"Whoever gets to Summer's room first gets to read her diary!" Mouse yelled and dashed ahead.
"Hey! Stop that! I did not give you permission you to enter my room!" Summer shouted and chased after her.
Seeing that her sister was catching up, Mouse dived behind the couch and the two of them chased each other around it for a while.
Finally, Mouse broke out again and took off running but before she could reach the door, her sister jumped her.
Mouse got grabbed from behind and two hands started squeezing her sides.
Mouse curled up into a ball but her sister did not show mercy until she became a giggling mess.
When Summer stood up at last, Mouse looked up at her teary-eyed but happy.
Summer hesitated as if a thought had just occurred to her.
"Mouse, can you keep a secret?"
"I'm not sure if I could, if someone was tickling my toes like you did just now" Mouse giggled, and wiggled her toes at her.
Summer sighed.
"Can you PROMISE not to let it slip by accident, at least? At least to Mom and Dad?"
Mouse hesitated, but curiosity won out.
"OK." She nodded. "What is it?"
Her sister led her into her room (pretty nondescript, Mouse thought) where the older girl threw open her drawers and the doors on her closet.
They revealed various objects: a magnifying glass, some old binoculars, plastic gloves and a notebook.
She covered the inside of her closet in newspaper cut-outs.
Mouse pursed her lips and seemed disappointed; she'd been expecting something better.
She gave the cut-outs an appraising look.
"Masked Tickler Returns: Fiction or Fact?"
"The Lost Gold of Cacklemore Creek"
"Police Chief Declares Featherton Ghost A Hoax"
Mouse suppressed a yawn.
"What are you collecting all this stuff for?" she asked sourly.
Summer turned around and pressed her fists on her waist.
"I'm going to be a detective." she announced.
She looked so genuinely hurt when her sister laughed that Mouse soon stopped.
Instead she chose to continue to size her up with that innocent smile that Mean Old Man Harris Dublin from next street once described as her "shit-eating grin".
"Fine" Summer said. "I did not expect you to understand anyway."
Naturally, this made her sister suddenly become interested again.
"Sherlock Holmes, Auguste Dupin, Nancy Drew...I've been studying up on their methods all summer.
Now I'm as good an investigator as any of them.
If this neighborhood hides any secrets, I plan to crack them open."
"Do you want it?
I'll take you on as assistant. Just this one time, at least."
Mouse hesitated.
"Dad told us not to leave the house" she said while she picked at the carpet with her toes.
"It's OK. I've had it all planned out. We'll leave a message on the door to tell them where we had gone if they come back sooner."
Mouse scratched her head. She knew her sister was weird. But it sounded better than being stuck in the house all summer.
"Okay" she relented. "I'm in. But where do you want to start?"
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