Lucky Charm (11 page)

By the end of the day, Charlotte had to agree with Ms. R—anyone could have left the message on the website and left the dog and note on the Dumpster. The fliers were all over town. They had left stacks at all their favorite shops. Anyone in Brookline could have picked one up. But when the final bell rang and Charlotte made her way to her locker, she still couldn’t think of anyone mean enough to do such a thing. She knew it was unfair, but she couldn’t quite get the notion out of her mind that Anna and Joline had something to do with the “Dumpster incident.” After all, being mean was their specialty.

“Charlotte, are you okay?” Maeve asked as she rushed up to Charlotte, who was closing her locker. “Avery told me all about what happened in Ms. Rodriguez’s office. I can’t believe that Ms. R would take Anna and Joline’s side against you and Avery!”

“Well, she was sort of right. We shouldn’t have accused them like that without more proof. And, we really shouldn’t have done it in front of everyone. It really was kind of unfair of us, Maeve.”

Maeve couldn’t believe Charlotte was being so reasonable. She didn’t trust the Queens of Mean at all and was sure they had something to do with putting the stuffed dog on the
Dumpster. It was just their style. But she didn’t say anything. If Charlotte wanted to be reasonable, that was up to her.

Katani came rushing over. “I just heard,” she said. “Do you think your dad is going to be really mad?”

“Oh, yes.” Charlotte shook her head up and down vigorously. “But even worse, he’s going to be really disappointed. Especially after what we pulled this morning.”

Katani nodded sympathetically. There would be big trouble in the Summers house if she ever pulled anything like Nick, Charlotte, and Avery did…lost dog or no lost dog!

“Do you need help after school?” Isabel asked as she approached Charlotte’s locker. “Anything I can do to help find Marty?”

“I’m not sure what to do next,” Charlotte said.

“I say we meet in the Tower and map out a plan,” Maeve said. “Where’s Avery?”

“What’s going on?” Avery asked as she joined the group.

“We decided to go to the Tower to map out a Marty rescue plan,” Maeve said.

“I can’t make it,” an apologetic Katani said. “I’m going back to the stables with Kelley this afternoon. Keep me posted though.” Katani waved good-bye and took off toward Mrs. Fields’s office.

Charlotte remained silent as Avery, Maeve, and Isabel discussed every detail of the “A & J episode” during the walk home.

“Okay! That’s it,” Charlotte exclaimed as she climbed the steps to her front porch. “I don’t want to hear the names
Anna and Joline
anymore. I want to leave this whole issue at the doorstep. From here on out, let’s just focus on finding Marty.”

Charlotte opened the door and the girls tromped up the stairs to the second-floor living room.

Avery yelped with excitement.

The message light was blinking. Charlotte rushed over and hit the Play button.

“You have one new message,” the answering machine announced. “Friday, two-fifteen p.m….”

The answering machine message started playing. It was fuzzy at first, as if the person on the other end of the phone was outside. Charlotte could hear voices in the background. Then a man’s voice started talking. He had a foreign accent. “Hello. I want you to know your dog, your little dog, is safe. He no hurt.” There was a long pause and all the girls rushed to the machine.

“What?” Avery asked. “What did he say?”

“SHHHHH!” the other girls shushed in unison, staring at the answering machine, hoping there was more.

“I no want reward. In fact I pay you a hundred times that amount to keep dog. Call me at 555-0147,” the man said hurriedly and then hung up.

Charlotte’s Journal

Boy, did Avery, Nick, and I mess up! When my dad showed up at the vacant lot and found out that we went to look for Marty without an adult, he was furious. On top of that, I had to give him the note from Ms. R about the A & J incident. He actually yelled at me, even longer than when I was nine and racked up a $127 phone bill talking to my friend Anabel in Australia.

Dad told me that we should all be old enough to know better. I HATE letting him down. He said that he had no idea what a proper punishment for this sort of thing was. He said he was going to ask the head of the ed department at the university. I hope he’s kidding. I really don’t want to have to scrub floors, or write a thousand word article on the dangers of being stupid!

Although I know now that it was a really, stupendously dangerous thing to do, going to a strange place alone—because you never know what crazy people might be around. WE might have been kidnapped. I wasn’t thinking straight (neither were Nick and Avery)—I was so worried about Marty that I forgot my common sense.

It was horrible today seeing that stuffed animal on top of the Dumpster. And I did really think it was our adorable little Marty
at first. My heart felt like it had stopped for a moment. Well, just for a second.

The whole thing was weird. I mean arriving at the address and not finding a building. Not finding Marty in the backyard like Dogstar said we would.

And then finding that dirty, tattered stuffed animal and that awful, hateful note. I just can’t think of anyone else besides the Queens of Mean that would be that mean except for Kiki Underwood. But she is such a princess she would never touch something dirty or tattered. She would probably faint or throw a diva tantrum if she did.

The only good part of the whole morning was that Nick came with us. It was so sweet of him to think we needed help. And Avery was brave, too. I hope Avery and Nick didn’t get into too much trouble. This whole thing is turning into one big mess.

T
he girls stared at the answering machine in disbelief. Maeve clapped her hands and—turning to Avery, Isabel, and Charlotte with eyes bright—asked, “Can you believe it? I absolutely have to celebrate!”

Charlotte, her arms folded, glared suspiciously at the machine. “What is that expression…don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched? After our wild goose chase out to the empty lot, I’m not sure that’s such a great idea. We don’t want to be the victims of any more sick jokes!” she replied.

Maeve looked at Charlotte like she was crazy. “This is totally different! Marty’s found! He’s not lost any more!” She threw up her hands in a cheer.

“Charlotte, maybe you better play the message again so we can write down the number?” asked Isabel.

“Absolutely.” Charlotte had already pulled a pad of paper and a pencil from her backpack.

“I’ll go to the kitchen and see what’s in the fridge for
an impromptu party. Oh, I wish Katani were here!” Maeve danced her way out of the room.

“Maeve! Stop right where you are!” Avery commanded.

“What is your problem?” Maeve asked. “Didn’t you hear? Marty’s found! The guy on the phone has our little Marty!”

“That’s not why he called us, Maeve! Didn’t you hear what he said?” Avery gulped before she could get out the last words. “He wants to keep
our
Marty.”

“Ohhh.” Maeve was shocked. Her face fell. She had been so excited she had missed that part of the message.

“Are you sure, Avery?” Isabel asked.

“I’m positive. He said he didn’t want the reward, remember? He said he wants to pay us money to keep Marty.”

“We can’t do that,” Charlotte said in a firm voice. “Marty belongs with us!”

“Listen to the message again.” Avery gestured to the machine. “He wants to keep Marty.”

The four girls gathered around the answering machine. Charlotte couldn’t believe that something so small contained such vital information. She took a deep breath and pushed the Play button.

“Hello. I want you to know your dog, your little dog is safe. He no hurt.” The girls looked at each other. Maeve clasped her hand to her heart and smiled with relief.

“Wait! Listen to this next part…”

“I no want reward. In fact, I pay you a hundred times that amount to keep dog. Call me at 555-0147.”

Avery folded her arms across her chest. “I told you,” she said to her friends. This was one contest that Avery wished she hadn’t won.

Maeve frowned. “No! That can’t be right. He must not have known what he was saying. Why would he pay to keep Marty…why, that is simply…simply…”

“True!” Isabel retorted.

“Well, of course Marty’s a star,” Maeve exclaimed indignantly. “But you don’t think he seriously means to keep him, do you?”

Avery shrugged. “He sounded pretty serious to me.”

“Come on, Maeve—think about it. He said he would pay a hundred times the amount of our reward to keep Marty. What’s a hundred times one hundred dollars?” Isabel asked.

Charlotte quickly calculated the sum in her head. “Ten thousand dollars,” she said quietly.

“Oh, my gosh!” Isabel gasped in disbelief.

“Seriously! Who would actually pay ten thousand dollars for a mutt?” Maeve asked.

“Somebody with a whole lot of money,” Charlotte replied.

For her part, Avery looked stung. “Marty isn’t just any old dog, Maeve.”

“It’s true,” murmured Charlotte. “Marty is really, really something special.”

“But, you guys, it’s ten thousand dollars,” Maeve argued. “Do you know what you can buy with ten thousand dollars?”

“A car,” Isabel said.

“A trip to Europe,” added Charlotte.

“Marty,” Avery decided.

“What if it’s a joke?” Isabel wondered. “Maybe Anna and Joline are up to their old tricks again. You know, get back at you and Avery for embarrassing them.”

Charlotte shook her head. “It sounds like an adult, not a kid. Let’s listen again.”

The four huddled closer to the answering machine and Charlotte hit the button one last time.

Maeve shut her eyes and tried to listen harder. “He’s hard to understand. He really doesn’t speak English very well.”

“You’re right, Maeve,” Isabel said. “This man’s first language is definitely Spanish.”

“Spanish.” Avery was very interested. “Are you positive?”

“Hello…Mexican heritage here.” Isabel was definite.

“Okay, so a Hispanic man has Marty and wants to pay us ten thousand dollars. Is that what we think?” Maeve asked.

“Wait a minute!” Isabel cried. “You guys, check this out.” She held up a flier. “Charlotte, remember when your dad made you redo this because he didn’t want you to have your phone number and e-mail address plastered all over Brookline?”

“That’s right!” Charlotte had forgotten about that.

“So if this is truly someone you don’t know, how did this guy get your phone number?” Isabel asked.

The four were silent as they tried to figure out how some random individual with a lot of money managed to find out Charlotte’s phone number.

“It must be Anna and Joline. We are being scammed,” Isabel said.

“No, Anna and Joline wouldn’t be that obvious after our little ‘altercation,’” grinned Avery.

“Do you think any of the original fliers got mixed up
with the new fliers, Charlotte?” Maeve asked.

Charlotte disappeared into her bedroom and came out with a handful of fliers. “These were in the garbage can. Do you remember how many we printed off, Isabel?”

“I’m pretty sure we printed off ten.”

Charlotte counted the stack of fliers in her hand. “Ten,” she said.

“The Queens of Mean are such snakes!” Maeve was fuming. “I believe they would actually find someone to call us and leave a fake message!”

“Come on! Let’s not jump to conclusions. Remember what Ms. Rodriquez said about making accusations. We need to be sure,” Charlotte cautioned.

“Wait a minute!” exclaimed an excited Avery. “I need to show you all something.” She reached into her worn blue backpack, fumbled around and pulled out the newspaper from lunch. Maeve grimaced when she saw the sticky mess. “Is there jelly on that thing?”

Avery ignored her and uncrumpled the wadded-up mess of sticky paper (and jelly) and spread it on the floor. “Check this out,” she said proudly as she pointed to a blurry photograph of the Red Sox dugout.

Isabel, Maeve, and Charlotte looked at each other.
Was Avery losing her mind?
wondered Charlotte. What did that picture of the Red Sox dugout have to do with Marty?

“Look!” An agitated Avery tapped on the corner of the picture. “Can’t you see who this is?” The girls bent down. It was Isabel who saw it first—two familiar shapes in the corner. She looked up. “Avery, is that who I think it is?”

“OH! It’s him. It’s really Marty, and Happy Lucky Thingy
is with him.” Maeve was beside herself with excitement.

Isabel scrutinized the picture again. “Avery, I think it could be him.”

Charlotte wasn’t convinced. “I know it looks a lot like Marty, but I’m not jumping to any more conclusions without really good evidence.” After all that had happened, she was firm on that. No more
faux pas
, as Sophie would say.

What Next?

The BSG marched up to the Tower. Charlotte sat on her window seat and stared out into the growing darkness as lights blinked on in the city. She only half listened as Isabel wrote down ideas from Avery and Maeve on one of Katani’s dry erase boards. She wondered about the mysterious voice on the phone. What if someone had really found Marty? Of course, the outrageous reward made her suspect Anna and Joline. But after what Ms. Rodriguez said to her today, she knew she had to be super careful about accusing the Queens of Mean again.

Ms. Rodriguez had reminded her that, as a budding journalist, she should depend on her powers of observation. Charlotte grabbed her reporter’s notebook and looked at the notes she had scribbled shortly after Marty ran off.

The Disappearance

• - dashed off without leash
  
• - no collar
  
• - nothing on him—EXCEPT Happy Lucky Thingy!
  

Suddenly, Charlotte jumped up. Why
hadn’t
she thought of this before?

“Everyone!” Charlotte exclaimed, delighted with her sudden epiphany.

“What?” Avery asked.

“Happy Lucky! When Marty ran off, he had Happy Lucky in his mouth.”

“Yeah? So?” Avery asked.

“So I wrote my phone number on the little white tag. You know, the tag on the side of Happy Lucky.”

“You did?” Isabel was impressed her friend had been so responsible.
That’s Charlotte.
Isabel smiled. Always thinking. She would definitely go to Europe with Charlotte when they were older.

Charlotte looked at her friends with wide eyes. “You know what that means?”

The girls were afraid that if they said the words out loud they would jinx it. Finally Maeve murmured, “The call might be for real?”

Charlotte grinned. “Bingo!”

The four scrambled down the ladder stairs and rushed toward the telephone.

Charlotte hit the button and they listened intently to the message one more time.

“How can we tell for sure if we’re being scammed or not?” Maeve asked.

Charlotte thought about how to get out of that pickle. “What if we asked him where he got the phone number from? Then, if he says from the tag on Happy Lucky Thingy, we’ll know that this is the real deal.”

“Let’s do it!” Avery enthused. She picked up the phone and shoved it toward Charlotte. “Can we call him now?”

“I don’t know…Shouldn’t we wait and ask my dad first?”

Avery hesitated, “Well, after this morning I’d say yes, but this is sorta an emergency. We don’t know for sure if Marty is okay and the sooner we call, the sooner we get him back! And…we’re safe at home. We’re not going to any Dumpster in a strange neighborhood, or giving out our address.”

Charlotte considered this. She didn’t want to get in any more trouble. “Well, I guess we could just call him and check, and we can always hang up if he’s weird or something.” She began to dial.

“Wait!” Isabel said. “If this guy speaks Spanish, why don’t I call? It would make things easier. That way I could ask him if he was serious about the reward thing.”

Charlotte handed the phone to Isabel and she punched out the numbers.

“Voicemail,” she whispered.

Isabel rattled off something in Spanish.

“What did you say?” Charlotte asked.

“I told him that I was calling about the dog and that he could call me at my home number. I told him to ask for Isabel.”

“What about the reward? Did you say anything about the reward?” Avery asked.

“No, but when he calls, I’ll tell him that we have to have the dog back. That we are too sad without him.”

“This is so fabulosity! Maybe he’ll call tonight. Isabel can make plans for the exchange. And then it really will be time
to celebrate!” Maeve began to do a happy dance, making her friends giggle.

“Yeah, let’s celebrate tomorrow night, once we get Marty back. Then Katani can be here too,” Avery suggested.

“Yuri promised me that he was saving a special bone for when Marty returned. I’ll pick that up as a little welcome home present,” Charlotte said, her voice catching. Was she getting too excited over nothing again? She crossed her fingers behind her back.
Please, let it be true
, she whispered to herself.

“Ooh! I really want to be in charge of his welcome home outfit!” Maeve begged. “I saw a really cute dog sweater at Ms. Pink’s on Harvard Street, and it’s starting to get cold. With Marty’s short fur, I think a little sweater would help keep him warm. Besides, he’ll look so cute!”

Charlotte and Isabel clapped their hands in agreement, but Avery looked completely horrified. “Aw, geesh, Maeve. Are you serious? I always laugh when I see animals dressed like people. Besides, Marty is a manly dog. He doesn’t need some fancy-shmancy little sweater to keep him warm,” Avery argued.

Maeve grinned mischievously. “We’ll see,” she replied.

Out to Pasture

Big Blue lurched to a stop in the dirt parking lot of High Hopes Riding Stable. Katani couldn’t wait to see Penelope again…She burst out of the car the moment Grandma Ruby put on the brakes and came to a complete stop. Kelley trailed after her.

Katani took a long look around at the barn and rolling meadows surrounding her. She was so far from the traffic
and the crowded city sidewalks that this place seemed like her own special world. Unlike the last time, she couldn’t wait to smell the grass, the trees, and the horses. She saw Penelope trotting around the corral by herself and ran to step on the bottom board of the fence to get a better view. When Katani made the clucking noise with her tongue, Penelope lifted her head up, turned toward her, and trotted over.

It was hard to believe that this was only their third lesson. Katani felt a connection with Penelope that she couldn’t describe, as though she had known the horse for her whole life. Katani was certain the feeling was mutual, as Penelope lifted her head over the top of the fence and nuzzled her shoulder.

On the way home from school, Kelley and Katani had stopped at Yuri’s vegetable stand and bought two apples. Katani held her hand out and offered an apple to Penelope.

“Make sure you keep your hand flat,” Claudia reminded her. “Horses can’t see what’s in front of their mouths. You don’t want her to accidentally bite you.”

Penelope’s soft lips wrapped around the apple. She took a bite of the fruit, splattering juice and tiny bits of apple all over Katani and Kelley.

“Oooo!” Kelley said. “Penelope is a very messy eater.”

“She eats like a horse,” Katani laughed.

Kelley looked frantically about. “I want to feed my horse, too. Where’s Wilbur? Wilbur!” Kelley called.

“Come on, let’s go find him,” Katani said. She grabbed Kelley’s hand and together they ran toward the stable.

On Wednesday, the girls had learned the names of the tack, the equipment that goes on a horse. Today they were learning how to saddle the horses.