Following Baxter

by Barbara Kerley

  Dedication

  For Scott—

  and our magical dog, Seamus

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1.The Big White Moving Van

  2.TJ vs. the Dog

  3.An Awful Lot of Waffles

  4.The Body-Sized Crate

  5.7:15 on the Nose

  6.The Buzz, the Pop!, and a Little Bit of Screaming

  7.Study Butt-ies

  8.A Really Good Home for Baxter

  9.Spectrometers and Elbows

  10.Baxter and the Boop

  11.The Secret Layer of Science

  12.The Baxter Station

  13.Spike Takes a Hike

  14.Caveman vs. Zombie Cheerleader

  15.The Barfing Sock-Snake

  16.Bounce-Pass Keep-Away

  17.The Crabby Detective

  18.Baxter Slumber Party

  19.Jordie, Jordie . . . Jordie!

  20.The Missing Professor

  21.For Emergencies Only!

  22.King of the Bounce

  23.TJ, the Genius

  24.3:42 A.M.

  25.A Hard Landing

  26.Cranking the TJ Zapper

  27.Mutant Frogs and Nuclear Ants

  28.A Pink Box the Size of Something Delicious

  29.Pretty Outstanding at the End

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  The Big White Moving Van

  When the big white moving van rumbled up to the house next door, I dumped my Crispy Rice down the kitchen sink and ran into my brother TJ’s room.

  “Wake up!” I pulled his pillow out from under his head and whapped his nose with it. “Someone’s moving in next door!”

  “Go away!”

  I ran outside.

  I’d been waiting forever for someone to move in, ever since the For Sale sign went up last summer. Then the sign changed to Pending, which Mom said meant “waiting,” and I had been, for two months, even after it changed to Sold.

  Considering how close together all the houses are in our neighborhood, you’d think I might have noticed someone clomping up the old wooden porch steps next door and opening their front door. But Crispy Rice crackles a lot, so it’s easy to miss something.

  You couldn’t miss the van, though. It was huge. A big guy with a bushy dark beard and ponytail got out and walked toward the house with a clipboard while another big guy with his head shaved smooth as an egg got out and stretched. They were sort of funny together because one was so hairy and one wasn’t at all.

  I leaned against the little fence between the two yards, waiting to see who was moving in. Maybe it was a family with a girl my age, so I wouldn’t be stuck every afternoon with just TJ. Or a young couple with a baby they’d let me push in a stroller.

  Instead, out walked an old lady wearing a Portland Trail Blazers T-shirt tucked into her elastic-waist jeans. Her short gray hair kind of stuck up on one side, like she’d forgotten to brush it. I reached up to check if I’d brushed mine.

  The old lady talked to the clipboard guy while the egg-head guy pulled up the back hatch of the van. Then she noticed me and waved.

  I waved back and thought, Oh well, no kids.

  But at least I could see what kind of furniture the old lady had, because if she was rich, maybe she had her own pinball machine. I’ve seen that in movies. Or a grand piano, and then I could watch the two guys try to carry it up the porch steps and through the front door.

  Suddenly, this big shaggy gray dog burst out of the house.

  I thought, A dog! That’s even better than a baby!

  He bounded down the old lady’s front walk, like he had springs on the bottoms of his feet. He bounced up the ramp into the moving van and back down the ramp and across the yard and over the fence, circling my legs before bounding back over the fence again. He tumbled to a stop right by the old lady, woofing the whole time. But he wasn’t woofing in a scary way—he was woofing like he was saying how happy he was to be here and how happy he was that we were all here, too.

  The old lady hurried into her house and came back out, holding a leash. The dog followed her over to the tree right across the fence from me. “He must have gotten out of the bathroom,” she said, smiling at me. “I think I need to tie him up for a little while so he doesn’t trip someone carrying furniture into the house.”

  “I can watch him!”

  “Really? Thank you. That would be most helpful.”

  The dog stood beside her, quietly panting.

  “What’s his name?” I asked.

  “Um, Buddy . . .” Then she shook her head. “No, wait—Charlie. Sammy? . . . Oh, this is terrible, but I can’t remember.” She rubbed her chin with her hand. “I think I wrote it down somewhere, but everything’s in boxes right now.”

  “You don’t know your own dog’s name?”

  “Well, he’s not actually my dog. He belongs to a colleague at work. I’m only watching him for a few days.”

  The dog leaned his head against her hip and looked up at her, his long pink tongue flopped out and resting on his teeth.

  “He sure acts like he’s your dog,” I said.

  The lady laughed. “Yes, I suppose he does.” She patted the dog’s head. “You’re sure you don’t mind watching him?”

  “No problem!” I clapped my hands on my thighs, and before I could say “Here, boy!” he jumped back over the fence and landed at my feet.

  The lady laughed again. “What’s your name, dear?”

  “Jordie Marie Wallace.” (I always put the middle name in, too, because it sounds so pretty all in a row like that.)

  “Thank you, Jordie.” She hurried toward her house.

  I scritched under the dog’s chin. “Hey, buddy!”

  He reared up on his hind legs and planted his front paws on my shoulders, so fast and heavy it practically knocked me over. We stood eye to eye then, with his crazy silver eyebrows standing straight up and his black lips open, panting dog breath, and his shaggy gray beard, dripping water. Either he drooled a lot, or he’d already drunk from the old lady’s toilet. “You’re a good boy!” I nodded.

  The dog nodded back.

  Huh, I thought.

  He dropped to the ground and leaned against me.

  “Oh, by the way,” the old lady called from across the yard, “I’m Professor Reese. Like the peanut butter cup.”

  And just as I started thinking how strange it was for someone to introduce herself like a candy bar and add a “Professor” in front of it, I also started noticing that the stuff coming out of the moving van was strange, too.

  There was a huge wooden crate as big as a body with the word Fragile stamped on it a dozen times. There was a gray metal electronic “console”—that’s what the egg-head guy called it—covered with lights and buttons. It was so heavy both guys grunted as they carried it up the porch steps. There were long skinny boxes, and tall skinnier boxes, and big coils of cable, and three computer monitors. The moving guys kept asking, “Where does this go?” and every time, Professor Reese’s answer got more interesting.

  Because every time they asked, Professor Reese answered, “The lab.”

  2

  TJ vs. the Dog

  I sat down in the grass, and the dog settled next to me, giving a big sigh when I started to scratch his ribs.

  Then TJ came outside eating a bagel with cream cheese. (He’s a year younger but almost as tall as I am, which is really annoying.) “So, who’s moving in—”

  The dog jumped up and bounded toward him, woofing. TJ yelped, threw the bagel, and ran back inside, slamming our door b
ehind him.

  TJ’s scared of big dogs, but I figured once he actually met this one, he’d like him. So I went over to the door, and the dog came with me. (After he ate the bagel.)

  There was TJ, with his hands cupped around his eyes, peering through the window part in the door and making the glass fog up.

  I heard the bolt slide closed. “Unlock the door, TJ!”

  “No!”

  I rang the doorbell three times, until Mom answered in her pajamas. “What’s going on?” she asked as TJ ran back toward the kitchen.

  We’re not allowed to have a dog. Mom’s asked the landlord—twice. But he’s what Mom calls a “sour old crank” and said no the second time, too. He said he wouldn’t even let us have a dog if it slept in a doghouse in the yard. He had a NO DOG POLICY.

  So Mom couldn’t let the dog in the house, which was just as well seeing as how we probably would have had to peel TJ off the kitchen ceiling.

  She scooted out to sit on our porch steps. The dog stood with his front paws on the bottom step, looking up at us.

  I told Mom about Professor Reese watching the dog for a few days, and all the strange things going into her lab (which we agreed was weird because who has a lab in their house, and what did it used to be, the dining room?). “But she’s really nice.”

  Mom kissed the top of my head and patted the top of the dog’s. “I have some blueberries in the freezer. How about I make some muffins for us to take over?”

  “OK!”

  When Mom opened the front door, TJ slid out about halfway, which made me think he must have been watching us the whole time.

  The dog looked at TJ and swished his tail back and forth.

  “He’s really sweet,” I said.

  “Humph,” TJ replied.

  I patted the spot next to me. The dog scrambled up the steps and plopped down, his bony elbows clunking on the porch. I scritched the coarse gray hair on the back of his neck and the softer hair between his crazy eyebrows, and he rolled over into me.

  TJ kept the door open, so he could dive back into the house, I guess. But by then I was stroking the tiny hairs on the bridge of the dog’s nose and his long ears, soft as velvet, and he had closed his eyes.

  “So the lady moving in is a professor,” I said. “She has a lab in her house.”

  TJ scrunched up his eyebrows. “Weird.”

  “I know.”

  We sat watching the moving van guys. After a while, the dog started to snore. The smell of warm blueberry muffins floated out our doorway, and everything was perfect.

  Then no more boxes came out of the van. The egg-head guy pulled down the rattly back hatch, which woke the dog. When the two guys got in the van and slammed their doors, he jumped to his feet. Mom came out in her jeans and T-shirt, holding a big plate.

  She handed it to me. The plate was warmed by the stack of muffins, and she’d added a packet of peppermint tea. I decided that when I was a mom, I’d make welcome muffins for new neighbors, too.

  “Ready?” Mom asked.

  The dog followed me down the stairs, sniffing like crazy. But TJ hung behind. “Come on, TJ!” I said. “He’s not even looking at you!”

  “Yeah, right,” he grumbled, but then he came, too. Even though he’s scared of big dogs, TJ hates to miss anything. Also, Mom’s muffins are really good.

  We climbed the stairs to Professor Reese’s front porch. “Hello!” Mom called into the open doorway.

  Professor Reese hurried out from the back. “Hi, Jordie. I was just coming to get our mutual friend. Thank you again.”

  “These are for you.” I held out the plate. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

  “Oh my! They look delicious!” Professor Reese said. “My table and chairs are all set up. Please come in.”

  “I’m sure you’re busy,” Mom said. “We just—”

  “OK!” I said before she could mess it up. Even if you are busy, you should never be too busy for blueberry muffins. Besides, I wanted to see the lab.

  I stepped into the living room past boxes stacked everywhere. Professor Reese had a purple couch and an orange armchair. “You have an orange chair!” I said because all our furniture is brown.

  She winked. “I like bright colors.” She led us into the dining room, which meant the lab must be somewhere else. “I’ll put on the kettle. I know just what box it’s in.”

  TJ stopped in front of a stack of pictures leaning against the dining table. The first one was a gigantic blue wave, towering up to curl over a little fishing boat. He shook his head. “The guys in that boat are toast.”

  Professor Reese laughed. “I got that one in Tokyo. I have prints from all over the world. Take a look while I make the tea.” She headed into the kitchen.

  We looked at the prints of markets and rivers and people and tried to guess where they were from. Mom thought maybe France and Russia and somewhere in South America. I wondered what it would be like to go to all those places. Then the kettle whistled, and Professor Reese brought in a yellow teapot and four yellow cups.

  We all sat down at the dining table. The dog flopped in the corner like he’d been living in the house his whole life. And TJ just scowled down at his muffin because every time he looked up, the dog was panting, watching him eat.

  Mom and Professor Reese did that thing grown-ups do, asking about each other’s jobs—like how Mom worked in a doctor’s office billing insurance, and Professor Reese taught physics at the university and served as an adviser to the science museum.

  “So you have a lab in your house?” I asked.

  “I will.” Professor Reese nodded. “I’m setting it up in the basement.”

  “Can we see it?”

  She shrugged. “There’s nothing to see. It’s just a room full of boxes right now.”

  “Speaking of boxes, we should let you unpack.” Mom pushed back her chair.

  I broke off a piece of my muffin and held it out to the dog. He gobbled it up. “Did you remember the dog’s name yet?” I asked Professor Reese.

  She laughed. “No. I can email his former owner, but he’s flying to Dubai today.”

  “I can’t believe you’re watching a friend’s dog on your moving day!” Mom said.

  “Well, it was an emergency.” Professor Reese explained that her friend got a new job at a university in Dubai. He decided it was too hot there to take the dog, so he found a great family in Portland to adopt him. “Then, at the last minute, they changed their minds.” Professor Reese shook her head. “He was in a panic when he came into work yesterday. So I said I would take care of the dog until I could find a good home for him.”

  I looked around the room. “This looks like a good home.”

  “Oh, I’m much too busy for a dog, Jordie.”

  Darn, I thought.

  “But that reminds me,” Professor Reese said. “Is there a veterinarian in walking distance? I don’t own a car.”

  “I can show you!” I said. “Me and TJ can go.”

  He looked at me like, Wait, what?

  Mom frowned, the tiniest bit. “Well, uh—”

  “Sure! It’s on the way to the music store where Dad works, and me and TJ walk there all the time,” I said mostly to remind Mom. “And Mom always says it’s nice to help your neighbors,” I added, so she’d say yes.

  So Professor Reese put the rest of the muffins on the kitchen counter. Then me, TJ, and Professor Reese headed out, with me holding the dog leash and TJ staying as far away from the dog as he could.

  Everyone noticed us—Mr. Hutchins, out pruning his hedges, and Mrs. Wesley, walking her poodle, Moxie, and even Tyler from my class, who was shooting hoops at the park. The whole street noticed because you couldn’t help but pay attention to a dog like that:

  “Oh my gosh, your dog is cute!”

  “He’s so big!”

  “He’s so sweet-tempered!” (“Yeah, right,” said TJ.)

  When we got to the vet’s, Professor Reese went over to look at all the flyers stuck on the bulleti
n board. “I need to find a dog walker to start on Monday until I can find a home for him.”

  “I can walk him!” I said.

  “I need a professional—someone I can count on, every afternoon.”

  “You can count on me! All I do after school is get stuck with TJ!”

  “Hey!” he cried.

  “Please?” I added. “I really love dogs, and we’re not allowed to have one.”

  “Well, you can ask your mom.” She tore off a strip of paper with a phone number from a dog-walker flyer. “I’ll bring this home, in case she says no.”

  “She won’t say no,” I said. I swallowed, hard. I didn’t actually know that for sure. Me and TJ got out of school at two thirty. We had to walk straight home—and stay there—until Mom got home from work about four.

  I might be able to convince her, but only if I could convince TJ to go with me.

  When we got back to Professor Reese’s kitchen, she found the box with glasses and bowls. She got us some water and the dog some water. Then he plopped down, his beard puddling water where he rested his chin.

  “I wonder what his name is,” I said.

  “I don’t know if it really matters,” Professor Reese said. “Whoever adopts him will probably want to give him a new name.”

  “Killer,” TJ suggested. “Or Wolf.”

  “You know,” Professor Reese said, “he reminds me a bit of my great-uncle Baxter. He had a beard like that. And those muttonchop sideburns. And, come to think of it, the same bushy eyebrows.” The dog’s eyebrows went up and down, first the left, then the right, as he looked at each of us in turn.

  I petted the dog’s head, and he turned his face up toward me.

  “You’re a good boy!” I smiled.

  He pulled the corners of his cheeks up, like he was grinning back at me.

  “Hey!” I looked up to see if they had seen it, but Professor Reese was putting the rest of the glasses in a cupboard while TJ grabbed another muffin from the plate.

  I turned back to the dog, but he just flopped down and rolled onto his side.

  “Run upstairs, Jordie, and see if you can find a box marked Dog Bed in the master bedroom,” Professor Reese said. “We can’t have Baxter sleeping on the floor.”