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It was a lovely spring morning, and I was taking my large collie, Mister Moose for a walk in the warmth. Mister Moose and I wandered the streets of the Village of Flodden where we lived.
We had stopped for a rest on a park bench where we watched a family being moved in. There was a man who had gotten out of a large truck, and had put a huge electric winch up on the third story of the house, and were getting ready to lift up an enormous piano to the second story.
A little boy, who looked rather happy, was riding his bicycle round and round the house when I heard his mother call him in for supper. Mister Moose decided that he really didn't want to be sitting anymore and tugged against his lead. We walked for a little while until we found a tree, and started to settle under it for a small picnic I'd prepare.
"Sit." I would say to Mister Moose, and when he sat, I would tear him off a bit of my peanut butter and banana sandwich and feed it to him. He would then reply, "murwoof" as the peanut butter stuck to the roof of his mouth. Mister Moose dearly loved peanut butter, although he wasn't real crazy about the bananas. I'd uncapped the lid from my thermos and just getting ready to pour out a drink when I heard a loud crying!
Mister Moose and I turned, and there was the piano halfway up the first floor, the boy, and a woman whom I presumed was his mother. The boy was crying furiously and pointed to the empty space where the bicycle had lain.
I stood up, and resealed the thermos as the woman walked toward me.
"Pardon me," she asked, "but have you seen my son's bicycle? I'm Mrs. Joan Maple, and this is my son Jacob." I smiled at her.
"Hi, I'm Molly Thompson, and this is my dog, Mister Moose." Mister Moose at this point sat at offered his paw to shake. Jacob and then his mother shook my hand and then Mister Moose's paw. "The last time I saw his," I pointed toward Jacob, "bicycle, he was on it, riding around the house. We were turned the other way eating our lunch."
"Oh dear." said Mrs. Maple. Jacob's lower lip trembled, I could see clearly he was trying to hold back tears.
"Maybe Jacob and I should look around?" I asked.
"Not at all. Anything you can do to help would be most appreciated." She replied. Mister Moose and I began to look at the place where the bicycle had lain. The ground house was muddy, and the piano-mover had just moved the piano into the upper story, as I could only see a leg of it extending away from the house.
"Show me where you were riding your bicycle." I said. He grudgingly led.
"Well, I came out of the house, and took my bike off of the porch." He said. "Then, I began to ride it round and round the house. It was pretty muddy, and I liked making tracks." He smiled up at me as we paced around the house. "Here I drove round mum's roses and over here I drove round dad's shed. I parked it here behind the door next to the moving truck. Here, you can see my footprints." He said, and sure enough I could see his footprints. We turned around, and saw the moving-man put an empty tin of raveoli into a plastic garbage sack. He was leaning against the grill of the engine, no doubt tired from moving the bicycle. He looked at use curiously.
"Say, what's a going on?" He asked.
"Jacob's bike is gone." I replied.
"Tough break. Sometimes these things happen, y'know." He said.
"Yeah, I think his mom's going to call the police." I replied. The man looked as if someone had shocked him badly. At this point, a police car rode up to the home. Curiously enough it was my older brother driving. He was just appointed to the police force, and most eager to dispense the law.
"Molly?" He asked. "Say, you're not mixed up in this, are you? I should hate to have to arrest you!" he said with a smile.
"Theo, use your head for something other than a hatrack! This bike's goneas if it grew wings and flew away." Then it struck me. Of course! That was the answer!
"Theo, arrest that man!" I cried, pointing to the moving-man.
"Him?" Theodore said.
"Him." I said.
"Me?" The driver said.
"You." I said.
"You must be joking." The moving-man said.
"No I am not. You stole Jacob's bike!"
"I couldn't have, I was eating my lunch."
"You may well have been eating your lunch, but while doing so, you also stole his bicycle, and I can prove it!" I said.
"Well then prove it!" He said.
"Everyone into the house." I said. We all trounced into the house, and up to the second story where the enormous piano was against one side of the room.
"Well now, I don't see a bicycle in here." The moving-man said. I simply looked crossly at him, and opened up the piano. There lay Jacob's bike.
"It was pretty clever really. Put the bike in the piano so it would leave no tracks, haul it up into house and then later on just put it into an empty moving-box and tuck it away in the moving truck! Theo started to look at the man's schedule.
"Hey," he pointed out, "these houses are either people who have reported bikes missing, or are near other houses with other missing items!"
"Go look in the truck, Theo. I bet we'll find all sorts of interesting things in there."
The moving-man said nothing, and hung his head in shame. I watched Theodore handcuffed him to the piano while he got Jacob's bicycle out of the piano, and then he took the moving-man to jail, and had his moving van of stolen loot to the impound yard!
On one beautiful spring morning, I had absolutely nothing else to do, so I decided that I was going to stay in bed until at least nine o' clock. Mister Moose, my dog was asleep at the foot in my bed, as was his habit. It kept my toes nice and warm. Three of the five kitties were also on the bed, it was their habit to snooze with me as well, making a soft bed.
Mister Moose must have been having a nice doggie dream as he was twitching and his paws were dancing merrily. It was a pretty funny thing to watch, until he rolled over sharply and fell off the bed! THUNK!
"Rooolf!" he cried!
"Moosekins!" I screamed. My poor dear friend had chipped his tooth! I threw off the comforter, spewing kitties everywhere and sank to the floor.
"Does it hurt?" I asked.
"Roooooolf!" he replied.
"Mew, mew, mew." Said the kitties. They apparently didn't take a liking to being tossed upon the floor.
"Hang right on, old friend, and I'll take you to the veterinarian!" I said, quickly pulling clothes on.
Within a few minutes, I had put Mister Moose in a wagon, and hitched the wagon to my bike. I called my mom at work, and she told me to go straight to the vet's office, and that she would meet me there. I grabbed Mister Moose's tooth, and wrapped it up in a bit of cloth, packed in ice. I had found it on the floor, where a kitty was considering batting it around for a lack of something better to do.
Every time we stopped a light and had to wait a particularly long time, Mister Moose was let out a long, "Rooooolf." My dear friend was a wonderful companion, but an absolute whimp when it came to pain. Within fifteen minutes, we had pulled up to the veterinarian's office. Curiously enough, also there was a police car. My brother Theo, who was an police officer was interviewing a young woman. Mister Moose howled yet again.
"Roooooolf!"
Quickly I my bike, Mister Moose in tow. As I went to enter the office the young woman told me:
"I'm sorry, but we are closed."
"Mister Moose has chipped his tooth, and we MUST see the doctor."
"I'm sorry," she said again, "but the doctor is not in."
"Not in? Then where is he? I was getting panicked. Theo was genstureing me to calm down.
"That's why I called the police. He's gone missing!" She said, almost in tears.
"Missing! Not while my dog has a chipped tooth he doesn't! Where did you see him last?" I asked.
"Well he was in his office, and he was saying something about such a nice day and not having any bookings in the morning." She replied.
"Now see here, sis" my brother-officer interjected, "you just can't go messing around with a police investigation. There are channels to follow, after all."
"A little girl like myself can't do any harm, now can I? We're just talking, now, aren't we?" I smiled impishly toward him. He knew better than to get me going. At times I could look very sweet and innocent.
"I suppose just talking can't harm anything." Theo replied. I heard the chirp from his radio as someone called him. "Pardon me for a moment or two." He turned away, talking to the dispatcher.
"Say, can I see the doctor's office?" I asked sweetly. It was time to get this case solved and soon. Mister Moose looked positively in agony. He had stopped whining and his lower lip was quivering. From time to time, I could swear I saw a tear or two. That broke my heart.
The secretary let me into the office. It was simply decorated, the doctor was a fly fishing buff, and had a mounted trout above the door, and lots of pictures all about the room. Strangely absent, however were any tools of the hobby, no rods nor reels, nor any flies.
"The doctor is a fisherman, I take it." I said.
"Oh, yes. Why last week he brought me a nice trout steak from his weekend catch." She replied.
"That was very thoughtful of him. I find it interesting that he doesn't have any rods or reels on his displays." I said.
She looked at me curiously, and walked over to a particular place on the wall.
"Say, they're gone!" She said. "Whomever nabbed him, nabbed his gear as well!" She said, and then thought about what she had said. "You don't think," she begin.
"That's exactly what I think." I said. "Where is the nearest fishing-hole?"
"About five minutes' walk toward the South." She replied.
"We'll be back in a few minutes." I said. "Come, Mister Moose" I said. He was looking positively miserable, and really didn't want to go.
"Do you have a room I could leave him in, and can give him something for the pain?" I said.
"Of course." She replied. I walked him into an examination room, and she gave him a shot. We elected not to put him on a table, as falling onto the floor is how this whole mess got started, so he rested on the floor. She took the tooth and put it into a safe place.
"Be right back, old friend." I said, now getting determined. I set out from the doctor's office. Theo was still talking on his police radio. I waved politely at him, and he smiled at me. Then, I turned and ran like the wind. Within a couple of moments, the fishing-pond was well within view. I quickly skirted the pond, and on the far side was the doctor, rod in hand, doing a bit of casting.
"Pardon me," I said, "but I have an emergency for you." I said.
"Molly," he recognized me, and stood up. "What might I do for you?" He asked me.
"Mister Moose has chipped a tooth." I said.
"Oh! Where is he?"
"In your office, where I'd hoped to find you." I said, trying not to sound mean.
"Oh." He said thoughtfully. "I supposed I should have told my secretary that I was going to nip out and do a bit of fishing. We didn't have anyone booked up, and it seemed like such a nice day."
"It is a beautiful day, and I hate to disturb your fishing." I said, as we were walking back. "But these things happen." I concluded as we walked back.
"Of course, of course. I should have stayed in my office, and did some filing or something." He said guiltily. I didn't say anything for a while.
"Just try next time," I said as subtly as I could, "to let someone know where you were going. Your secretary called the police, she was so worried about you."
He said nothing, but apologized both to his secretary and to Theodore, and went right to task, patching Mister Moose up, for which I was very greatful.
It was Dexter James' tenth birthday party, and I was invited. Heck, everyone was invited, but not everyone was going to come. I knew Dex and he was a pretty geeky kid. No, scratch that, a REALLY geeky kid. I knew a whole lot of people that weren't going to be there for that reason. I talked it over with my best friend Joan.
"He's y'know, major geek." Joan said.
"Yes." I was thinking about how he grew this mold for a science project. It was actually his lunch from three weeks prior. Mike Hittle had grabbed the mold after he'd shown it off, and during recess had chased Joan around the playground with it. "But he's not a bad person." I said.
"Well, y'know, I'm not going." Joan said.
"I think I will. Dex's never done anything bad to me." I said.
"Well y'know, he's going to expect you to invite him to your next birthday party." She said, which was a very valid point. Again I thought to myself that how bad could it be? Probably a very stupid thing to say, but I'd like for atleast someone to be there.
"I still think I'm going to go." I said.
"Okay, well," I heard someone yell in the background. "Oops, gotta run, mom's got the eats on." She said.
"Later." I replied.
"Later, dudette." She said. I picked up the invitation, and dialed Dexter's number. A woman answered the phone.
"Mrs. Jones?" I asked.
"Yes?" She replied.
"This is Molly Thompason, and Dexter gave me an invitation to his birthday party next weekend." I said. "The invitation asked me to RSVP via telephone, so I am." I explained.
"Yes, dear, thank you. You're the first on the list. Now remember the party is at three o' clock, and don't be early. Dexter gets his allergy shots on that day, and we won't be home." She said.
We talked for a couple of minutes more and I asked her some information about things that Dexter might like, and she said that there was a series of computer games that he was very interested in. They didn't cost very much, and would be right up his alley. When in doubt, a kid's mom could be a pretty good source of information. I hung up the phone, and took the invitation over to the kitchen, where my mom had just gotten home from work. She was chopping up a carrot for a stir-fry.
"Hi, mom, can you give me a ride to Dexter's house on Saturday? It's his birthday and he gave me an invite." I said, grabbing a carrot chip and munching on it.
"What time?" She said.
"Three." I replied.
"No problem. So who's Dexter?" She gave me that look like, 'boyfriend'. I didn't want a boyfriend. I had Mister Moose, my collie. That was just fine.
"Just a kid in my class. You remember Dex, he came over about three weeks ago to help me with that stupid math test." I said. I liked math, it just didn't make much sense, except to Dexter. I helped him in his history class. It worked out pretty darn well. Mom's eyes had the, 'my baby's got a boyfriend' look. I called Mister Moose over to me and started to pet him on the head.
"Yes, I remember. Was he the one that Joan called a, 'little geeky nerd'" She asked.
"Yes." I replied. "She's not going." I said.
"Well that's pretty nice of you." She was giving me the boyfriend look again. I heard my dad pull in. Uh-oh. This could be bad. Mom could be pretty descreet, but dad, no way. I grabbed Mister Moose's frisbee off of a high shelf, were he couldn't get it, and his ears perked up immediatly.
"Co'mon big guy." And he boweld me over trying to get out the door, almost knocking dad down. My blood pressure was lowered by several degrees at the thought of avoiding both of them. My parents were pretty cool, but lately, mom thought that every boy I was friends with, or even talked with, and dad! He was the worst!
Fortunatly, dinner and the rest of the week went without incident, and that Thursday evening I rode my bike over to the mall, and got Dexter one of those computer games. I had learned that there were only three or four kids other than me that were going. Two of them were a couple of other math geeks, and one of them I didn't know really well. I figured they got to the computer store before me, as there were only two selections remaining.
Saturday rolled around, and it was time to go. I put Mister Moose in the upper bathroom.
"Sorry 'bout this, old buddy." I said. He gave me a soft brown eyed look. It made me feel guilty.
"Dexter's allergic to dogs." I said. It was the truth. We had to study out on the patio because of the fur. Mister Moose certainly did not look happy.
"It's only for a couple of hours." I said. He turned around three times, and lie down, making a huffing snuffling noise in the process. No sympathy there. On top of this, my dad was driving. He noted that Mister Moose wasn't with us, and that I was in unusually clean clothes.
"Dexter's allergic to fur," I said. "In fact, he's going today to get some kind of allergy shot."
"That's good." My dad had to take the same kind of shot, and he had no problem with Mister Moose. "So tell me about this Dexter fellow." Uh-oh, here was trouble.
"Just a friend, Dad." I said.
"Uh-huh." He winked at me, and said nothing else. The urge to jab him in the ribs came and went. Fortunatly he was turning right onto the street that Dexter lived. "Stop right about here." it was between houses. Dexter's house was next. I grabbed the present and was out the door so fast, he didn't know what to do. He rolled down the driver's side window, and rather than take the chance on him yelling for me, I went over toward it.
"What time do I pick you up?" He said.
"How about five-thirty?" I said.
"Okay, which house?" He asked.
"Right here is just fine, Daddy." I kissed him on the cheek, to let him know he wasn't forgotten. I think it made him feel better. As I walked up toward the house, I noticed something strangle. In Dexter's dads' van, was a kennel cage, like the kind we had for Mister Moose when he was a puppy. Wierd.
The party turned out to be quite nice, and there were a total of six of us kids. We played a few games, listened to some music, and watched as Dexter's loot accumulated. About four or so, his mom started to bring presents out of one of the rooms inside the house. The funny thing was, each time she went in and out of that door, it was like she was fighting someone. She kept talking to whomever whenever she'd leave, like she didn't want them to come out. Now that was wierd.
We all lined up behind the table that held the presents and cake, for a couple of pictures. It was at this point, I was looking down at his presents, and I noticed that there was a little corner of wrapping missing from one of them. Wierd. Then I started to look carefully, and there was little bits and pieces of wrapping missing from lots of them.
The bits of missing wrapping came only from the presents which Dexter's mom brought out.
"Hey," Dex said, grabbing a present at his mom's insistance, "mom, were you having a bad time with the wrapping or what?" He said, jokingly.
"What do you mean, dear? I had those things wrapped at the store."
"Oh, well, they missed a corner." He displayed it toward her.
"Missed a...oh. Oh, my." She said. The she started to look at the presents, but wasn't as discreet. Dex started to look over the pile as his father came back from the back room in the house. Dexter's mother whispered something in his ear, and he had a smile on his face.
"Well, Dexter, just don't stand there, m'boy, open 'em up. Not every day you turn ten." He said, looking happy.
Dexter dove into those presents like there was no tomorrow, got every computer game in the series that he wanted, and a few on top of it. Standard family gifts, sweaters, clothes, he made out pretty darn good. Curiously, as Dex opened the last one, I picked up a piece of the wrapping that had the missing corner and examined it carefully. There were little hole marks on them, too big to be claws, but they could have been teeth. Of course! I saw Dexter's dad sneak off toward the bedroom again. Dexter seemed pretty happy with what he had.
"Dex," I said quietly, "I think there's one more present." He looked around curiously.
"Dexter." I heard his father call. "Walk to the edge of the hall, sit on the floor, and close your eyes." Dex looked mightily confuesed, but did as he was told. I heard the all-to-familiar tromping of paws, and zoom! A puppy came running out of his parent's bedroom just as fast as it could, and knocked Dex over without thinking hard!
"WOW!" Dex cried. "A Puppy!"
"The doctor said your allergies were in check, and it was your dad's idea." His mother said.
She was a beautiful lab mix, with a long beautiful red coat and a tail that just wouldn't quit. What a great birthday that was for him! I can remember when I got Mister Moose, I felt great.
When I got home, I related the story to my mother, who thought it was a neat present too.
"Well dear, you know what this means." She said, looking at me. I was sure I didn't want to know. "You and Dexter can spend even more time together, walking your dogs..." She said smiling.
Would it ever stop?