by Nancy Krulik
What I see surprises me. The two-legs aren’t yelling at me. They’re yelling at each other. They’re so angry, they don’t even notice that Fala and I are there.
“Over here, Sparky,” Fala barks to me.
Fala is on the other side of the room. To reach him, I will have to run through a row of two-legs. What if one of them grabs me?
I can’t stay here. I gotta take the chance.
Quickly, I run right through the row of two-legs. One by one, they leap out of their chairs. I guess they’re surprised to feel a furry puppy running past them.
The two-legs are still yelling. But now they’re yelling at me. I hear the words dog and no.
“Sparkster, follow me!” Fala barks. “I’ll get us out of here.”
Fala and I are on the run. Again. We go back through the hallway and into the big round room that’s full of two-legs and statues. But we don’t stop to look around. We keep running.
Out the door. Down the stairs. Run, run, run! Fast. Faster. Fastest.
CHAPTER 9
Fala and I don’t stop running until we’re far away from the Capitol.
“Boy, those two-legs were angry with us,” I say, finally.
“They were angry before we got there,” Fala says. “Didn’t you hear them?” He sneezes. Achoo.
“What were they doing?” I ask him.
“The people in the Capitol building make laws,” Fala explains. “So I guess they were making laws.”
“What are laws?” I ask.
“They’re like rules,” Fala explains.
I know what rules are. Josh has lots of rules: No eating food from the table. No chewing shoes. No burying my toys in the couch cushions.
I miss those rules. I miss Josh.
Fala and I turn a corner, and I see lots and lots of two-legs.
“It’s the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade!” Fala announces. Achoo.
“Look! There are the two-leg girls with the hard sticks!” I tell Fala.
The two-leg girls are walking past us. They are throwing their sticks high in the air and catching them.
The sticks go up. The sticks go down. Up and down. Up and down.
I love catching sticks. I want to catch a stick. I GOTTA CATCH A STICK!
I hurry over to the two-leg I saw before. Maybe she will play with me. Yay! She’s throwing her stick in the air. I think she wants me to catch it.
I jump up in the air, with my mouth wide open. Here comes the stick. It’s heading for me. It’s . . .
Rats! She caught that stick in her paw before I could get to it.
The girl two-leg has a big smile on her face. No wonder she’s happy. I’m always happy when I catch a stick.
“You’ll get it next time,” Fala says as he hurries to catch up to me.
The two-leg throws her stick back into the air. She twirls around, reaches up her hands . . .
Achoo! Just then Fala lets out a big sneeze.
The two-leg looks down at him for just a second, and . . . CLANG. The stick drops to the ground. The two-leg girl looks sad. Water starts to drip from her eyes.
“Don’t be sad, two-leg,” I bark. I grab the stick with my mouth and hold it up for her.
She takes the stick from me and throws it into the air.
This time, I twirl around and catch the stick in my mouth. That’s one of my best tricks. Josh taught me how to do it.
The two-legs in the crowd shout. But they sound happy, not angry. I think they liked my trick!
The water stops dripping from the two-leg’s eyes. She smiles and takes the stick from my mouth. She throws it in the air. I twirl around and catch it again.
The other two-legs with sticks smile at her. I’m glad to know she has friends. Friends are important.
“Come on, Fala!” I bark to my friend. “You can play, too.”
Fala watches as a different two-leg girl throws a stick in the air. He leaps up and catches it in his mouth. The two-legs in the crowd shout happily again.
The two-leg girl takes the stick from Fala’s mouth. She picks him up as the crowd dances by.
“Isn’t fetch the best?” I shout to Fala.
But Fala doesn’t answer. He isn’t interested in fetch. He’s too busy staring into the crowd of two-legs.
Huh? That doesn’t make any sense. What could possibly be more interesting than playing fetch?
CHAPTER 10
“There they are!” Fala barks excitedly. “All of them.”
My friend has a big smile on his face. His tail is wagging like crazy.
“All who are?” I start to ask him. I stand on my hind legs and raise my head high. I am trying to see whom Fala is talking about.
He’s staring at a family of two-legs. They’re standing right near a big blue box.
The tallest one is chubby, and he’s missing some of the fur on his head. The next tallest one is a lady two-leg with yellow fur. Next to them are two younger two-legs: a girl with long curly fur, and a boy whose fur I can’t see because it’s covered up.
I think I’ve seen those two-legs before. I look again. No, I haven’t seen those exact two-legs. But I have seen two-legs who look a lot like them—at the National Mall, outside the National Air and Space Museum, and at the Capitol building.
Wait a minute. Those were all the places where Fala tried to get scraps from two-legs. Unless . . .
Maybe scraps weren’t what Fala was looking for after all. Maybe he took me to places where his two-legs used to take him because he was looking for his family.
“That’s them!” Fala barks. “Those are my two-legs.”
I guess I’m not the only one who has been missing his family.
“Let me down!” Fala barks to the two-leg who is holding him. “I have to go to my family.”
But the two-leg who is holding Fala doesn’t speak dog. She keeps walking.
I take a quick look. The blue box is getting farther and farther away as I walk alongside the two-legs with the sticks.
“Jump down!” I bark to Fala.
“From up here?” Fala looks down. “Are you crazy? It’s too high.”
Fala is scared to be up high? Wiggle, waggle, weird. He wasn’t scared to be up high at the Washington Monument.
Fala has to jump down if he’s ever going to see his family again. I have to help him. Just like he’s been helping me all day. But how?
Come on, Sparky, I tell myself. Thinkety, think, think.
Just then I see a big stick with pink flowers lying on the ground. Hmmm. I wonder if the two-leg girl is allergic like Fala is.
There’s only one way to find out. I grab the flowery stick in my teeth and wave it under her nose.
AACHOOOOO!
The two-leg girl sneezes hard.
Achoo! Fala sneezes hard.
The two-leg girl lets go of Fala and wipes her nose with her paw.
Whoa! Fala falls.
Ouch! Fala lands right on top of me. It hurts a little. But not too bad. Fala isn’t very big.
“Come on!” I say as he scrambles off me. “Let’s find your two-legs.”
“I don’t know where they are,” Fala barks nervously. He doesn’t sound brave and fun anymore. He sounds scared and sad.
But he shouldn’t be. Because I know where his family is. Right near the big blue box.
But where is the big blue box?
From where I’m standing, all I see are legs. Big legs. Small legs. Thin legs. Fat legs. Lots and lots of legs.
I look between all the legs. Finally, I spot the big blue box.
“Follow me!” I bark.
I run between the two-legs. They jump out of the way when they see me coming.
I keep my eye on the blue box. I don’t even turn around to see if Fala is behind me.
Achoo.
I don’t have to. I can hear him.
“There they are!” Fala barks.
The next thing I know, he’s leaping up into the air.
The chubby two-leg with th
e fur missing from the top of his head catches him. His eyes open wide. Fala’s tail wags wildly.
“Fala! Fala!” the younger two-legs shout.
“It’s me!” Fala barks back. “It’s me!”
Fala sounds happy. His two-legs sound happy, too. Fala is going home.
I think it’s time for me to go home, too. I turn and start to leave.
“Hey, Sparky!” Fala calls to me. “You don’t have to go. You can come home with us.”
I shake my head. Fala’s family isn’t my family. Josh is my family.
“Thanks for everything,” I tell Fala. “But I’ve gotta go.”
CHAPTER 11
Diggety, dig, dig.
I’m back at the National Mall, digging up my bone. I’m glad Fala found his family. He sure looked happy to be back with them. And they sure looked happy to have him back.
I hope Josh feels the same way about me. Because a dog needs a two-leg to love him. And a two-leg needs a dog to love him, too.
Diggety, dig, dig. My bone! It smells just as yummy, yum, yum as it did before I buried it in this hole. It’s time for me to take a big bite.
But wait. What’s that on the ground? It’s a stick with a piece of paper hanging from it. Maybe if I bring this stick back to Josh, he and I can play fetch with it.
I go over and grab the stick with the paper hanging from it. Then I walk back to my bone. I open my mouth. And . . .
CHOMP!
Wiggle, waggle, whew. I feel dizzy—like my insides are spinning all around—but my outsides are standing still. Stars are twinkling in front of my eyes, even though it’s daytime! All around me I smell food—fried chicken, salmon, roast beef. But there isn’t any food in sight.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
The kabooming stops. I’m back in my yard. But my yard isn’t sunny and bright like it was this morning. Soon it will be dark. The sun is going to sleep.
I want to go to sleep, too. But I can’t. I have to bury my bone and keep it safe.
Diggety, dig, dig. I dig a big hole by the flower bed. I drop my bone in the hole and push the dirt back over it.
Now I need to go into the house to look for Josh. I scoot through my doggie door to take a look.
First I check the kitchen.
No Josh.
Maybe he’s on the couch in the living room.
Nope. No Josh here, either.
My heart starts thumpety, thump, thumping. What if Josh is gone forever? What if he went to live with his new friend? What if I’m going to be alone, always?
Suddenly I hear a metal machine with four round paws. It stops outside my house. I leap onto the couch. I look out the window.
Josh is home! And he’s walking toward the gate that leads to our backyard.
I zoom into the kitchen and out to the yard through my doggie door.
“Hi, Josh!” I bark as the gate swings open.
“Sparky!” Josh shouts.
Josh is holding some papers in his hands. But he drops them on the ground when he runs toward me. The papers have a picture of a dog on them. The dog looks a lot like me. I wonder what Josh was going to do with all those pictures.
But Josh doesn’t seem to care about the pictures now. He’s too busy scratching me behind the ears. Scratchity, scratch, scratch.
Josh’s scratching can mean only one thing—he still loves me! Wiggle, waggle, woo-hoo!
I look around for Josh’s new friend, but I don’t see her anywhere. Which means that it’s just Josh and me.
Josh looks down at the ground. He sees the stick I brought home. He picks it up and looks at it funny.
I wish I could tell Josh where I found the stick. I wish I could tell him about the National Mall, the big statue sitting in a chair, the dog that lives behind a fence with the Big Guy, and about Fala, who sneezes all the time. But I can’t.
So I try to tell him something else. “Throw the stick!” I bark. “Throw the stick.”
I don’t think Josh understands, because he doesn’t throw the stick. Instead, he puts it in his pocket, with the paper sticking out. Boo. That’s no fun.
Josh bends down and picks up a ball. He tosses it across the yard.
“Fetch, Sparky!”
I know what that means. I zoom across the yard and scoop up the ball in my mouth. I run back to Josh and drop it at his feet.
Josh picks up the ball and throws it again. He’s playing with me. Just with me.
I guess Josh has to have some two-leg friends. Just like I have some dog friends.
But that doesn’t change anything. He will always be my Josh. And I will always be his Sparky. After all, we’re a family.
Fun Facts about Sparky’s Adventures in Washington, DC
The Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial was built in 1914 to honor the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. In the center of the building is a statue of President Lincoln that stands nineteen feet tall, which is about the height of three grown men standing on one another’s shoulders.
The National Mall
Every year more than twenty-four million people visit this park in downtown Washington, DC. Spanning over a thousand acres, this park extends from the Washington Monument to the United States Capitol. The tree-lined park has been used as a place for peaceful protests, concerts, and festivals. It is also a great place to go for a run or have a picnic.
The Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is dedicated to George Washington, the first American president and leader of the Continental Army. The mostly marble building stands 555 feet high! That makes it one of the tallest stone buildings in the world. There are 897 steps leading to the top of the monument, but most visitors take the elevator.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum is part of the Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution, which includes nineteen different museums and art galleries and the National Zoo. Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum can see the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first heavier-than-air plane to fly. They can also see the Apollo 11 Command Module, which carried US astronauts to the moon for the first time. The stainless-steel sculpture outside the museum is called Ad Astra, which means to the stars.
The White House
Home to the president of the United States, the White House has 132 rooms, including a bowling alley and a movie theater. Over the years, the White House has been home to lots of presidential pets. Many have been dogs and cats, but there have been more unusual animals, like John Quincy Adams’s alligator (which he kept in a bathtub!), Abraham Lincoln’s goat and turkey, Martin Van Buren’s two tiger cubs, and the flock of sheep Woodrow Wilson kept on the White House lawn to keep the grass trimmed!
The United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is where the members of the US Congress work. The US Congress, which makes the laws that govern the United States, has two houses, or parts—the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Capitol has a big dome in the center and two wings—one for each house of Congress. The Senate chamber was completed in 1800, and the House chamber in 1807.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade®
Each spring, this festival celebrates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the mayor of Tokyo, Japan, to the city of Washington, DC.
About the Author
Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 200 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times Best Sellers. She is best known for being the author and creator of several successful book series for children, including Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo; How I Survived Middle School; and George Brown, Class Clown. Nancy lives in Manhattan with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, and her crazy beagle mix, Josie, who manages to drag her along on many exciting adventures without ever leaving Central Park.
About the Illustrator
You could fill a whole attic with Seb’s drawings! His collection includes some very early pieces made when he
was four—there is even a series of drawings he did at the movies in the dark! When he isn’t doodling, he likes to make toys and sculptures, as well as bows and arrows for his two boys, Oscar and Leo, and their numerous friends. Seb is French and lives in England. His website is www.sebastienbraun.com.
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Visit Penguin.com for more about this author and a complete list of their books.
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