The Adventures of Alex Spider

by Dele Daniel

  ***

  Angelo was curled up reading a comic of “Frank Jaction: Rocketeer Extraordinaire.” They had always been his favourite. Angelo was upset. He didn’t want to be, but he was. It wasn’t fair. How could Elon and Alex be so amazing? So what if they were taller and maybe older, he was quick, he was springy. It wasn’t fair. He peeled another page of Frank Jaction. Issue number 68 had to be the best one. Frank and his comradery of Rocketeering adversaries all joined forces to take down a bigger foe. It was a great issue because that’s when Frank and his new allies formed the Jaction Action Rocketeer Aficionados. The JARA series had to be his second favourite. Out the tree house window, Angelo could faintly hear someone coming down the path.

  Putting down the comic, Angelo crawled to the trap door to let his head hang and peek out. It was the Spaghetti Squad. He knew, of course, they’d find him. He didn’t really want to run away but he realised just then, if he was Frank Jaction, this would not be the day to make friends. He was still angry, so Angelo closed the trap door and sat on it.

  Knock Knock Knock

  A voice came from beneath Angelo, “Hey buddy, door’s shut. Feel’s like something tough and heavy is on it. You know anything about that?”

  “Leave me alone, Elon. I don’t want to talk to anybody right now.”

  Another voice answered back this time, but a little more distant, “C’mon now, Brigadier Bolognese, there’s room for all kinds in the Spaghetti Squad.”

  “Don’t bother, Captain. I don’t feel like it today.” Angelo was firm on being difficult.

  For a moment there was nothing. The squad wasn’t saying anything and Angelo felt extra alone, sitting up there in the tree house. Then Elon’s voice spoke from beneath the door a little more quietly, “Is something else bugging you?”

  “No!” shouted Angelo.

  A muffled discussion broke out amongst the voices before suddenly quieting once more. “Are you serious?” Alex blurted. Angelo had made that much out. Now he was upset as well as angry. He didn’t want the Squad to tell Alex. But it was Alex who spoke next.

  “Hey, Angelo. My parents are dead too. I didn’t know about yours.”

  Angelo was silent with frustration. He hadn’t wanted them to say anything. It was just about the Olympics. It wasn’t that Father’s Day was next week. It wasn’t about how he had been thinking about them more and more ever since Alex arrived. “You weren’t supposed to tell!” Angelo yelled from the tree house.

  “Hey, Angelo?” this time it was Kathy.

  “What?!” fired back Angelo.

  And after a brief pause, “You’re the best at Lunar Flips.”

  Angelo didn’t say anything.

  “And the consecutive reigning champion of the Lunar Biathlon 2.0,” added Elon.

  The trapdoor creaked open, and Angelo opened it up to find Kathy, followed by Elon, and finally Alex, all on the steps of the ladder, grinning up. Angelo couldn’t help but smile.

  “Thanks, guys,” Angelo gave Kathy his hand and helped her into the tree house. Fort Compromise always seemed to come through.

  “It’s getting late,” said Elon, “we should be heading back.”

  By the time they made it down the ladder and back to the path, Angelo was more his jokey self, though still a little quiet. Alex could tell what sadness looked like, even when someone was trying really hard not to show it. “You guys know something?” They all paused to look at Alex, “I think I have an idea for an Olympic game.”

  ***

  Shortly before sundown the Squad was just making their way out of the path, talking excitedly. “Yeah, so that’s how you would keep points and the gravity becomes part of the strategy…” Alex stopped mid-sentence as they came around the bend to the house. Aunt Jessie was standing at the veranda, arms crossed, tapping one foot. All four of the brave Spaghetti Squad slowed.

  “Hi, Mumma. What’s wrong?” asked Kathy as innocently as possible.

  Aunt Jessie obliged, “Oh I’ll tell you what’s wrong. I let out that silly mutt two hours ago. I let him out two hours ago, but someone failed to mention they had turned all the gravity off in the back yard.”

  “Oh, heck!” Kathy shouted, “I forgot to turn the gravity generators back on.” She ran to the bushes to find they had obviously been reset.

  “Where’s your dog?” asked Angelo with great concern.

  Captain Kath, Alex Spider, Lieutenant Linguini, and Brigadier Bolognese all shared a worried look and glanced around the back yard. Aunt Jessie just shook her head and waited.

  “Where’s Jack, Mom?”

  Aunt Jessie let out a sad sort of sigh and pointed up. The Squad followed her gesture up to a little red dog collar, snagged on a branch atop the tree, no dog.

  “I think your squad has got some work to do,” sighed Aunt Jessie.

  4

  Aunt Jessie was not impressed and just then Luna could be heard starting to fuss.

  “Oh great, and now Luna is awake. You four go do what you can and find that dog, it’ll be dark out in a few hours and if he’s not found by then we’ll just have to wait until morning,” Aunt Jessie turned to go inside. It was true she was not impressed, but she was glad to see Alex joining in play. She caught herself and turned back to the four of them sheepishly rooted in place. “Squad dismissed,” said Aunt Jessie with a bit of pomp. The bit of tightness that had been welling in the shoulders of the Lunar Olympians relaxed ever so slightly, save for Kathy.

  Kathy was the first to action. “Let’s get organised. Which way would Jack have gone?”

  “You mean besides the top of a tree?” Angelo asked, dumbfounded. Alex smiled.

  “Well,” Kathy continued, “we’re the last house of this row. If he went off that way, then he’d probably head down the trail to Main Street.”

  “I don’t know,” said Elon. “He could have followed the trail the other way, looping back between all your neighbours. We should check the neighbourhood.”

  “I understand what you’re saying, but the last few times Jack escaped he wandered to the bakery next to the post office,” Kathy replied.

  “I think we should still check the neighbourhood,” disagreed Elon.

  Kathy let out a hot sigh, “Well I think I know my dog pretty well, Elon. I’m going to go look for him at the bakery and you can check the neighbourhood if you want.”

  “Fine,” answered Elon coolly.

  And then, at the exact same time, both Kathy and Elon turned to the other two and asked, “Who’s coming with me?”

  Angelo’s jaw hung open, looking back and forth between his Captain and his Lieutenant. Meanwhile, Alex just stared at the ground.

  Kathy and Elon waited.

  Angelo could feel his forehead getting warmer by the second, “Well if you guys want to split up, we should keep it nice and fair. I’ll go with you, Elon. Not because I don’t want to go with you, Kathy, but I’m shorter so me and Elon should pair up. You’re second shortest so you should go with second tallest,” Angelo turned to Alex, “so you should go with Kathy.” Then Angelo turned back to the group, “That makes sense, right?”

  No one said anything but Kathy and Elon both sort of nodded. Whether anyone understood Angelo’s reasoning wasn’t really the point, he had offered them all a seemingly sensible way to organise themselves without making it personal. Kathy and Elon still didn’t say anything, but turned and walked in separate directions, Elon to the front of the house and Kathy towards the path. Angelo and Alex shared a quick shrug before catching up with their own respective team member.

  ***

  “I can’t believe him sometimes!” Kathy exclaimed. Alex was matching her quick pace as best he could. He also didn’t know what to say, so he just let her continue. “Honestly? Does he think I don’t know my own dog? Jack just gets excited and he’ll follow his nose every time, and when he runs off to town, he always ends up at the bakery. I mean, c’mon!”

  Alex weighed a few words and responses before offering his thoughts,
“Well, if he has gone to the bakery every time he’s run away, then I think you’re right.”

  “Thank you, Alex,” Kathy said with a curt nod, still not breaking her stride, now really more of a purposeful march.

  Alex’s attention wandered once more to the dome overhead and the stars beyond it. Walking down a dirt-trodden path beneath a black sky amongst the trees and the wildlife, he felt like Silver Creek maybe, just maybe, could be his home. But amidst the smell of pine needles and tall grass, the savoury waft of barbeque began to drift from behind them.

  “Oooh, that smells good,” Alex announced by accident. He hadn’t realised how hungry he had been getting. “Do you think Jack could have smelled all that?”

  “Well, maybe, but he got away a while ago. The smell may bring him back in this direction, but I still say he would have run to town.” Just then Kathy’s stomach let out a ferocious growl. “Oh my!” she said, clutching her tummy, “I hope we find him quick, bakery or barbeque, I am hungry.”

  ***

  Elon and Angelo left a small trail of dust behind them on the unpaved road as they followed the gentle bend from the Goodweather’s to the next neighbour’s over. “I don’t like it when Kathy disagrees with me. Thanks for coming with me, Angelo.” Elon was still just as sore over the disagreement and couldn’t let it go.

  “Well, this isn’t a bad idea. Besides, there’s four of us, so two teams is good. We can search more ground and quicker!” Angelo offered with a clap of his hands.

  Elon and Angelo’s feet clip-clopped along the road between Elon’s snippets of frustrations, “Everyone knows that the bakery only smells really good early in the morning. You know, once they’ve just baked everything.”

  Angelo nodded, but then added, “Well, sure, but the bakery smells good all the time to me.”

  “Yeah but, to a dog?”

  Angelo furrowed his brow a moment, “That’s, uh, a complicated question?”

  “Sorry, I’m just, I don’t know what I am,” Elon hung his head, “I don’t like disagreements.”

  “Don’t feel bad for feeling bad,” Angelo said, putting a hand on Elon’s back as his own tummy let out a ferocious growl. “Oh boy, my tummy!”

  “Yeah mine too.”

  “See, you’re not actually disagreeing, everyone’s just on different pages of the same book and really really hungry.” Angelo smiled his usual cheerful smile.

  Elon laughed because, how could he not, and it was true. He had gotten quite hungry since the Lunar Olympics and the smell of barbeque wasn’t helping any. “Mmmm. You smell that?” Elon asked.

  “Oh boy, yeah. Steak. Definitely steak,” Angelo was rubbing his hands together.

  “Well if I was a dog,” Elon started.

  Angelo interrupted, “But you’re not. Still though, it was a good idea to check the neighbourhood. That’s coming from the Gagarin’s house. They’re super nice! C’mon!” Angelo was already halfway up the neighbour’s driveway. Elon chuckled and jogged after his Brigadier.

  The Gagarins had a wide open backyard with a wooden fence running its circumference. Mr. Gagarin had built it to look like the edges of a baseball field, his favourite pastime. Mrs. Gagarin and their three daughters were setting out the placemats and cutlery on the picnic table that Mr. Gagarin had also built. It was long and wide and able to fit many people. Just then, Angelo rounded the house and stood at the foot of a short half-gate leading to the backyard. He was not about to cross without permission, but he was going to stand there and smile until they did.

  “Little comrade Angelo!” Mr. Gagarin announced with joy.

  “Hi, Mr. Gagarin! Hi, Mrs. Gagarin!” Angelo called back, closing the gate just after Elon hesitantly joined them.

  “And who is this!?” beamed Mr. Gagarin, flipping a steak and having it land back on the grill with a gust of flame.

  “This is Elon! He’s from my squad,” replied Angelo with a grin.

  “Oh your little squad of spaghettis, yes?” chuckled Mrs. Gagarin, setting out the condiments.

  “Yeah, he’s actually Lieutenant Linguini.”

  “And a lieutenant, no less.” Mr. Gagarin gave a salute with his right hand as he flipped another steak with his left.

  Elon’s smile widened. “The brigadier is correct,” he replied.

  Mr. Gagarin turned and gestured to his family, “I am Serge Gagarin. This is my wife Svetlana,” Mrs. Gagarin gave a courteous nod, “and these are our three girls: Aculina, Aksinia, and Alevtina!” Each girl nodded with a smile. “Say hello to Elon, girls,” said Serge. “Hello,” answered all three at the same time, before Serge quickly added, “And to Angelo.” This time all three girls just giggled. Angelo blushed and gave a little wave.

  “Would you like to join us, boys? There is plenty for all of us.” Serge was just as friendly as Angelo had made him out to be.

  “It smells absolutely fantastic, Mr. Gagarin,” answered Elon.

  “Please, call me Serge.”

  Elon smiled, “Well Serge, we would love to but we are actually trying to find our friend’s dog.”

  “Little Jack?” Svetlana interjected.

  “Yes!” Elon shouted excitedly. “Have you seen him?”

  “I’m afraid I haven’t, but usually doesn’t he just head to the bakery when he gets out?”

  Angelo gave a big sideways grin to Elon, who said nothing.

  Serge noticed the look and chuckled with every muscle, “Oh did you boys have a wager, maybe?”

  Sheepishly Elon responded, “No. Well, I thought he may have come this way, but I was wrong.”

  “Let me tell you something, my young friend. There is nothing wrong with being wrong, the trick is simply knowing when to admit it. And you, I think, do not struggle with this.”

  “Yeah, he’s a good guy,” quipped Angelo with a friendly smack to Elon’s back.

  Elon couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah, this time I was wrong.”

  “Very good,” chuckled Serge. “Are you sure you will not stay for food?”

  “No thank you,” began Elon over Angelo’s groans. “We have to catch up to some friends.”

  “Some other time then,” Serge finished making a sort of circling gesture in the air with the flipper.

  The two left, waving goodbye to Serge, Svetlana and the girls. Just as they reached the half-gate, all three girls called out “Goodbye, Angelo!” and he tripped over his own feet. With a great tumble, Angelo somersaulted, ending almost upside down against the fence, “Uh,” he squeaked, “goodbye, girls.”

  ***

  Alex and Kathy were coming up Trudeau Hill, which was just outside town, when they heard a dog barking from just off the path. “Could that be Jack?” asked Alex.

  “Ummm,” Kathy began listening intently, just as the dog barked twice more. “No, unfortunately,” she continued, “I don’t think that’s him.”

  “Should we check it out?”

  “Mmmm, yeah. I mean, if it were my dog I would want someone to. Dang.” Kathy furrowed her brow and started marching in the direction of the unfamiliar bark.

  “What if we split up?” suggested Alex.

  “No, I don’t want to go alone and Jack’s been out longer than this,” Kathy slowed to see if Alex was following.

  Alex quickened his pace, “Yeah, let’s stick with the squad, right?”

  “Right,” smiled Kathy.

  There was no trail through the underbrush there and moving in a straight line became difficult. So many winding bushes and brambles clogged the way. Alex, being the larger of the two, was able to break a good many, clearing a path easier for Kathy. The two of them still struggled. After about ten minutes of trudging through more unforgiving branches, the squad had to take a break.

  “I am tuckered right out,” said Kathy.

  Alex was bent over with his hands on his knees, “I know, right? I’m not sure I’m even hearing the dog anymore.”

  “Hey, you’re right,” noted Kathy.

  The two remained still
, straining their hearing as best they could. Nothing. Then they heard what sounded like, well, they weren’t sure at first.

  “Do you hear that?” asked Alex.

  “Hear what?”

  “It sounded like. I don’t know, a clang?”

  “I don’t know that I—” but Kathy was cut off by the sound again.

  CLANG!

  “Oh! What the heck? It sounds…beneath us?” Kathy raised an eyebrow.

  Alex got down to his knees, brushing away dirt and foliage as clean as he could from a spot on the ground. Then he put one ear down and listened. Nothing. No clang. No bark. Just a silly feeling that what he heard couldn’t possibly have come from beneath them. He got up, but kept his eyes on the ground.

  “Hey, that’s okay,” Kathy said, noticing Alex’s expression. “I thought I heard it down there too. We can ask my dad later.”

  “K,” Alex mumbled, already feeling a little less foolish.

  They both returned to where they had departed from the path just as Angelo and Elon made their way up the hill. “Hey guys,” waved Angelo. Elon gave a sort of sheepish grin and simply said “I was wrong.”

  Kathy smiled and put a hand on Elon’s shoulder, “Well we haven’t found him this way yet, either.”

  Angelo surveyed the trail of broken shrub branches, “What was going on here?”

  “Oh,” said Alex. “Detour.”

  The four of them shared a look and one by one, as though it were something one person could package and give to another, they all began to laugh. They were all tired, but they still had an hour to find Jack before getting home. “Let’s check out town. We could split up into teams of two again and search even quicker,” suggested Elon.

  “Yeah!” shouted Angelo, “But this time we’ll do me and Alex and you with Kathy. Two smalls and two bigs.”

  As always, Elon had no choice but to grin, “Makes perfect sense to me, brigadier.”

  ***

  After thirty minutes of searching, the squad regrouped on the hill.