SVK #76 - Danger: Twins at Work
The last book in the SVK series! And what a doozy it is.
First, let me dispel the notion that the twins are actually, you know, working. It’s Take Your Daughters To Work Day and, naturally, their stint on the job is short. Perhaps this is giving us some insight about why neither twin ever actually held down a job later on.
Liz is narrating this book and starts by describing the day at school when Mr. Crane (wtf happened to Ms. Otis?) tells the class that all the girls will be gone the following day, shadowing a parent at work. The boys will have to go to school, where Mr. Crane plans to take them to the library so they can research different jobs.
Apparently Mrs. Wakefield just got a new job at Taylor’s. I’m guessing this fictitious department store sells lots of Spanish-style decorations. Jess thinks they might help their mom make a big sale. Liz says that if they do, then their mom’s boss might want to hire them for the summer. My thought is no; they’re seven, and this is a department store, not a sweatshop.
The next morning at breakfast, Steven teases the twins about going to work at a department store for the day. He says that he’ll be doing “real” work at Mr. Wakefield’s law firm. Two obvious problems with this statement:
1) I don’t think anyone does “real” work at Mr. Wakefield’s law firm
and
2) It’s take your daughters to work day, not take your kids to work day.
But whatever; there are bigger problems in the Sweet Valley universe to ponder.
Mrs. Wakefield drives the twins to the mall and warns them not to get in trouble. Jessica makes fun of a tall woman who apparently looks like an ostrich, and Mrs. Wakefield says that’s her boss, Mrs. Hengstler. After they’re introduced, Mrs. Hengstler reminds Mrs. Wakefield that they have some important clients coming in, so the twins need to be well behaved.
Mrs. Wakefield shows the twins around the department, including Mrs. Hengstler’s office, where she has many beautiful drawings and sketches of furniture on her desk. Liz wants to ask what the sketches are for, but Mrs. Hengstler’s on the phone. Jessica grabs Liz’s arm and twirls around, bumping the desk in the process. Mrs. Hengstler’s coffee spills everywhere, ruining the drawings. Mrs. Hengstler is pissed because those were designs she’d created for a client. The twins apologize and are hustled out of the room by Mrs. Wakefield.
A little later, Jess and Liz see Mrs. Hengstler talking to a “short, fat woman” named Mrs. Buttercutt (snort) and go over there to try to help Mrs. Hengstler make a sale. They talk up the furniture, and Mrs. Hengstler seems to relax a bit, but then she tells them to go find their mom and help her. They find Mrs. Wakefield, who’s talking on the phone and helping a customer at the same time (great customer service!), so they leave her alone. Jessica wants to play, but Liz is scared of getting in trouble, so Jess says they just won’t get caught.
The twins pull fabric off the walls to drape themselves in, pretending curtain rods are magic wands. The curtain rods are so heavy that Jessica drops one, making a loud noise that Mrs. Hengstler hears. When Liz goes to put the curtain rod back, the entire display comes crashing down at Mrs. Hengstler’s feet. She is furious.
After the mess gets cleaned up, Mrs. Wakefield tells the twins to go sit at her desk while she helps a customer. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hengstler is helping Mrs. Buttercutt finalize her purchases. Liz picks up a furniture catalogue off the desk and notices that the couch Mrs. Buttercutt is buying has a tag price of $3300 but is only $330 in the catalogue. She decides it must be a mistake and that she’ll help close the sale by pointing this out. Mrs. Hengstler asks what Liz is doing with the catalogue, and Liz holds it up so the adults will see the printed price. Mrs. Buttercutt gets angry, says this is giving her a headache, and leaves.
Mrs. Hengstler calls Mrs. Wakefield into her office and says she’s had it with the twins because they’ve been nothing but trouble all day. Mrs. Wakefield is in denial and says she’s sure that they’ve learned their lesson.
Just then, a very important customer named Mr. Schwister who’s apparently given them a lot of business walks in and asks Mrs. Wakefield what happened to his special order that was supposed to have arrived yesterday. He’s angry about this, and the twins are getting mad that he’s speaking so angrily to their mom. Mrs. Hengstler says to keep quiet and that their mom is good at handling customers. She then leads them to the stockroom and tells them to count how many boxes of linen napkins have been received.
After they’re done counting linen napkins, they explore the stockroom some more and decide to eat their lunch back there too and then play a game of hide-and-seek. During the game, a tapping noise starts up. Liz shrieks that it’s a ghost!
Turns out, it’s just a mouse with a discarded piece of their sandwich. They find a weird package covered in foreign stamps and then trap the mouse under a basket, wanting to take him outside… and then Mrs. Hengstler, Mr. Schwister, and Mrs. Wakefield appear. Mrs. Hengstler takes the basket and the mouse escapes! Mr. Schwister says it’s bad enough that they lost his package but now he finds they have mice in the store?!? Mrs. Wakefield is angry because no one told her they would be eating in the stockroom so she had no idea where they were.
Mrs. Wakefield then makes a shocking discovery: the weird package covered in foreign stamps is the mirror Mr. Schwister ordered! He starts laughing, suddenly finding the whole situation amusing. Mrs. Wakefield says the twins did a great job. Mrs. Hengstler apologizes for having been so cranky, saying that it’s been nice to have the twins there and that, as a reward for being so good, they can spend the rest of the day designing their own dream rooms for a window display.
And…. the end. No lead in to the next book, since there is no next book, but there are some quizzes about the book and word puzzles for the reader’s amusement. I’d say this was a pretty mediocre end to one of Sweet Valley’s lesser series.