Best Friends (Nancy Pearl's Book Crush Rediscoveries)

by Mary Bard

  They talked so much about Bravo that Mr. Langdon offered to take them all down to the Humane Society on Thursday after school, to see if there was any report down there.

  The children were surprised to find the pound a very pleasant place, instead of a grim dog jail. The manager was friendly and showed them the indoor and outdoor kennels, the dog surgery, the ambulance, and all of the dogs and cats and birds.

  Ray whispered to Suzie, “I notice he doesn’t show us the dogcatcher. I’ll bet he’s an old meanie!”

  The manager smiled at Mr. Langdon and said to Ray, “How would you like to meet a dogcatcher?” He opened a door and introduced a pleasant, blond young man who was stroking a golden Labrador and watching her feed her fat cream-colored puppies.

  Suzie exclaimed, “Why he doesn’t look very cruel!” Then clapped her hand over her mouth.

  The dogcatcher laughed. “I’m not cruel,” and handed a puppy to each of the children to hold.

  Co Co, who had been asking her father for each dog, as she passed the various kennels, said, “Oh, Papa, please may I have this puppy for my birthday? May Suzie and I each have one?”

  The dogcatcher said, “Goldie’s puppies are only three weeks old, and they have to stay with her for a while.”

  Rich and Ray were stroking their puppies and looking wistful. “We’d sure like to have them. Golden Labs are the best hunting dogs of all, but gee, we already have two dogs and when we find Bravo, we’ll have him, too. But gee, we could ask our parents!”

  They played with the puppies a little while longer. Suzie wanted to name hers “Creamy” and Co Co named hers “Blonde,” while Rich and Ray decided on “Sport” and “Pal.” They reluctantly returned the puppies to the worried mother and with many longing, backward looks, left the pound.

  The next day, instead of offering to walk home from school with them, Rich and Ray didn’t even say good-bye. They just rode off on their bikes.

  “Well, I like that! They might have at least told us.” Suzie linked her arm in Co Co’s and they started morosely down the street. “I’ll bet if the rest of the kids would help us hunt, we’d have Bravo back by tonight. Rich keeps saying, ‘Relax, chum, relax!’ He makes me sick!”

  Co Co flared up. “Suzie! Do not speak rudely of Rich. He is my friend!”

  Suzie jeered, “Boyfriend, you mean. You sound to me like you’re boy crazy! Go ahead and join the Select Seven. See if I care.”

  Co Co said, “Suzie Green—shut up!”

  “Shut up yourself!” Suzie shouted.

  With their noses in the air, they walked the rest of the way home on opposite sides of the street. It was their first quarrel, and although they were both almost crying, they didn’t even speak as they converged at Suzie’s back door and came in the kitchen together.

  Co Co dumped her books on the table. “Grand’mère! Name of a name! I know nothing—my head is empty. In the morning, I write down what I do not know for Mademoiselle Morrison. She reads what I write and shakes her head. In the afternoon I go to Monsieur Wagner’s office. He talks to me—I forget the English—and he also shakes his head. I cannot go to the big school next year.”

  Grandmother sighed. “Well, tomorrow’s the last day and there’s no use crying over spilt milk. Next year it will all be different in junior high school.”

  Suzie whined, “Yes, and I’ll bet those stuck-up kids won’t even speak to us!” She looked mournfully out the window. “I honestly don’t think I’d mind so much if we could just find Bravo.”

  Grandmother looked at the two sad, turned-down mouths, and racked her mind for something to cheer them up. “Bravo is probably hunting pheasants and sleeping in the park. Speaking of sleeping, why don’t you get your sleeping bags and have a campfire in the orchard and cook dinner and sleep outdoors?”

  “Grandmother, what a neat idea!” They immediately forgot they were fighting, rushed upstairs, and got the sleeping bags. Then they spent the rest of the afternoon setting up a tarpaulin between the trees and building an elaborate camp in the orchard. Grandfather built them a fire in the firepit, and then sat down and told them stories until Grandmother called him in for dinner.

  After Co Co and Suzie had finished their outdoor supper, they sat around the campfire, toasting marshmallows and singing songs. When it was dark they crawled in their sleeping bags and told ghost stories and scary movies until they were jumping at every noise in the orchard.

  The moon came up and made a shaft of silver on the lake; it touched the blossoming trees with pale fingertips. Co Co said, “Let us sleep in the light of the moon. Mademoiselle would never allow it. She said it makes one deranged.” So they put their feet under the tarpaulin and lay watching the moonlight until they went to sleep.

  It was almost midnight when something awoke Suzie. At first she didn’t know where she was, and then she began to hear crackling noises and see weird shadows. That was nothing. It was only the wind blowing the leaves and causing them to rustle. She moved farther down into her sleeping bag. What was that? The tall pine—it always creaked and groaned. She reached her hand out and felt for Jet’s warm, familiar back. Jet wasn’t there. She swallowed and lay stiff as a board, listening and watching.

  Something gleamed at the bottom of the orchard! She held her breath as she watched a shadow slip from tree to tree. The moonlight caught it, and Suzie saw that it was a big silvery animal! She shook Co Co. “Wake up! Wake up!” Suzie was so frightened she stuttered. “It’s a b-b-ig d-d-og or w-w-olf!”

  Co Co sat up and rubbed her eyes.

  Suzie grabbed her shoulder. “Look! Over there by Mrs. Medlin’s hedge. A big gray dog!”

  The dog came running lightly through the trees, stopped, and stood over them, panting.

  “Suzie, I believe it is Bravo!”

  “He can’t be. This one has short hair and he’s all shiny!”

  “But it is Bravo! It is Bravo with his hair gone!” Co Co patted the dog and he gave a yelp of welcome and licked both their faces, his stubby tail wagging his whole body. It was Bravo all right, but he looked funny and acted very peculiarly. He kept whining and running off a little way, then coming back to them and whining again.

  Suzie said, “He wants us to follow him. Jet always acts like that when he wants something. Come on.” They put on their bathrobes and slippers and followed Bravo across the moon-shadowed orchard.

  When they reached Mrs. Medlin’s hedge, Bravo wriggled through and barked.

  “Shhh! You must not go in the garden of the wicked witch.” Co Co snapped her fingers and Bravo came back and whined and then disappeared through the hedge again.

  Suzie said, “He’ll wake the whole neighborhood. Come on, we’ll have to go around by the gate and see what he wants.”

  Just as they reached the corner, they heard a faint cry from the direction of the Tower House. Co Co clutched Suzie. “What was that?” The cry was repeated again; this time it was long and drawn out, thin and wailing. Bravo began to bark.

  “We’ve just got to go in there before Mrs. Medlin comes roaring out and shoots Bravo.” Suzie opened the gate and they tiptoed down the path. She whistled softly and Bravo appeared beside her. Then he ran to the back door and stood there whining.

  Co Co said, “Suzie, do not go. I am afraid! Mrs. Medlin’s house is a witch’s castle—look!”

  Suzie shivered, partly because of Co Co’s scary voice, but mostly because the house did look like a witch’s castle. The turrets, outlined against the moon, were tall and black. The windows were like black, staring eyes, and the balconies cast weird shadows. A bush scraped against a window with a little screech; Co Co screamed and Bravo hurled himself against the kitchen door and barked furiously. They heard a cry of “Help, help! Ohhhh—help!”

  “Suzie, it is a ghost! Quick, quick!” Co Co grabbed Suzie’s bathrobe and almost pulled it off.

  “Shhhh! Co Co, don’t be silly. A ghost wouldn’t cry for help and anyway, that sounds like Mrs. Medlin. Come on, we’ll have to s
ee what’s the matter, even if she gets so mad she calls the girl-catcher.”

  Ordinarily, Suzie wouldn’t have thought of wandering around in the dark trying to rescue people, but Co Co was so terrified that she felt she had to be brave. She walked up and rattled the back doorknob and rang the bell. Then she led the way around to the front of the house, rang the bell and pounded on the door. This time they heard a distinct cry—“Help, help! Please, help!”

  “You are right, Suzie. It is not a ghost. We must get in the house. Quick, quick!”

  They tried the door and then one window after another. Meanwhile Co Co was muttering, “I hope it is Mrs. Medlin. I hope it is not an assassin who will chase us with the knife.”

  Suddenly Bravo disappeared right in front of them. Suzie leaned down to see where he had gone. “It’s a low cellar window. I’ve got a flashlight. I’ll go first and you follow me.” She flashed her light around and saw the open window. “We’ll probably have to jump, but I think we can make it.” She stepped down, crawled through the window, hung by her hands, and let go. There was a loud crash! She called, “Come on. I landed on a few paper cartons, but I didn’t hurt myself.”

  Co Co dropped down beside her and they sneaked through the dark basement, Suzie’s flashlight winking ahead of them. It shone on rows and rows of barrels and Co Co stopped. “Suzie, do you think Madame Medlin is another Barbe Bleu—the gentleman with the blue beard? Perhaps she puts the children and dogs she finds in her garden in the barrels!”

  They began to giggle, partly because of the strain and partly because Co Co always thought up such scary things. Again they heard the cry for help. Bravo barked and came back to them, and they followed him up the basement stairs. Suzie flashed her light around until she located the light switch. They followed Bravo through the hall and up the stairs, and there, lying on the floor, was Mrs. Medlin.

  “Oh Suzie, I—think—I’ve—broken . . .” Mrs. Medlin’s voice faded. Her face was gray, her lips were white, and her right leg was lying at a peculiar angle.

  “The leg! It is broken! You must call a doctor. I will get the blankets and a pillow!” Co Co ran into a bedroom and came staggering back under mounds of bedding. She tucked blankets around Mrs. Medlin, gently lifted the injured leg, and put a pillow under it. “She must not be cold, she will have the shock!”

  Suzie said she would call her mother and Dr. Bell. She ran into Mrs. Medlin’s bedroom and telephoned. “Hello, Mother? I’m at Mrs. Medlin’s house and Co Co thinks Mrs. Medlin’s leg is broken. Can you come over? Yes, I’m going to call the doctor right now.” Then she called Dr. Bell and told him what had happened and asked him if he could come right away. Then she ran back and knelt down beside Mrs. Medlin, wiped her forehead with a handkerchief, and murmured, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be all right. Mother is coming and so is Dr. Bell.”

  Meanwhile Bravo was circling around and whining and nudging Mrs. Medlin with his nose. He licked her hand and dropped down beside her. Mrs. Medlin opened her eyes, smiled, and whispered, “How did you girls find me?”

  Suzie said, “Bravo woke us up. We were sleeping in the orchard, and he barked and whined so much we just had to follow him.”

  Mrs. Medlin reached her hand out toward Bravo. “He is a—remarkable—dog.” She closed her eyes. “I’m so cold. Did you say Dr. Bell was coming?”

  Co Co tucked the blankets around her more firmly. “Do you think you could drink tea, Madame? It would make you warm.” She said in a low voice to Suzie, “Perhaps if you could make some tea, we could give it to her until the doctor arrives.”

  Suzie ran down to the kitchen, put the kettle on, and began to hunt for the tea. Her mother knocked at the back door. “Darling? What on earth is the matter? How do you happen to be over here?”

  “Oh Mother, help me! Mrs. Medlin has broken her leg, and we’re trying to keep her warm until the doctor comes.”

  The kitchen door opened again and Dr. Bell came in, slapping his gloves together. On the way upstairs he said, “It’s a good thing you heard her. I’ve been telling her for years something like this was liable to happen.”

  He examined Mrs. Medlin’s leg, said it didn’t look like a serious break, but he’d better call an ambulance and take her to the hospital and have it X-rayed. “It’s a wonder it wasn’t her hip,” he grumbled as he went into the bedroom to telephone.

  When he came back he told Suzie and Co Co that they were better than most adults in an emergency, and he certainly was proud of them. Then he suggested that they go downstairs and watch for the ambulance.

  In no time at all, the big green ambulance drew up in front of the house. Suzie opened the door, and Co Co showed the men the way upstairs. The two girls watched with great interest as the men lifted Mrs. Medlin, put her on the stretcher, and carried her downstairs, as effortlessly as if she weighed no more than a powder puff.

  Dr. Bell left, and Suzie’s mother turned out all the lights and locked the back door. She said, “We’ll take Bravo home with us, and I’ll give all of you some hot milk. Also, I’d like a coherent picture of just what happened tonight.”

  Bravo, however, had other ideas. When they started up the street, he turned and went back to Mrs. Medlin’s back porch, heaved a large sigh, and settled down.

  Suzie called and whistled but Bravo wouldn’t follow. She giggled. “I’ll bet he thinks we called the lady-catcher for Mrs. Medlin. After all, the ambulance is a green truck.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Suzie Has a Good Idea

  The next morning was the last day of school. The class filed into the room and sat down to wait for their report cards. Over the whispering, pushing, giggling, and general air of vacation, Miss Morrison asked if anyone had an interesting experience to tell the class while she checked in the books.

  Suzie and Co Co both raised their hands, Miss Morrison nodded, and Suzie began:

  “Last night Co Co and I put up the tent in the orchard and cooked our supper outdoors and slept in sleeping bags. We’d been asleep for ages, and it was pitch dark except for the moon, when something woke me up. . . .”

  Co Co broke in, “The moonlight makes dark shadows. We are so frightened we cannot speak. We hear strange sounds. From behind the tree a big, silvery animal comes creeping toward us. His eyes shine in the dark! He creeps along like this—” Co Co crept up the aisle, snarling and sniffing.

  Suzie hooted like a faraway owl. “And we heard this moaning sound, kind of like an owl only more like a wolf. This silvery animal looked like a wolf, too. We were just scared to death! Then the moaning started up again and it seemed to come from Old Medler Medlin’s—I mean Mrs. Medlin’s garden. . . .”

  “We fear it is an assassin with a big knife, who will cut us while we sleep. . . .”

  “But it wasn’t. It was a big gray dog. . . .”

  “Bravo! You found Bravo!” Rich and Ray shouted. “Where did you find him? Where is he? Did you lock him up?”

  The rest of the class, who had been watching Suzie and Co Co in open-mouthed amazement, all began to shout at once.

  Miss Morrison held up her hand for silence. “Let us allow them to continue their adventure.”

  So Suzie told the story, and Co Co furnished the dramatic action. Finally Suzie said, “Well, that’s just about all, except we can’t figure out why Bravo thinks he lives with Mrs. Medlin.”

  Ray asked, “Yeah, but who’s feeding him?”

  “We are, but he won’t leave Mrs. Medlin’s yard, so we have to feed him over there. It’s the most mysterious thing we’ve ever heard of.”

  Miss Morrison walked up and down the aisles distributing the report cards. Co Co watched each child jerk open his brown envelope and listened to the groans of despair or crows of joy, depending on the grades. Her face got whiter and whiter as she sat with folded hands, looking just as scared as she had the first day she came to school.

  At last Miss Morrison stopped by her desk and handed her a white envelope. Co Co swallowed and m
urmured, “Merci,” but she did not open it.

  Suzie leaned over and whispered, “Open it—open it! I just know you passed.”

  Co Co shook her head. “I cannot open it here.”

  The dismissal bell rang, and Miss Morrison put her hand on Co Co’s shoulder. “Good-bye. I hope you all have a happy and delightful summer vacation. Next year, in French class, I want you to remember to call me Mrs. Wagner.”

  There was a dead silence as they tried to imagine Miss Morrison teaching French and married to a principal! Then there was a chorus of “Good-bye, Miss Morrison”s, and school was over.

  As Suzie and Co Co walked down the steps of Maple Leaf School for the last time, Co Co said, “Oh, Suzie, I love the American school. So happy, so friendly, so charming,” and Suzie said, “I’m glad it’s over, but I’m sad, too—kind of. I’m sure glad I got all A’s. Come on, Co Co—open your letter. I want to see what you got.”

  Co Co’s hands were trembling so, she could barely get the white envelope open. Her lips moved as she read the letter through twice, very slowly. “Suzie, I think I passed also! Here, you read it and tell me.”

  Suzie read:

  This is to certify that Clothilde Langdon has been examined and has completed the requirements to enter the seventh grade.—R. Wagner

  She gave a shout of joy. “Sure. This is the same as a report card only you weren’t here long enough to get a regular one. Oh, Co Co, isn’t that neat? We both passed. Hooray! Hooray! Next year junior high!”

  They ran all the way home and burst in the back door shouting, “Hooray, hooray, we’ve passed! We both passed! We’ve graduated! No more school! Hooray, hooray!”

  Grandmother kissed them, said there had been no doubt in her mind that they would pass, and added that she had two surprises to celebrate the end of school. “The first one is really a surprise! Mrs. Medlin has asked both of you to lunch. And the second is,”—she opened the oven door and showed them a big, fat turkey—“Co Co and her father are coming for dinner!”