Luckily for Gavin, Carlotta has had no “business” to deposit on anyone’s front lawn so far. And walking down Marin is kind of nice. There’s a bike shop with big motorcycles lining the sidewalk. Then there’s a doughnut shop with the most wonderful aroma wafting out of it. He plans to bring money tomorrow and buy a couple, then eat them in front of Danielle and make her drool. He can’t wait. Then there’s the hobby store, with all kinds of interesting stuff in the window. Little Miss Carlotta is prancing along, all happy, it seems, and Gavin is thinking, This isn’t so bad. They pass the coffee shop, and some of the customers are sitting at outdoor tables, sipping their drinks, chatting with one another or just checking out the happenings on Marin.
This is not bad at all. Four more days of this and he’ll have earned the money for Danielle’s snow globe. Uncle Vestor will be back from his conference, and things will be back to normal. No more Aunt Myrtle checking his plate to see if he’s eaten all his Brussels sprouts or beans or turnip greens.
They pass Wendy’s Wonderful Wigs with its crazy display of wigs on a stand just outside the store. Blond ones, red ones, brown ones, and jet-black. Suddenly, Carlotta begins that low, throaty sound she makes when she’s thinking about misbehaving. It gives Gavin a not-so-good feeling. He clutches the leash a little tighter in anticipation of—what, he doesn’t know. He looks down at Carlotta. Something about the way she’s pulling a little at the leash fills him with dread. He needs to get her past Wendy’s Wonderful Wigs. There’s something about the place that’s disturbing her. He could cross the street. But no, he’s too far from the corner traffic light. It would be dangerous.
He decides to go the other way, but Carlotta lurches forward, throwing her whole body into the move with surprising strength. The leash jerks out of his hand, and Carlotta makes a mad dash toward the display of wigs. Helplessly, Gavin watches her leap at a blond wig cut into the shape of Moe’s hair from The Three Stooges. Carlotta lets out a low growl while shaking the wig vigorously.
“Stop that dog!” a voice behind Gavin shrieks. Could it be Wendy of Wendy’s Wonderful Wigs? She toddles out in some of the highest heels he’s ever seen. She throws her hands in the air and does a little hop on her high, high heels. “Stop that dog!” she repeats, then looks around for help. The butcher has come out of his shop next door. While Gavin looks on, not knowing what to do, the butcher grabs one end of the wig and begins to pull. But Carlotta’s got an iron grip on it. She curls her lips back, showing her teeth clenched tightly on the wig as she hangs on furiously. Gavin never knew that Carlotta could be so strong—and stubborn. He knows he should do something, but he can only stand there watching.
Finally, with one strong jerk, the butcher frees the wig and holds it up out of Carlotta’s reach. Gavin manages to grab the leash and wind the end around his hand just as Carlotta leaps up at the wig again.
“That’s a dangerous dog!” the wig lady screams. She stands there holding her head as if she has a terrible headache. “She should not be allowed out if she can’t be controlled!”
“I’m really sorry, ma’am. I didn’t know she didn’t like wigs. I just started walking this dog today. She’s not even my dog.”
With that, Gavin shortens the leash even more. Carlotta struggles against it. He has to practically drag her away from the shop and its enticing wig stand. All the way down the street, Carlotta tries to pull back toward Wendy’s Wonderful Wigs, as if she just wants one more go at that blond wig. The end of the block seems miles away. He hears the wig lady’s protests at his back until he finally turns the corner toward his house.
Then, as if that isn’t enough, Queen Carlotta starts barking at a big Labrador snoozing in the shade of an elm tree in a fenced yard. She must know that there’s no way the big dog can get at her, because she turns ferocious, pulling back her lips, snarling and barking loudly, and straining in the Labrador’s direction until the big dog is furiously running back and forth on the other side of the fence, barking in frustration.
“Cut it out!” Gavin yells as he pulls her away. “Leave that dog alone!” But Carlotta, still proving her bravery, pulls the other way. That’s when he decides he’s had enough. He scoops her up and practically runs the rest of the way home.
Of course, Aunt Myrtle is at the door waiting for him. Her brow is furrowed and her hand is on her chest.
“I’ve been so worried,” she says in a breathless voice. “Might I remind you, you were to walk her thirty minutes total? It’s been a good forty minutes.”
Gavin’s shoulders sink. He doesn’t see all that much difference between thirty minutes and forty. And anyway, didn’t Aunt Myrtle tell him to give Carlotta plenty of sniff time?
Then Aunt Myrtle spots the empty plastic bag in Gavin’s hand.
“You’re bringing back that bag empty? You should have stayed out longer.”
Gavin looks up at his great-aunt. He opens his mouth to speak, but he truly can’t think of anything to say. He can’t win.
Five
Where’s Carlotta’s Chew-Chew?
As soon as Gavin walks onto the schoolyard the next morning, he sees Richard on the basketball court playing one-on-one with his brother Darnell. Gavin walks the other way toward the handball courts. When he gets there, he just sits on the bench and watches the handball game in pro-gress. He’s a little irritated about Richard’s lack of loyalty from the afternoon before. He can still hear his loud laughter. He just might not talk to Richard for a while. Maybe he’ll find a new friend. He glances over at the basketball court and sighs.
Richard catches his eye then and waves him over. But Gavin stays put as if he doesn’t even see him. Richard throws the ball to his brother and runs over to the handball court. He straddles the bench where Gavin sits with his elbow resting on his knee.
“What’s up?” Richard asks.
Gavin looks off across the yard. “Nothin’.”
“How come you’re over here and not playing with us?”
“I don’t feel like it.”
Richard stares at Gavin for a moment, then says, “You look like you’re mad about something.”
“Why would I be mad about something?”
“Is it because I didn’t finish walking that dog with you? I had to go.”
“Right.”
“For real. I had some chores I had to do at home.”
Gavin shrugs. The freeze bell rings. Almost everyone freezes in place. Except Harper. He’s busy rolling a basketball around with his foot. Some kids just have to break rules no matter what, Gavin thinks. When the second bell rings, Gavin gets up and walks to Room Ten’s line. Richard follows.
“Can you get permission to come to the skate park?” Richard asks as they skip down the steps after school. He’d been acting extra nice to Gavin throughout the day, even giving him his pudding cup at lunch. Some of Gavin’s anger has drifted away. “I’m gonna run home and get my skateboard and something to eat, and then I’m going to the skate park with Darnell and his friends,” Richard continues.
“I have to walk Carlotta. Remember?” Gavin says, annoyed that Richard needs reminding.
“Oh, yeah.” Richard seems to be mulling this over. “What about after you walk Carlotta?”
“Then it’s time to do my homework. But I’ll see.”
So of course, as Gavin walks home—alone, since Richard has run off to the skate park to meet his brother and his brother’s friends—he rehearses how he’ll put this question to his mom. He’s not all that hopeful. His mother can be pretty strict about homework.
But as far as Carlotta’s concerned, his plan is all mapped out. He’s going nowhere near that wig place. Then he has an idea, an even better plan that will take care of his obligation to that furry fiend while letting him have some fun. After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!
Gavin practica
lly bounces up his front porch steps, anxious to drop his backpack by the staircase inside and hurry into the kitchen to make his snack. He’ll even remember to wash his hands. Then when his mother calls out, “Don’t forget to wash your hands,” he can say, “I already did.” He loves beating his mom to the punch. “Put your backpack on the bottom step, out of the way,” she’s always saying. “I already did,” he’ll be able to call back. But now that Aunt Myrtle’s here, it seems his mother suddenly has a lot to do, away from home—a lot of volunteer work and stuff. And his dad doesn’t get home until six. That leaves Gavin at the mercy of Danielle and Aunt Myrtle. What a duo!
He’s still imagining the way his snack time will go when the door swings open and Aunt Myrtle appears with Carlotta in her arms before he can even climb the porch steps.
“There you are,” she snaps. “You take Carlotta, and I’ll take your backpack.” She puts Carlotta, already attached to the pink leash, down on the porch. Gavin hands over his backpack and takes the plastic bag and leash. This is the second day in a row he didn’t get to have his wheat crackers and grape jam! Sometimes he thinks grownups forget that kids have feelings too. How would Aunt Myrtle like it if she was hungry and somebody gave her a big chore to do before she could even eat? She probably wouldn’t like it at all.
“Oh,” Aunt Myrtle says, pulling a rawhide bone from her pocket. “Don’t forget to take Carlotta’s Chew-Chew.” Aunt Myrtle nuzzles Carlotta’s mouth with the special little bone that Carlotta is always playing with or attacking with her sharp little teeth. It’s her favorite thing in all the world—according to Aunt Myrtle. “When she gets sidetracked sniffing at everything, just coax her away with this.”
Gavin takes the grubby thing out of her hand, trying to put the thought of all the dried dog spit that it’s probably covered with out of his mind. The end of the week can’t come soon enough.
“That’s okay,” he says to himself under his breath as he ambles down the front walkway. He has a plan. “Aunt Myrtle,” he says, stopping at the sidewalk and looking back, “can I keep Carlotta out a little longer? I think she really likes to be out.”
Aunt Myrtle squints and purses her lips, thinking this over. “I guess it won’t hurt. But no more than an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Gavin says. He hears the door close behind him, and instead of heading down Willow Avenue, his own street, he walks up his driveway to the backyard. His skateboard and helmet are there, propped up against the side of the house. He can’t get to his kneepads and elbow pads, because they’re up in his room. He’ll just have to do without them. He has no intention of letting Miss Carlotta the Curse ruin his life.
Too bad he didn’t think of this yesterday. He feels pretty good with his skateboard under his arm, his helmet dangling from his free hand, and Carlotta prancing along beside him. She’s actually being really good. Gavin thinks she’s going to love the park, anyway. Maybe she’s picking up his excitement and she’s excited too. He once read that dogs are supposed to be kind of sensitive, able to pick up moods and stuff.
As soon as he spots the special fenced-off skate park with its steep slopes and curved walls and stairs and railings and bowl’s edges, Gavin’s stomach flutters with anticipation. His feet are itching to jump on his board, but first he has to find a place to tie up Carlotta. It won’t be so bad for her. Carlotta will have fun just looking at all the stuff going on in the park. Kids running around, dogs on the jogging path with their owners, soccer practice. Gavin’s plan is to stay thirty minutes—no more. Ten minutes to get there, thirty minutes at the park, ten minutes to get back home. Another day down, four dollars in his account. He looks around. Not far away is one of those racks for chaining up a bike. It’s only about ten feet from the skate park. Perfect.
Gavin marches Carlotta over to it, but when they get about three feet away, she begins to pull back. It’s as if she knows this is it for her. It’s like when his mother picks him up after school and he gets a funny feeling, but she waits until he’s already in the car before she tells him, “Oh, yeah, you have an appointment at the dentist. That’s where we’re headed.” Then he gets to think of that shot in the mouth all the way there.
He tugs at Carlotta’s leash until he manages to get her to the bike rack. He loops it around the post and then ties a double knot. He tugs it until it’s snug. All the while Carlotta is doing a little hop and pull, trying to free herself. He remembers her Chew-Chew and pulls it out of his pocket with just his thumb and forefinger. It’s so yucky, he holds it away from himself. He imagines that it was once white. Now it’s a grungy gray with dark smudges that Gavin imagines are old drool. Gavin waves it in front of Carlotta’s nose, hating that he has to touch the thing. She sniffs at it, but then looks at him with big sad eyes. He turns away and sees Richard on a bench just inside the chainlink fence that cordons off the skate area from the rest of the park. Carlotta starts up her yaps, and the sound follows him as he fast-walks over there.
Richard looks up and gives him a big grin of surprise. “I thought you had to walk that dog.”
Gavin smiles slyly and points to Carlotta, who’s settled down with her Chew-Chew. “I can only stay for a little bit. How come you’re not skating?”
“’Cause that Harper guy has my skateboard. He said he just wanted to borrow it for five minutes, and it’s been way longer than five minutes.”
Gavin scans the skateboarders until he sees Harper on Richard’s skateboard and Darnell on his own. He narrows his eyes, still a little angry about the day before. Gavin definitely doesn’t like Harper. In fact, he feels Harper was the one who led the laughter at his expense.
“Is that guy your brother’s good friend?”
“Kinda. They’re in the same class, and he’s always wanting to go everywhere Darnell goes and do whatever Darnell and his other friends are doing. He came from this other school. I bet you he got kicked out.”
“Didn’t he do third grade twice?”
Richard shrugs. “Maybe.”
“Well, you can share my board. We can take turns.”
Gavin slips on his helmet. He moves to the top of the first pocket and waits while one of the big boys goes down the curved wall, does a heel flip, propels himself up the opposite curved wall, then leaps onto the long stair railing. Down the older boy sails, like some kind of skateboard champion, to land nicely on top of his board, crouched and ready. Back and forth he goes, up and down one curved wall and then its opposite. It looks like he could do that forever.
Gavin can only do the curved walls. For now. He adjusts his helmet, and when there’s an opening for him, he jumps on his board and skates the curved walls back and forth. It gives him a wonderful feeling of freedom. He loves it. He still has to learn all the tricks he sees the bigger boys doing all the time. As soon as he doesn’t have this dog-sitting job anymore . . .
After a few minutes, he stops and carries his skateboard to Richard. He looks at Carlotta, who’s going to town on her Chew-Chew. She’s finally quieted down. She seems happy.
“Here you go,” he says to Richard, handing over his board. Richard grins. He puts on his helmet and hurries off. Gavin watches him for a bit, then turns toward the more expert skateboarders. He can learn a lot just from observing them.
Gradually, Gavin becomes aware of a whimpering sound. At first, he pays no attention to it. The park is full of people and dogs. But little by little, the whimpering draws his attention away from the skateboarders. He glances over at Carlotta and sees her running back and forth, straining at her leash. She’s making the strange whimpering noise, as if she’s upset about something.
Gavin looks closely. He doesn’t see Carlotta’s Chew-Chew. He checks the ground all around her, but it’s nowhere in sight. Where is it? “Richard,” he calls out, “I have to see about Carlotta. Something’s wrong.”
Richard, who is standing on top of one of the big half-pipes and preparing to drop in, looks over at him and frowns.
“I have to go, anyway,” Gavin
shouts. “Just drop off my board at my house on your way home.”
“Okay,” Richard calls back. Gavin suspects his mind is already on his next maneuver.
Gavin searches the grass around Carlotta while she paces and whimpers. It’s got to be here, he thinks. But it’s not. Could a squirrel have gotten it and carried it off? He looks down at Carlotta and rolls his eyes. Because of this stupid dog, he’s had to cut his fun short. He does feel a teensy bit sorry for her, though. Gavin tries petting Carlotta to calm her down, but it doesn’t work. She just keeps whimpering, and now she’s pulling at her leash. He leaves her tied to the bicycle rack and starts out in search of the Chew-Chew, keeping his eyes on the grass around him as he moves away.
He circles the soccer field with no luck, then heads toward the large climbing structure on the playground. Maybe one of the little kids ran off with it. Maybe his mother or father discovered that nasty thing in their child’s possession and dropped it in the nearest garbage can. Gavin checks trash cans along the way. He grabs a thin branch from the ground and stirs the garbage around in each one. No Chew-Chew. He supposes he could dig down further, but it’s getting late and he knows he should go get Carlotta and head home. He has a vision of Aunt Myrtle standing on the porch, scowling and tapping her foot.
As he starts for the next trash can on his way to the play structure, a large brown dog with long shaggy fur runs by. Its teeth are clamped down on something that looks just like Carlotta’s Chew-Chew. In fact, he’s sure it is Carlotta’s Chew-Chew! It’s the same grungy beige color. It has the same bitten-off ends . . . The more he looks at it, the more he’s sure. But . . .
Dog Days Page 4