by Dele Daniel
“What’s going to happen to the rocket?” Alex asked.
“Well,” Galan began, “that’s a funny thing. It seems to, technically, belong to the Rainy Day Club, that’s how much embezzling and shenanigans Mr. Armstrong was up to.”
“Oh. Wow,” croaked Alex.
“Well, I should be heading off.”
“Already?” Alex blurted.
“Yeah, I got my own cases to work on back at Moon City. That’s the life.”
“Do you think you’ll ever come back to visit?” Alex asked hesitantly.
Galan removed his fedora and brushed at it a few times with his other hand, “Well,” he said, turning that hat over, before reaching out and straightening it on Alex’s head, “If you guys are ever hard up on a case, you give me a shout. Moon City’s not that far.” He winked at Alex, making his way to the rover that had been brought up by one of the other officers, and with a kick of moon dust, was gone.
Alex was speechless. Angelo walked up, equally speechless, but stared. Then Elon walked up, jaw already dropped. Last was Kathy, “He didn’t just give you his hat, did he?” she said in more amazement than an actual question.
Smiling, ear to ear, Alex still didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. What was there to say anyways?
“Alright Squad, into the car,” said Mr. Leibowitz with a kind yet firm voice. “I’ll take you all back home, I bet your parents weren’t’ quite aware you were out all day trying to foil a corgi caper, eh? I expect I may be having a few chats. We best get a move on.” The exhausted and contented Spaghetti Squad, plus one extraordinary corgi, climbed into the back of Mr. Leibowitz’ Gravity-skimmer.
The rest of the night raced by in a blur. Through the tunnel, back to town, then of course through town, passed the café, passed the school, passed the bakery, through the bend and back home. Mr. Leibowitz explained to each household, to mortified parents and loved ones, what a good job these kids had done. Uncle Dave and Aunt Jessie were very supportive of their young detectives, though a little less impressed with Mr. Galan Krantz for taking them with him. But noticing Alex’s new hat, they didn’t speak too loudly on the matter. And at the end of the day, they had Jack back.
With Elon having been dropped off first, Mr. Leibowitz left the house to take a very tired Angelo back home. Uncle Dave thanked the police captain once more in seeing him out. Aunt Jessie bobbed a fussy Luna up and down until her eyes began to flutter. “Well it’s probably getting to be about that time for just about all of us,” Aunt Jess said, nodding to the now sleeping Luna.
“Yeah,” agreed Kathy and Alex in unison.
The two of them made their way up stairs with Alex pausing halfway and returning to Uncle Dave and Aunt Jess, just sort of standing there, in the middle of the room, still wearing his new fedora. Alex looked from his uncle and back again to his aunt.
“What is it, hun?” asked Aunt Jessie.
Oh heck, he thought. “Thank you,” he coughed, turning and hugging Uncle Dave, who was caught completely off-guard.
“No worries, kiddo,” chuckled his uncle.
“And thank you, Aunty,” he said, hugging Aunt Jessie and Luna much more awkwardly, not wanting to squish the baby.
Alex returned to the middle of the room and with a quick intake of breath, “Thank-you-for-letting-me-stay-here-and-I-love-you-guys-goodnight,” and with that, bolted up the stairs and to his room.
Uncle Dave and Aunt Jessie shared a look that only two people who truly care can ever really share. Alex was part of the family. Upstairs, Alex was already under his covers, with one eye on the window, looking out at all that open space. It was endless and held endless possibilities.
That night as Alex closed his eyes, as Kathy closed hers, as Elon closed his, and Angelo too, the Spaghetti Squad had put their first mystery to bed. By morning, a new adventure would be on the horizon, and they would all have each other to handle whatever came. Lieutenant Linguini, Brigadier Bolognese, Captain Kath, and new recruit, space jump-star extraordinaire, Alex Spider. Their adventures had just begun.
The End.
Message from the Author.
Dear Reader,
Thanks for reading the first book in the Adventures of Alex Spider series. This is going to be a long series. Think, Hardy Boys, Famous Five etc. so if you would like to hear from me anytime I publish a new novel, subscribe here. Or if you would like to connect on Goodreads, click here. You can also find me on twitter.
Ok now if you don’t mind, let me quickly get back to Silver Creek (*wink).
‘Dele