A Friendly Town That's Almost Always by the Ocean!

by Kir Fox

  “We’ve been looking everywhere for you guys!” she exclaimed with her mouth full.

  “Really?” Davy said hopefully.

  “We’d never go to Hanger Cliffs without our best friends!” Quincy beamed at Davy, who beamed back.

  “Finn’s going to meet us there,” Runa said. “But where’s Earl Grey?”

  “He’s missing,” Nia said sadly. She showed them the leash and described what had happened.

  “Nia, why didn’t you ask me for help?” Jules’s lower lip, which was covered in yellow frosting, quivered. “You know I’m an investigative reporter. And I’ve been getting so much better! Didn’t you read my crab exposé?”

  “Of course I did!” Nia sniffled. “Everybody knows you’re the best investigator in Topsea. I was just…embarrassed. You’re always telling me I need to take better care of Earl Grey.”

  “I think you take great care of Earl Grey! Now that you got the right training book.” Jules beamed at Nia, who beamed back.

  “All right, everyone!” Davy said. “We should split up. I’ll head to the beach with…” He glanced at Runa and blushed. “With Nia. Quincy and Jules can search the school, and Runa can search the beach forest.”

  Runa’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, I love the beach forest. This one time…” She stopped and shook her head. “I’ll save it for later. Let’s go!”

  “You don’t mind missing Hanger Cliffs?” Nia asked.

  “Of course not,” Quincy said. “I mean, of course we do, but Earl Grey is way more important.”

  Jules and Quincy ran off toward the school, Runa scampered toward the beach forest, and Nia and Davy rode toward the boardwalk. “Earl Grey!” they shouted, Davy’s bike bouncing over the uneven planks.

  CLANGCLANGCLANG.

  Finn popped out from under the boardwalk, brandishing his square-shaped bell. He wore striped shorts, a floral tank top, and tiny boat shoes. “Can you keep it down, please?” he asked. “I was having some tea before heading to Hanger Cliffs, and sounds really echo down here—”

  “Earl Grey is lost!” Nia cried. “Can you help us find him?”

  Finn gasped. “Of course! Earl Grey is a good friend. He helped Runa save me when I got stuck to the chewing gum wall.”

  Davy blinked. “That really happened?”

  He parked his bike, and the three kids searched the rocks, the beach, and the sand dunes. They didn’t see Earl Grey anywhere. But they did find Talise down by the water, measuring a starfish with a complicated-looking tool. She wore a wet suit, goggles, and bright blue flippers.

  “Oh, is Hanger Cliffs open yet?” she asked. “I got distracted—”

  “Earl Grey is lost!” Nia cried.

  Talise let go of the starfish. It cartwheeled over the sand before veering into the sea. “Did you check your basement’s basement?”

  Davy’s eyes followed the prints the starfish had made. A few yards away, they crossed a trail of larger footprints.

  “Hey,” he said, pointing. “Aren’t those hoofprints?”

  “They do look like hoofprints!” Nia exclaimed. “Do you think they’re watch-hog prints?”

  Together, the kids followed the hoofprints across the beach. But before long, the hoofprints stopped right in the middle of the sand.

  “I don’t get it,” Nia said.

  “Look!” Davy pointed. “They begin again over there.”

  They hurried over. The hoofprints continued for a few more feet, then stopped again. “How peculiar,” Talise said. “It almost appears as if the hog was leaping.”

  “Do watch hogs leap?” Finn wondered.

  Nobody knew. They kept searching until they found the next set of hoofprints, closer to the water. Then more on the way to the boardwalk, and another set toward the bluffs. Davy hoped they wouldn’t lead to the Untold Caves. He had a bad feeling about those caves.

  The tracks didn’t lead to the Untold Caves, though. They led through the beach forest, past a giant oak tree…

  …and ended at the bottomless cove.

  Runa, Jules, and Quincy joined them just as Nia burst into tears. “Earl Grey fell into the bottomless cove!” she sobbed. “We have to save him!”

  All the kids leaned over the edge of the cove, peering in. Davy definitely didn’t see any watch hogs. In fact, he couldn’t see anything at all. The water was murky and dark. And cold-looking. Really cold-looking.

  “How long can watch hogs hold their breath?” Quincy asked anxiously.

  “A long time,” Nia said. “I’ve been training Earl Grey for the synchronized swim team. But he can’t hold it forever—we need to hurry!”

  “All right, listen up!” Jules said. “Someone needs to dive in to find him.”

  “Talise is the one with the diving license,” Runa said.

  Talise shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m unable to. I’m recovering from a sinus infection. It’s important not to dive when you have a sinus infection.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, because your sinuses might burst. You see, the deeper a diver descends, the more the pressure builds up—”

  “Hurry!” Nia exclaimed, jumping up and down.

  “Dobby should go,” Quincy suggested.

  “Why me?” Davy said.

  “Because of your locker, obviously! You’re the second-most-experienced diver in Topsea.”

  “But I’ve never actually made it to my locker—”

  Talise removed her goggles and handed them to Davy. “Unfortunately, my flippers are too small for you. Fortunately, it looks like you have abnormally large feet.”

  “Hey,” Davy said.

  “Just pretend you’re at Hanger Cliffs,” Jules said. “Rocketing down one of their sixteen exhilarating water slides, or floating down the lazy river right before the treacherous waterfall…”

  Runa smiled encouragingly. “Don’t worry. You’ll be just fine!”

  Davy didn’t feel just fine. But Nia and Earl Grey needed him. He snapped on Talise’s goggles, took a deep breath, and cannonballed into the bottomless cove.

  The water was much colder than the school’s swimming pool. And darker—Talise’s goggles didn’t help much at all. It was hard to tell which way was down. Or up. Davy was half afraid he’d swim the wrong way and end up in somebody’s basement.

  Something brushed Davy’s hand. It didn’t exactly feel like he thought a watch hog would feel, but he was running out of air. He grabbed it and lugged it toward the surface.

  “Gahhh!” Davy gasped.

  “A boot?” Runa said.

  “Ooh, what size?” Finn asked.

  “That’s not Earl Grey,” Nia said. “Hurry, Daven!”

  Davy tossed the boot onto the shore. He took a big swallow of air and dived back down.

  And down…

  and down…

  and down.

  Could the bottomless cove really be bottomless? Davy wondered. Sure, “bottomless” was part of the name. But that could just be a figure of speech. More colorful than calling it “the incredibly deep cove that actually does have a bottom.” Because there had to be a bottom somewhere. Right? If not, you’d swim right past the center of the earth. And then you’d be swimming up again.

  The deeper Davy swam, the darker it got. He groped blindly in the gloom. His fingers brushed against something else. It really didn’t feel like a pig this time, but he grabbed it anyway and kicked toward the surface.

  “Unhhh!” he gasped.

  “Seaweed?” Runa said.

  “That’s not Earl Grey either,” Nia said. “Hurry, Donald!”

  It took a few tries to get the seaweed to detach itself from Davy’s hand. Then he dove again.

  And again. And again.

  Each time, Davy swam deeper than the time before. He hauled up a bundle of rope. A moldy stuffed dog. A history textbook with all the pages missing. A teacup. A conch shell. Something small and rubbery, which felt less like a hog than ever, but Davy was getting tired.

  “Ack, a rubber duck
?” Runa said.

  “Drat,” Talise grumbled. “Of course it’s a rubber duck.”

  “Are its painted eyes rubbed off?” Jules asked.

  Davy blinked. “Huh?”

  “You’re supposed to put it in a bucket and freeze it. Didn’t you get the notification in your locker?”

  “I told you, I’ve never made it to my locker,” Davy said.

  “Hurry, Davina!” Nia exclaimed. “My heart is breaking!”

  Davy took a deep breath.

  SNORT!

  Wait—that hadn’t come out of his mouth. “Did anybody hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Finn said.

  “A snorting sound. I think it was coming from above us!”

  Everybody looked up. Earl Grey gazed down at them from the giant oak tree where he was perched.

  “Snort!” Earl Grey snorted. “Snort! Snort!”

  “Earl Grey!” Nia shrieked in delight.

  “He must have gotten stuck during Gravity Maintenance,” Talise said. “No wonder his hoofprints were so far apart. He wasn’t leaping from place to place. He was floating.”

  “How can we get him down?” Quincy asked.

  Everybody looked at each other, then back up at Earl Grey. “He’ll have to jump,” Quincy said nervously. “Won’t he? Oh dear.”

  Davy thought hard. Back home, he’d have called the police or the firefighters if a pet got stuck in a tree. But he wasn’t back home. And anyway, “back home” wasn’t Davy’s home anymore—Topsea was home. Where coves could be bottomless. And sometimes, during Gravity Maintenance, even the best-trained watch hogs got stuck in trees.

  Best trained. Suddenly Davy remembered Show-and-Tell, back when he’d first moved to town. “Hey, Nia!” he said. “Doesn’t Earl Grey know how to jump through a hoop?”

  She nodded. “But my hoop’s at home. And it’s too small for Earl Grey, anyway.”

  “What if we made a great big hoop with our arms?” Davy said.

  Nia’s face brightened. “Great idea!”

  She grabbed Davy’s hand. Davy grabbed Runa’s hand. Runa grabbed Finn’s hand. Finn grabbed Talise’s hand. Talise grabbed Quincy’s hand. Quincy grabbed Jules’s hand. Jules grabbed Nia’s other hand. Together, their arms made a perfect circle.

  “Ready, Earl Grey?” Nia shouted.

  “Snuffle,” Earl Grey said resolutely.

  “One, two, three…Jump!”

  Earl Grey soared through the air, then landed daintily on all fours right in the very center of their encircled arms.

  Nia laughed and hugged him, kissing his snout at least a dozen times. Then she hugged Davy, even though he was soaking wet. “You’re a hero!” she exclaimed. “You saved Earl Grey!”

  CLANGCLANGCLANG. “Three cheers for Davy!” Finn shouted, shaking his bell.

  Davy blinked. “For who?”

  Everybody cheered. “Davy! Davy! Davy! Davy!”

  That was four cheers, but Davy didn’t feel like correcting them. He stood there, dripping and beaming. Maybe it was silly, considering he hadn’t saved Earl Grey on his own. Every single one of his friends had helped.

  But for the first time since arriving in Topsea, he felt like he belonged.

  “Hey, you guys!” Runa said. “It’s not that late—want to see if we can still make it to Hanger Cliffs?”

  Nia jumped up and down. “Yeah!”

  Jules clapped her hands. “Let’s go!”

  Together, all seven kids ran toward Hanger Cliffs, Earl Grey trotting loyally behind them. As they drew closer, Davy expected to hear splashing and joyful shrieking.

  But the water park was…silent.

  A great big padlock hung on the iron gate. Above it, somebody had taped a notification:

  HANGER CLIFFS WATER PARK

  Nail-biting, edge-of-your seat fun!

  The park is currently

  Open Closed*

  The park will resume

  operation on…………?

  * due to sudden “crab” infestation

  “‘Crab’ infestation?” Nia read unhappily.

  “I guess it makes sense,” Talise said. “Considering they’re not actually crabs, they’re—”

  “I don’t want to talk about it!” Davy shuddered.

  The kids all laughed. “No problem, Davy,” Jules said.

  Davy couldn’t help smiling at the sound of his name. And then, all of a sudden, he blurted out: “But there is something I’d really like to talk to you guys about, though. Someone, actually. Someone who was really important to me.”

  Quincy smiled. “Of course!”

  “We’d be happy to listen,” Finn agreed. Earl Grey nodded.

  “Right now?” Davy asked.

  “Sure!” Runa nodded. “There’s no better time for a good story.”

  Davy hesitated, looking at his friends. All of them at once. He felt a little intimidated, but not as much as he’d thought.

  Finally, he shrugged. “Why not?”

  The next day at school, Davy was determined to make it to his locker.

  He snapped on Talise’s goggles and headed straight for the swimming pool. In the shallow end, the kindergarten class was playing dog tag. “AROOOO!” they howled, taking turns being swept out to sea.

  Davy climbed atop the diving board. The pool was still very, very deep. But nowhere as deep as the bottomless cove. In fact, he could see the bottom from where he stood.

  But he couldn’t see his locker anywhere.

  That was strange. He sucked in a huge breath and cannonballed into the pool anyway. He searched and searched, but his locker was nowhere to be found.

  Davy stopped by the guidance counselor’s office just as the tardy bell rang. “Good morning, Mr. Zapple,” he said.

  “Good morning!” Mr. Zapple set down his copy of the school newspaper. For a moment, Davy caught a glimpse of the headline:

  HANGER CLIFFS SABOTAGE

  PTA Prez Busted

  “I’ve finished my survey,” Davy said. “I’m sorry for all the cross-outs. It took me a while to figure things out.”

  “That’s normal,” Mr. Zapple said, accepting Davy’s survey. “Did you get a chance to read Everything You Need to Know About Topsea?”

  “Wait,” Davy said. “Everything You Need to Know About Topsea is a book?”

  Mr. Zapple nodded. “It should have been in your locker.”

  “That would have been helpful!” Davy sighed. “I never made it to my locker. I searched the entire pool.”

  “Oh, that’s why you’re wet! I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you—we had to move your locker.”

  “You did?”

  Mr. Zapple nodded. “The synchronized swim team said it was getting in the way of their sea-serpent formation. Now it’s on top of the school.”

  Davy blinked several times. “But why…how do I…”

  “You’ll be just fine,” Mr. Zapple told him. “Good luck, Davy!” He waved as Davy left the office. This time, Davy waved back.

  He knew he’d be just fine.

  To whoever finds this letter:

  Perhaps you think you know everything you need to know about Topsea. However, you most likely do not. (Even if you’ve read Everything You Need to Know About Topsea cover to cover.)

  You did not, for example, know that a bottle containing a message was waiting for you as you were collecting clamshells or studying tide pools or measuring the ocean depth with a sounding line.

  You probably do not know what the lighthouse keeper is up to right now. Or why a toothy, rock-loving creature is currently watching you read this. And you definitely do NOT know what’s hidden in the Untold Caves.

  You may not know everything about Topsea. But thanks to this letter, you now know this: something BIG is coming.

  VERY big.

  Keep your eye on the tides,

  Fox & Coats

  Our incredible editors, Emily Meehan and Hannah Allaman, designer Maria Elias, and the rest of the Disney Hyperion team.

&
nbsp; Rachel Sanson, illustrator of our dreams (even the spooky ones).

  Our brilliant agents, Jaida Temperly and Sarah Davies, along with the teams at New Leaf Literary & Media and Greenhouse Literary Agency. Seaweed cookies for all.

  Our families and friends, especially Alison Cherry, Sarah Enni, Kate Hart, Kaitlin Ward, Maurene Goo, Alex Kahler, Lindsay Ribar, Rebecca Behrens, Claire Legrand, and Josh Schusterman. They never fear what we find in our basements—well, except for that one thing.

  Teddy Fox and Adi, our canine mythological mascots. The rock cats also insist on being acknowledged, even though they probably did more harm than good.

  Hey, what’s that scratching sound?

  KIR FOX AND M. SHELLEY COATS (Kirsten Hubbard and Michelle Schusterman) are great friends, longtime critique partners, and ardent consumers of the strange and unusual. Kirsten is the author of the middle-grade novels Watch the Sky and Race the Night (Disney • Hyperion), and the young adult novels Like Mandarin and Wanderlove (Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books). She lives in Los Angeles. Michelle is the author of the middle-grade series I Heart Band and the Kat Sinclair Files (Grosset/Penguin), and the middle-grade novels Olive and the Backstage Ghost and the forthcoming Spell & Spindle (Random House Children’s Books). She is also the coauthor of the YA novel The Pros of Cons (Scholastic). She lives in New York City.