The Bell Nobody Rang
Chapter 1The Third Ring
The bell rang three times.
Yossi looked up from the stack of empty boxes.
"Again?"
At the courtyard gate, there was nobody.
"That's the fourth time," his friend Leiby said.
"Somebody's doing it and running away."
They were helping Mr. Katz with Thursday's collection of blankets and winter coats. People brought clean things to the courtyard behind his house. Mr. Katz sorted them inside before they were sent to families who needed them.
The bell was a small brass one above the gate. Its cord hung outside for visitors. Another length ran through the fence so Mr. Katz could test it from the courtyard.
Yossi had liked the bell when they arrived. It made their job sound important.
Now it sounded like somebody laughing at them.
He walked out through the gate and looked along the pavement.
An old man was carrying a loaf of bread home. Two small children were walking with their mother.
Nobody was running.
"They've got a good hiding place," Leiby said.
Chapter 2The Plan Under the Table
Yossi had an idea.
"I'll sit behind the empty cartons. You stay at the table. When it rings, don't come right away. I'll see who it is."
"Mr. Katz said we should answer the gate."
"I will. I'll just be here already."
Leiby nodded.
Yossi crouched behind the cartons beside the fence.
He could see the lower part of the gate through a space between two boxes.
He could also see a hole in his sock.
He tucked his foot under him.
Five minutes passed.
A woman brought a bag of coats. Her sheitel was covered by a light rain scarf, although it had stopped raining. Leiby opened the gate, thanked her, and called Mr. Katz to receive the bag.
Yossi stayed where he was.
Nothing suspicious happened. It was very disappointing.
Then the bell rang.
Chapter 3The Shoes at the Gate
Yossi looked through the gap.
No shoes.
He sprang up and hurried outside. Again, nobody was there.
"They're faster than you," Leiby said.
Yossi felt the remark like a push.
"Next time don't move. They'll come back if they think we're not answering."
Leiby frowned. "What if it's somebody bringing things?"
"Then they'll wait."
Yossi moved the cartons closer together so nobody could see him hiding. One carton leaned against a wooden crate Mr. Katz had set beside the fence.
The bell gave a tiny clink.
Yossi froze.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yes."
They watched the gate.
Nothing moved.
Yossi decided the person must still be very close.
Chapter 4A Real Ring
When the bell rang next, Yossi held up his hand.
Leiby stopped beside the table.
They waited.
Through the gap, Yossi saw a pair of black shoes.
They stayed in one place. Beside them was the bottom of a large cloth bag.
"Someone's there," he whispered.
"Then open it."
"Wait. Let's see what they do."
The shoes turned toward the street.
Leiby went to the gate and opened it.
"Please wait!"
An elderly woman stopped a few steps away. Her head was covered with a pale grey tichel.
"I thought perhaps the collection had finished," she said.
She was holding the bag with both hands. Leiby called Mr. Katz.
Yossi came out from behind the boxes.
The woman looked at his dusty trousers, then at the bag.
"Could someone help me carry this inside?"
Mr. Katz took it from her. He did not ask her to stand there while the boys explained.
Chapter 5A Better Question
When the woman had left, Mr. Katz came back to the courtyard.
"Why didn't you answer the bell?"
Yossi explained the empty gate. Leiby explained the hiding place.
"We were trying to catch whoever was ringing it,"
Yossi said.
"Did you see anybody ring it and run?"
"No."
"Then we don't yet know that anybody did."
Mr. Katz stood beside the gate.
"You have a job here. It isn't catching a trickster. It's helping people bring things in. If the bell rings and you can safely open the gate, answer it. If something worries you, call me."
Yossi nodded.
He had turned the morning into a contest. The woman had not known she was part of it.
"I made her wait," he said.
"You did. She was close to taking her bag home."
Yossi couldn't chase after her to explain. She had already gone.
Chapter 6The Carton That Rang
Mr. Katz asked the boys to carry the empty cartons away from the fence.
Leiby lifted the top one. Yossi pulled the lower carton toward himself.
The wooden crate shifted.
The bell rang three times.
All three of them looked up.
Mr. Katz bent beside the crate.
A loop of the inside bell cord had slipped beneath one of its corners. When the boys moved boxes or leaned against the fence, they nudged the crate. It tugged the cord.
"We were ringing it," Leiby said.
"Not every time," Mr. Katz said. "We had real visitors too."
He freed the cord and fixed its loose length out of the way. The boys waited while he checked it.
Yossi looked at the hiding place. He had crouched there, pressing against the carton, and listened for proof that somebody else was being foolish.
He had supplied some of the proof himself.
Leiby began to laugh, then stopped when he saw Yossi's face.
"It is funny," Yossi said. "Just not the woman-waiting part."
Chapter 7The Job on the Table
They put the cartons where Mr. Katz showed them, well clear of the bell cord.
Yossi brushed the dust from his trousers.
"I said they'd wait if it was a real visitor," he told Leiby. "You told me to open it. I should have listened."
"I agreed to the hiding plan too."
"But you didn't keep agreeing when you saw the bag."
Leiby folded an empty sack.
"Next time let's call Mr. Katz before we invent a whole criminal."
"A very short criminal. I only had a view of his shoes."
Leiby smiled.
They returned to the table. Yossi wrote BLANKETS on one card and COATS on another. Mr. Katz checked the cards before putting them on the sorted bags.
The courtyard had plenty of work in it without a mystery.
Yossi did not find that quite as exciting. He did find that the table was much more comfortable than the ground.
Chapter 8Three Rings Again
Near the end of the collection, the bell rang three times.
Yossi stood up at once.
At the gate was the elderly woman from earlier. This time she carried a small parcel tied with string.
"I found the matching pillowcases," she said.
Yossi opened the gate wide.
"I'm sorry we kept you waiting before. We were busy trying to solve the empty rings instead of doing our job."
"I wondered where everybody had gone."
"We should have answered."
She nodded and handed him the parcel. He asked Mr. Katz where it should go.
Later, when they finished, Leiby pulled the outside cord to test it one last time. The three rings sounded exactly as they had that morning.
Yossi looked at the gate.
This time, before deciding what the sound meant, he checked who was there.
