MRS. WITKINS'S HOUSE
It was a good thing that I looked out my window when I heard Oliver bark, or I would have missed her. Mrs. Witkins lives next door to Mr. Hurley and Oliver across the street. Anytime someone steps even close to Mr. Hurley's house, Oliver starts barking. He is not very friendly, but he is a very good watchdog. Oliver must have heard Mrs. Witkins trying to climb in the window. Mrs. Witkins is a very nice lady, but she is not someone who you would think would be climbing through windows in the night. She is not very sporty. She is definitely not a rock-climbing-type mom or even a jumping-around-type mom. She is a sewing-and-cooking-type mom, so this was for sure something very strange that was going on.
I watched for a long time, but nothing more happened except that Mr. Hurley took Oliver to eat all kinds of garbage from the street, so Mr. Hurley is always trying to pull disgusting things out of Oliver's mouth before he can swallow them. Mimi and I would have to be careful not to pick a dog like that. I watched for Mrs. Witkins some more, but I couldn't even see her in the basement, so it was kind of boring. Maybe she went out a different window that I couldn't see.
Tomorrow I was definitely going to tell Mimi about Mrs. Witkins so we could both watch from our windows to see if she did it again. Then I drew a funny little comic for Mimi so we could remember about not picking a dog that eats garbage.
COMIC FOR MIMI
THE OTHER GRACE
Grace L. was looking at me again in class. I think either she really wants to be friends with us other Graces or she doesn't like me. It's hard to tell, because she is not a very smiley-type person.
WHAT HAPPENED AT SCHOOL TODAY
Sammy Stringer said he is 100 percent going to bring his skateboard over after school today. That is good because then at least we can tape Chip-Up to it and take him for a walk. That'll be one of the new three things that Dad said a real dog would do. We'll have to make sure that Mom sees us so she can tell Dad all about it.
Mimi said that tonight we definitely have to watch and see if Mrs. Witkins climbs in her basement window again. It happened around eight o'clock last night, so that is when we are going to do our spying.
Miss Lois reminded us that we must not give up on our journal writing. Then she told us about some famous people who kept journals and how those journals were important today because they told us things about history and life from a long time ago that we might not normally know about. Now we have cameras and video, so journal writing is probably not so needed anymore, but I didn't say that out loud because I could tell that Miss Lois would not be happy to hear it.
FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE JOURNAL WRITING
Lewis and Clark were two really important explorers who traveled from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by land all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back again. They were the first explorers to do this and it took them a really long time, almost three years. Back in 1803 when they did this there were no cars or railroads, and of course no planes, so they had to walk the whole way. They kept a journal of all the things they saw and all the adventures they had. This was important because when we read it today we can know what life was like way back then, since everybody from then is now dead and can't tell us about it.
Beatrix Potter, who was a famous writer and drawer of children's books, started a journal when she was fifteen years old and wrote in it every day until she was about thirty years old. The cool thing about her was that she wrote her whole journal in a secret code so that even if other people found it they would never be able to read it. I am sure she didn't use flashlight Morse code because that would have taken her forever and then she wouldn't have had time to write all her books. She wrote lots of stories with bunnies and little animals that had adventures and could talk, such as Peter Rabbit.
The last person that Miss Lois told us about was Samuel Pepys. She said he had one of the most famous journals ever. He lived in London, England, in the 1660s and kept a journal about everything that happened in his life. This was a big deal, because he wrote about the Great London Fire of 1666 and about the Great Plague of London in 1665. Plague is a bad sickness that kills most people who get it. His journal must have been very sad because he was writing about a lot of dying. If I had to write about people dying I would for sure be crying. I wonder if his journal has tears on the pages. I was going to ask Miss Lois but was interrupted by Valerie Newcome, who started talking right away in front of me and didn't even put her hand up.
ME GIVING VALERIE A MEAN LOOK BUT I DON'T THINK SHE NOTICED
Valerie Newcome said that journal writing was exciting to her because she was planning on being famous when she grew up, so her journals would probably be worth lots of money and be really interesting for everyone to read. Martin, the boy who sits behind her, said, "Famous for what?" But before Valerie could answer, Miss Lois said we all had to calm down, and she started talking about Samuel Pepys again, which was not as exciting as Miss Lois thought it was.
I stopped paying attention and started doodling, and I don't know why but it turned into a little cartoon about Valerie being famous. It wasn't a very nice comic, but I didn't really do it on purpose. It just came out that way.
Miss Lois saw that I wasn't paying attention, and before I could hide my paper she took it from me. The next words she said were the most horrible words you would never want to hear.
THE MOST HORRIBLE WORDS
Miss Lois said, "Just Grace, you will take this and report to the principal's office!" Mr. Harris is nice, but he's the principal so he is still scary, and it is especially no fun to sit on the black chair outside his office. Everyone who sees you there gives you the you-are-in-so-much-trouble look. Mrs. M. is extra good at the look, and this is especially bad because she is the office helper who sits right across from the black chair, so she can give you the look a lot!
WHAT MR. HARRIS SAID
Mr. Harris looked at my comic and said, "So, can you tell me about this?" I was glad to be able to do some explaining, because I wanted him to know that it was an accident and that I didn't really mean to be mean on purpose, and that maybe Valerie would be famous one day and then everyone would need to know that she used to make Barbie clothes out of see-through tape and somehow that would be important for history. I was happy when he said that he understood that part.
But then he said that the part he did not understand was why I was drawing a comic when I should have been paying attention in class. This was the part that I was not ready to do any explaining about, because you can't tell a principal that you think your teacher is boring.
So I said, "I'm sorry. I won't do it again." "Good, glad to hear it," said Mr. Harris. And then he said that he was going to throw away my comic so that no one else could see it, but that he wanted me to draw him a new one for the next day about something I had learned in class. Something about journals, and something that was not mean-spirited, which is a word that means making fun of people so they get their feelings hurt. Then he sent me back to Miss Lois.
SOMETHING THAT IS HARD BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE
It is hard to walk back into your classroom after you have gotten in trouble at the principal's office. It would be better if it was impossible—then you wouldn't have to do it—but it's not. Miss Lois said I could take my seat, and everyone stared at me as I did it! I kept my eyes looking at my desk for the whole rest of the time until lunch because I didn't want to see anyone looking at me.
As soon as the bell rang for lunch Mimi rushed over to my desk to ask about what had happened. I could have told her the whole long truth but I didn't. Instead I said, "I'm not allowed to doodle anymore while I'm in class." That way she didn't even ask about the comic, which I wished I had never drawn in the first place. Sometimes if you try hard enough you can almost pretend something never happened, especially if there are only three people in the whole world who know about it.
CHIP-UP'S FIRST WALK
It was nice that everyone was so super excited about Chip-Up. It made it easier to forget about my bad
day. Max and Sammy watched while Mimi and I did the taping of his legs to the skateboard. And before we all left for the park I made sure to yell to Mom that I was taking Chip-Up for a walk. Chip-Up was easy to pull because Sammy had a really nice skateboard with good wheels. Sammy said he wasn't sure if he was going to stay with us at the park, and I knew that was because he was not happy about meeting any real dogs. I couldn't wait to introduce Chip-Up to Emma.
THE PARK
When we got to the park, none of the real dogs wanted to meet Chip-Up. They were all too busy chasing balls and playing with other real dogs. Emma wasn't there so I couldn't tell if she was going to be interested in Chip-Up or not. Sammy said he'd stay with Chip-Up if we wanted to go and visit with the real dogs, and I knew that was because he did not want to be near large furry animals. Mimi and I met three new dogs to add to our list but they were not as wonderful as Emma, or as smart as Mika, or as sweet as Winkie, though they were skinnier. The dog owners who we had met before were all happy to see us and were all talking together like they were the people part of the dog club. Two girls who were young like us were there too.
Their dog was just a puppy so they couldn't let him go off the leash because he wasn't trained yet and would probably run away. Dog people seem to be very friendly, maybe even friendlier than cat people, but that's kind of hard to tell for sure because cats don't really like to hang out with other cats, so their people can't hang out together either.
WHAT DAD ASKED FOR
On the way home I told Mimi, Max, and Sammy what Dad had said about Chip-Up not really being a very good example for taking care of a dog because he didn't do that many real dog things. "You need to make him more real," said Max. "Have him do more real dog stuff." "Maybe you should pretend harder," said Mimi. "You know, make it a bigger deal." Sammy didn't say anything, probably because he didn't want me to get a real dog anyway.
When we got to my house we took Chip-Up off the skateboard and I took him inside because it was suppertime, and supper-pretend-time with Chip-Up.
THE SHOW
All through dinner I did lots of talking to Chip-Up. I told him not to beg, I told him to sit (even though his legs didn't bend right so he couldn't do it anyway), and I told him to lie down and stop whining. I even made some whiny noises so it would sound more real. Mom was having a hard time not laughing, and that was okay because it was kind of funny, and all I wanted anyway was for Dad to be paying attention.
After dinner Chip-Up and I rolled around in the living room making lots of noise. Then Chip-Up jumped up on the couch and got in trouble and had to sit in the corner. This pretending was turning out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I don't know why, but Chip-Up was in a very naughty mood. When I wasn't looking—so it really wasn't my fault because I couldn't stop him—he went and chewed up Dad's shoelaces.
He got sent to the backyard for that, because as a good dog owner, which I am, I know behavior like that is just not acceptable!
After a while I forgave him, and I'm pretty sure he knows never to do that kind of thing again. I was having so much fun with Chip-Up that I almost completely missed looking out my window at eight o'clock. It was good luck that I heard Oliver barking, because that reminded me about it.
MRS. WITKINS
Mrs. Witkins was standing at the bottom of her stairs, waving to her daughter Emily, who is older than I am so we don't know each other. After Emily closed the door, Mrs. Witkins started walking down the street, and I thought for sure she was not going to do the window-sneaking thing again. But as soon as she passed Mr. Hurley's house she turned back around and walked through his yard to get to her window. Of course Oliver was going crazy with barking. I was hoping that Mimi was looking because Mrs. Witkins is not a very good window climber and that made it 100 percent funnier to watch. Just like the time before, the last thing I saw was Mrs. Witkins's bottom disappearing through the window.
As soon as that happened I went to my side window to see if Mimi was there. Of course she was, and she was waving her flashlight around to try to get me to notice her. I turned my flashlight on and held Chip-Up next to me so she could see him.
Right away Mimi started flashing her light to tell me she wanted to send me a message. I had to put Chip-Up down so I could write out the Morse code she was sending me.
It always takes me longer than it takes Mimi to figure out what a message says. I think my brain gets confused with all the dots and dashes. This time it took twenty-five minutes to figure out her message, but most of that time was taken up with looking for my Morse code chart, which probably got knocked off when Chip-Up fell off my window, because where I found it was under my bed.
WHAT MIMI'S MESSAGE SAID
Funny
Mostly I think flashlight Morse code might be just too hard to ever be fun.
WHY I CAN'T GO TO BED
Miss Lois was right: It's much easier to work on your journal if you do it the same time every night. I had a little thought that maybe I should write something nice about Valerie—that way when Miss Lois read it she would know that the comic I made was a mistake and that I wasn't trying on purpose to make fun of Valerie and that it was really just something that was unfortunate. But then that reminded me of the comic I still had to make for Mr. Harris. And since I couldn't think of anything special to say about Valerie that didn't sound dumb and not true anyway, I decided to write about Mrs. Witkins again instead. I was going to describe her house and where the basement window was, so I looked out and guess who I saw climbing back out of the very same basement window?
Mrs. Witkins is my across-the-street neighbor. Every night at around eight o'clock she leaves her house and pretends to walk down the street, and then she sneaks back and climbs into her very own basement window. At about 8:45 she climbs back out the window and goes up the stairs and into the house through her front door. She seems to be very sneaky!
I was hoping that Miss Lois was not going to think I was being mean by saying that Mrs. Witkins was sneaky. I on purpose left out the part about her being kind of tubby and having trouble fitting in the window, because it sounded like I was maybe making fun of her, and I for certain did not want to get in trouble again. Just thinking about being sent to Mr. Harris's office was making me all sad in my stomach again.
HOW TO USE A FLASHLIGHT AT NIGHT
Dad came into my room to say good night and said I had to go directly to bed because it was way past my bedtime and tomorrow was a school day. I couldn't tell him about Mr. Harris's comic because it is not a normal thing to have to draw a comic for the school's principal and he would have for sure been full of questions about wondering why.
If I did not have to, I was not going to tell him about getting into trouble at school. Girls who get in trouble at school do not get to have a present of a real dog in their life. I know that 100 percent.
After he left I put on my pajamas, made Chip-Up a bed on the floor, and said good night to Mom. I had to turn off my light because both Mom and Dad have light-bulb sensors in their brains. They would notice the light being on and catch me not sleeping in seconds. They are like superheroes about light.
MY JOURNAL COMIC
I made a tent with the covers over my head and started to draw Mr. Harris's comic, using my flashlight so I could see.
NOT A GOOD WAY TO WAKE UP
I got woken up this morning because I heard Dad yelling something about shoes. I was lying in bed thinking shoes sounds a lot like snooze, which was something I wanted to do more of because I was so tired from staying up forever drawing Mr. Harris's comic.
Then suddenly I remembered Chip-Up and his chewing. In half a second I was 100 percent totally awake. Now I could hear Dad really well. "Why are my shoelaces chewed up? Will you look at this? I can't tie anything with this half-chewed lace! Do we have squirrels in this house? What's going on? Now I'm going to miss my train!"
I could hear Mom too—she was trying to keep Dad calm. "I don't know, dear. Here are your loafers. Wear the
se. I'm sure we'll figure it all out later. Have a good meeting, dear. See you later." And then nothing.
THIS IS GOING TO BE A BAD DAY
Chip-Up and I went down the stairs really super quietly. I had to carry him because he makes a thump on each step if you pull him with his leash, and you can't sneak around with a thumping dog behind you. We went outside and stood on the front lawn for a little while, and I sort of wished it could be forever because I did not want to go into the kitchen and see Mom. Finally I had to be brave and go back inside. Mom didn't say anything, and for half a second I was hoping that she thought that maybe there was a squirrel in the house too. But that was before she looked at Chip-Up and me and shook her head in a way that said, Boy, I feel sorry for you, because you are going to be in so much trouble!
CAN I STAY AT SCHOOL FOREVER?
Mimi and I walked to school together. She didn't have any great ideas about how to save my life.
Just Grace Walks the Dog Page 4