Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

It's not like I was trying to get into trouble. And it's not like it was my fault I was stuck inside the apartment. If it was anybody's fault it was Mrs. Graybill's. Mrs. Graybill lives down the hall and has to be the nosiest person who ever lived. I swear she's got nothing better to do than to stand by her door, waiting for someone to do something she doesn't think they're supposed to be doing. Grams says she's just a bitter old woman, but when I ask why she's bitter, Grams doesn't seem to have much of an answer. She usually just shrugs and says, "It happens to people sometimes," and then changes the subject.

Anyhow, it's on account of Mrs. Graybill that I was stuck inside when I wanted to be outside. And since there's not much for me to do because everything I own has to be able to fit inside Grams' bottom dresser drawer, I was using the binoculars to at least see what was going on outside.

First I checked out the Pup Parlor. You can see some pretty weird-looking dogs leaving the Pup Parlor. Most of them come out all puffed up and wearing ribbons like they're going to a party instead of home to sleep on the couch. But since we're on the fifth floor and the Pup Parlor's clear down the street, there isn't really much to see if nobody's going in to pick up their puffy dogs. And since nobody was going in to pick up their puffy dogs, I didn't spend much time watching.

I didn't waste time at Bargain Books, either. The only interesting thing I ever saw there was when the owner, Mr. Bell, chased this kid all the way down to Main Street, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Stop! You come back here and get your filthy bubble gum off my wall!" His face was all red and I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He caught the guy in the middle of the intersection at Broadway and Main and dragged him clear back up to the bookstore by his collar. Then he made him pull the gum off the wall and throw it in a trash can. The boy looked really embarrassed, kind of checking around to see if anyone was watching him pick these big strands of goopy gum off the wall. I waved, but he didn't see me, and pretty soon Mr. Bell let him go.