathy and Mom appeared puzzled by what she said. Janice explained, " I got the idea from Karma. When she lost the first of her baby teeth she said she missed it so much she wrote her initials on the second tooth when it fell out.”
Janice writes he initials on the extracted tooth.
KARMA Mom left the girls. Janice sat atop her bed and patted the bed aside her. “Come. Tell me about Doodles’ secret door.” Cathy sashayed to Jan’s side. “You’ve never been to Doodle’s house, no less her room, so I guess I can tell you: She has this small door in her bedroom wall.” “With a secret passage behind it?” Janice lit up as bright as a Christmas tree. This sounded like the most interesting revelation of all time! Cathy grimaced, " I don’t know what’s behind it, Jan.” She shrugged and paused. Then added, “I wonder if Doodles even knows what’s back there?” “You said it had a secret passage?” “ What I said, little lady, I bet it has a secret passage. I really, don’t know. The door itself is a secret, and you know what secrets are.” “I know,” Janice said. Her head slumped and she pouted her lips. “Mom told us: Secrets were invented so life can have mystery.” Together the sisters spoke the rest of the secret rule: “And mysteries were invented for you to figure out. But never tell the mystery’s secret even IF you figure it out. Never give a secret away.” Janice pouted again then huffed. “So why is it a secret? You two are friends, didn’t you just ask her?” “I did but Doodles said nothing at all.” Cathy then wondered out loud, “Still, I sure would like to know what might be back there.” Janice gave it some thought then reasoned, “Maybe it is nothing. You know how Doodles can be. Maybe it’s only a door on the wall and ‘that’s all there is to that.’”
Doodles’ Secret Door
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2. Why Fairies Want Your Teeth Later that same day Erin joined Janice. Janice showed off her keepsake ring. Erin thought it so smart of Janice. Most of Erin’s baby teeth had fallen out already with grown-up teeth in their place. Still she promised to make a keepsake ring when the next one drops out. The girls spent a little time watching over the tooth with the initials on it. They found that the tooth looked so small laying there under the pillow but stood out gigantic when placed beside the mouth of any of Jan’s dolls.
Janice Shows Off Her Keepsake Ring “But why put your initials on it?” “Karma does that too,” Janice replied. “So The Tooth Fairy will always know who it once belonged too after she buys it from me.” “Never thought about that,” Erin said. “I have wondered what the Tooth Fairy does with all these teeth?” “Cathy once told me what The Tooth Fairy does with them.” Janice told Erin. “You see, for the longest time all the tooth fairies collected the teeth so they could build castles to live in. “ “They live in castles made of teeth?” Erin acted amazed. “Not anymore,” Janice confused her. “They now live in spider webs.” “What? That sounds crazy! Kind of like the Santa missing sleigh lights story you told me. Do you really believe this about baby teeth?” “Yep,” Janice explained. “A long time ago fairies lived in teeth castles because spiders love to eat fairies. So the fairies built these big castles of strong teeth from us people. The spiders tried as they might but could not get at the fairies. Then one day a spider came along to get at the fairies no matter what. And guess what?’ “It huffed and it puffed and it blew the toothy castle down.” Erin chuckled. “No, silly,” Janice waved her away. “The spider tried to eat the castle and found that baby teeth tasted delicious.” Erin looked at Janice as if she had lost her mind. “Cathy told you this story?” “Gets better,“ Jan hushed Erin. “All the spiders soon were eating all the fairies’ castles to the ground. Bad day for The Tooth Fairy. “Then one fairy told the spiders that if they ate all the castles, there would be no food left. The spider did not act afraid. The spider just told the fairy it would then eat all the fairies. “ ”That makes sense,“ Erin said. She moved in closer to Jan and added, "That’s what they eat anyway, right?” “Then the fairy told the spider that once all the fairies were eaten, then what? The spider thought about that and knew it to be true. What would they eat after all the fairies were gone? “The Tooth Fairy then made a deal with the spider. The fairies will supply all the teeth the spiders could eat if the spiders would not eat them. But since the spiders had eaten all the castles, they had to allow the fairies to live freely in spider webs.. And that’s what they do. The tooth fairies buy our teeth to feed to spiders and they in turn get to live in any spider web they feel like.” Erin did not know how to reply to Cathy’s strange story. She only said, “No wonder you don’t see any tooth castles anymore.”
But Janice believed every word.
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Eventually, Janice revealed what she heard from Cathy about Doodles’ secret door. “Now that I do believe!” Erin jumped atop the bed. “Doodles That is so mysterious. I would love to see inside her secret door.” “But how?” Janice replied. “She’s Cathy friend not ours much at all. We can’t just go over to her house.” Erin gave it some thought. Just as she came up with a fabulous idea, Janice had the very same idea. Together they shouted, "But Cathy can go!” And Cathy could find a reason to tag the girls along with her. Fabulous idea, but why would Doodles allow them to see her secret door and passage? “We have to dish tack her,” Jan said. “Distract her.” Erin corrected. “What I said: dish tack her.” But how to do that? And how to get Cathy to bring them over to Doodles’ house? The older girls did not always like having the younger ones around. “Maybe if we let your sister in on our plan, she will help distract Doodles. Do you think she would like to know what’s in there too?” Janice said Cathy wanted to know; she had said so. “Then that’s the plan, Jan. We get Cathy to bring us over there then we sneak into her room.” “While Cathy dish tacks her. Good idea!” The two jumped off the bed and headed downstairs in search of Cathy. They found her dipping cookies into a glass of milk. Without delay Janice and Erin also took chairs at the kitchen table. Because Cathy knew these two barely reached the counter tops on their tip toes, she gathered them glasses. “Cookies?” She asked. “Mom also made a pie. She told me we can snack on it too.” The little girls waived the pie, cookies excited them enough. Besides their minds sought after a scheme not a snack. But snacks are tasty too! Glasses filled, cookies in front of them and in hand, Janice spoke sweetly, “Cathy, remember what you told me about Doodles’ secret door?” Cathy glared angrily back at Janice. “You told Erin about the door?” Cathy pounded her fist on table hard enough to shake all the glasses. “That’s not nice of you, Jan. That is a secret, my little sister! And you should know better than to give away secrets.” Erin cried, “Ut oh,” under her breath while she looked down at the cookie in her hand. But one eye watched and worried what will happen next. Janice quickly worked to ease the mistake of giving away their secret. “I’m so sorry, Cath. I did not mean to do so but we got a good plan as to how to find out what’s behind her secret door.” “Janice, secrets are not to be --” Cathy started to scold. Then stopped. She paused a long moment then asked, "What did you say?” Janice smiled. Erin did too. The girls instantly knew Cathy lost any anger she may have harbored. “I only told Erin because I knew she would come up with a good plan about getting into that passage.” Cathy grimaced and doubted Janice’s excuse for betraying their secret. Yet she also wanted to uncover the plan. “Bring Erin and me over to Doodles’ house.” Janice revealed their plan. “Dish tack her while Erin and I sneak into the secret door and find out what’s back there.” Erin nodded and looked for Cathy’s approval of the plan. The older, and wiser, girl gave their plan some thought. “Sounds more like a plot than a plan, to me. Plans are simple 1, 2, 3, go here, then there. A plot plays things by ear like secret agents, spy movies. Besides, don’t you think Doodles will get suspicious when I show up at her house with you two? And she might really get suspicious when you two secret agents go sneaking off?” Erin spoke up, “You could tag us along because you are babysitting us.” Janice popped in her chair like a bunny rabbit; she liked that excuse and felt it a perfect one.” “I don’t know about you two,” Cathy shook her head. “First giving away secrets, now lying to my friend.” Janice rushed right in, “It’s for a good reason, Cath. You know you want to discover what’s back there.” Lying is very bad, yet Janice spoke the truth.
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Cathy and The Three Sneaky Sneaks For days all the girls spoke about began and ended with their plan. Erin had told Karma about it all. Soon enough Erin and Jan convinced Cathy to bring Karma along as well. “We had better hurry your little plot,” Cathy cried. “In another couple of days, you will have half the neighborhood sneaking into poor Doodles’ secret door!” Janice giggle at the thought of every kid in the neighborhood sneaking into Doodles’ secret door. But Erin acted more seriously. She said, “So far we have put together a secret agent team Jan, Karma and me and you will bring us over to her house, however, we cannot guess what we will do once inside. None of us have ever been in Doodles’ house.” “That’s true, Cath,” Janice added. “None of us can even wonder what to do when not one of us knows anything about the inside the house. Where her room is. How to get around. How to sneak into the room.” “No less the secret door and passage.” Erin shrugged. Cathy gave it some thought. Erin and Janice had already given it lots of head pounding thinking. They had four different plans about getting into Doodles’ room. But their plans, as Cathy had mentioned, could be nothing more than plots ready to change at any moment. Their first plan Plan A got Cathy to have Doodles show all of them her house like when grown ups show off a new house to their friends and family. After the Sneaky Sneaks secret agents figured out where Doodles’ room actually was, a distraction could get them to slip away. Karma volunteered to ask to visit the bathroom; the other two Sneaky Sneaks asking to attend her as well. Then Erin and Janice could sneak off into Doodles’ room while Karma stood watching like a lookout. Plan B looked very much like Plan A except Erin would be the lookout. Plan C had the three agents just slip away unseen. All of them then will sneak into Doodles’ room and check out the secret door. Plan D was their chicken out plan. If they got caught, they all ran for the a different door than the secret one: The front door of Doodle’s house! “I’ll make it simple for you Sneaky Sneaks,” Cathy laughed. “Get me some paper and something to draw with, Jan.” Janice went into her room to get the supplies. Erin asked what Cathy had in mind. “I’ll draw you a picture of The Trip house; the second floor where Doodles’ room sits.”
Janice and Erin cheered, “Nice drawing, Cath!” The very next day at lunchtime, the four girls knocked on Doodles’ front door. When Doodles answered the door the four girls got a surprise. Doodles greeted them waving her arms as she happily welcomed them. “Cathy told me you dears were coming along,” Doodles said. “But she did not say there would be three little spies on my door steps!” They all laughed. Cathy chuckled the most. Janice smiled but wondered if Doodles had them figured out. Erin and Karma knew the laugh really would be on Doodles. Cathy explained to Doodles the girls played a secret agent game before coming along. Doodles thought it cute and directed them into the front door, saying, “Interesting, and looks exciting, but tell me, dears, why the strings on Karma and Jan’s fingers? How do they fit into a secret agent fashion style? Are they secret agents rings of some kind?” Janice explained about the tooth she sold to the tooth fairy. She got only a quarter although its worth really was a million dollars. Doodles giggled and said, “They’re like keepsake rings; well then, that’s all there is to that.” Mrs. Trip called all of them into the kitchen. The table held a load of grocery bags overflowing with items. “Glad to see all of you,” Doodles’ mom giggled. “You can help Carol and me put all this shopping away.” So that’s why Doodles acted so happy to see them all. Mrs. Trip had never met the three younger girls before. While everyone unloaded the groceries Doodles’ mom asked all kinds of questions. And got all the best answers: “I bumped into your mom the other day, she looked well. How is your Dad?” He must be good because he is always winning at his favorite computer game Jewel Quest. “How old are you now, Janice?” Almost five; well, halfway there anyway. “And you, little Miss Gollylollylove?” I am exactly two months older than my sweet friend Janice. “Your family, Erin, lives over on Stowe Avenue, correct?” Yes, in the same house my daddy lived in all his life. “Are you girls fans of James Bond or Sherlock Holmes?” We like to play secret agent games. Doodles suddenly chimed in: “Those strings on your fingers are a bit worn. Let me change them for new ones.” She produced two newer strings, both a wonderful pink color. Removing from each girl their old strings, Doodles tied and bowed new ones for them. “Now that’s much better, right?” Everyone agreed out loud while Doodles placed the old strings into her pocket. And secretly Cathy thought Doodles up to something because she did not say: ‘That’s all there is to that.’ But Cathy said nothing about it.
The Ring Switch When all the groceries found their way into the refrigerator and cabinets Mrs. Trip served ice cream. She busied herself with collecting the used grocery bags so the girls talked among themselves. Doodles asked what the girls thought of the house. That gave Cathy the opening to suggest a tour of the place. Doodles thought it grand and made it their very next thing to do. The Sneaky Sneaks thought they had fooled Doodles completely. Time for Plan A. It took awhile for Doodles to show them onto the second floor. The first floor held all the active parts of the house: Kitchen, a bathroom, Doodles’ parent’s bedroom, a living and a family room, a dining room that lead out to a big porch where a BBQ stood watch over a big, blue swimming pool. But then they were on the second floor standing right outside Doodles’ room. It was exactly how Cathy had drawn it. Doodles would not allow anyone to look into her brother Tommy’s room, but she did show them the big bathroom and allowed them to step inside her room. All the girls but Doodles looked right at the secret door the moment they entered the room. Doodles made no mention of it. She showed off her toy chest, her large queen size bed and the great view from the two windows across from her bed. Doodles also beamed with pride over the closet beside her bed. Not so much for the closet itself but the large shoe rack that hung on the closet door. It could hold 16 pairs of shoes; although there were none yet. It did not come in their Plan A still Karma just had to ask, “Where does that door go beside the little dresser with the lamp on it?” Janice nearly choked when Karma asked. Cathy smiled, but did not laugh, and wondered what would happen if Doodles simply opened it up and ended the entire mystery. Erin just gave Karma a dirty look. Doodles acted as if no door existed at all. She waved them all out of the room with a big smile. “Goes nowhere.” She announced. “Just a door that goes nowhere and that’s all there is to that.” As Doodles started to lead them back down stairs with Cathy right on her heels, Karma asked to use the bathroom. Doodles pointed her to the bathroom. Erin and Janice cried they too needed it and pushed Karma into the bathroom. Doodles continued down the stairs. Cathy acted as if she did not care or even heard a word they said.
The Secret Door in Doodles’ Bedroom Plan A ran well. The three Sneaky Sneaks entered Doodles’ room. Karma hid inside the room’s door so she could watch if anyone went to climb the stairs. The stairwell looked empty. Cathy and Doodles had already left the scene. Erin and Janice headed right for the secret door. They took not a second to look upon the door. Did not even stare at it and wonder what might be behind the door that filled their dreams for days. They did not cheer their Sneaky Sneak agents success. They acted just like real secret agents and did their duty. Janice grabbed its handle and swung it open. Erin took the door and held it while Janice took off the flash light she had hung off her pants belt, turned it on then climbed right into the hidden passage.
Janice Enters the Secret Door No sooner did Jan get inside when she nearly screamed out her amazement. “Oh my gosh, Erin, it’s wonderful in here. Get in here quickly!” Erin scrambled inside. The hidden room had plenty of room for the girls to stand and move around. Filled with darkness except where Janice pointed her flashlight, there were no other doorways and no windows; even though the hidden room must had been as big as Doodles’ bedroom. The flashlight shone on what appeared to be the only furniture in the room. In the center stood a tall cabinet with a mirror and shelves. An old, almost spooky looking cabinet covered with all kinds of old stuff and lots of spider webs. A big surprise that amazed both girls hung down in front of the mirror. There they were: Santa’s missing sleigh lights. And they even glowed red and green! “What do you know?” Erin squeaked. “I never did believe that story you two told me. And here they are! How did she find them?” Janice would had proudly said told you so, but she spotted other items as well. “Erin,” she aimed the light at a vest that hung out of one of the drawers. “Cathy and I threw out that vest not so long ago. Was when I first met Mister Mike from the Goody Gotti O planet. And now it is here.” She aimed the light to a home made cat and added, “Ain’t that your friend Alisa’s cat?
Erin’s Friend Alisa Made This Cat Erin stepped closer to the tall cabinet. “Yeah, she softly said. “Look at this,” Erin picked up a small teddy bear that sat atop the cabinet. “This is Mark Turco’s old teddy.” “Yes,” cried Janice. “I remember when he threw it away because he felt too grown up to have a teddy bear. He made a big fuss about it to everyone in the neighborhood.” The girls laughed about the memory of their friend, five year old Mark, waving the teddy in everyone’s face and declaring himself too old for dolls. Then Janice froze solid as she aimed the light at another doll. “Erin, look. There’s my Dolly Doll!” Erin could not believe her eyes. After the shock of finding Santa’s sleigh lights and that discovery making her now believe the story the sisters had told about one very strange Christmas Eve, here, on a shelf, hidden behind a large spider web, looking like the day she and Janice threw the doll away, lay the crazy girlie dolly doll. They stared at it like seeing a ghost. There were old magazines and newspapers piled atop the cabinet and in piles on the floor. Ribbons and Happy Birthday banners, they found a broken electric drill. Next to that stood a strange looking machine with two golden rings on a tall shaft. Maybe it made rings or earings? Doodles’ room had like everything you could imagine! Even a TV set. Lots of empty coffee cans made Erin remark, “I didn’t know Doodles drinks so much coffee? Not good for a growing girl, you know.” Janice pointed the light at some old picture frames. Erin almost screamed with excitement, “That’s the picture frame to the photograph of Cathy on the beach when she was five years old. You dropped and broke it and your mom threw it away! How did she get it?” Janice knew. “Don’t you remember, Doodles was there when that happened. And we all know that Doodles is a garbage picker. That’s how she got all this stuff.” But then they spied the most amazing of things a pile of baby teeth.
Inside Doodles’ Hidden Room The girls could not believe their eyes. There must had been 30 or more baby teeth piled atop the cabinet. The moment Erin placed her hand to the pile and a few teeth jumbled about, a tooth with blue writing showed itself. Instantly both girls recognized the writing as Janice’s initials. “What do you know?” Janice picked the tooth up and shone the light on it. “Doodles bought my tooth from the tooth fairy.” “Or maybe she had stolen it? I don’t think Doodles has a million dollars to spend.” Erin looked over the pile and then found Karma’s tooth as well. And another with the letters PETE on it. “Janice?” Erin suddenly became very serious as she said, “Whether she stole them or bought them, these had to come from spiders.” The girls gulped hard and suddenly realized just how many spider webs were in that hidden room.
Janice Finds Her Baby Tooth
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Just as Erin made her point the girls slowly looked around. Without even moving their heads, their eyes searched the room in fear of what might be in the dark. They needed not to look long; across the room hung at least a million septillion lacey gray spider webs! They screeched so loud that Karma, who stood far away at Doodles’ bedroom door, jumped. She peered out into the hallway and looked down the stairwell. Cathy, Doodles and Mrs. Trip chatted down in the kitchen; they did not hear a thing. Karma turned back into Doodles’ bedroom to rush to the secret door. To her surprise both Erin and Janice were already out the door. Both girls joined in one quick swipe to slam the door closed. Then they crawled backwards away from the door as if it had cooties. Well, it apparently did had lots of spiders behind it! Frightened or not, they needed to complete their mission as Sneaky Sneaks spy agents. Getting out of that room came top of the list. When they all left Doodles’ house to walk to their own homes, Cathy and Karma, begged for their report about what hid behind the secret door. Erin cried out their story and Janice added what Erin left out. “The place is huge!” “And dark too.” “I couldn’t believe it, Cathy. Santa’s lights were in there.” “Did you know Erin didn’t believe our story?” “She has at least one of everything on earth up there in her hidden room.” At least one of everything everyone has thrown in the trash! Janice made the Sneaky Sneaks all laugh. “Doodles has a pile of baby teeth; and you can get them only from a Tooth Fairy, everybody knows that.” Lots of spider webs in that room too. I’ll bet she stole them from the spiders as well. So as they walked home, Cathy and Karma were amazed by the revelation. Not too many days later but long enough for the girls to stop chatting about the hidden room and its secret door, life returned to normal. Erin had grown closer to Karma after the formation of the Sneaky Sneaks. She and Karma came over to play with Janice when Cathy asked the girls into the kitchen for a big surprise. Cathy left Jan’s bedroom while the three girls frowned and wondered what was up? They had just finished a patch of cookies mom had made. What else could be in store? Ice cream? Maybe? So they flew out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen only to find Cathy standing shoulder to shoulder with Doodles. The three Sneaky Sneaks froze like ice. Were they found out? They gasped and saw no comfort in the smiles on Doodles’ and Cathy’s faces. Janice even felt a bit angry if her big sister had told on them. After all, the entire idea first sprung from Cathy. As Karma and Erin just stood like nails hammered straight into the floor, Janice shoot a look at her sister and silently demanded, ‘Did you tell her?’ Cathy caught what spun around in her little sister’s eyes and shook her head that Doodles knew nothing about the Sneaky Sneaks plan. Janice sighed and smiled. Doodles pulled Janice and Karma aside from Erin; just far enough to speak directly to them. She put out her hand and asked for their keepsake rings. “They must be used and dirty by now,” Doodles added. “I have cleaner and newer ones for you, dears.” Karma and Janice produced their hands and stretched out their ring fingers to Doodles. She took both their hands into her left hand. Removing the old strings, she placed them into her pocket. When her hand lifted out of the pocket she produced two shiny, golden rings! Each ring had mounted on it a baby tooth. Jan’s had her tooth and Karma’s had hers. The girls were amazed beyond words. Doodles stood back and awaited what the girls thought. Janice and Karma had no words for this wonderful gift. “Well?” Doodles wanted a reaction. Everyone saw the amazement on their faces; smiles with open mouths and wide eyes fixed upon the rings. Cathy finally shoved Jan’s shoulder to bring her back to the moment. “So?” What do you think of Doodles’ gift?” Janice looked up, almost with tears in her eyes and happily cried, “Now that’s really a tooth worth a million dollars!” And that’s all there is to that.
A Big Surprise
The End
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