The X'ed-Out X-Ray

by Ron Roy

  The woman with yellow hair who had been sitting in front of Dink was talking to one of the officers. Her face was pale and she looked angry.

  “I demand to be let out of this park!” the woman said through clenched teeth.

  “Please, you’ll all have to stay here just a little while longer,” the other officer explained. “We need to wait for Miss Gwinn.”

  “Come on, follow me,” the doctor said. He put his hand on Dink’s shoulder and guided him toward the front of the line.

  “Hiya, Doc,” the officer said. Dink recognized him as the one who had poked his head into the first-aid tent.

  “Hello, Officer. Look, I have to get this patient to my office pronto,” Dr. Fleming said, his hand still resting on Dink’s shoulder. “He has a hurt arm and a possible concussion.”

  “No problem, Doc,” the officer said. He nodded to his partner, who pushed the gate open.

  Dink, Josh, Ruth Rose, her father, and Dr. Fleming walked through.

  “I’m parked in that lot,” Mr. Hathaway said as they crossed the street. “A blue station wagon.”

  “Me too,” Dr. Fleming said. “Mine’s a red Jeep. The hospital is about a mile down Main Street.”

  The kids and Mr. Hathaway followed the red Jeep away from the park and south on Main Street.

  “How’s that arm?” Mr. Hathaway asked.

  “It’s okay thanks,” Dink said.

  Josh let out a big sigh. “Some people will do anything for attention,” he said.

  A few minutes later, Dr. Fleming pulled into a small parking lot in front of Hartford Hospital. He parked near a sign that said, HOSPITAL STAFF ONLY.

  Mr. Hathaway parked in a visitors’ space, and they all climbed out.

  Dr. Fleming led the group through a side door and down a long corridor.

  They took an elevator to the third floor, then went down another hallway.

  Dr. Fleming pushed open a door with X-RAY printed in green letters. Everyone walked in, and Dr. Fleming pointed to some chairs.

  “You folks can wait here while I get a couple of X-rays,” he said. “This should only take ten minutes or so.”

  Dr. Fleming led Dink through a door into a smaller room. Pointing to a table covered with a white sheet, he told Dink to lie down. Then he put a lead apron over Dink’s chest.

  Dink laid his head on a small pillow and stared up at the ceiling. He could hear Dr. Fleming opening and closing drawers and cupboards. Then Dink saw an X-ray machine slide over the table.

  Dr. Fleming’s face appeared next to the machine. “Now, I want you to lie very still,” he said. He placed Dink’s arm across his chest. “When I say ‘one,’ hold your breath. Let it out when I say ‘two.’”

  Dr. Fleming’s face disappeared. From a few feet away, he said, “One!”

  Dink held his breath. He heard something click. Then Dr. Fleming’s voice said, “Two! You can breathe now.”

  Dr. Fleming stepped next to the table again. “I’m going to get a look at this in the other room,” he said. “Be back in a jiffy.”

  Dink counted ceiling tiles until Dr. Fleming returned.

  “This shot is too blurred,” he said, dropping an X-ray on a table. He grabbed a fat red marker and drew a big X over the X-ray. “I’ll have to shoot another one, without the bandage.”

  Dr. Fleming began removing the bandage from Dink’s arm. “See that sign over there?” he asked Dink. “Read it to me, please.”

  Dink read the sign. It was about drinking milk to make your bones strong.

  “There,” Dr. Fleming said as he dropped the unrolled bandage on the table next to Dink’s shoulder. He positioned Dink’s arm again. “Lie still and hold your breath till I tell you to breathe.”

  Dink did as he was told, and after a minute, Dr. Fleming came back and asked him to sit up. “After I develop this one, you’re free to go,” he said.

  “Okay, this one is much clearer,” Dr. Fleming said a few minutes later. “The arm looks fine, but I’ll put the bandage back on. No baseball for a few days, okay?”

  Dink watched as Dr. Fleming rewrapped his arm. “You should have your own doctor take a look at this,” he said.

  Then Dr. Fleming opened the door and asked the others to come in.

  He showed Mr. Hathaway the X-ray. “No fracture at all,” he said. “Probably just strained it when he fell.”

  “I have to go see my doctor,” Dink told Josh and Ruth Rose.

  “We should take the X-ray with us,” Mr. Hathaway said.

  “Of course,” Dr. Fleming said. He found a large envelope in a drawer and slipped the X-ray inside.

  “Can I have the other one?” Dink asked. “The one that you said was no good?”

  “No, I’ll just throw … sure, why not?” Dr. Fleming said. He slid it into the envelope with the other X-ray and handed it to Dink. “Don’t stand up on any more moving carousels,” he said.

  That evening, Dink ate dinner in front of the TV with his parents. His mother cut his meat for him and made his favorite cookies for dessert. His bandaged arm was resting on a pillow that he held on his lap.

  Dink’s father winked at him. “Some kids will do anything to get out of their chores,” he said.

  “Look, there’s Penelope Gwinn!” Dink’s mother said. She turned up the volume on the TV.

  A reporter was interviewing the singer about the theft of her diamond pendant. Dink could see the white PENGUIN trailer behind them.

  “It was a gift from someone special,” PENGUIN said. “I’m shocked and angry that anyone would steal it.”

  “I’m sure you must feel terrible,” the reporter said. “But your fans feel awful, too. Will you give another concert tomorrow?”

  “No, I’m too upset,” Penelope said. “I can’t think of singing right now, even for my loyal fans. I’ll make sure everyone gets a refund.”

  The camera left Penelope’s face.

  “Well, that’s the story” the reporter said into the camera. “Someone wearing a penguin mask stole Penelope Gwinn’s priceless necklace while asking her for an autograph!”

  The phone rang. Dink’s mother answered it, then handed the portable phone to Dink.

  “Hello?” he said.

  “Did you see that?” Ruth Rose asked. “The thief was one of her fans!”

  “I know,” Dink said. “Pretty rotten.”

  Dink stared ahead. He was trying to remember something when Ruth Rose said, “Dink, are you there?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Listen, come over tomorrow after I get back from the doctor’s, okay?”

  Just as Dink hung up, the phone rang again.

  “Hello?”

  “I think it was that hot-dog guy!” Josh exclaimed. “He had an autograph book, remember?”

  “Lots of people there had autograph books,” Dink said. Then he remembered something. “Josh? After we came out of the first-aid tent, the hot-dog cart was gone.”

  “See, I told you!” Josh said. “That guy with the hairy fingers is the thief!”

  “Maybe,” Dink said. “Can you come over tomorrow so we can talk about it with Ruth Rose?” he asked.

  “What time is lunch?” Josh asked.

  Dink laughed and hung up.

  Dink’s father shut off the TV and picked up a book.

  Seeing the book made Dink remember the yellow-haired woman who had been sitting in front of him during the concert.

  She had been holding an autograph book.

  And she seemed pretty mad at that cop for not letting her leave the park right after the theft.

  At ten o’clock the next morning, Dink and his mom drove to the family medicine clinic on Main Street.

  The receptionist brought them to Dr. Bryte’s office. Dr. Bryte snapped on a pair of rubber gloves.

  Dink handed him the envelope containing the X-rays.

  “What’s this?” Dr. Bryte asked, holding up the x’ed-out X-ray.

  “The other doctor took that one while I had the bandage on,” Di
nk explained. “He said it was too blurry, so he did another one with my bandage off.” Dink pointed to the envelope.

  Dr. Bryte slid the X-ray back into the envelope and pulled out the other one. He attached it to a light board and examined Dink’s arm bones.

  “I see nothing in this X-ray except healthy bones,” Dr. Bryte said. “I think you just suffered a minor sprain, Dink.”

  Dr. Bryte unwrapped Dink’s bandage and examined his arm. He cleaned the scrape and put on a sterile Band-Aid. “No sports for a few days, kiddo,” he said. “And stay off carousels!”

  Later in Dink’s room, Ruth Rose laid the Green Lawn newspaper across Dink’s desk. There was a large photograph of Penelope Gwinn and a drawing of her penguin necklace. Under the pictures, the caption read: “PENELOPE’S PENGUIN PENDANT PURLOINED!”

  “What’s ‘purloined’?” Josh asked. He was flopped on Dink’s bed with Dink’s guinea pig, Loretta, on his chest.

  “I don’t know,” Dink said, reaching for his dictionary. He flipped to the P section and ran his finger down the page.

  “Purloin means ‘to steal,’” he said after a minute.

  “Duh,” Josh said. “I could have figured that out!”

  “Then why didn’t you?” Dink asked, grinning at Josh.

  “Listen to what Penelope told the reporter,” Ruth Rose said, reading the paragraph under the pictures.

  I always sign autographs during my intermission. I was signing and thanking my fans when suddenly someone grabbed my necklace. It all happened so fast. Before I could react, the thief was running away.

  “We were almost witnesses!” Josh said.

  “Except that the necklace didn’t get stolen until we were on the carousel,” Dink reminded him.

  Josh aimed a crooked smile at Dink.

  “Actually, only two of us were on the carousel,” he said. “You were falling off!”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose, Josh,” Dink said, rubbing his arm.

  Ruth Rose was still reading. “It says Penelope stood by the gate as each person left the park,” she said. “But she didn’t recognize the thief.”

  “Maybe the guy split right away,” Josh said. “He purloined the necklace, then boogied out of the park before they closed the gates.”

  Dink told Ruth Rose about the missing hot-dog cart.

  “You mean it just disappeared?” asked Ruth Rose.

  Dink shrugged. “It was gone when we all left the first-aid tent,” he said.

  “I was right!” Josh said. “Just think, the same fingers that served our hot dogs stole Penelope Gwinn’s necklace!”

  “Might have,” Dink said. “But do you guys remember that woman sitting in front of me during the concert?”

  Ruth Rose and Josh shook their heads.

  “Well, there was this woman with an autograph book,” Dink said. “As soon as Penelope Gwinn announced the intermission, she ran up to the stage. Then when the cops were stopping everyone at the exit, she got all mad at them. Maybe she stole the diamond penguin!”

  “Penelope never said it was a man,” Ruth Rose commented. She glanced back at the newspaper. “She just told the reporter someone stole her necklace.”

  “So it could have been a man or a woman,” Dink said. “Even a tall kid!”

  “Maybe Penelope Gwinn remembers something else about the thief today,” Ruth Rose said. “She was so upset yesterday, she could have forgotten something important. Why don’t we go talk to her?”

  “Just like that?” Josh said. “This big star isn’t gonna talk to three kids, Ruth Rose.”

  Ruth Rose grabbed her newspaper. “Well, I think she will. Meet me at my house in five minutes!”

  “But I’m hungry!” Josh said. “Don’t you people ever eat?”

  But Ruth Rose was already out the door.

  Dink took Loretta from Josh and put her back in her cage. “Come on downstairs,” he said. “Mom made some peanut butter cookies last night.”

  Josh jumped off the bed. “Finally someone thinks of me!” he said, following Dink out of the room.

  Dink found a note on the kitchen table: GONE WITH DAD. BE BACK LATER.—MOM.

  Dink turned the note over and wrote a message of his own: GONE WITH JOSH AND RUTH ROSE. BE BACK LATER.—DINK.

  He and Josh each ate two cookies with milk. Dink took the last two as they headed out the door.

  “Can I have one of those?” Josh asked.

  “Oink, oink,” Dink said. “These are for Ruth Rose and Nate.”

  They walked across the lawn to Ruth Rose’s house. Dink rang the bell, and Ruth Rose’s four-year-old brother, Nate, opened the door.

  “Hi, Nate,” Dink said, and handed him a cookie.

  “Wow, thanks!” Nate said.

  He turned and raced away. A minute later, Ruth Rose showed up. She was holding the photograph of Penelope Gwinn with the singer’s signature on the bottom.

  “When Penelope sees what I wrote on the back, she’ll talk to us,” Ruth Rose said.

  She flipped the picture over. Ruth Rose’s note said:

  DEAR MISS GWINN,

  WE HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE

  PERSON WHO STOLE YOUR DIAMOND.

  SIGNED,

  RUTH ROSE HATHAWAY,

  DINK DUNCAN, AND JOSH PINTO

  “I don’t get it,” Josh said as Dink handed Ruth Rose the cookie.

  Ruth Rose took a bite. “Thanks, Dink. Josh, I think my message will persuade Penelope Gwinn to see us,” she explained.

  “But what’s the information we have?” Josh asked.

  “We’ll think of something,” Ruth Rose said. “Let’s go!”

  She turned around and yelled into the house, “BYE, MOM. I’M TAKING OFF WITH THE GUYS!”

  The kids walked to Main Street and took a bus to Hartford. They shared a seat toward the rear.

  “Well, one thing we can do is describe that hairy hot-dog guy” Josh said. “If he was the thief, she might remember him.”

  “And I can describe that woman sitting in front of me,” Dink said. “They both had autograph books and they were both in a big hurry.”

  The bus let them off not far from Bushnell Park. “The hotel is on the other side,” Ruth Rose said.

  They cut through the park, passing by the carousel. The circus music was playing, and a few kids were sitting on the mounts.

  “Want to go for a ride, Dink?” Josh teased.

  “No, but you can,” Dink said. “Or are you afraid to do it alone?”

  “I’m not afraid of anything!” Josh said.

  “Guys, there’s the hotel,” Ruth Rose said and pointed across the street.

  They were standing near the stage. The chairs were gone, but the steps up to the stage were still in place.

  “Let’s check it out,” Dink said.

  They walked to the stage, passing the first-aid tent. Dink peeked inside. It was empty except for the two chairs and the sign about sunstroke.

  Josh climbed up on the stage and gazed out at an imaginary audience. “Maybe I’ll become a rock star,” he said. “Thousands of people will want my autograph.”

  Ruth Rose was studying the ground around the stage steps. “Penelope would have come down these steps to sign autographs,” she said. “The thief was probably standing right here, waiting for his turn!”

  “Or her turn,” Dink reminded Ruth Rose.

  “Or her,” Ruth Rose agreed. She bent over and picked up a small plastic container. “I think this held film for a camera,” she said. “I wonder if it’s a clue.”

  Dink picked up a pair of smashed sunglasses. “Come help us search,” Dink yelled up at Josh.

  “For what?” Josh asked, sitting on the edge of the stage.

  “Clues,” Ruth Rose said. She held up a dollar bill. “Look what I just found!”

  Josh was on the ground in a flash. After searching for five minutes, they had a small pile: the broken sunglasses, the empty film container, a pencil, one dollar, one penny, ten ticket stubs, seven
flattened penguin masks, and about a hundred candy wrappers.

  They threw the masks, stubs, and wrappers into a trash bin. Ruth Rose put the other stuff in her pocket as they walked toward the hotel.

  The trailer was gone.

  “What if Penelope isn’t even here?” Dink asked. “If she canceled her concerts, maybe she went home. Wherever that is.”

  “I never thought of that,” Ruth Rose said. “We’ll know in a minute.”

  The kids walked into the hotel lobby and up to a long reception counter. Two clerks were standing behind the counter. One was talking on the telephone, so Ruth Rose approached the other one.

  “Excuse me, is Penelope Gwinn still staying here?” she asked.

  The woman looked at Ruth Rose. “And you are …?”

  “I’m Ruth Rose Hathaway,” she said. “Penelope Gwinn sent me this signed picture.” Then she turned it over so the woman could read the back.

  “We were there when it happened,” Ruth Rose said. “I think Miss Gwinn would like to hear what we have to say.”

  The clerk picked up a telephone and dialed a number. “Hello. There are some children in the lobby asking to see Miss Gwinn. They say they have information about the theft of her diamond. Yes, thank you.”

  The clerk hung up the telephone. “Room 1200, on the twelfth floor,” she said. “Elevators are to your right.”

  The kids found the elevators and got on one. Josh pushed the button for twelve, and they were whisked upward.

  When the elevator doors opened, a man was waiting for them. It was the same man Dink had seen escort Miss Gwinn to the stage. He did not look happy to see them.

  “I’m Miss Gwinn’s manager,” the man said. He glared down at the kids with fierce eagle eyes. “What do you have?” His arms were crossed over his broad chest.

  “We, um—” Ruth Rose started to say.

  “We saw two people who acted weird,” Dink said. “We think one of them might be the thief.”

  Penelope Gwinn walked up behind the man. “Thanks, Hans,” she said.

  Up close, Penelope Gwinn didn’t look like a famous rock singer. She was wearing sweats and her hair was in a ponytail.