Encyclopedia and Sally were sitting in the Kimball’s living room after dinner when they heard rustling outside. Sally was convinced that it was a peeping Tom and was ready to brain the sicko with a floor lamp. Encyclopedia’s cooler head prevailed, and he told Sally to turn the light off so that they would be able to see who was outside in the dark.
Of course, now that we’ve established the fact that you’re unable to see outside a closed window when it’s dark outside but light inside, we know that this is going to play as part of the solution. So… act surprised when this comes up later.
It turned out it wasn’t some sick pervert hanging outside Sally’s window; it was Scott Curtis, trying to take a photo of Encyclopedia and Sally without their knowledge. See? That’s not weird at all.
Scott was participating in the Junior Photography Show, and he was heavily favored to win. The only person standing between Scott and the top prize – a bicycle – was Winthrop Ledbetter, who had a reputation for cheating at everything. Why it was widely-known that he was a cheater, but he was allowed to get away with it each time is never explained.
The day of the contest, Scott displayed his four photos. They looked pretty good, but Winthrop’s sole entry was much better.
It showed a girl, in a well-lit room lighting a candle. On the table, near the candle, are some wrapped Christmas presents, and behind her to one side is a Christmas tree. On the other side is a window, and through the window, we can see that the picture snapped just in time to show a woman outside of the window, falling. It was explained that the night the photo was taken, the woman was up one story, hanging out of the window (for whatever reason) when she was blown away by a strong gust of wind. The woman landed on an awning, and escaped with only a broken leg.
If it was windy, that meant that the window was closed, as the candle remained lit for the photo and the curtains didn’t seem to be moving. If that was the case, then the camera wouldn’t have been able to pick up what was going on outside.
That dirtbag, Winthrop, admitted that he had cheated and Scott won, learning the valuable lesson that it’s okay to creep around outside people’s windows, so long as you could potentially get a bicycle out of it.
