Flash (2 page)

“A mystery!” Charles looked from Becky to the puppy. “Hey, you’re right!”

The puppy had calmed down a little. Now he was sitting alertly in a corner of the stall, watching Charles and Becky with intelligent eyes. One ear stood up, and the other fell halfway over. He was a real cutie.

“Well, we know your name is Flash,” Becky said.

“And you’re a boy. Hello, Flash,” Charles said softly.

Flash held up a paw.

It was good to hear his name. Maybe these children weren’t exactly strangers, after all! Maybe he could trust them.

Down at the other end of the barn, Buddy had started to whine. He didn’t like being separated from Charles. “It’s okay, pal,” Charles called. “I’ll be there soon.” He turned to Becky. “What should we do?” he asked.

Becky thought for a minute. “Let’s not tell anyone else yet. Let’s keep him in here and see if we can solve the mystery of who those people were and why they brought him here.”

Charles liked that idea. It was exactly the kind of idea that Sammy, his best friend at home, would have come up with. “Cool,” he said. “We’ll have to bring him something to eat. We only brought enough puppy food for Buddy, so we’ll have to give him people food until we can buy more dog chow.” He paused. “We should get a blanket, too. But how will we get all that stuff out here without anybody noticing?”

Becky laughed. “I bet our dads are both snoozing, one on each couch. Stephanie and
Lizzie are probably in the den watching a video, and our moms are sitting by the fire, yakking.”

Charles nodded. “You’re probably right. And the Bean is probably asleep on my mom’s lap. That’s how Thanksgiving usually ends up. I bet they’ve hardly even noticed that we’re gone.”

“Just to be safe,” Becky said, “how about if you go in and distract them while I find some food in the kitchen? Then we can meet up and come back out here.”

“Um, okay,” Charles agreed. He didn’t have a clue about how he would “distract” everyone, but Becky seemed so sure of herself that he figured it must be a good plan. Maybe he could tell his latest knock-knock joke! That would be perfect. Mom and Dad had only heard it about four or five times so far, on the way to the farm.

“We’ll be back soon,” Charles told Flash. The dog still wasn’t ready to be petted, but he seemed to
understand that Charles and Becky were going to help him. He sighed softly as he curled up in the hay.

Buddy was so happy to see Charles again that he twirled around three times as Charles unhooked his leash from the tractor. He licked Charles’s hands and made joyful snuffling noises. “Good boy, Buddy,” Charles said. “Good boy.”

When they got inside the house, Becky and Charles split up. Charles headed for the living room. Sure enough, the scene was exactly as he and Becky had pictured it. Dad was snoring softly on the blue couch, and Uncle Stephen was on the flowered one. Lizzie and Stephanie were in the den watching some goopy love movie. Buddy ran right in and jumped up on Lizzie’s lap when Charles peeked in the door. Mom and Aunt Abigail were sitting by the fire, talking quietly. The only surprise was that the Bean was on Aunt Abigail’s lap instead of Mom’s. Nobody really seemed to need
distracting, but Charles had a job to do. He got right to work.

“Hey, Mom,” he said. “Knock, knock!”

His mom sighed. Sometimes Charles had a feeling that she was tired of knock-knock jokes, but how could that be? He was always coming up with new ones. It wasn’t like he told the same one over and over. Not too many times, anyway.

“Who’s there?” Aunt Abigail asked.

“Lena,” said Charles.

“Lena who?” Aunt Abigail said gamely.

“Lena little closer and I’ll tell you!” Charles waited for her to laugh.

Instead, Aunt Abigail sat up straight and looked toward the kitchen. “What’s that noise?” she asked.

Charles heard a clatter. Becky must have knocked something over. Charles gulped. “Oh, that’s just Becky,” he said quickly. “She said she was going to get something to eat.” He wasn’t lying. Becky
was
getting something to eat. It just wasn’t for herself — but he left that part out.

“How can she be
hungry?”
Mom said, rubbing her belly with a little groan. “I’m still stuffed.”

Charles shrugged. “Well, anyway, maybe I’ll go find her,” he said. By now, he just wanted to get out of the room. This job of distracting people made him nervous. Besides, he wanted to get back to the barn to make sure Flash was okay. “Oh, by the way,” he added casually, looking at Aunt Abigail, “do you know somebody named Murray?”

“Murray?” Aunt Abigail rubbed her chin, thinking. “Do you mean the bald guy who delivers bread to the store?”

“Maybe,” Charles said. He hadn’t gotten a good look at the man in the car. Maybe he was bald. “Does he live around here?”

“I have no idea,” Aunt Abigail said. “Mrs. Daniels down at the store might know.” She gave Charles a curious look. “Why do you ask?”

“Uh —” Charles wasn’t sure what to say. Luckily,
just then there was another crash from the kitchen. “No reason, really,” Charles said, backing out of the room. “I’ll just go help Becky. See ya!”

That was close.

“Eesh!” Charles said, when he came into the kitchen. “Don’t ask me to do
that
again.” Becky’s arms were loaded up with a blanket, a metal bowl, a gallon jug of water, and a plastic container full of leftover turkey.

“We’re all set, I think,” she said. “Are they suspicious?”

“Not very,” Charles said, looking over his shoulder. “But let’s get out of here, anyway. Flash is probably hungry.”

He
was
hungry. The puppy gobbled down three big pieces of turkey in about three seconds. Then he looked eagerly up at Charles and Becky, as if to ask for more.

At least they had good food at this place. And this little room was cozy enough. Flash didn’t like
being locked in, but he would find a way out as soon as he had a chance. Maybe then he could get back to his own people. Meanwhile, as long as these children kept bringing him food, he might as well hang around.

By the time Flash had finished all the turkey, he seemed to consider Charles and Becky his friends. He nudged their hands with his nose, looking for pats, and even licked Charles’s cheek. They sat for a few minutes in a corner of the stall, petting the silky puppy and talking about how to solve the mystery. Then it was time to head inside, before the grown-ups realized they were missing.

Becky set her alarm clock for six in the morning so they could get up to feed and walk Flash before anybody else was out of bed. She tiptoed into the den, where Charles was sleeping on the pullout couch, and shook him awake. Luckily, Buddy had decided to sleep in Stephanie’s room with Stephanie and Lizzie, so he didn’t beg to come outside with them.

It was still dark when they stepped out the back door. Cold, too. Charles’s breath came out in little white puffs, and he pulled his hands up inside his jacket sleeves to keep them warm.

Becky had a flashlight with her, and they used it to light their way into the barn and down the aisle to the stall where Flash was waiting.

“Hey, Flash,” Charles called softly. “Good morning! It’s us!”

Flash woke up in a hurry. He was glad to see the boy and girl. They had been nice to him, and they had brought him delicious food. Maybe they had something good this time, too!

When they opened the stall door, Flash jumped right up and trotted over to sniff Becky’s hand and let her pet him. “He likes us now,” Becky said.

“He trusts us,”
Charles said. “He knows we’ll take care of him, don’t you, boy?” He gave Flash’s head a little rub.

“I bet he’ll like
this,
” Becky said, opening the lid of the container she’d brought out to the barn. “Some leftover stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy.”

Flash wolfed down the food and looked eagerly for more.

“We’d better buy him some real puppy food,”

Charles said. “Somebody’s going to notice if we keep taking food from the fridge. Plus, he’s a dog. Dog food is better for him than people food.” Charles didn’t really know why that was. Buddy’s kibble sure didn’t look or smell all that tasty. But Dr. Gibson, their vet, had said that it was the best thing for a growing puppy to be eating.

“Great idea,” said Becky. “We were going to the store, anyway.”

That was what they had decided the night before. They’d already found out that a man named Murray delivered bread to the store. It seemed like the perfect place to start their detective work. If they could find out who Murray was, and where he had gone, then maybe they could track him down. Surely he and his wife didn’t
mean
to abandon Flash at a stranger’s farm.

Charles had brought Buddy’s leash with him. He clipped it onto Flash’s collar, and he and Becky took Flash out into the cold, dark yard. The dog pulled eagerly at the leash, dashing this way and
that to check out every smell. “Come on, Flash,” Charles begged. “Do your business!” The sun was going to come up any minute, and they had to have Flash back in the barn before that.

Finally, Flash did what Charles wanted him to do.

“Good boy!” Charles said. They took him back into the barn and got him settled into his stall. “We’ll be back soon,” Charles promised, scratching Flash between the ears. Flash leaned against Charles’s leg with a contented sigh. Charles hated to leave, but if he and Becky didn’t show up for breakfast, their parents would start wondering.

When they slipped into the house, Charles heard voices from the bright, warm kitchen. Everybody was up, although Stephanie and Lizzie were still in their p.j.’s. Buddy was padding around the kitchen, sniffing the floor as he checked for food scraps. “I’ll take Buddy out,” Charles volunteered quickly. What if Flash started barking or
something? For now it was better if everybody stayed inside, far from the barn.

Afterward, Charles sat down at the table and had a big piece of apple pie, just like Dad and Uncle Stephen. Pie for breakfast was a special Peterson family Thankgsiving tradition. Dessert for breakfast! Charles wished all family traditions were that cool. When he was done, he looked over at Becky. “Ready?” he mouthed.

She nodded. “Mom, we’re going for a walk,” Becky said. “Just to the store.”

“Why bother?” Stephanie asked, making a face. “There’s nothing there but fly swatters and old cans of beans.”

“Steph, come on!” said Aunt Abigail. “That store is full of lovely things. Including my baked goods, if I do say so myself!”

“Yeah,” said Lizzie. “I love the penny candy they sell. That store’s not so bad.”

“Easy for you to say,” said Stephanie grumpily.
“You get to live in a place where there are normal stores and malls and everything.”

“Well, we’re going, anyway,” Becky said.

“What’s your hurry?” Lizzie gave Charles a suspicious look.

He knew it! It was nearly impossible to hide anything from Nosy Lizzie.

“No hurry.” Charles shrugged. “We just feel like going for a walk.”

“Bundle up!” said Mom without looking at Charles. She was busy reading the paper as she ate some leftover berry crumble.

It was only a ten-minute walk to the store, just long enough for Becky and Charles to figure out a good plan for what to do when they got there. They had a few clues to their mystery, and they needed to find out more.

Charles breathed in a deep, happy sniff when he and Becky walked in, jingling the bell on the door. The store had squeaky wooden floors,
and it smelled like chocolate and fresh bread and furniture polish, which turned out to be a really good combination.

They approached the woman at the cash register. “Hi, Mrs. Daniels,” said Becky. “Remember Charles?”

“Sure,” said Mrs. Daniels. “Mr. Knock-knock Joke, right?”

Charles nodded. Perfect. This fit right in with the plan he and Becky had made. “Knock-knock,” he said. (This was part one of the plan.)

“Who’s there?” asked Mrs. Daniels, with a smile.

“Murray,” said Charles.

“Murray who?”

“Murray Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” Charles couldn’t help laughing at his own joke.

Mrs. Daniels chuckled, too. “That’s a good one,” she said.

“Speaking of Murray,” Becky said, taking over
with part two of the plan. “Isn’t Murray your bread delivery man?”

Charles slipped away to look over the dog food choices while Becky asked Mrs. Daniels some questions. “Murray?” Charles heard the store owner say. “You know, he hasn’t been around for a couple of days. We’ve had a substitute driver delivering our bread…. No, I don’t know Murray’s last name, or where he lives. Sorry!”

“Well, that was a dead end,” Becky said as they left the store.

“At least we got something for Flash to eat!” Charles pointed out. He was carrying a bag of puppy chow. It had cost most of two weeks’ allowance. “Let’s go visit him and figure out what to do next,” Charles said as they turned up the long driveway that led to the farm.

He was so excited to see Flash, he didn’t notice Lizzie watching from the living room window as they walked past the house.

But Lizzie noticed Charles. She and Stephanie raced out to the barn and cornered Charles and Becky before they could get inside Flash’s stall.

“I knew it!” Lizzie stood with her hands on her hips, shaking her head. “I just
knew
you two were up to something!”

Stephanie reached for the door of the stall. “Come on, what do you have in there?”

Charles groaned. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours! He must have been kidding himself that he could keep a secret from Lizzie, the biggest busybody in the world. She always had to be in the know about everything. And obviously, Stephanie was the same way.

Charles looked at Becky.

Becky looked at Charles.

“Oh, well,” Charles said. “I guess you’d have found out sooner or later.” He pushed open the door of the stall. “Meet Flash,” he said.

“Oh!” said Stephanie. She got down on her knees. “Come here, you cutie!” She held out a gentle hand to Flash. He was used to people by now, and he walked right over to sniff Stephanie.

“Wow,” said Lizzie. “This isn’t exactly what I expected.” She looked impressed. “How long have you two been hiding a dog in here?”

“For a while,” Charles said. But, at the same time, Becky said, “Since last night.” Charles made a face at Becky. He didn’t want to tell their sisters any more than they had to.

But Lizzie just nodded. “What a beautiful border collie,” she said. “Judging by its size, I’d say it’s about six months old.” Lizzie volunteered at an animal shelter, where she had learned a lot about dogs of all ages. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

“He’s a boy,” said Charles. He wasn’t surprised
that Lizzie knew what kind of dog it was. She was always studying that “Dog Breeds of the World” poster in her room.

By now, Lizzie was patting Flash, too. “How do you know his name?”

“His owners told us,” Becky said.

Then she and Charles told Lizzie and Steph the whole story about Murray and Dot — as much as they knew of it.

“But who’s Murray?” asked Lizzie. “And where did he and his wife go?” Lizzie looked puzzled. “Flash looks so healthy and well groomed, it looks like they took good care of him. So why did they leave him here?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out,” Charles said. “But we haven’t gotten anywhere.” He explained about the bread man and their trip to the store.

“Meanwhile, this puppy needs a home,” said Stephanie. By now, Flash was practically in her lap. She seemed to have a way with dogs.

Becky looked excited. “I know! Do you think Mom and Dad would let us —”

“No way,” said Stephanie, shaking her head. “They’ll say we’re just getting used to living here, and it’s too early for a pet, and all that. Just like they do when I ask when I’m getting a horse.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to convince Mom and Dad that it’s time to foster another puppy,” Lizzie said to Charles.

“But we have Buddy now,” Charles said.

Lizzie was nodding. “I know, but Mom promised we could still foster puppies, remember?” She bent to pet Flash again, and he nuzzled her hand. “Border collies are so smart and fun. We
have
to take him home with us.”

Flash wasn’t sure exactly what the girl was saying, but he knew it was about him, and he knew it was good. Even though he still missed his own people, he was starting to feel safe with these
children. But he was tired of being cooped up! He needed to run.

“Hey, where are you going?” Stephanie said suddenly. Flash jumped up and wiggled through the partly open stall door before anybody could stop him.

“Oh, no!” cried Charles as the white tip of Flash’s tail disappeared around the corner.

Becky jumped to her feet. “We have to stop him before the grown-ups see him!” she said.

They all ran out of the stall after Flash — but it was too late. He had already dashed out of the barn and into the yard. The dog raced in circles. He ran over the ground so fast, he looked like a black-and-white blur.

Oh, wonderful! There was nothing better than running! What a great game! Flash usually liked to chase other things, but it was fun to be chased,
too. He felt the cold air ruffle his fur. It was good to be outside.

“Wait, Flash! Come here!” Charles called, trying to keep his voice low.

“This way, Flash!” called Lizzie.

All four children ran toward the dog. Flash ran even faster. His feet barely seemed to touch the ground.

Then Becky remembered the way Charles had gotten the dog to follow them. “He’ll
never
come if we chase him,” she said. “We have to run the
other
way, so he’s chasing us.”

“Herding
us, you mean!” said Lizzie, her eyes gleaming. “That’s what border collies do on farms! They just know how to keep a bunch of sheep together. Farmers use them to move sheep from one place to another.” Lizzie jogged away from Flash and toward the barn, waving the others along with her. Sure enough, Flash stopped in his
tracks for a moment, then turned and began to chase them.

They were all laughing so hard that they didn’t hear the back door open. “Charles! Lizzie!” called Mom. “What on earth are you all doing?” Mom was standing on the back porch, holding the Bean in her arms.

“Oops,” said Charles.