“And when Mrs. Jessop and I were visiting at one of the swim meets, I learned she wanted to do some renovations. I told her about Rooms by Rita, which I hear has turned out well for everyone,” said Amanda’s mom. “Are your folks here, TJ? I need them for one more little job before they get too busy up in Fairview.”
As Mrs. Baker crossed to where Mom and Dad were sitting, two tourists with huge suitcases came rolling by. Amanda looked at the luggage and shook her head.
“I still can’t believe it,” she said. “Alaska asleep in a suitcase.”
“It’s a good thing you figured it out before they left the country,” said Elizabeth. “There would have been vaccinations and quarantine time and everything else before she could come back in.”
“I think they X-ray luggage or something on international flights,” said Seymour. “I guess maybe a cat would show up. Or not. Actually, I don’t know.”
“Good grief…something odd that you don’t know,” said Amanda.
“I’ll work on it,” said Seymour.
“I wish I knew where to look to see the plane arrive,” I said.
“I’ll find out,” said Elizabeth.
She headed off toward one of the airline counters. Seymour followed her. Amanda looked at me sideways.
“I think Elizabeth likes you,” she said.
“She can’t like me,” I said. “I live in a regular house and I ride around in a beat-up old truck and my cats don’t have a pedigree or a cat trainer.”
“Some kids at Fairview care about things like that, but Elizabeth doesn’t, not really,” said Amanda. “I mean, sometimes she forgets that not everybody has heaps of money—you should have seen the price of the swim suits she thought the team should get—but once I told her that I could either eat that month or have a new swim suit, she began to get the idea. And besides…her dog’s as goofy as your cats.”
Elizabeth and Seymour were hurrying toward the windows at the far end of the terminal.
“We talked to the flight attendant for the next flight,” said Seymour. “She says we’ll be able to see Alaska’s plane any minute now, coming in from the south.”
The flight attendant came to join us, pointing out the exact spot above the horizon.
There. A flash of silver in the morning sun. I felt myself blinking hard like some stupid little kid. I couldn’t help it. It had been awful getting home last night and not seeing her furry face in the window. The house had been empty, empty, empty. That shining dot meant Alaska was coming home.
Elizabeth turned just in time to see me swallow hard. She didn’t say anything but I could tell she understood. She would have felt the same way about Frooie, even though he was way too big to fit in a suitcase.
I kept my eye on the plane—landing, taxiing, unloading—until finally I saw the crate being carried into the terminal. I expected to hear her then—T-Rex would have been howling his head off—but all was quiet as they handed me the crate.
“Is she okay?” asked Seymour.
I opened the door and looked inside. Two green eyes looked at me sleepily. I slipped my hand inside. Lick. Lick. Lick. A rough tongue was saying hello to my hand. Alaska was just fine.
Elizabeth and Amanda didn’t come home with us. I didn’t ask them to. I’m not sure if I want some girl to like me. But I did tell Elizabeth that if she and Frooie were still going to be at the dog show the next month, Seymour and I would drop by and say hi. Elizabeth said she’d watch for us.
There were important things to do when we got back to our house, things like feeding both cats lots of treats and petting them and playing with them and phoning people to thank them and leaving a message for Gran to let her know everything was okay.
“An adventure with a happy ending— the very best kind,” said Mom, settling down on the couch. “And now that it has ended happily, I’m wondering if anyone has any idea about something interesting to watch on tv. Something a mother might like to watch? A mother who didn’t get a chance to see her son on tv helping his team win a Quiz Kids contest?”
“Showtime!” said Seymour, rummaging in his backpack.
As Seymour slipped the tape into the machine, Dad settled into his favorite chair. T -Rex stretched out long and relaxed on the rug. I picked up Alaska and set her on top of me, where she promptly fell asleep as the theme music began to play.
I remembered the moment in Mr. Phelps’s office when he’d first asked me to be on the team. It felt like I’d come miles and miles and miles since then. Frankly, I felt totally exhausted.
My name is TJ Barnes. The capital of Peru is Lima. The Wright brothers flew the first airplane in 1902. And you’d need to buy seven dozen hot dogs to feed forty-two players two hot dogs each.
But I never want to be on another Quiz Kids TV Spectacular for as long as I live.
Some of the books where Seymour found his strange and amazing facts
Berger, Melvin and Gilda. Fish Sleep But Don’t Shut Their Eyes. Scholastic, 2004.
Berger, Melvin and Gilda. Hurricanes Have Eyes But Can’t See. Scholastic, 2004.
Berger, Melvin and Gilda. You’re Tall in the Morning But Shorter at Night. Scholastic, 2004.
Funston, Sylvia. Who Are You? Maple Tree Press, 2004.
Funston, Sylvia and Jay Ingram. A Kid’s Guide to the Brain. Greey De Pencier Books, 1994.
Imes, Rick. Incredible Bugs. Macmillan, 1997.
Maynard, Christopher. Amazing Animal Facts. Stoddart, 1993.
Romanek, Trudee. Squirt. Kids Can Press, 2006.
Settel, Joanne. Exploding Ants. Atheneum, 1999.
Thomas, Lyn. What? What? What? Maple Tree Press, 2003.
Treays, Rebecca. Understanding Your Brain. Usborne, 1995.
Hazel Hutchins lives in the mountain town of Canmore, Alberta. Author of forty children’s titles, she has won numerous awards and enjoys visiting schools and libraries across Canada when she isn’t writing.
Other books about TJ, Seymour and the cats:
TJ and the Cats
TJ and the Haunted House
TJ and the Rockets
TJ and the Sports Fanatic
TJ and the Quiz Kids Page 7