by Dele Daniel
“Anything?” asked Elon.
“Nothing,” Kathy answered, “Not the bakery, not anywhere.”
“No luck for us either. We checked the library and the café, but nothing,” added Angelo.
The four noticed that as they had been discussing Jack, a man had been coming up the hill from town. It was Mr. Armstrong, the math teacher at Silver Creek Elementary.
“You all haven’t happened to have seen a dog, have you?” Mr. Armstrong inquired without introduction.
The children, somewhat startled by Mr. Armstrong, took a moment to reply, but it was Elon who spoke up, “Oh, Mr. Armstrong. No, well, we are looking for our own dog, actually.”
“Oh heavens, are you?” stammered the math teacher. “Excuse me, where are my manners, have you children lost your dog as well?”
“Yeah, Mr. Armstrong. Did you see him?” asked Angelo with absolute hope.
“No, I’m afraid I haven’t. I’ve been out looking for mine.”
“Yours is missing too?” chimed Kathy and Elon at once.
“I’m afraid so,” continued Mr. Armstrong. “Oddest thing. Well, I should continue, but you children best run along. It will be sundown soon. I’ll keep looking a bit longer and keep a lookout.”
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you,” said Kathy.
“Not at all,” Mr. Armstrong gave a slight bow as the children nodded and returned home.
5
“I don’t know about that episode with the fish tank. I’ll be honest, it still has me concerned,” said Uncle Dave, arms resting on the kitchen table. With the kids out looking for Jack, they decided this would be a good time to discuss Alex’s recent outburst.
“Well, let’s consider this,” weighed Aunt Jessie, “He seems to be getting along with the rest of Kathy’s friends and I know she enjoys having a cousin around. But—”
“But what?” edged Uncle Dave.
“His violent outburst, just punching an aquarium like that,” Aunt Jessie shook her head, “I don’t know. I can’t imagine sending him back to earth.”
“I know. Well, it’s only been a few days. Besides, Daryl never actually asked us to take over as guardians, but we are the better option, aren’t we?” Aunt Jessie shot Uncle Dave a sharp look and he corrected himself, “We’re obviously the better option.”
“That’s right, honestly, I remember him being such a spoiled child growing up. He was impossible to satisfy; he simply couldn’t be happy. Do you remember the Christmas he had just turned eight?”
“Oh I remember,” Uncle Dave began, massaging the bridge of his nose between index finger and thumb. “He was a terror. He couldn’t be made to be happy, didn’t even like the flavour of the cake and he was the one that demanded it…” Uncle Dave trailed off. “But he’s not like that now.”
“No,” agreed Aunt Jessie, “he’s had to grow up, hasn’t he?”
“He seemed pretty beat up about the fish. Sure, he punched that glass but, I don’t know. I think he just lashed out. Maybe we could get him a punching bag? One with no fish in it?” Uncle Dave finished, flashing a quiet grin.
Aunt Jessie smiled, but her eyebrows remained fixed, “I’m not sure I like the idea of us just having a punching bag. That saves fish tanks, but it doesn’t solve Alex.”
“Is Alex a puzzle that needs solving?”
“I wish I understood him more, like Kathy, or—” and right on queue, little Luna began to stir in the other room, sounding over the baby monitor.
“I’ll get her,” said Uncle Dave, and he was quick up the stairs to retreat the youngest Goodweather.
Aunt Jessie got up from the table and began to busy herself with the supper. Sometimes just having a task at hand helps work out a situation. She ran the tap water and filled the sink. And she wondered about what would make her feel at home if she were in Alex’s place. It was hard at first, because she didn’t grow up rich, not at all. She was from a small town in Upstate New York and had met Alex’s Uncle on a trip to the American Rocketship Competition. Uncle Dave hadn’t been competing of course, but he was there supporting his brother-in-law, and buying a hotdog just when Aunt Jessie had the same idea. And here they were. A quiet smile slid across her face just as Uncle Dave brought Luna into the kitchen.
“What are you smiling at?” he asked.
“Oh nothing,” she said dismissively, “I was just thinking we should barbeque some hot dogs.”
***
A few things always happen at five o’clock sharp on the moon. First, the disc is retracted back into Moon City. Next, rockets of outgoing mail are sent back to Earth. The nice thing about sending anything from the moon is that you can drop it to any continent, any country, any home in the world. Amidst the inky black of space and its multitude of distant stars, the large round ball of space rock rotates around the larger ball of blue. Tidally locked, it swings around earth with unseen arms. Dotting the craters, shiny half-bubble habitats create the world that Moon City and Silver Creek are a part of. On the very northern tip, where the disc can get the best reach, is Moon City. East of that is Silver Creek while east of Silver Creek is the hamlet of New Grabberford, and east of that…well, most of the communities run east until back around. But few can remember why.
Within the largest bubble of Silver Creek, connecting to five smaller ones, are the town, part of the main forest, and most of the acreage communities. The other bubbles house the rest of the forest and three different biomes. One is the Tropical biome, like a plump little resort plopped on the moon’s surface. Another two house the Desert and Sea biomes.
The evening rockets flash over the top of every bubble in streaks of red and blue. Only the rockets have the view of everything: the Spaghetti Squad making their way back home, Jessie and Dave Goodweather getting out the barbeque and table cloth, and the Gagarins enjoying their meal; and somewhere way past town, within a small army of corgis, Jack.
***
The Spaghetti Squad were in decent enough spirits but having a hard time imagining where Jack could have possibly gotten to.
“So then there was just a weird sound and then you couldn’t hear the barking anymore?” Elon tried to put the facts in order, which was just the lieutenant’s habit.
“No, the barking had already stopped and then we heard something clanking. At first it was at a distance. Then, for a split second, it sounded like it came from beneath us,” Kathy clarified.
“Oh, so…strange barking. You pursue barking. Barking stops. Clank. Then another clank. And here we are.” Elon gave a nod each time he mentioned the next link in the chain of events.
“Here we are,” answered Alex.
Kathy, Elon, Angelo, and Alex all went quiet, listening to the sounds of their feet landing on the dirt-packed ground. Sometimes when walking as a group these little lapses of silence would emerge. It wasn’t a bad thing; it just meant everyone was thinking. Usually it happened after a long day and today it had been a long day. They were also all thinking about the same thing. What happened to Jack?
Suddenly, the forest began to dim as a large darkness swept across the treetops. They could see it approach from down the path ahead. The disc was already retracting. Space was very cold without sunlight. In the first few seconds of the disc’s retraction, the bubble’s interior became very cool. The biome’s temperature was controlled but would always take a moment to balance back out. The Spaghetti Squad all began to puff out short curls of breath in the ensuing cold.
“Boy, this is chilly!” Angelo began to rub his arms and pretended shiver, knocking his knees together.
The others laughed, “Oh it’s not that bad,” Elon poked.
“The heck it isn’t,” Angelo continued. “We’re all going to get turned into ice cubes.”
Just then a sort of a warm humming filled the air. Their breath disappeared and they could all feel the heat warming up through the soil. “There you go. Now Brigadier Bolognese can thaw,” Elon teased.
Angelo rolled his eyes and smiled
.
“That smells good,” piped Alex.
“Hey, yeah,” agreed Kathy.
The Spaghetti Squad arrived back at the house through the backyard to find a beautiful site. Dave and Jessie Goodweather had strung up the patio lanterns the Liwei’s had lent them for New Year’s Eve. And there were so many. They wrapped around several of the bushes lining the yard. They draped over the veranda in soothing arcs. The lanterns themselves were pleasantly coloured red, green, and yellow shapes, animals actually, twelve in all. There was a dog and a cat, a rat, a rooster, a goat, a cow, a monkey, and so on. Alex had never seen anything so welcoming. Aunt Jessie was at work over the barbeque with a pair of tongs as Uncle Dave set the table with paper plates and plastic forks.
“What’s this?” asked Kathy, eyes bright with the soft glow of all the lanterns.
“Well,” Uncle Dave began, “we just thought, what with Alex arriving, maybe a bit of a party was in order. What do you guys think?”
Alex’s shoulders loosened, just a bit, as Kathy smiled big enough for the two of them. “Can Angelo and Elon stay?”
Aunt Jessie nodded, “I’ve already called Elon’s parents and asked Mrs. Carpenter if Angelo can stay.”
“Alright!” exclaimed Angelo.
“But what about Jack,” Kathy said. “We still haven’t found him.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll show up soon,” Uncle Dave said.
The dinner was delicious. Uncle Dave brought out some homemade pop he had been tinkering with. It was his favourite hobby. It wasn’t long before everyone was burping tangerine-peach soda and laughing at Angelo who snorted so hard it squirted right out his nose. And the hotdogs were delicious. Aunt Jessie had wrapped each with a different coloured onion and would blanket them with cheese just before removing them from the grill.
Alex had never had anything like them. Uncle Dave had made a coleslaw that was unbelievable and he didn’t even like coleslaw. Alex had always eaten quite differently back home or with Uncle Daryl. He tried not to think about it. He tried not to get angry, and for the first time since getting to the moon, his shoulders loosened all the way. He looked around him as Elon tried to explain why he thought Jack would have gone exploring the neighbourhood. Kathy was going on about how far Alex had jumped in the Lunar Olympics and how surprised they all had been, while Luna happily smeared her apple sauce and corn into a fine mess. Angelo was insisting to Uncle Dave that there really should be a water park at Silver Creek and that it was practically a crime that they didn’t have one. As for Alex, he just listened and smiled and enjoyed his hotdog and coleslaw.
***
That evening, once everyone had gone home to bed, Aunt Jessie found Alex sitting in the dark on top of his covers, staring out the window as he usually did. She was careful not to startle him when checking, “What are you doing here in the dark? Why don’t you get into bed?”
Alex slowly turned to Aunt Jessie and then turned his eyes to the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Aunt Jessie moved to turn on a bedside lamp and then took a seat next to Alex. His eyes were red and his cheeks were damp.
With a sniffle, “I thought you were going to send me away for sure.”
Aunt Jessie weighed the boy’s words carefully and said, “You mean because of the aquarium?”
Alex nodded.
“Well, it did upset me. Your Uncle Dave wasn’t impressed either, but I think you could have guessed that.”
Alex nodded again.
“I know it’s been hard for you. I couldn’t imagine losing my parents.” Aunt Jessie put one arm around Alex. “You have a place here and we’ll help however we can. Let’s just leave the fish out of it, hmm?” She smiled and gave him the smallest squeeze. That squeeze was everything to Alex. He hadn’t realised how nice it was being with family. He cared about Uncle Daryl, even if he didn’t understand why he had to leave. But Uncle Dave was his mum’s brother and that made this place extra special, though he couldn’t explain how. From the window overlooking the yard, to the tree house down the way, he had found a home. A good one.
Aunt Jessie stood and gave him one extra squeeze before making her way to the door. “Goodnight, Spider,” she said.
“Kathy told you?” Alex couldn’t mask the excitement in the way his voice rose.
6
The Daily Solar Flare:
Reports that dogs have gone missing all around Silver Creek has caught the attention of local authorities. Sources say that they have been in contact with Moon City, who will be sending down a detective to handle the matter directly. The Daily Solar Flare has it on good authority that a common link to all the disappearances is the breed of the dog. As you know, due to the genetic mutations that occurred to other breeds when brought to the moon, only Schnauzers, Golden Retrievers, and Corgis are bred on the moon. To the great dissatisfaction of local residents, no leads on any of the dognappers have surfaced.
On Monday, the mayor gave a public announcement:
We of Silver Creek are shocked and concerned for the well-being of our beloved Corgis. The town has not been the same without the pitter-patter of their short little feet. I can only assume, in speaking on behalf of our Retrievers and Schnauzers, they are eager their brethren be found and returned home. Home to their families and loved ones.
If you can hear me, you dognapping hooligans, I would say to you, “Hey! Stop it! Okay? Give us our dogs back. Please.”
This news agency has not seen such passion from the Mayor of Silver Creek for some time, surely a sign of the high-running tensions around town, regarding the well-being of the missing corgis.
***
“We can’t just sit around guys,” Angelo was wearing a ring into the hardwood of the tree house, walking in circles again and again.
Kathy looked worried, “I just want Jack back. You guys all saw the Daily Solar Flare, all the corgis around town are going missing.”
“There has to be a pattern,” declared Elon. In the corner of the tree house he had set up a large map of town, with all the locations of missing dogs. There were eleven in total.
“What can someone be doing with all the corgis?” Alex puzzled aloud.
“No idea,” answered Elon without turning from the map. “I think we should start going door to door.”
“Solo missions?” perked Angelo.
“Yeah, maybe. What do you guys think?” Elon put the question to Alex and Kathy.
Alex nodded and Kathy tried to give an enthusiastic reply but only managed a nod as well. Within minutes the team were dispersing to different ends of the neighbourhood. Alex shocked Kathy by actually giving her a hug before going to his first house. She couldn’t believe it, an actual hug. With Jack missing the hug meant a lot. So with a new found vigor she marched to her end of the neighbourhood. It was time to get some answers.
***
Galan Krantz had become a detective with Moon City Police Department. precisely to put a stop to this kind of thing. Dogs shouldn’t be taken from homes, and families shouldn’t be going without peace of mind. He’d been on the force for about eight years now. He thought he’d seen it all, but this one was odd. Some little backwater town, barely within Moon City’s jurisdiction, and word had reached all the way to him. Those dogs were going to be found. Detective Krantz’s lunar rover rattled over the wide grey moon surface, kicking up a cloud of silver dust behind him. Moon City’s bubble was a lot larger than Silver Creek’s. Climbing down the immense slope of Silver Creek crater, just as Moon City’s bubble disappeared below the lip of the rear horizon, Silver Creek’s bubble came into view.
“There she is,” he said aloud to no one.
The enormous curve to the bottom began to flatten out as Detective Krantz brought the police rover to an idle just outside a hatchway-bubble at the foot of the forest. He waited as a green arrow appeared on the ground ahead of him, signalling to pull forward. Once inside, a gust of air whirled about the rover, and a set of doors began to retract. In front of him w
as a lush pinewood forest. Without hesitation, he rolled down his window and inched the rover out of the launch dock toward the tall trees. Platinum Pinewood forest, the furthest most wood glen from town. The detective drew in a great breath of air, and once more to no one, “Ah! Would ya just take in that smell? It’s good to get the City out of your lungs.” And with a whistle he followed the winding road to the town of Silver Creek.
***
Bonsai Bakery was a squat brick building at the corner of town. The town was rather squat itself, nestled amid an enormous dip of lush woodland, beneath a forever twinkling blanket of open space. Every bubble of Silver Creek, municipality and biomes included, rested at the centre of an enormous crater. When the weather controls allowed for rain, all the water would run downhill to collect at the centre of the crater. And at that centre, built over the aqueducts that caught and recycled the atmosphere’s water, was the town. Much like the rains that were about to come, trouble also rolled downhill, and before long, the Spaghetti Squad.
***
“Alright, so he could have been drawn past here, no?” Angelo nodded his nose at the map; unfolded, it was almost as big as him.
“I don’t think so, Brigadier. Doesn’t seem like something he would do.” Kathy tried not to frown, but she had begun to miss Jack and the worry was getting to her. The Squad had rendezvoused at the tree house at disc’s first light, having gathered a dog whistle, a pair of binoculars, a magnifying glass, matching fedoras, and, of course, the map. The four stood on Main Street just outside Bonsai Bakery.
“Well he went somewhere and he isn’t likely in our neighbourhood. Maybe it’s time we ask Mr. and Mrs. Mukai?” Elon finished with a flick to the brim of his fedora. They had all dressed the part today, and it was Angelo’s grandma who had made them matching felt fedoras.
Alex had been spinning the magnifying glass between thumb and forefinger, admiring the sign above the entranceway. “What’s that?” he asked to no one in particular, pointing at the design of a tree behind the lettering.