Dog Daze (11 page)

S
itting on wire chairs next to glass-topped wire tables outside The Sweet Stuff, the girls savored enormous balls of ice cream on crispy waffle cones, compliments of Uncle Luke. Esther sighed happily, licking a stray dribble before it reached her thumb. “Melissa tried to ruin it for us, but she didn’t win. Now we just have to do a great job at the Waddle tomorrow.”

“We will,” Vee said confidently, efficiently devouring her two scoops of plain vanilla ice cream.

“We got all the posters put back up and even added two stores we’d missed!” Sunny tipped her head and lapped around the edge of her cone to catch the quickly melting scoops of bubble gum and cake batter. “I think I’m going to recite our little speech in my sleep.”

“You mean this?” Aneta, over her giggles, recited in very good English: “Hi, we’d like to know why you took down the Dog Waddle poster. We’d like to help you feel more comfortable about this important fund-raiser for Oakton’s Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies.” It had been Gram’s idea to add “feel more comfortable.”

The girls applauded one-handed, other hands clutching their treats. “You were right, Mrs. Jasper, to tell us that we should ask them for their reasons. They couldn’t give us even one. I think most of them were embarrassed that they listened to Melissa. The only thing we got as a suggestion was to make sure there were dog-doo-doo cleanup bags.” Vee looked at Gram with respect and raised her double scoop in salute. “Good thing the IFA store had already donated a bazillion dog cleanup bags. People liked that we already had pooper-scoopers.”

“That volunteered to dress up and dance while they worked,” Gram added. “Very cool.”

“My youth group is very cool,” Esther said.

“I just might come to your very cool youth group sometime,” Vee said. When Esther’s eyes widened, Vee quickly continued, “Might. I said might.”

“I will come. C.P. says I will have a very great time and learn about God as a forever home,” Aneta said.

“Really.” Gram looked thoughtful. “Forever home. Hmm.”

“I am worried about the other Winks.” Aneta leaned back in her chair. “Our Waddle will be great. Mom will fall in love with Wink and his secret costume. Then she will want to adopt him. But what about the other dogs where Wink was?”

Esther shot her a quizzical look. “You said the very first day we rescued him you were adopting Wink. Your mom hasn’t said yes
yet
?”

Aneta peeped a glance at Gram, who was licking her mocha cone as though she wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. Aneta knew better. Part of why she knew better was that Cousin Laura had shot Gram a look and kicked her under the table.

“Um…” Aneta squirmed and took another lick.
If only I had not bragged I would adopt Wink. I thought it would be so easy to ask Mom and have her say yes
.

“Uh-oh.” Sunny looked past Aneta’s shoulder toward the patio door of The Sweet Stuff. “Here comes Melissa.”

Esther muttered, “I bet she’s not too happy about those posters being back up.”

“Get ready, folks,” Sunny said quietly. “Drama is in the house!”

Melissa walked directly to Gram, ignoring the girls, and offered her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Jasper.” Gram shook it.

Vee said, “Hi, Melissa. Seen all the Waddle posters for tomorrow?”

Oh, Vee. She said that so Melissa would know we know what she did
, Aneta thought. She wished she could come up with something fast like the girls did. The girls were more like The Fam than Aneta. The Fam had big brains, big mouths, and big hearts, Grand always said. Aneta wished she did. But, on the other hand, it was never a good idea to make Melissa mad. Ever.

“I treated the girls. Would you like to join us?” Uncle Luke said.

Four pairs of eyes whipped around to glare at him. Aneta choked on the last bit of the crunchy cone. You never knew what Uncle Luke might do. Ever.

Melissa smoothed her shirt over her capris. “Oh, thank you very much. I like The Sweet Stuff like the girls do.” She shifted her attention to Esther’s T-shirt, the slogan His P
AIN
Y
OUR
G
AIN
stretching across the girl’s round stomach. Esther squirmed, and Melissa continued, “Of course, I can’t eat here much. I’d get fat.”

Esther’s eyes began to glitter with tears.

“Hey,” muttered Zeff, his heavy brows slamming together.

Cousin Laura slowly raised her head from where she’d been checking her phone. She surveyed Melissa from under equally heavy and equally unhappy brows. She pursed her lips. Any moment she was going to say something Jasper-ish.

“Melissa, why you tell people to take down Wink’s poster?” Aneta asked, feeling a heat rise inside. Why was Melissa always so mean?

“Oh, that.” Melissa flipped her hand like she was erasing what Aneta said. “I’m sure what you meant to say was ‘why
did
I tell people?’ Verbs are so hard if you’re not an American.”

“Oh, for pizza sake!”

Aneta had not seen Sunny’s face so red before. She looked like she might shatter into a thousand bits if she heard Melissa say another word. Before Aneta could think about it, she had kicked Sunny under the table. Sunny, startled, shifted her gaze to Aneta. Aneta gave her a “don’t” shake of the head. Sunny took a deep breath, stretching her clenched fingers.

“I’m not here to join your party,” Melissa said, turning sideways like a model on the runway, ready to strut back behind the curtains. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Puzzled looks all around.

Vee was on her feet. “Why?”

Melissa smiled so wide, all her perfect white teeth showed. She waved the tips of her fingers on her right hand and turned away. The last words floated back. “‘Bye now.”

They watched her disappear back through the patio door.

Aneta broke the silence. “Something is bad here.”

“Sure thing,” Sunny said, leaping up and circling the table. “She’s up to something, and it’s not good for the Waddle.”

Racing against Time

H
alf an hour later at the library, Nadine hung up the phone and swiveled her big leather chair toward them. “The council secretary is a volunteer with Paws ‘N’ Claws. She tells me the people who live on Park Street called the council offices to say they don’t want the barking dogs in the park. One lady said she was afraid of vicious dogs. Tonight’s a regular council meeting, so somebody put the vote about the Waddle on the agenda.”

Wink melted into a puddle of nonvicious basset wrinkles. He rolled his eyes toward Aneta. This meant, “Belly rub, please.” She rubbed while sighing. Another obstacle. Her costume idea for Wink was perfect. What if Wink never got to waddle and make Mom fall in love?

“That somebody is probably Melissa’s mother.” Vee clasped her arms around her skinny knees. The girls were sitting next to Wink’s empty pen. Wink dozed off.

“They can’t do that. The Waddle is tomorrow!” Sunny cried.

Nadine shrugged. “They can if animal control gets complaints from citizens that they feel the event threatens their safety.”

“What would we do with all the Waddlers?”

“It could happen. They could stop us.”

“Not necessarily. We can’t stop now!”

“It’s
tomorrow
, for pizza sake!”

The girls’ cries came fast and furious.

“Then you’ve got to come up with a plan.” Nadine tipped her head toward Wink. “That little guy deserves his day to waddle for Aneta’s mom.”

For long moments, no one said anything. Nadine helped a few children and one parent who came to the desk. Otherwise, the only sounds were the murmurs from library patrons in other parts of the building along with Wink’s soft whuffling snores.

Sunny’s voice, slow and thoughtful, ended the silence. “Remember Mr. Leonard’s garage and how Wink thought it was so fascinating?” She rolled back on the carpet. Wink woke up and hop-stomped over. Flinging his head onto her stomach, he lurched first one front paw and then another up on her side. His right paw trapped his right ear. His rear feet struggled to get a push off the carpet and failed. He wailed. Sunny giggled. “Ouch, Wink. Remember those puppy claws, please.” She scooped one hand under his rear end and boosted him onto her. He wobbled and tripped toward her face. More giggles. “Mr. Puppy Breath.”

“What does that have to do with Melissa and her plan?” Vee demanded.

Sunny stopped her giggles and frowned, ignoring Vee’s comment. “What was in the garage that Wink wanted to check out? What’s that high-pitched sound? Why would he need an air conditioner in his
garage
?”

“Well, all I know is that I’m not going there again.” Esther uncrossed her legs and lurched to her feet. “Mr. Leonard scares me.”

“We need to focus, girls. Don’t you want to save the Waddle?” Vee asked them. “I mean, we’re going to look pretty stupid if we let everyone down now.” She pulled out the notebook and pen. Esther rolled her eyes. “We’re going to have to talk to every single neighbor on that street. Including Mr. Leonard. And we have to do it in less than three hours.”

“We could just call them, Miss Bossy.” Esther jerked her hands to her hips.

A Mom saying came to mind as Aneta watched the two girls square off. Again. “I see thunder on the horizon” meant trouble was coming. Vee and Esther had been friendlier during the past two weeks. Nothing started them up faster, Aneta knew, than Esther not wanting to do what Vee came up with first.

“For one reason, we don’t have their phone numbers. And second”—Vee began to write—“we need to do what Aneta’s Gram suggested before. That worked. Then have them sign a form that says they are now okay with the Waddle.”

“Yes, ask them what we can do to change their minds,” Aneta said. “But that is Mr. Leonard’s street. Where we got in trouble.” Aneta wadded up one of Wink’s ears.
Squidgy, squidgy
. That was her made-up word for the wrinkly wads. The puppy half opened his eyes. He loved her to gently squish his ears.

“Yes.” Vee stared off into space. “I can’t believe we have to do something
else
to keep Melissa from winning.”

Esther put her hands on her hips. “You are
obsessed
with winning, Vee, when this is a fund-raiser for a
good cause
that Melissa is trying to
ruin
.“

Vee’s gaze fell on her backpack. “Everything is about winning.”

“I’m sorry, girls,” Nadine interrupted. “You’ve only got three hours before the meeting. What are you going to do?”

“Three hours!” Sunny yelped. “That Melissa!”

“I’ll go to the other four houses, but I’m not going back to Mr. Leonard’s.” Esther stared each of them right in the eyes.

Aneta shook her head. “It is okay, Esther. You do not have to.”

The girls reviewed their plan with Nadine.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s a long shot. But I have to give you girls credit for trying.” She called her friend back at the council. The council said that they could bring the neighbors’ approval to the meeting.

While Sunny, Vee, and Esther argued over which house to go to first, and Vee and Esther bickered over who would create the document for the homeowners to sign, Aneta used Nadine’s phone to call Mom. She thought it might make the girls happier if there was a sleepover involved after the hot, sweaty work of talking to the neighbors. They would celebrate collecting all the signatures. Mr. Leonard would see that they were truly sorry and only wanted to do a good thing.

While she waited for Mom’s assistant to get Mom on the phone, she thought about how Esther didn’t seem to like to go home. She always looked for any kind of invite that would mean she could stay longer at Aneta’s. Then Mom’s voice sounded on the phone.

“Are you all right?”

After Aneta asked about the sleepover, Mom’s voice took on a smile. She agreed promptly, saying she’d bring dinner home for all of them. “I’ll come home early so you girls can have a swim after your hard work.”

After Aneta told the girls about the sleepover, the other three called home. It was a yes for everyone! Then they were off. The signature sheet came off the printer. The clock was ticking: less than three hours to get all five signatures.