Army Brats

by Daphne Benedis-Grab

  “Roger that!” Rosie shouted.

  Tom nodded eagerly, but Charlotte held up a hand.

  “We are,” she said slowly. “But would it be possible to make a video of it? A video with a few, um, flares? It would kind of save us, if it’s okay with you.”

  Mr. Skakov leaned forward. “I’m intrigued,” he said. “Tell me more.”

  “Yes, the site is secure,” Mr. Skakov said, his back facing away from the phone Tom held up. They were standing just inside the house with the lights off, so the image was dark and slightly grainy, just how Tom wanted it. “This is a top secret mission, and no one is going to be able to—” Mr. Skakov turned to face the camera phone, and his eyes widened in a very believable expression of shock. “Hey, how did you get in here?”

  Tom made a muffled sound and shifted the phone so that he was in the frame too.

  “Don’t let him escape,” Mr. Skakov called. Tom was pleased to hear how sincere he sounded, as if security had truly been breached.

  Sergeant Brogan, an assistant dog trainer who had arrived a few minutes earlier, came charging up the stairs as though she were coming after them. “Stop!” she shouted.

  Tom clicked off the video. “Perfect,” he said, very satisfied with the take. “Thanks.”

  “This reminded me of my days in high school drama,” Mr. Skakov said. “Though I never got the lead in any of those plays.”

  “You did a great job with the lead here, sir,” Tom said. “You were very convincing.”

  “I think it’s going to be perfect,” Charlotte said, grinning at her brother.

  “So can we visit Buddy?” Rosie asked impatiently. “He’s been waiting a really long time to see me again.”

  “Is it okay if I take some more video footage?” Tom asked as they headed down the basement stairs.

  “Sure,” Mr. Skakov said. “We’re open to visitors now, and more kids coming by would be great. We’ll have a sign-up so that we keep it to a few people at a time. And of course we want families to meet the dogs. Maybe some of them will find homes right here on post.”

  They’d arrived at the basement to find that in the past week it had been transformed into a small, cozy kennel. Cages with colorful dog beds inside lined two walls. Metal storage bins held training supplies and were secured with the locks the Baileys had seen on the table. There were sticks inside like the ones Charlotte had seen Mr. Skakov carrying, as well as rubber balls, feeding supplies, and leashes, which were the leather straps they’d seen when they’d peeked in the basement window.

  But best of all were the five dogs. Two were at the food bowls finishing up breakfast. Another was on a leash with a trainer who was using the heel stick as a guide tool. The fourth was now with Sergeant Brogan, getting a treat for sitting when told to do so. And the fifth, a German shepherd with a long black nose, was bounding up to greet Rosie.

  “Buddy!” Rosie shouted, hugging the big dog close. She was rewarded with a slobbery lick on the chin that made her giggle.

  “His name in the field was Phantom,” Mr. Skakov said, reaching over to pat the wriggling dog. “But Buddy’s a good nickname. This guy is about ready to be adopted, Taco and Daredevil too. They arrived in pretty good shape. Pixie and Boots will need some more time here, but they’ll be ready soon enough.”

  Tom saw that Pixie was cowering a bit, and Boots had part of the fur on her back shaved off so that a cut with neat stitches could heal. She too seemed skittish at their arrival. But when the trainer with Taco unsnapped her leash, she headed straight for Tom and Charlotte. Tom noticed that she limped a bit but her tail was wagging, and she leaned against his legs when he bent down to pet her.

  “What a sweetie,” Charlotte said, grinning as Taco nuzzled her hand.

  “Phantom,” Rosie said. “That’s the perfect name because me and Victor really thought he might be a phantom.”

  “He did disappear that day,” Tom remembered, looking up from petting Taco.

  “Yeah, with that awful lady,” Rosie added. She was snuggling Phantom/Buddy but still scowled at the memory.

  Mr. Skakov snorted. “I think you might be referring to Private Saunders. Phantom arrived early, so she was charged with his care and was under orders to limit his socialization until we were sure he was ready to mingle with people. Unfortunately he got off his leash and ran away one day. I think she got pretty scared.”

  “Well, she was very rude.” Rosie sniffed. “But I guess she was just trying to take good care of Buddy.”

  “Yes, I think that was it,” Mr. Skakov said with a smile. “And clearly he’s pretty happy to interact with people now.” Phantom was wriggling with delight as Rosie rubbed his furry tummy. “So I hope you’ll come back to visit him again.”

  Rosie nodded seriously. “I will,” she said. “And my friend Victor will come too. His daddy has a dog named Sunshine, so Victor knows a lot about dogs.”

  Mr. Skakov, who had been heading over to Boots, turned. “Did you say Sunshine?”

  Rosie nodded. “Yes, and Victor was helping me find Buddy. He’s going to be very happy when I tell him that Buddy’s been here all along.”

  Mr. Skakov tilted his head. “Yes, you should definitely bring Victor here,” he said.

  Tom realized he needed to keep filming, and he pulled the phone out of his pocket.

  “Want us to be really scary this time?” Sergeant Brogan asked with an evil grin.

  Tom laughed. “No, this is the follow-up where we reveal what’s really going on.” It was important to get this part right, to show everyone that Tom had faced down the danger and truly gotten to the bottom of things. No one would be able to call him Sergeant Wimpy after seeing that.

  “Okay,” Tom said, holding up his phone. He could just imagine Chase and the others’ reactions once they’d seen this. “Let’s get started.”

  “Hurry, hurry!” Rosie shouted. It was later that afternoon, and while Tom worked on editing his video at home, Rosie and Charlotte were biking back to the house off Crimson Drive that Rosie now knew was going to be called the Fort Patrick Canine Rehabilitation Center. And this time, they had Victor with them.

  When they arrived at Victor’s house, he’d had some news: Pepper was home. The puppy had dug one of her holes so deep that it had provided her with an escape route under the fence. But after a jaunt around post, including some overnights with friendly families, she’d been returned to her home, much to the Jameses’ joy. Rosie was happy to hear the Jameses had their dog home, but her news for Victor was even bigger and she couldn’t wait to share it.

  Rosie hadn’t told Victor who was waiting at the Center—she wanted it to be a surprise. But if Victor didn’t speed up, she didn’t know if she’d be able to hold her secret in much longer.

  They finally arrived, and Rosie was ready to race inside. But as soon as they parked their bikes in the driveway, Victor sat down on the lawn. “I think I got a rock in my shoe,” he said, slowly undoing the laces.

  “Just come,” Rosie pleaded. “You can take the rock out later.”

  Charlotte shot her a look that said Rosie was not respecting Victor’s feelings right now, then squatted down next to Victor. “Let’s get that pebble out of there,” she said, taking Victor’s blue sneaker and giving it a good shake. Then she put it back on Victor’s foot and tied it while Rosie stood next to them, trying not to explode with excitement.

  Finally, finally Victor was ready. Rosie led the way up the steps, and Mr. Skakov met them at the door, with Phantom/Buddy on a leash right next to him.

  “It’s Buddy!” Victor exclaimed, looking at Rosie. “Right?”

  “Right,” Rosie said, greeting the big dog with a hug. “Only his real name is Phantom and he lives here now.”

  Victor looked slightly perplexed as he held out a hand for Buddy to sniff. “That mean lady isn’t his owner?”

  Mr. Skakov snickered, but Rosie shook her head seriously. “No, Phantom was an MWD and now he’ll be adopted.”

  “This
is a really good surprise,” Victor said, petting the soft fur on top of Phantom’s head.

  Rosie exchanged a gleeful look with Mr. Skakov. “It is, but there’s more,” Rosie said. “An even bigger, better surprise.”

  She’d found out about it from Mr. Skakov. While Rosie’s siblings were making the video, he had taken her upstairs to the veterinary office. And now Rosie couldn’t wait for Victor to see what was up there too.

  “Can we go now, sir?” Rosie asked Mr. Skakov.

  He nodded. “Yes, Major Cho is ready for you.”

  Rosie wanted to race up, but Victor was a slowpoke again, taking his time to climb up the wide wooden stairs carefully. The top floor of the building was light and airy, with small offices for different veterinary procedures and canine dental work. Rosie led Victor straight back to the big exam area full of chairs, a metal table, and a cabinet of vet medical things, where Major Cho, the kind vet, was waiting. But none of those things were the surprise. The surprise was sitting on a red corduroy dog bed, a bandage around one paw but his tail wagging slightly as he watched them walk in.

  For a moment Victor looked at the dog, then he gasped and his eyes filled with tears. “Sunshine,” he said, his voice scratchy.

  “Yes!” Rosie said, nearly dancing with delight. “He came home to wait for your dad to get back.”

  Victor walked over to the dog and hugged him tight, burying his face in Sunshine’s fur.

  Rosie glanced up at Mr. Skakov and saw that his eyes were a bit red. “Don’t worry, Victor’s happy,” she said, patting Mr. Skakov’s hand. Sometimes grown-ups got confused, but Rosie understood Victor’s tears perfectly because she was getting very good at respecting feelings. “Now Sunshine can keep him company while he waits for his dad to come back.”

  Mr. Skakov squeezed her shoulder gently. “He sure can,” he said.

  Later, after Victor came over for a dinner of Dad’s famous spaghetti and meatballs and they made s’mores on the backyard grill, Rosie took Victor up to her room to build Legos.

  “I sent Dad some pictures of Sunshine,” he said, pressing a red brick into the fortress they were just about done making. “Mom said they made him happy and that having Sunshine here will help Dad be less confused when he finally gets back.”

  “Dogs are very good at helping,” Rosie said. Cupcake, who was flopped next to them on the floor, made a snuffling noise as though agreeing. “Will Sunshine come live with you and Aunt Carmen?” She was starting to gather up her army, the green figurines, and set Victor’s, the blue, in a separate pile.

  “Aunt Carmen wasn’t sure at first,” Victor said. “Before, the plan was to wait till Dad got back. But Mr. Skakov said it would be good for Sunshine and for me if he came earlier, so Sunshine gets to come next week.”

  This was excellent news. “Now you’ll have a best friend right across the street,” Rosie said to Cupcake, who licked her hand. “That will make you very happy.”

  Victor cleared his throat. “I’m very happy to have my best friend right across the street too,” he said.

  Well, this was a surprise. Rosie had never had a friend before, let alone a best friend. And she wasn’t so sure about having one now. But as Victor beamed at Rosie, his face nice and kind, red eyes and all, Rosie reconsidered. Yes, Victor might not always play what she wanted, he might go too slow, or maybe even try to take charge of things—but when she remembered how happy she was to see Victor with Sunshine, it suddenly didn’t seem so annoying. In fact, making Victor happy had made Rosie happy too. Really happy.

  So Rosie nodded. “Yeah, me too,” she said.

  Now that that had been settled, it was time for the war. “Do you want to have your army inside the fortress or attacking?” Rosie asked, knowing it should be his choice since he was the guest, even though she really wanted to defend the fortress.

  But Victor shrugged. “It’s up to you,” he said. “You can be in charge because you’re really good at it.”

  Yes, Victor really was the bestest best friend there was.

  On Monday morning, as he walked to school with Charlotte, Tom’s palms were sweaty and his mouth felt as though he’d eaten wads of dry cotton for breakfast. “Do you think this is going to work?” he asked, checking for the tenth time to make sure he had his cell phone with their video secure in his pocket.

  “I hope so,” Charlotte said as they waited for a car to pass and the crossing guard to give them the okay to keep walking. She didn’t look as anxious to him as she had the past two weeks, so maybe she really was convinced that the video would put Sergeant Wimpy to rest for good.

  “Maybe we should have tried to make a video where we scared Chase,” Tom said. Suddenly this seemed obvious. Why would anyone care about their silly video? Videos where someone looked dumb were always more exciting—how had he not seen this before?

  But Charlotte was shaking her head. “No, ours is perfect just how it is.” There was a serious note in her voice that soothed him. And what she said was probably true—but still, was their video enough to undo the damage of what Chase Hammond had done?

  They’d reached the big yard in front of the school, so now they would find out. Chase was already there, a small group of boys gathered around him.

  “Okay, this is it,” Tom said. He could actually feel his legs getting shaky at the thought of walking up to Chase.

  “Let’s do it,” Charlotte said.

  “You’re coming too?” Tom asked. He couldn’t help feeling surprised, considering how she’d been avoiding being seen with him at school. Not that he blamed her, since who would want to be associated with Sergeant Wimpy?

  “Yup,” Charlotte said firmly. “I’ve got your back on this.”

  That helped. A lot. Tom wiped his sweaty palms off on his jeans and, with Charlotte at his side, walked over to where Chase and his friends stood under a big oak tree.

  “What do you want?” Chase asked, his eyes narrowing.

  “He probably wants to beg for mercy so you don’t scare him with a worm,” a boy named Winston said with a snicker.

  Chase grinned at this, but his eyes were still narrowed as he looked at Tom.

  Tom had his phone out now. “Actually I have a video to show you,” he said, glancing at Charlotte, who nodded.

  “Me and both my sisters found out what’s been happening in that old building off Crimson Drive, the one everyone thinks is haunted,” Tom said. “And we taped the whole thing.”

  “Really?” Winston asked, sounding interested despite himself. Tom saw Charlotte smile.

  “Yeah,” Tom said, noticing that a few boys including Kenny and his friend Avi had joined the group. “We went inside and everything. There was all this creepy stuff, like cages and syringes.”

  “Big deal,” Chase said. “What’s so scary about an empty cage?”

  “Um, well,” Tom faltered, not sure it was worth continuing, not when Chase was so scornful about every word that came out of Tom’s mouth. Had he done anything worth sharing? He nearly backed away.

  But then Tom saw Charlotte nodding. He saw that Kenny had moved closer, looking genuinely intrigued. And that gave him the courage to take a deep breath and push on. “The cool thing is that we found out the army is bringing MWDs there to be rehabilitated and adopted.”

  But Chase was smirking. “You found puppies in an old building?” he mocked. “I’m so impressed.”

  Winston snickered again, clearly back in Chase’s camp of supporters. Tom looked at the other boys gathered, the way most of them were sneering, ready to jump in and taunt him the second Chase gave the signal. How could Tom explain that empty cages in a gloomy building bathed in shadow were scary? And that it had taken real guts to go inside?

  The video would not work—Tom saw that now. None of Chase’s followers would care about the spooky house, the spy work Tom had done with his sisters, or the truth that they’d uncovered. And suddenly, despite the heat of the day, Tom felt cold.

  “Maybe you’re scared of dogs,
Sergeant Wimpy. I guess they are scarier than a little water,” Chase went on. “But none of us are.” A few of the boys high-fived at that.

  So this was it. Tom was destined to be Sergeant Wimpy for the rest of the year if not the rest of his life. Everyone would think he was a big scaredy-cat, and there was nothing he could do to change it.

  But as Tom started to put his phone back into his pocket, he realized something else: Maybe the video had failed, but the process of making it had taught Tom a lot, and the number-one thing on that list? That he was not a wimp. After all, he was standing here confronting Chase—no scaredy-cat could do that.

  “Wait, you’re not going to show us the puppies?” Chase asked, nearly cackling with glee.

  Tom was brave. He’d gone into the house with his sisters, he’d raced after Rosie when he thought she was in danger, and he’d walked up to Chase today, ready to defend himself. And as he thought about it, Tom decided that maybe being scared was part of being brave, that facing down your fears was the bravest thing a person could do.

  “I’ll show you some pictures of the dogs if you want,” Tom said calmly. “They served our country, and now they’re being retrained for adoption, and to me that’s pretty cool.” As he spoke Tom realized yet another thing he had learned: that maybe being brave wasn’t the most important thing anyway. Maybe it was more important to do stuff he genuinely liked and cared about, like hanging out with his sisters, and helping out with dogs who needed new homes, and standing up for himself in a way that was true to who he was. In fact, Tom was pretty certain all those things were a lot more important than proving something to a boy who was wasting his time taunting Tom.

  Kenny stepped out of the circle, toward Tom. “I’d like to see your video,” he said. He grinned at Tom, then at Charlotte.

  Tom had been so worried about Chase that he’d never bothered to talk much to Kenny. Now he remembered how friendly Kenny had been on his first day, and ever since. Because another thing Tom cared about was having friends, real friends, and Kenny seemed like an awfully good candidate. And with Charlotte and maybe even Kenny at his side, Tom wasn’t alone anymore.