Wonderland

by Barbara O'Connor

But Mavis didn’t tell Mr. Duffy about her plan.

  Still, she was more determined than ever to make it work.

  She was going to find Henry.

  She was certain that finding Henry would make everything better for Mr. Duffy.

  Which would make everything better for Rose.

  And then, she, Mavis Jeeter, would be the best best friend that anyone could have.

  ROSE

  Rose sat on Grace’s bed, thinking about Mavis’s plan to find Henry.

  “We’ll see if we can find some clues,” Mavis had said, “like mashed-down plants where he’s slept or maybe even some paw prints on the ground. He has to be close if he’s still eating Amanda’s food. We’ll find him and take him straight to Mr. Duffy. It’s the perfect plan.”

  But Rose didn’t think it was the perfect plan.

  She glanced up at Grace’s bulletin board over her desk. Tacked to it were ticket stubs from a rock concert in Birmingham, an invitation to somebody’s high school graduation party, a dried rose, a postcard their cousin had sent from Mexico—and right in the middle was a picture of Grace, sitting on the hood of somebody’s car. She was wearing that silky flowered blouse that Rose loved so much.

  Rose wished Grace were here to talk to. Grace would give her good advice about Mavis’s plan. Maybe Grace would tell her it was a bad idea. But then again, Grace was a lot like Mavis. She never cared about breaking rules.

  Rose went down to the library and dialed Grace’s number.

  Grace picked up right away and squealed, “Rosie!”

  Rose told her about Mavis’s plan.

  And wouldn’t you know, Grace thought it was a great idea.

  “Really?” Rose said.

  “Sure! Why not?”

  Then Grace told Rose she needed to have a little fun once in a while, and there were so many dang rules in that house it might as well be a prison.

  “Just go for it, Rosie!” she said.

  Rose said okay, she would go for it.

  Then Grace had to go, so they said goodbye and hung up.

  Rose took a deep breath and headed to the front door. She had agreed to meet Mavis at their spot in the lot across the street so they could go over the plan to catch Henry.

  On her way out, Rose heard her mother and Miss Jeeter in the kitchen talking about vichyssoise.

  “It’s supposed to be cold,” her mother was saying. “Who ever heard of heating vichyssoise?”

  “Cold?” Miss Jeeter snapped. “Who ever heard of cold soup?”

  Rose could imagine the look on her mother’s face when she heard that.

  Then her mother started telling Miss Jeeter about the importance of washing leeks, but Rose wasn’t interested. She went outside to meet Mavis.

  * * *

  “What are y’all doing?” Amanda hollered at them from her front porch.

  Rose wanted to run away, but Mavis jutted her chin in the air and said, “Nothing.”

  “Yeah, right.” Amanda stepped off the porch and came closer. She glanced back at her house and said in a low voice, “Y’all are looking for that dog.”

  “So?” Mavis said.

  “So, if y’all are planning to catch that dog for Mr. Duffy, you’re wasting your time.”

  “What do you mean?” Rose said.

  Mavis headed toward the side of the house. “Just ignore her, Rose.”

  “What do you mean?” Rose repeated to Amanda.

  “Everybody says Mr. Duffy is too old for that job,” Amanda said. “I bet he’s not going to be around much longer.”

  Rose felt her heart clench up tight. “Who says that?”

  “Everybody.”

  “Don’t listen to her, Rose,” Mavis called from the side of the house.

  But Rose had listened.

  And now she had a stomachache.

  But when Mavis called out, “Come on, Rose,” she scrambled after her, pretending not to see Amanda standing there with her fists balled into her waist.

  Then off they went into the woods, pushing through pricker bushes and climbing over fallen trees, searching for Henry.

  MAVIS

  “I think we’re going too far,” Rose called to Mavis. “I can hear the cars out on the highway. I’m not allowed to go near the highway.”

  Mavis stopped.

  She turned around to face Rose and said, “No one will know. This’ll be an adventure.”

  Personally, Mavis loved a good adventure, but she could tell that Rose did not.

  “Come on, Rose,” she said. “I bet you anything Henry is here somewhere.”

  “But we’re going too far.”

  Mavis stomped her foot but immediately regretted it. She took a deep breath and said, “Okay. Then I’ll just go on by myself.”

  Mavis turned and began to walk slowly in the direction of the highway. Then, imagine her surprise when she turned around and saw Rose heading back through the woods toward Magnolia Estates.

  “Dang it,” Mavis muttered to herself.

  Suddenly this adventure didn’t seem nearly as fun.

  ROSE

  Rose’s feet felt like cement as she trudged up the street toward her house.

  What was the matter with her, leaving Mavis alone in the woods like that? Why was she being such a scaredy-cat?

  When she got home, she lifted her cement feet up the stairs to her room.

  Clomp

  Clomp

  Clomp

  Then she sat on her canopy bed and felt so heavy with shame that she was surprised she didn’t sink right through the mattress and onto the floor.

  Mavis was out there in the woods looking for Henry so that things would get right with Mr. Duffy.

  Mavis knew how important Mr. Duffy was to her.

  She was trying to make things better.

  But here Rose sat, feeling so heavy. Acting like the baby that Amanda seemed to think she was.

  Rose got up and went to her dresser. She opened the pink jewelry box with ROSE engraved in silver letters on the top. Nestled inside among the beaded necklaces and sparkly bracelets was Grace’s silver dollar.

  Rose held it in the palm of her hand and heard Grace say, “Just go for it, Rosie.”

  So she slipped the silver dollar into the pocket of her shorts and ran downstairs, out the door, down the driveway, and up the street to Amanda’s house. Then she kept running along the wrought-iron fence and into the woods, calling Mavis’s name.

  MAVIS

  Mavis couldn’t believe it when she heard Rose calling her!

  She stopped tromping through the woods and waited.

  Sure enough, Rose came bursting through the tangled brush. When she caught her breath, she said, “Hey!”

  Mavis grinned. “Hey.”

  Then Rose trudged right past Mavis, leading the way through the woods and calling for Henry.

  As Mavis followed Rose, she felt like she was floating. Like her feet weren’t even touching the leaf-covered ground or jumping over rotting branches.

  Rose hadn’t left her alone to carry out her plan by herself.

  Rose was marching deeper into the woods, even though she wasn’t allowed to be there.

  Rose was being a very good best friend.

  Mavis was so lost in those thoughts that she nearly jumped clean out of her sneakers when a thin white dog stepped out of a cluster of rhododendron and stopped right in front of her and Rose.

  Henry!

  She recognized that long thin nose. Those brown ears. That big brown spot on his side shaped like the map of Texas.

  “Hey, fella,” Mavis whispered.

  Henry wagged his tail.

  He was dirty as all get-out, with dark brown cockleburs stuck here and there in his fur.

  “He’s so skinny,” Rose whispered.

  Mavis took a step toward him. “It’s okay, fella, I won’t hurt you.”

  Henry backed up a little but wagged his tail.

  Mavis took another step.

  Wag, wag


  Another step.

  Wag, wag

  Finally, Mavis was close enough to touch him. She reached out very slowly and put her hand on Henry’s side, stroking him gently on that map-of-Texas brown spot. Next, she stroked his head, rubbing gently between his ears.

  Then Mavis noticed something peculiar.

  “Rose! Check this out!”

  Henry had numbers on the underside of each ear!

  Numbers!

  Tattooed on his velvety ears.

  Actually, one ear had three numbers and a letter: 117E. The other ear had five numbers: 51549.

  What in the world could that mean? Why would a dog have numbers on his ears?

  Mavis had never seen anything like it.

  Rose took a few careful steps closer and peered down at Henry’s ears. Then she looked at Mavis with wide eyes.

  “Why does he have those numbers?” Mavis asked.

  Rose shook her head. “I don’t know, but I think he’s a greyhound.”

  Mavis cocked her head and looked at Henry. “You think so?”

  Rose nodded.

  Henry nudged Mavis’s hand with his long, skinny snout.

  “We should’ve brought some treats,” Mavis said. “I’m going to try to get him to come with us.”

  Then she reached for Henry with both hands.

  But quick as lightning, he jerked away and took off running.

  And in a blink, he was gone.

  HENRY

  Henry was feeling miserable.

  He was tired of hiding in the woods. Prickers grabbed at his skin and roots made him stumble and wet leaves made for a cold bed at night.

  His bad hip ached, slowing him down and making him limp.

  He was hungry. The freckled girl didn’t come to the fence as often as she used to, so the little plastic bowl was usually empty.

  And then there were those two girls.

  The quiet one and the wild-haired one.

  Henry didn’t know what to think about them.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have run away from Wonderland after all.

  There was always food there.

  And a warm, dry bed.

  But something was different at Wonderland.

  Something that did not feel right to Henry.

  ROSE

  Rose and Mavis sat on the log in the lot across the street. The morning dew still clung to the Queen Anne’s lace at the edge of the woods. It was early, but already the midsummer sun beat down, making the air thick with heat.

  Mavis was determined to catch Henry and take him to Mr. Duffy today. She was showing Rose how good she was at tying a slipknot in a piece of rope she had found in the garage. She explained how they could use it as a leash, and everything was going to be so easy.

  Rose was glad her mother was getting her hair done and then meeting some ladies for lunch. If she saw Rose coming out of the woods with a dog, she would have a hissy fit.

  “Let’s go get some chicken or something from your kitchen,” Mavis said.

  “What for?”

  “For Henry. So we can coax him out of wherever he’s hiding.”

  “Oh.” Rose knew Mavis wanted her to be excited, and she was trying. She really was.

  She reached into her pocket and curled her fingers around Grace’s silver dollar. Grace would’ve been so proud of her, running into the woods after Mavis like she had.

  And hadn’t Mavis been surprised? Rose could still see that grin on her face.

  Rose took a deep breath and said, “Okay, let’s go!”

  And off she went, up the side of the street, with Mavis hollering, “Hey, wait for me!”

  When they got to the back door, Mavis said, “Hopefully Mama’s not in the kitchen. But if she is, let me handle it, okay?”

  Rose gladly said, “Okay.”

  Mavis opened the kitchen door a crack and peeked in.

  “She’s not here,” she whispered. “Come on.”

  The two of them tiptoed across the kitchen floor to the refrigerator.

  Mavis began to root around inside.

  “Roast beef!” she said. “And look at these!”

  She showed Rose a plate of tiny quiches, like the ones Mrs. Tully often served when company came in the afternoon. Before Rose had a chance to tell Mavis she didn’t think they should take those, Mavis had already dropped four of them into the plastic bag with the slices of roast beef.

  “What’s this?” Mavis pointed to something beside the plate of quiches.

  Rose wrinkled her nose. “Liver pâté,” she said. “It’s nasty.”

  “Perfect!” Mavis said, and dropped it into the plastic bag.

  “Mavis!”

  Rose and Mavis jumped.

  Mavis’s mother stood in the doorway to the dining room with her hands on her hips.

  And then Mavis did the most amazing thing.

  Before she turned around to face her mother, she stuffed that plastic bag into the waist of her shorts and pulled her T-shirt down over it.

  “Rose was hungry,” Mavis said. “Right, Rose?” She poked Rose with her elbow.

  Rose nodded, her face burning. Why was she so bad at lying? She’d give anything to be as good a liar as Mavis was.

  Miss Jeeter narrowed her eyes and marched over to the refrigerator.

  “Then y’all get some string cheese or something and get on out of here,” she said. “I’ve got sheets to change upstairs.”

  Rose knew how much it annoyed Miss Jeeter to have to change the sheets so often. She had heard her grumbling under her breath that the Queen of England probably didn’t have her sheets changed that often. So Rose knew that now was not a good time to be stealing food from the refrigerator.

  But, of course, Mavis didn’t care how annoyed her mother was. She was bound and determined to carry out her plan to catch Henry today no matter what.

  “What about this?” Mavis held up a small plate of tomato aspic left over from last night’s supper. Rose wanted to tell her that Henry probably wouldn’t like tomato aspic, but Mavis’s mother said, “Fine. Now take it and go.”

  Then, before Rose could tell Mavis that they at least needed forks for tomato aspic, Mavis was hurrying out the back door, calling, “Come on, Rose,” behind her.

  MAVIS

  Mavis explained her perfect plan to Rose. They would go on back into the woods behind Amanda’s house. They’d scatter the food around to lure Henry out of hiding. Then they’d use this rope for a leash and take Henry up to the gatehouse. Mr. Duffy would be so surprised! He would fall in love with Henry in no time flat.

  Rose nodded.

  Mavis put one of the tiny quiches beside a pine tree.

  She put a slice of roast beef on a moss-covered log.

  And she put some of the liver pâté by a clump of ferns.

  “We should save the rest in case we need more,” she said.

  She motioned for Rose to come sit beside her in the damp leaves along the path.

  Then they waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  Just when Mavis was going to suggest that they go to another spot, a dog’s long thin white nose appeared from behind a shrub.

  The nose was sniffing.

  Next, a dog’s brown and white head appeared.

  Henry’s head.

  He looked at Rose and Mavis.

  His nose kept sniffing.

  He hurried to the moss-covered log and gobbled up the roast beef.

  Then the liver pâté by the ferns.

  Then the quiche beside the pine tree.

  Then he walked right over to Rose and Mavis and sat down.

  “Hey, Henry,” Mavis said softly. She ran her hand gently over the top of his head. “Look what I have.”

  She opened the plastic bag in her lap and showed Henry the food inside. Then she took out another one of those quiches and held it in the palm of her hand.

  Henry snatched it off and swallowed it in one big gulp.

  Then Mavis made her move.
She dropped the rope with the perfect slipknot over his head.

  Henry flinched and then pulled, causing the rope to tighten. At first he looked so scared that Mavis felt bad.

  She quickly began to comfort him, telling him what a good boy he was and rubbing his sides. Then she gave him a piece of roast beef and was glad to see that he looked calmer. He stopped pulling on the rope and sat between Rose and Mavis and ate the rest of the roast beef and even the tomato aspic right out of the plastic bag.

  After the food was gone, he lay down, put his head on his paws, and let out a doggy sigh.

  “Aw, he’s so sweet,” Rose said.

  “I know.” Mavis grinned at Rose. “We did it!”

  Then they did their special handshake, slapping, snapping, and fist-bumping.

  “Come on,” Mavis said. “Let’s take him to Mr. Duffy.”

  ROSE

  It was true that Rose had done the special handshake when they caught Henry, but deep down inside, she had been hoping that Mavis’s plan wouldn’t work.

  She knew that wasn’t very nice, but it was true.

  And just the thought made Grace’s silver dollar grow heavy in her pocket. Why couldn’t she be happy they had finally caught Henry? But Rose being Rose, she couldn’t stop her worried thoughts from creeping in and planting questions.

  Like: How in the world could they get Henry out of the woods and up to the gatehouse without somebody seeing them? And what if that somebody was nosy Amanda? Even worse, what if that somebody was her mother?

  So even while she was slapping and snapping and fist-bumping with Mavis, Rose was feeling a little sorry that the plan had worked.

  But here she was, running along behind Mavis with Henry, hoping and praying that nobody saw them.

  As they ran beside Amanda’s wrought-iron fence, Rose kept her eyes on the ground, not daring to look up and see Amanda standing in her yard.

  Then, as they ran up the edge of the road, Rose’s heart nearly thumped clean out of her chest while she said a little prayer that her mother’s shiny black car would not appear.

  But besides her thumping heart, Rose had a little niggle.

  A niggle about Henry.

  There was something about Henry that was bothering her.

  Something that she thought she should maybe tell Mavis about.