by Lynn Plourde
Abby finally spoke. “Timminy, you joke about being short all the time!”
Brian agreed. “Yeah, when Mrs. Russell asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, you said—”
“TALL!” everyone shouted.
“Yeah,” Devon said. “I was impressed how you could laugh at yourself. I wish I could—I didn’t even dare to admit I was the milk snorter.”
“You, Devon, really?” asked Abby.
Devon blushed—she still couldn’t laugh at her own milk snorting.
“Wait,” I said. “If what you say is true, then who put the booster seat there?”
“Shouldn’t you know?” asked Carver. “Don’t you keep track of your enemies?”
I looked at Carver. The mystery-reading book boy had a point.
Brrrrng. Lunch was over. I wasn’t sure whether I was glad or not. I looked at my lunch tray and saw my abandoned taco. Oh, well, Maxi and I would have to have a bigger after-school snack.
I stood up and said, “I’ll try to forgive and forget, and I’ll sit at your lunch table tomorrow if you’ll help me figure out who planted the booster seat.”
“I’ll help,” said Carver.
“And me too?” asked Benjamin.
“Sure! You both can,” Abby said with a smile, even though she couldn’t have seen the rest of us already nodding. “It means there won’t be enough room for Mrs. Russell though. Too bad.”
As we were leaving, Abby said, “Timminy, before you go … I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive you yet for what you did to Devon. But now that I know it wasn’t on purpose, and that you really thought we did the booster seat, and …”
“And what, Abby?”
“And thanks for the email you sent. Thanks—that’s all.”
And that was enough—for now.
• • •
SECRET #33
When you’re stubborn, it takes longer to get over a misunderstanding.
CHAPTER 34
AS SOON AS I got home from school, I saw an email from Abby: Wanna come over and talk MIRA?
I put Maxi on her leash and we headed over.
Abby’s screams hurt my ears. “MIRA! YAAAAAAAAAY! MY CHANCE FOR A GUIDE DOG!”
Thank goodness Maxi was deaf. She couldn’t hear Abby’s screaming, but she saw her excitement, and joined in. WOOF! YAP! HOWL!
Maxi jumped up on Abby, and they did a happy dance.
I just watched and laughed.
When they stopped, I pulled a rawhide treat and a box of graham crackers out of my backpack and Abby got us some peanut butter to spread on the crackers. She even spread some on Maxi’s treat. Then we all chowed down.
“That’s enough,” Abby said, pushing away the crackers. She sucked in a deep breath and said, “Do you think MIRA is real or a mirage?”
“A minute ago you were cheering, Abby, and now you’re a skeptic.”
“I can’t help it. I’ve been waiting so long. What do you think—real or mirage?”
“Real, Abby. I wouldn’t have shared it with you if I didn’t think it was a real possibility for you.”
Abby’s face glowed. It was good to see her away from school without her dark glasses. “I’m not sure why they’d let younger blind kids—as young as me—have guide dogs when all the other places make us wait until we’re sixteen.”
“Maybe they know kids like you are ready, have been ready for a long time.”
“But North Carolina is so far away from Maine, to go for training.”
“It’s not the moon,” I said.
“How’d I miss MIRA all the times I searched for guide dog options?”
“Maybe ’cause it started in Canada and is new in the US. Plus all the other places said you were too young so you believed them and stopped looking.”
“What if I am too young?”
“You don’t believe that.”
As Abby and I batted words back and forth, Maxi moved her head from my lap to Abby’s lap as if she were really listening to us.
“What if my parents say no?” asked Abby.
“What if they say yes?”
“Even if they say yes, what are the odds MIRA will choose me to get a dog? They must have so many blind kids wanting dogs. I couldn’t stand it if they said no.”
“Abby, if you don’t try MIRA, then you won’t have a guide dog until you’re sixteen. So then it’s already a no. But if you try MIRA, you have a chance for one now, a maybe.”
Abby let out the longest sigh. “See, that’s why I had to talk to you before my parents. If I don’t believe this will work and can’t answer their questions, there’s no way I’ll convince them. There are so many reasons why it shouldn’t work … How could a dog from North Carolina adjust to Maine winters? Blind kids in the city must need guide dogs more than blind kids out in the country—they have so many more obstacles. Getting a dog from MIRA is free, that’s good, but dogs still cost a lot and I don’t have a job to help pay for …”
Maxi started to snore. Smart girl. I’d had enough too.
“Stop!” I shouted.
Abby’s lips quivered a bit, but she did stop talking.
“Good,” I said. “Before you make any more excuses why you won’t get a dog from MIRA, remember what you told me once: Challenges don’t scare me.”
Abby smiled.
I waited.
She kept smiling.
“Sooooo?” I said.
“I don’t have anything to say. You’re right—they don’t.”
And that was that. Abby stopped making excuses.
“So when you gonna tell your parents?” I asked.
“Tonight at supper.”
“Want some moral support?”
“Are you inviting yourself for one of my mom’s fancy SpaghettiOs dinners?”
“Um, I think I still have some graham crackers left.”
“Never mind, you’re not invited anyway. I’m up for this challenge … alone. But thanks.”
Sleeping Maxi suddenly started wagging her tail—maybe because she was dreaming about SpaghettiOs with meatballs or maybe it was her way of clapping her approval to Abby. Whop-whop-whop.
• • •
SECRET #34
Sometimes you have to be talked into wanting something you already wanted.
CHAPTER 35
AT LUNCH THE next day, we hatched a plan to figure out who was the booster-seat bandit.
“Do you think the same person who planted the booster seat also shoved you in lockers?” asked Carver.
I nodded. “Probably.”
“Any suspects?” asked Carver.
I grinned at how serious he was taking all this. “Rory is suspect number one.”
“But I thought he let you out of lockers,” said Abby.
“He did, but maybe he did that to throw me off his trail.”
“Anyone else?” continued Carver.
“Rory’s buddy Kevin might have done it. Or maybe Kevin and Rory were working together.”
Abby jumped in. “I heard Kevin’s mom has a new live-in boyfriend with a toddler. Toddlers use booster seats. Maybe he snatched it away from the little guy and brought it to school—”
“For me, another little guy.” I finished her sentence.
Abby laughed. Everyone else at our table looked at her as if they were wondering if it was okay to laugh. I couldn’t help it—I laughed at Abby’s laugh and suddenly the whole table was cracking up, except Carver.
He cleared his throat and said, “Back to business. Just those two suspects, Timminy?”
I paused. “No, it could also be the guys who shove me around in the hall and in the cafeteria.”
“Boy, you have a lot of enemies for a new kid,” said Carver. “But don’t worry—we’ll figure it out. Tomorrow morning we’ll all be spies.”
I chuckled at Carver, the spymaster.
But I wasn’t chuckling the next morning, when his plan to use me as bait actually worked.
SLAM!
I was shov
ed inside a locker. Hooray! I gave a little fist pump.
It was my own locker this time and not so stinky. The homeroom bell had rung and I’d lingered as long as I could in front of my open locker—hoping that would lure the bully. It did!
But when I didn’t hear any rescuers coming, I got worried … Uh-oh! Maybe I’d stayed after the homeroom bell a little too long and none of my spies had. Were they already in homeroom thinking our plan had failed for today? Had they all left the scene of the crime before the crime?
But then I heard whispering.
It was Carver. “Hey, Timminy, we got our guy.”
“Good. Don’t let him escape,” I said.
“The others are following him. They told me to stay here with you.”
“Great, so let me out.”
“What’s your combination?”
I told him, heard the dial turning, and waited for the locker to open. It didn’t.
“Come on, Carver.”
“Sorry, Timminy, I’m a fifth grader too, and it takes me a few tries to open my own locker.”
I half laughed and sighed at the same time. I could identify with Carver. I heard the dial turning again … and again … and …
“Move outta the way, kid!” A deeper voice.
RATTLE!
My locker door flew open.
Carver was staring up in awe at the Beast of the East.
“It’s you!” I yelled at Rory. “You’re the bad guy!”
Carver looked nervous. “No, he’s not the bad guy.”
“He’s not?”
Rory folded his arms, looking from Carver to me, and back again. “Who you calling a bad guy, Minny? The guy who keeps saving you? Bet I could fit both of you in this locker.”
Before I could yell to Carver to “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE,” I saw Abby and everyone else walking down the hall toward us, including my dad.
Mister Harris took charge.
“What’s going on here?”
“Um … er …” I looked at the others.
Rory jumped in. “Mr. AP, let me explain.”
Dad interrupted him. “Wait, Rory. I want to hear your side. But I want to talk with each of you alone. So, please, all follow me and wait outside my office for your turn.”
Carver looked like he was gonna puke. I doubted the book kid had ever even seen the inside of an assistant principal’s office. Being a spy was much safer in a book than out in the real world. So I spoke up, “Dad, um … Mr. Harris, Carver here was walking by. You didn’t see anything. Did you, Carver?” I shook my head no to remind Carver that he really didn’t see anything.
“Is that true?” asked my dad.
Carver just shook, his head and his body.
“Okay, I’ll give you a pass for homeroom. But I don’t want to see you late for homeroom again. Do you understand?”
This time Carver tried to nod his head yes, but his whole body, head to toe, was still shaking.
Dad was one smart AP—he probably figured the answers he’d get from Carver weren’t worth it. His office had carpeting and the puke smell would linger forever!
The rest of us followed Dad with Rory and me in the rear. Rory slowed until the others were a little ahead and whispered, “If your dad asks who put you in the locker, it was me. I did it.”
I whispered back. “But Carver said it wasn’t you. Carver’s not the kind of kid to lie.”
“But you lied and told your dad Carver didn’t see anything. You get to protect your kind, I get to protect mine.”
“Step it up.” Dad turned and motioned to Rory and me.
“Yes, sir, Mr. AP.”
Dad took us into his office one at a time. He kept a poker face and didn’t let on what any of the others had said to him. I guess he was cut out for this assistant principal job after all.
Later, at lunch, we tried to put all our separate pieces together.
“What did you say?”
“What did he say?”
“Anyone get detention?”
“Anyone puke?”
In the end, everyone agreed it was Kevin Cole who’d shoved me into my locker. “We saw him,” said Brian. “He rushed off afterward and probably thought he’d get away with it.”
“I should have known,” I said.
Kevin was sitting at a table in the back of the cafeteria, staring, glaring at our table.
“Don’t look at him!” Carver started to shake again. “He could eat us for lunch.”
“Don’t worry, Carver. He’s after me. Maybe I teed him off the time I told him to wear a bib.”
Carver shook his head in disbelief as he still quivered.
It looked like we’d solved the mystery. But as we headed to our classes after lunch, I couldn’t stop thinking about one more question: Why would Rory say he was the one who shoved me in my locker when it was really Kevin? Maybe Rory had already given me the answer to that when he’d said “protect your own kind.”
And who was the real Rory? Big Jerk bully—or just another middle school kid like me? Had he really been rescuing me all those times?
I put the mysteries behind me when I got home after school to focus on Maxi.
When I took her out to do her business, I took her off her leash. She’d been doing better following commands. I wanted to see if she’d hang close. Plus soon she’d be off her leash more with her pager collar arriving any day now!
Maxi was sniffing, then stopped to roll over and wiggle on her back in the grass. Like she was trying to scratch an itch she couldn’t reach. She looked silly. I laughed and then …
WHOMP!
Something hit one of the sliding glass doors and bounced back.
It was a small bird—some kind of sparrow, I think. The bird landed on the ground right next to Maxi. Yikes! It would only take one gulp and bye-bye, birdie.
The bird didn’t move. I knew Maxi didn’t hear the whomp. I stepped slowly toward them, hoping to rescue the bird—dead or alive—before Maxi found it. Or if Maxi looked at me, I could try the “leave it” command.
Instead, Maxi finished rolling over from her back to her stomach and—voilà! The bird was right by her snout. I froze. I didn’t want her to think this feathery blob was one of the fuzzy tennis balls we played fetch with. (Actually, she didn’t really know how to play fetch. She played keep.)
Maxi sniffed the bird. It didn’t move. I took a step closer, ready to dive and rescue it if Maxi opened her mouth.
But she didn’t. She sniffed it again. And then gently, ever so gently, nudged it with her snout. It still didn’t move. So next she placed a paw on either side of it as if she were holding an egg she didn’t want to break. The bird stirred, just a little. I jumped, but Maxi didn’t. She nudged it again with her snout and then rested her head on top of it. But I could see her head was barely touching the bird, like she was trying to cover it up, keep it warm. She held that position. I held my breath. She stayed there as if she were the mother of this little creature. My heart sank—how could I break it to her that her newly adopted kid was almost dead, if not already dead?
But it was Maxi who had news for me.
She lifted her head, nudged the bird one more time with her snout, and, whoosh, it flew off. Just like that.
I was a little sad for Maxi, not as sad as if the bird really were dead, but still … she’d made a new friend and had lost it already.
Maxi didn’t seem to mind. She jumped up, ran over to the tree where the bird had landed, and barked. The bird flew off the tree and in a loop over Maxi’s head as if to say, “Thanks, bye, see you later.”
And who knows, maybe they’d made a playdate.
• • •
SECRET #35
You never know who your own kind is.
CHAPTER 36
FINALLY, THE PAGER collar came!
THE PAGER COLLAR CAME!
I wanted to ride Maxi through the streets of Skenago like Paul Revere’s horse and announce the collar’s arrival. Instead, Maxi gave the FedEx driver
who brought the package a kiss. And when I told him what was inside, he said, “Oh, I’m so happy for you,” and he leaned down to kiss her back.
I started training Maxi the second I opened the package. At first, Maxi acted surprised when her collar vibrated. She looked in every direction as if she were on the lookout for danger or wondered whether she’d done something to trigger the vibration. But then she’d see me and wag her tail as if to say, “Ha! Ha! It’s you!”
Once she’d look at me, I’d do the come sign and she’d come and I’d give her a treat. She wanted to hang around for another treat, but I’d walk off and she’d get interested in Smell #376 or Smell #842 in the universe. Then I’d trigger the collar again, she’d look at me, I’d do the come sign, and she did! For the treat!
Next, I mixed it up with the sit and stay signs, and I would bring the treat to her if she did sit or stay. She was confused and thought she’d only get the treat if she came to me, but that’s okay. “We’ve only just begun, Maxi. You don’t have to learn everything the first day.” My parents were impressed with the collar and Maxi when they got home.
Abby was impressed, too, when I told her. She liked that Maxi would have more freedom with the collar (like she’d have more freedom once she got a guide dog). She made me promise to bring Maxi over soon and said, “I have my own new trick to show off, too, but it doesn’t involve a collar.” She laughed.
After school Friday, I brought Maxi over to Abby’s so they could both show off. Plus Abby had promised us pizza and a movie.
But when we arrived, Abby didn’t answer the door. So I opened it and hollered for her, but no answer.
Suddenly I heard Abby yelling …
“HEY! HEY! HEEEEEEEEEY!”
Where was she?
The yelling was coming from out back, past Abby’s pool, toward the woods.
“YOO-HOO! WHERE ARE YOU TWO?”
I yelled back, “ABBY, I CAN HEAR YOU. MAXI CAN’T. WHERE ARE YOU?”
“FOLLOW MY VOICE!”
I tried, but I wasn’t very good. Maxi, on the other hand, used her secret weapon, her sniffer!
Abby didn’t say anything else to make it easier to find her. But Maxi seemed to be on Abby’s scent, so I just held her leash and followed.