Dog Daze (7 page)

“We could have a costume contest!” That was Sunny. She was up and pacing the pool again. “Dogs and their owners! They pay to enter the Waddle dressed up!”

“They had a King and Queen of the Waddle—a boy and girl dog.”

Aneta watched as the three girls began throwing out ideas. Vee wrote furiously, glancing at her watch now and then. Finally, after several minutes and Mom had disappeared into the house, Vee held up her hand.

“I’ve got to call my stepmom and ask her if I can stay a little longer.” She pulled the phone from another pocket, rose, and walked away from the group to a corner of the patio.

“I wish I had a cell phone,” Esther said.

“Me, too,” said Sunny.

“Vee told me both sets of her parents call it the ATP.” Aneta felt she should join in the conversation. After all, her Wink was going to be the poster puppy. Everyone would know he was hers!

Two sets of inquiring eyes.

“The Anti-Trouble Phone,” Aneta said.

In a moment Vee was back, a frown on her face. “Okay, I’ve gotten an extension of twenty minutes. Then I
have
to be home or I’m in trouble.”

Aneta was glad she had never been in trouble with Mom. She worked really hard at that. Oh. Except for today with the stinky clothes.

Standing straight, Vee read from her list.

“We have a Basset Waddle, a King and Queen of the Waddle—we will need to get crowns—” She scribbled a note. “Costume contest.”

In a few more minutes, assignments were given to each girl. Vee laid the list on the table. Aneta saw the note about Esther and made a face. That might start another argument.

• Crowns for the King and Queen—Sunny (How will we make the crowns stay on dog heads?)
  

• Contest entry forms—Esther (Check to make sure she spells everything right.)
  

• Pooper-scooper and bags—Esther (If her dad can get the church youth group to do it.)
  

• Stuffed basset hound toys for the King and Queen of the Waddle—Vee (My dad knows a guy who sells all kinds of dog toys.)
  

• Dog treats for dogs who are in the Waddle—Aneta (Make sure her grandmother helps her remember.)
  

• Wink’s sketch as a poster with bunches of copies to put around town—Aneta (Maybe her grandmother will let us ride her scooter?)
  

It did. Sunny stopped it with a shout of “GIRLS! Do I have to pull this car over?” which made everyone laugh. By then it was time for Vee to go. Vee promised to e-mail everyone a copy of the list. E-mail addresses of parents were exchanged, with the exception of Vee who had her own, and the meeting was over.

After the girls left, Aneta headed toward the kitchen. The sooner she and Mom agreed that Wink had a forever home with them, the sooner they could begin to think of ways to catch the Crocs Killer.

“We have a plan!” Aneta said, stepping into the kitchen, expecting to find Mom in the window seat with her knees up like a kid, laptop braced on the tippy top. Her hair would be yanked up in a ponytail like Aneta’s, and she’d be wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

But Mom wasn’t in the window seat. She was on her tiptoes in the tall pantry, her head and shoulders into the deepness of it. The top shelf.

The top shelf held the peanut-butter jar. Uh-oh. More cookies. Mom was stressing out.

“Need help?” she managed.

“No, I’ve got it,” her mother said, avoiding her gaze for a moment. She turned away and then swung back toward her daughter. “No, I don’t have it. I don’t get it.” Clutching the organic peanut-butter jar to her chest, she stared at her daughter desperately. “Do you not like your name? You said you liked Annette! Why do you still think you’re an orphan?”

Then Mom burst into tears.

Never would she have wanted to hurt Mom. Never, as long as she lived. Rushing to Mom and hugging her and the peanut-butter jar, Aneta stammered, “I—I—”

For a few moments, neither of them said anything until Mom said faintly, “The peanut-butter jar is cutting into my rib cage, sweetie.”

A bubble of laughter popped up through Aneta. She let it out, and Mom laughed a gulp laugh. Mom motioned toward the family room. They walked to the couch and sat side by side.

“Can you help me understand why you think you’re an orphan, sweetie?” Mom was still holding the peanut-butter jar like a baby, close to her chest.

Aneta was silent. Why had she seen herself like Wink?

“I do not know,” she said, being very careful with her English so Mom would understand. “He does not have a home. I have a home. He looked lost yesterday. I feel—” Surprise tears pricked her eyes, hot and streaming. “I am not like a Jasper. I do not argue or win.” She studied her fingers in her lap. Would Mom send her back for being ungrateful? “I—I
am
grateful.”

Mom sucked in a deep breath and squeezed Aneta’s knee. “I see. I know you’re grateful, Annette—I…” Here she stopped. “Is that why you told the girls you were Aneta instead of Annette?” She paused, looking up at the ceiling. “Like you feel like Aneta and not an Annette?”

She understood. Mom understood. The hard knot in Aneta’s stomach untied, and she sagged against Mom. “Yes.”

Mom nodded. After a few moments, when Aneta was sure Mom was going to tell her she should call herself Annette, Mom spoke. “Sweetie, if you would rather be Aneta, then I want you to be Aneta. I’ll tell The Fam. If you decide in a little bit that is what you want forever, I will make the change in your name legally.” She leaned into her daughter, and her voice turned stern. “But, young lady—”

Aneta cut her eyes to her mother.

“You will
always
be a Jasper. No questions about that.”

“Even if I don’t argue and get in trouble and speak up?”

Mom’s rich, deep laugh flowed over the two of them. She stood, placing the peanut-butter jar on the coffee table. She faced Aneta.

“Even if you never get in trouble. I’ve actually been wondering if you ever
will
get in trouble. You’re so careful, I worry. We all make mistakes. It will not change you being a Jasper.” Picking up the peanut-butter jar, she waved it at Aneta. “See? I’m no longer a basket case. I’m putting the jar back on the top shelf,
Aneta
.”

Oh No! Another Microphone!

A
neta craned her neck around the headrest in Mom’s hybrid Lexus. Her mother caught her eye and winked. Aneta grinned. Nobody had ever arrived at an Oakton council meeting like she and the girls had just arrived.

Strung out behind Mom’s car was Gram on the Pink Flamingo with a grinning Esther behind. Cousin Zeff drove his black scooter with Vee sitting straight up, her rare smile blazing. On Uncle Luke’s red scooter, Sunny was shrieking something into his hairy ear. Uncle Luke was laughing.

“I know.” Mom’s voice held the little chuckle Aneta loved. It sounded like a ripple of water down a deep brook, like she’d been to with The Fam last summer. “Nobody attends an event like The Fam.”

They parked the Lexus and the scooters side by side, with the Lexus looking like a big black mother hen next to her Easter-colored chicks. Once inside, the group gathered outside the chamber doors.

“Are we ready?” Uncle Luke had his helmet under his left arm. With his right hand, he shoved his hand through bristly short, steel-gray hair. “Aneta, you’ll do great. We’ll all be in the gallery.”

Aneta, who had been clutching the original sketch of Wink, jerked her head up toward him. “Who, me? I am not talking. They are talking.” Those three would be good at talking. With Melissa here tonight, their group needed to be at their best. The girl could cause Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies some serious trouble. She didn’t know how. She just knew Melissa. With another look at Wink and his sad puppy eyes she’d caught so well with her pencil, Aneta looked at Vee.

“Be sure to tell them—” she began.

The three girls looked surprised. Vee raised her right eyebrow. How
did
she do that?

“Tell them what?” Esther said. “
You’re
presenting our idea.” Esther grabbed Aneta’s elbow on the left. Sunny claimed her right side, and they propelled her toward the double doors of the council chambers.

“Oh no. Not me.” The vivid recent memory of her freezing onstage and Melissa sniggering made her stomach start to twirl around like the teacups ride at Disneyland.

“You saved us with the Basset Waddle. You tell them,” Vee’s voice hissed behind her, and then they were banging through the council chamber doors.

A voice came from within. “We will get started in just a couple of minutes if everyone will find their seats.”

The large, dark-paneled room resembled the courtroom in which Aneta had been adopted. For a moment, she couldn’t move. The memory of that day washed over her like a shower. All The Fam, a judge who smiled a lot. People asking her if she understood what was happening. Nodding her head, clutching Mom’s hand.

A microphone screamed. “Ouch, Justin. You’d think by now you’d learn how to turn on that silly thing.” Jerked back to the council chambers, Aneta saw a trim woman in a dark-blue suit clap her hands over her ears. She was sitting with the other council members at the raised curved table with a podium in front of it. A laptop lay open in front of her. The man at the podium rolled his eyes. Aneta smothered a grin. That lady must be grumpy a lot. He was a short man with half-glasses and a yellow, collared, knit shirt. He had a kind face. Maybe she wouldn’t have to say anything. They had already given a piece of paper telling what they wanted to do. Vee and Esther called it a
proposal
.

“If everyone will take their seat, we’ll get the meeting started.” The council president leaned into the microphone. It shrieked again. Aneta jumped, her heart revving up higher than it ever had racing Mom in the pool. What on earth would she say?

She glanced toward the man. One side of his mouth twitched upward. He caught Aneta’s stare and winked. Even in the midst of her panic, she had to smile back. She was pretty sure now that the shrieking mic was on purpose to annoy Miss Blue Suit. The woman’s voice sounded sort of familiar.

She tried to relax, forced herself to lean back, and smoothed the pencil drawing of Wink. She’d finished it the day after the girls had agreed on their project. Monday, Mom went in late to work and took the four girls to a copy place to create the poster with Wink’s picture on it. Tuesday and Wednesday, the Scooter Patrol, consisting of Gram, Uncle Luke who was retired and bored, and Cousin Zeff who worked it around his courier route, went to every business in town. So Aneta could join in with her new friends, Aunt Jardine drove in from Jackson in her minivan with the shelf behind it that toted her scooter. They had laughed, eaten hamburgers and ice cream, and Vee and Esther hardly even argued.

“Tonight let’s move the Oakton Founders’ Day business to the front so the kids can leave after they present—” The man peered over his glasses at the gallery. The Fam waved wildly to Aneta. Her cheeks burned. “Please state the community program you’re supporting and then give a brief overview of your fund-raising plan.”

Overview. Fund-raising plan. What did that have to do with making Mom fall in love with Wink? The whole point of the poster was to have Mom see Wink wherever she went. Then she remembered the meeting yesterday by the pool where Vee and Esther argued over proposal bullet points and lists. Sunny had kept reminding her to pay attention.
That
was why they wanted her to pay attention? She was supposed to
lead
the group?

“You can do it.” Sunny gripped Aneta’s arm and smiled her big smile.

Sunny was wrong. Aneta knew she would never be able to stand up at that podium and speak. Her English would fail her, just like it had at the poster awards. She glanced down. Her hands were already trembling so much the drawing of Wink rattled. She just might throw up. Really.

“Go ahead, please.” His smile was nice.

Her knees locked her into her chair, rooted between Esther and Vee. Of the three, she wished the encouraging Sunny were sitting next to her.
I can’t move
.

Miss Blue Suit spoke, her discordant voice with the nasal twang blasting across the council chambers. “If you are not prepared, we will move on to the next person on the list, who I happen to
know
is prepared.”