Fabulous Five 013 - The Christmas Countdown (5 page)

"Are you going to Bumpers today?" Melanie asked
Katie as they were getting their books out of their lockers after school.

Katie shook her head. "I wish I could, but my sneakers
are shot. Mom gave me some money this morning, and I'm going to the mall to get
some new ones."

"The mall!" shrieked Melanie, slapping her
forehead with the back of her hand. "Why didn't I think of that? Come on.
Help me catch everybody before they leave the building."

"What are you talking about?" asked Katie. "All
I said was that I was going to get new sneakers."

Melanie slammed her locker and gave Katie an exasperated look.
"Don't you get it? The mall. All those shoppers with
money.
I'll
bet lots of them would donate to save the animals if they had the chance."

Katie's eyes shot open as if she'd just been struck by
lightning. "You're right. And
we're
going to give them a chance."

The two girls darted through the crowded hallway flagging
down each of their friends before they left their lockers until they had the
entire Fabulous Five together and had told them the new plan.

"I think it's terrific," said Beth. "Should
we get the boys, too? I know they would help."

"There isn't time," said Jana. "I have to be
home in an hour and a half."

"Besides," said Christie proudly, "this is
something just for The Fabulous Five to do together."

The girls were out of breath by the time they had jogged the
seven blocks to the huge downtown mall, and they exchanged smiles of victory at
the bumper-to-bumper stream of cars heading into the parking garage.

"Genius, pure genius!" said Beth, patting Melanie
on the back.

The interior of the mall was even more crowded than the
parking garage, and the girls had to link arms to stay together in the surging
crowd as they went past the picture-taking booth where Santa Claus sat, then
got on the escalator up to the second level.

"How are we going to get noticed?" asked Jana.

"I brought the poster from our cafeteria table,"
said Christie, holding a roll of poster board out for them to see. "But I
don't see anywhere to put it so that people will see it."

"I know," said Melanie. "Let's set up by the
pet store in that little oasis with the indoor trees, the waterfall, and the
park benches."

"Good idea," said Katie. "People shopping at
the pet store ought to be especially interested in saving animals."

When they reached the spot, a pair of elderly ladies were just
leaving one of the benches, and Beth grabbed it before anyone else could get
there. Then the girls unrolled their poster and taped it to the backrest of the
bench where it could be seen by people passing by.

"Does anyone have anything to collect the money in?"
asked Jana.

Nobody did, but Melanie spotted an empty soft-drink cup
floating in the fountain and retrieved it. "Here," she said, shaking
off the water drops. "Okay, guys. Time to go to work."

"Excuse me, Ma'am," said Beth, stopping a plump
woman coming out of the pet store. She was carrying a cat's clawing post
decorated with a big red ribbon. "Wouldn't you like to help save the lives
of fifteen dogs and cats that the local animal shelter is going to put to sleep
on Christmas Eve?"

The lady looked startled. "Christmas Eve? Oh, my."

"That's right," piped up Melanie. "It costs
twenty-five dollars apiece to adopt the animals, and we're trying to raise
enough money to adopt all of them."

The lady gave a breathless little sigh and set down the
clawing post. Then she dug into her purse and pulled out a dollar bill. "Here,"
she said. "Good luck."

Melanie and Beth looked at each other in wide-eyed
disbelief. "Why didn't we think of this before?" Melanie burst out. "It's
a snap."

"What's this about animals being put to sleep?"
The girls looked up to see a man standing beside them in jeans and a ski
jacket, holding the hands of two snowsuited toddlers.

"That's right," said Christie. "The animal
shelter is overcrowded and they have no choice."

"Well, we certainly want to do something about that,
don't we, kids?"

The two children nodded their heads vigorously. Then the man
handed each of them a quarter and instructed them to drop it into the cup.

"Wow!" cried Beth. "This is what I call
Christmas!"

"Just a moment, young ladies." The voice that
spoke this time did not sound friendly, and the girls turned to see a mall
security guard with his arms folded across his chest, frowning at them. "I'd
like to know what you think you're doing?"

"We're . . . um . . ." Melanie stammered.

"We're collecting money to save the lives of fifteen
dogs and cats at the animal shelter," spoke up Katie.

"And of course
you know
that soliciting in the
mall without a permit is against the law," the guard said sternly. "There
are signs posted all over the mall," he added, pointing to a large sign
beside the door to the pet store that said: ABSOLUTELY NO SOLICITING IN THE
MALL.

Melanie cringed. She had been in the mall thousands of
times, but this was the first time she had ever seen the sign.

"Gosh, Officer. We're sorry," she said. "We
didn't realize we were breaking the law. We're only trying to help the animals."

The officer's expression softened a little. "The
correct procedure is to go to the main office of the mall on the first floor
and fill out a request for a permit. The office will review it, check your
references, and let you know in a few days."

Melanie's shoulders slumped. "Thanks," she said, "but
we don't have a few days."

The girls rolled up their poster again and headed for the
exit, saying good-bye to Katie, who still had to shop for sneakers.

"I guess we'll just have to think of something else,"
said Jana.

Melanie nodded and then brightened. "Well, at least we
got another dollar and fifty cents."

"Wow! Look at all the mail Melanie's got." Jeffy
grabbed for the envelopes Melanie had in her hands a little while later, and
she jerked them away.

"Leave me alone, squirt. These are donations." She
thumbed through them, counting. "Seven. That's more like it," she
said with a smile.

"You're keeping track of the money you're getting, aren't
you?" asked her mother.

"We sure are," Melanie answered, heading for her
room. "Christie's our accountant," she called over her shoulder.

"Oh, that reminds me," her mother called after
her. "Mona Vaughn called to say that the shelter will give you a
fifty-dollar discount. Congratulations."

"Whoopee!" Melanie sang to herself as she raced
into her room. After the disastrous trip to the mall, she needed cheering up. "And
I'll bet there's fifty dollars here." She dropped the envelopes on her
desk and tore one open. It contained five dollars. She laid it on the corner of
her desk and put the accompanying letter aside.

The rest of the envelopes had an assortment of money from
two to ten dollars. The total was thirty-three dollars.

Melanie held the stack of money against her cheek. It wasn't
fifty dollars, but it was a lot more than the five dollars and forty-five cents
they had gotten in the mail the day before. It was enough for one and a half
animals, and if she got even more tomorrow and the next day, they had a chance
to get the three hundred and twenty-five dollars they needed now with the
fifty-dollar discount from the shelter.

She arranged the letters that had come with the money in a
neat stack to look at later. I'll call Christie right away, she thought,
getting up. She can tell me what the new total is and we can count dogs and
cats. When Melanie came into the living room, she found her mother with Mrs.
Miller.

"Sit down, Clare, and tell us what's wrong." Mrs.
Edwards was holding Mrs. Miller's arm and helping her into a chair. Melanie had
been so busy with the money she hadn't heard the doorbell chime. Mrs. Miller's eyes
were red, as if she had been crying, and she was holding a scrap of paper in
her hand.

"I've just received a call from Mrs. Mertz on Sherwood
Street," she said in a shaky voice as she wiped her eyes with a crumpled
tissue.

"There, there," said Melanie's mother, patting her
hand. "Can we get you a glass of water or something?" Mrs. Miller waved
her hand to reject the offer.

"What did Mrs. Mertz say?" asked Mrs. Edwards.

Mrs. Miller looked up at her. Her eyes were brimming with
tears. "They said they found the body of a little Pomeranian dog that had
a tag saying its name was Duchess, and my telephone number was on it."

"Way over on Sherwood?" Melanie said in disbelief.
"How could she have gotten way over there?"

Mrs. Miller shook her head. "They said it looked as if
she had been run over."

"Oh, my," said Melanie's mother. "Did they
give you their address?"

Mrs. Miller held up the paper she had been holding, and Mrs.
Edwards took it.

After she read it, she handed it to Melanie. "Your
father's down in the basement. Go tell him what's happened, and ask him if he'll
go get Duchess. Tell him to take a box along."

Melanie went with her father to get Duchess. When they
returned, he got a shovel, and they scraped the snow away and buried the little
box with the body in it in the corner of Mrs. Miller's backyard.

"Go get your mother and Clare," said Mr. Edwards. "We'll
show them where Duchess is buried."

Melanie did as she was told, but before she followed them
back to Mrs. Miller's yard, she ran into the family room and took a red
carnation from a vase.

When she joined the others at the small grave site, she
handed the carnation to Mrs. Miller. The older lady smiled at her and laid in
on the little mound of earth.

"That was so sad," said Melanie at the dinner
table that night. "Mrs. Miller really took it hard."

"Yes, she did," her mother agreed. "She had
Duchess for a long time. The little dog was like a baby to her. A lot of older
people need animals as companions. They give them something to care for that
can return their affection."

"I was thinking," said Melanie. "Would it be
too soon to give her another dog?"

Her mother looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"My friends and I have enough money to buy four or five
dogs or cats, and it just seems like a good idea to give one to her."
Melanie hurriedly added, "But we wouldn't do it unless Mrs. Miller wanted
one."

"That's very thoughtful, Melanie," said her
mother.

"Do you think you could talk to her and see how she
feels about it?" asked Melanie. "We're going to have some super dogs
and cats. Maybe she'd rather have a cat this time."

"It might be a little too early for her to take either,
sweetheart, but if it seems right, I'll talk to her."

Later in her room, Melanie sat staring at her open English
book, absentmindedly drawing Santa Clauses in her notebook. It had all seemed
so simple when she had thought up the idea of saving the animals. There were
all those beautiful kittens and puppies and older animals. All Melanie and her
friends needed was money and people to take them. How could anyone resist
giving money to save such sweet animals or not want to give a home to one of
them?

She looked at the picture of herself and Mona with Rainbow
that she had thumbtacked over her desk. It seemed impossible that someone
wouldn't want Rainbow. She was so loving and trusting. Melanie moved her
fingers across the photo. She could almost feel the fine hair covering the dog's
gorgeous head. She bit her lip to hold back the tears. In a way she knew how
Mrs. Miller felt.

She sighed and thought about her and Shane's plan to keep
the animals if Christmas Eve came before they found homes for them. It was a
crazy plan, and she had avoided even thinking about it, hoping instead that
people who wanted the pets really would come forward. But what if no one did?
What if she was stuck with eight or nine dogs hidden in her father's workshop?
How would she feed them? Or let them out to go to the bathroom? What had she
been thinking about anyway?

Melanie stood up and began pacing around her room. "There
has to be a better way to publicize this," she said out loud. "Just
putting an ad in the newspaper isn't enough. We've got to get the word out to
everyone in town that we need homes for these animals."

Of course there's television, she thought, but how . . . The
idea hit her like an avalanche. Jon Smith could get them on television. His
parents were Marge Whitworth and Chip Smith, local television personalities.
His mother even anchored the evening news program. All they would have to do
was convince her that their project was newsworthy and maybe, just
maybe
,
she would put it on the air. Melanie dashed downstairs and called Jon on the
phone.

"She'll go for it," Jon shouted when he had heard
her idea. "I know she will. Let me talk to her and call you back."

Half an hour later the phone rang. It was Jon. "She
loved it. She said to be at the shelter tomorrow after school, and she'll get a
camera crew there from the station. She even said that we'll make the six-o'clock
news."

Melanie was ecstatic. She called everyone she could think of
and told them the news.

The next afternoon spirits were high as at least twenty kids
tramped to the shelter behind The Fabulous Five, Mona, and the boys. Some
carried hand-lettered signs saying things such as, "Save the animals!"
and "Don't let innocent dogs and cats die at Christmas!"

When they arrived at the animal shelter, Mrs. Graham was all
flustered.

"Oh, my gosh!" cried Melanie. "She's the one
person I forgot to call."

"It's okay," Mrs. Graham assured her. "In
fact, it's wonderful."

Just then Marge Whitworth rushed forward and began shouting
instructions. "Okay, kids. Listen up. I want a dozen volunteers to hold
the animals for the camera."

Every hand shot up, but Jon went to her and whispered
something in her ear.

"Okay," she said. "The boys and girls who've
been working to raise money should come forward."

Melanie couldn't suppress a grin as The Fabulous Five, Mona,
Matt, Scott, Shane, Tony, Keith, and Jon made their way through the crowd. Then
she spied Randy hanging back. Why hadn't he stepped up with the rest of them?
Melanie wondered. He had helped as much as anybody. Then she realized why Randy
hadn't moved. He would make number thirteen, and Ms. Whitworth had said she
needed twelve volunteers.

Jon noticed it, too, and whispered to his mother again, and
she motioned Randy forward with the others.

Ms. Whitworth arranged them in a semicircle facing the
camera, and when it started to roll, Charles handed each of them one of the
dogs or cats from the cages. Each animal was leashed, and Charles cautioned
them to hold on to the leashes for dear life. Then Marge Whitworth stepped in
front of the group, faced the camera, and began speaking into her microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here at the local animal
shelter today to bring you the story of a dedicated group of students from
Wakeman Junior High who are working hard to save the lives of fifteen dogs and
cats, victims of overcrowding at the shelter, who are doomed to die on
Christmas Eve."

Melanie was holding Rainbow, and she listened to Jon's
mother and stroked the dog's head at the same time. She could feel Rainbow's
little heart beating furiously, and she longed to whisper to her that
everything would be all right.

"With only three days left and only halfway to their
goal of three hundred . . ."

Suddenly the Labrador retriever Matt was holding broke loose
and lunged for the long-haired gray cat in Christie's arms. Christie screamed,
dropping the cat, and pandemonium broke out as a boxer and a Border collie took
off in opposite directions, getting tangled up in each other's leashes, and a
calico cat yowled and swiped a black poodle across the nose. What happened
after that was anyone's guess, Melanie thought later. Dogs were barking, kids
were screeching, and cats were hissing and arching their backs, and Rainbow
snuggled deeper into Melanie's arms.

The only sound heard over the melee was Marge Whitworth's
strong voice calling,
"CUT!"