The Pet Show Mystery

1 * An Everlasting Winter

    “I CAN’T STAND IT,” Trixie Belden proclaimed as she came in through the back door of her family’s comfortable old farmhouse. “I absolutely can’t stand it one more minute.”
    Trixie’s mother looked up from her work in the kitchen, an expression of gentle concern on her face. “What’s wrong, Trixie?” she asked.
    “Winter.School. Snow. Home work. Boredom.” Trixie made each word a longer, louder groan.
    “Why, Trixie!” Helen Belden said. “Today was your first day back at school after two weeks’ winter vacation. How can you be bored with it already?”
    Trixie sighed as she unzipped her down-filled jacket. She hung it and her book bag on a hook and walked into the kitchen. “I don’t know why I’m bored, but I am. Maybe it really isn’t school I’m tired of; maybe it’s this awful, everlasting winter.”
    “It has been a hard one,” her mother agreed.
    “Hard? It’s been impossible!” Trixie exclaimed as she opened the refrigerator door in search of an after-school snack. “First we had that enormous snowstorm two days before Thanksgiving. Then we had another one three days after Thanksgiving. Things never really got dug out between the two storms. And then, right after the second one, it turned bitterly cold for two entire weeks. Everything froze solid so it couldn’t be dug out. And that’s how it’s been ever since.
    “The cold and snow make it impossible to go anywhere or do anything,” Trixie went on. “I’m glad they added a second run of the school bus every day so country kids like us could still take part in activities after school. Still, that only gives us an extra hour and a half. The rest of the time, we’re cooped up at home without one single, solitary thing to do,” she concluded as she set the food down on the counter.
    “I think you’re exaggerating,” her mother said. “What you mean is that the Bob-Whites’ usual whirlwind of activity has been slowed to a stiff breeze.”
    In spite of her bad mood, Trixie had to smile. The Bob-Whites of the Glen—a group that included Trixie and her two older brothers, plus their four best friends—were indeed an active group.
    The club’s two purposes were to have fun and to help others. And no matter what else they did, they seemed to stumble accidentally onto mysteries that needed to be solved. At least, Trixie insisted that the Bob-Whites got involved in the mysteries by accident. Her friends thought that Trixie went out of her way to find them. She readily admitted that she enjoyed the excitement.
    “Excitement,” she said out loud as she sliced apples and pears and cheese and arranged the slices on a plate. “That’s what we need around here.”
    “Speak for yourself,” Mrs. Belden said. “After all the excitement of the holidays, I don’t mind having a couple of quiet weeks.”
    “The quiet weeks go on for months,” Trixie said, unwilling to look at the bright side of anything. “That’s the problem.”
    Just then the back door opened again, and a heavily bundled figure stepped inside. “I’ve found the solution to all of our problems,” he announced. “Cybernetics.”
    Trixie and her mother looked at one another, startled by the perfect timing of the remark. Both of them began to giggle.
    “I fail to see the humor in my statement.” Mart Belden’s frowning face emerged as he took off his stocking cap and unzipped his jacket.
    Trixie didn’t need to see her brother’s sandy hair, blue eyes, and freckles—all so much like her own—to be able to identify him. Mart was the only member of the Belden household who used such pompous language.
    “Never mind,” Trixie said quickly. “Anyway, tell me about this cider-whoosits and how it’s going to solve all our problems.”
    “Cy-ber-net-ics,” Mart repeated slowly. “Electronic communication control systems. Computers, to the uninitiated.”
    “That’s right, you’re taking a computer programming class this term,” Mrs. Belden said. “I see you’re enjoying it so far.”
    “Enjoyment is only part of it. Enrichment is the central concern,” Mart said loftily. “Today I had my first hands-on experience with state-of-the-art technology. Already I can feel the parameters of my personal data base expanding in quantum leaps.”
    “I can’t stand it,” Trixie said. “I really can’t stand it.”
    As Trixie spoke, the back door opened a third time and Brian Belden stepped inside. His nose and the