The Diamond War by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

and began to dig. It was all very interesting. Everybody stood around and watched the hole get deeper, and because the tractor made so much noise other people started coming to watch too.
    Rafe and Gabe Garcia, Carlos’s big brothers, came first, and then the whole Grant family and their dog, Nijinsky, and Mrs. Anderson with two more grandkids. Mr. and Mrs. Wong and Mrs. Garcia showed up next and after a while Ari’s father came too, still wearing his beat-up old metal sculpturing outfit and with his welding goggles perched on top of his head.
    At first the new people just stood around explaining what was going on to the newer people, but after a while most of them got put to work. That happened when the backhoe couldn’t dig any deeper—and there was still a long way to go to make the grave as deep as the humane society said it had to be. That was when lots of people went home to get shovels and pickaxes and buckets, and Mr. A. sent some grandkids home for a ladder for climbing in and out of the grave.
    It took a long time. At noon most of the women went home and got sandwiches and stuff to drink, and the Garcias brought some yard furniture for people to sit on when it wasn’t their turn to be down in the hole. Rafe and Gabe and Mr. A. and Mr. Wong and Mr. Grant and Ari’s dad did most of the digging, and most of the kids took turns emptying the pails of dirt. Ari would have emptied pails too, if he hadn’t had so much to write about.
    The last page of Ari’s story went like this:
Ladies and gentlemen. I wish you could all be here to see what is happening now. Right this minute they are putting Prince into his grave. Mr. A. and Mr. Wong and Rafe Garcia and my dad each have a hold of one of his legs and they are pulling him toward the edge.
    Oh yes. Athena isn’t here right now. Aurora sent her on an errand so she wouldn’t have to watch this part of it.
    There he goes. Hop. Right down into the hole. And now here comes Athena back again—just in time. Everybody is watching Athena climbing back over the fence with a big carrot in her hand. And now Mrs. A. has starting singing. Mrs. A. is singing “Auld Lang Syne” and everyone is joining in. Everyone is singing “Auld Lang Syne” and Athena is dropping the carrot down into the grave. And now the singing is over and everybody is taking turns hugging Athena, like she was the next of kin, or something. It’s kind of weird, actually, but it sure has cheered her up a lot. And all the people who aren’t busy hugging Athena are shoveling the dirt back into the hole.
    Well, it’s over, ladies and gentlemen. Nearly everybody has gone home. The big story of “The Sad Death of Prince of Castle Court” has ended.

Chapter 18
    A RI WROTE “THE END” in big capital letters and started to close his notebook. But while he was flipping over pages he just happened to notice the other story in the book. The unfinished one called “The Diamond War.” He shuddered, thinking about slingshots and pellet guns. There was no telling when that horror story would be over.
    He finished putting his notebook and pencil away in his fanny pack, climbed down off the fence, and walked over to where Carlos Garcia and Eddy Wong were still shoveling some loose dirt up onto the top of the grave. Nearly everyone had gone home. But Bucky Brockhurst was still watching from one side of the little mound that Carlos and Eddy had made. And on the other side there were just three people, Kate and Aurora and Athena.
    When Carlos and Eddy stopped shoveling, Athena climbed up onto the little mound and started smoothing it down with her hands.
    “Come on, Athena,” Aurora was saying as Ari came up. “Let’s go home. Prince’s funeral is all over.”
    Athena shook her head. “No,” she said. “I want to stay to see the tombstone. Mr. A. told me he was going to bring a tombstone.” She went on patting and smoothing even though her little bitty hands weren’t making much of a difference.
    “Use