The Big Mistake Club, Part 4: Secret Mission: The Class Plant

The Big Mistake Club, Part 4: Secret Mission: The Class Plant

The Story Begins

The morning sun drew yellow squares on the windowsill. Beside the window stood the class plant in a clay pot. Usually, its leaves stood tall like little green flags. Today, though, they drooped.

Adam leaned over it so closely that he almost dipped his nose into the soil.

“We have a problem,” he whispered gravely.

Ela adjusted her round purple glasses. “We have a plant that looks tired. That is not an international problem yet.”

Samo studied the plant for a long time. “Is it standing or sitting?”

“Standing,” said Ela.

“Then why does it look as if it wants to sleep?”

Just then, Mrs Benková closed the notebook on her desk. She wore a dark green sweater and her usual calm smile.

“Children, I need to see the deputy head for a moment,” she announced. “Please carry on reading quietly. And only observe our plant. Leave it nicely in its place by the window.”

Adam looked at Ela and Samo. All three knew this was no ordinary plant. Mrs Benková called it the guardian of order on the windowsill. It stood exactly between the box of crayons and the little globe. When someone left a scrap of paper or a crumb on the windowsill, she often said, “Look, the guardian of order would be sad.” Then the class tidied it up.

When the teacher left, Adam leaned towards his friends.

“Operation Green Leaf begins!” he whispered. “We’ll help it in secret. Quickly, quietly, and without anyone noticing.”

Ela glanced at the clock. “We may have five minutes. That is enough time for water, not for an operation.”

“An operation can be short,” Adam argued.

Samo raised a finger. “And if it is so secret that even we do not know about it, how will we know when it is over?”

That was a good question. But Adam had already pulled a small green watering can from beneath a table.

He held it in both hands and looked as if he had discovered a device from a spaceship.

“This,” he whispered, “is a secret rescue device.”

“That is a watering can,” said Ela.

“A secret watering can.”

“Still a watering can.”

Samo bent closer to it. “Does it have a grow button?”

Adam turned the watering can over, looked beneath it, then held its long spout to his ear. The water inside splashed softly.

“Can you hear anything?” Ela asked.

“It sounds very important,” said Adam.

A few classmates looked up from their reading. Miško noticed the watering can and whispered to the girl beside him, “Why is Adam listening to a watering can?”

“Maybe he is picking up a secret signal,” she whispered back.

Adam noticed their curious looks. Instead of simply putting the can down, he hid it behind his back. That made it look even more suspicious.

Ela sighed quietly. “Being unnoticed has just gone out the window.”

“Then we have to find it,” said Samo, turning at once towards the window.

“Not being unnoticed,” Ela stopped him. Then she looked at the plant. “First, let’s find out what is actually wrong with it. Maybe it needs water. Maybe it is too warm. Or maybe it only looks sad because its leaves are heavy.”

Adam’s eyes lit up. “An observation mission!”

Before Ela could explain that she meant simply having a look, all three lined up by the window. Adam stared outside with narrowed eyes. Ela examined the soil in the pot. Samo bent down as carefully as if he were reading tiny letters on a leaf.

“I see dry soil,” he announced.

When Things Start to Change

“That is useful,” Ela agreed.

“I see a drop on the windowsill.”

“Also useful.”

“And I can see myself in the glass. I look as if I’m looking for a dragon.”

Adam nodded. “That is exactly what a proper investigator looks like.”

Behind them, whispering began to spread faster than a paper aeroplane. Someone thought they were looking for a fingerprint. Someone else claimed that a secret package had landed in the schoolyard. Kristínka even quietly suggested that perhaps something had disappeared.

“Only something that was here can disappear,” said Samo.

Ela turned round. “That is surprisingly accurate.”

Just then, there was a bang by the door. Someone in the corridor had dropped a box of books. Samo jumped and looked at the watering can in Adam’s hands.

“The object must be secured,” he declared. “So it cannot run away.”

“A watering can has no legs,” said Ela.

“That does not mean it cannot disappear.”

Before Adam turned back to the plant, Samo carefully took the watering can from him. He walked past the desks, opened the art-supplies cupboard, and placed it behind a large box of coloured paper. Beside it were brushes, modelling clay, and a few dried-up pots of poster paint.

Samo closed the cupboard so quietly that it could barely be heard.

Adam nodded with satisfaction. “Good move. Secret equipment in a secret place.”

Ela looked at him. “Do you know where it is?”

“Of course. I mean… Samo knows.”

Meanwhile, Samo had returned to the window and was staring at the dry soil again. A moment later, Adam held out his hand.

“The secret device, please.”

Samo frowned. “Which one?”

“The watering can.”

“It is secured.”

“Where?”

Samo opened his mouth, but at that moment two children by the cupboard began jostling to get a better look inside. The doors slammed shut. Someone cried, “Did you find treasure?”

“Maybe a spell!” Kristínka added.

Adam went only a little pale. That was enough for Ela to realise that even he did not quite know what was happening now.

“Do you remember when the brushes got mixed up with the glue and half the class painted shiny clouds?” she said quietly. “That started with the words ‘Leave it to me’, too.”

“Those clouds were beautiful,” Adam protested.

“One of them stuck to a desk.”

By then, the whole class was watching the cupboard. An ordinary watering can had become the most mysterious thing in the school. Miško asked whether it was a detective game. Kristínka wanted to know if a map was hidden under the drawings. Even the children who had been reading a moment before stood by their desks with tense faces.

Adam took a breath. “Dear classmates, this is a very important and completely… um… unusually ordinary thing.”

“That explains nothing,” said Ela.

“That is exactly what makes it secret.”

“And what if the watering can has a plan of its own?” Samo asked.

The classroom fell silent. Then the door opened.

Mrs Benková returned sooner than they expected. With one look, she saw the open cupboard, the cluster of children, Adam with his hands in the air, Ela with a hand on her forehead, and Samo examining the handle as if it might answer him.

“It seems,” she said calmly, “that my three minutes were very busy.”

Nobody laughed. Adam lowered his eyes. Ela looked at the wilting plant. Samo raised his hand.

“We did not want to spoil it,” he said. “Only save it.”

Mrs Benková came over to them. “Save whom?”

“The guardian of order,” Adam and Ela answered together.

Then the truth tumbled out of them faster than Adam’s first plan. They told her about the drooping leaves, the secret mission, the device, the observation by the window, and the watering can that had been secured so well that nobody could find it.

An Important Moment

The teacher listened without a single frown. When they had finished, she looked into the cupboard. Behind the box of coloured paper, she found the green watering can.

“Here it is,” Samo said happily. “Exactly where I put it.”

“That is the great advantage of literal order,” Mrs Benková agreed.

Ela examined the plant. “The soil is dry. It needs a little water and to stay by the window. Nothing more.”

Adam picked up the watering can, but this time he paused. “Should I pour?”

The teacher smiled. “Slowly.”

So he watered it slowly. Samo watched to make sure the water did not overflow onto the windowsill. Ela held the leaves aside so that the watering can would not catch on their thin stems. The other children gradually returned to their seats, although they still watched curiously.

Of course, the plant did not straighten up at once. That would have been far too magical. But after a while, one leaf stopped drooping quite so low. It looked a tiny bit braver.

“See?” said Mrs Benková. “Sometimes help is completely ordinary. That does not make it any less important.”

Later, when the class had settled down, Adam, Ela, and Samo took out their club notebook. On its last page, they already had a few short notes about ideas that had not gone as planned. Adam read one of them and smiled.

“Next time, I’ll slow down first,” he said. “At least until I am holding something that sounds important.”

“A watering can does not sound important,” Ela reminded him.

“When you hold it to your ear, it does a little.”

Samo thought for a moment. “Next time, can I have a mission called Report on What Is Really in Plain Sight?”

“That would be a useful mission,” said Ela.

Mrs Benková handed them a pencil. “Write down today’s rule. I think you have earned it.”

Adam wrote while Ela dictated, so that he would not miss a single word. Samo checked that every letter could really be seen.

A new sentence appeared in the notebook: “Secret actions in the classroom stay secret only until someone starts rescuing them.”

All three looked at it. Then they laughed as quietly as they could. By the window, the class plant stood in its place, and its leaves in the sunlight did not look at all as if they were planning to run away.