Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Sticky-Fingers Cure
Page 13
Lester nodded, and the three of them set off again. They walked past stores and houses and a big grocery store. They walked until the road began to narrow and eventually became a wide path through thick woods.
“Is this really the way to Dr. Goo’s?” asked Melody. “It’s kind of dark in here.”
“Look ahead,” replied Missy, pointing.
Melody squinted. “Oh!” In the distance was a stone building with an oaken door and ivy climbing the walls. “It looks like a cottage in a fairy tale,” she said.
Above the door was a sign shaped like an enormous tooth. On the tooth were the words DR. GOO.
Lester saw the tooth and sat down on the path.
“Lester,” said Missy. “Come along.”
Lester shook his head.
“We can sit here as long as you want, but eventually Dr. Goo will come outside and look in your mouth right here.”
Lester sighed loudly and stood up.
Missy opened the door under the tooth, and she and Melody and Lester stepped inside. A man and a woman were sitting behind the reception desk. In the waiting room were a gray-haired man, a young woman, and a small boy.
Everyone screamed when they saw Lester, and the gray-haired man spilled his coffee.
“Missy!” cried Melody. “What kind of office is this?”
“It’s a dentist’s office.”
“I know, but is Dr. Goo a dentist for animals or for people?”
“Well … I don’t know. I just made an appointment with a dentist.”
The woman behind the desk gulped in some air. She fanned her face. Then she said, “Everyone is welcome here.” She drew in another deep breath. “You must be Lester Piggle-Wiggle,” she added.
Lester nodded. He was holding his hoof to his cheek again.
“Dr. Goo will see you in about twenty minutes. And don’t worry. He’ll have you feeling fine in no time. Please have a seat.”
Lester edged into the waiting room. He took a seat by the woman. Missy and Melody sat across from him. The room grew absolutely silent. No one moved. No one spoke.
After a while, Lester reached for a magazine, and the boy turned to his mother and said, “Mommy, can that pig read?”
The woman watched Lester turn pages. “I suppose so,” she said weakly.
A young girl came out of Dr. Goo’s office then. She ran to the woman, holding a prize above her head. “Mom! Look what I got! It’s a—” She saw Lester, dropped the prize, and shrieked.
“Come along, darling,” said her mother, and she hustled the children out the door.
Presently, the man who had spilled his coffee was ushered back to Dr. Goo’s office. At last Missy, Melody, and Lester were the only ones in the waiting room.
“Lester,” said Melody, “are you smiling?”
Lester pretended to scream and knock over a cup of coffee, and Melody began to laugh.
Lester grinned. But when the door to the waiting room opened and a dental assistant called, “Lester Piggle-Wiggle?” Lester’s smile faded. Slowly he stood up.
The woman turned pale. “You’re Lester?”
He nodded.
“But you’re a pig.”
“That’s as may be,” spoke up Missy, “but he still needs to have his tooth taken care of.”
“Come with me, then,” said the woman, glancing around the waiting room as if she might find some other pigs there. “My name is Sarah.”
Lester turned to look at Missy and Melody.
“May we come in, too?” asked Melody. “Lester needs us.”
Several minutes later Lester was settled in a chair in an examining room. Missy and Melody stood by the window. They waited quietly until the door opened, and in walked a pleasant-looking young man who was trying very hard to smile.
“Hello, everyone,” he said. “I’m Dr. Goo. I understand we have a porcine patient here.”
“A what?” asked Melody.
“Well, a pig.”
“A pig with a toothache,” Missy told him. “It’s been bothering him for quite some time now.”
“I must confess that I’ve never worked on a pig,” said Dr. Goo.
“Oh, it shouldn’t be too difficult,” Missy told him cheerfully. “Teeth are teeth. Open wide, Lester.”
Lester opened his mouth and bared his teeth.
“My!” exclaimed Dr. Goo. “They certainly are large. Those canines look more like, well, fangs.”
Lester snapped his mouth shut, offended.
“I believe they’re called tusks,” said Missy. “Open up again, Lester.”
Dr. Goo shone a bright light in Lester’s mouth and peered inside. “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.”
“What do you see?” asked Missy.
Dr. Goo frowned. Lester’s eyes grew wide. Melody leaned over and patted his arm. “It’s okay,” she whispered.
“Well,” said Dr. Goo after a moment, “I see a lot of brown teeth.”
“Lester, have you been brushing?” Missy asked.
Lester pretended not to hear her.
“Lester?”
He shook his head.
“Can you point to the tooth that’s bothering you?” Dr. Goo asked.
Lester indicated a tooth far in the back, on the left side.
“This one?”
Lester nodded.
Dr. Goo leaned in for an even closer look. “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm,” he murmured again. “You have a cavity, all right. But we’ll get it filled, and you’ll be feeling better in no time. Now,” he went on as he began to assemble instruments on his tray, “I’d like to talk to you about brushing your teeth.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Missy.
“What kind of toothbrush do you use?” asked Dr. Goo. “Do you have a nice big one for those choppers?”
“He has a regular brush,” said Missy, “but I doubt he’s been using it.”
“We’ll see if we can’t find you a proper-sized brush. Okay, Lester. Here we go.”
Missy and Melody held tight to Lester’s hoof.
* * *
When Dr. Goo straightened up later and said, “All done. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Lester looked at the dentist in surprise. He even gave him a lopsided smile.
“You were very brave,” said Melody.
“Thank you,” replied Dr. Goo. “As I said, I’ve never worked on a pig before.”
“I meant that Lester was brave. But you were brave, too,” said Melody kindly.
“Lester, you were extra brave,” agreed Missy. “And very patient. Now, if you’ll just remember to brush your teeth every day, you can avoid cavities.”
“And look what Sarah found while I was filling your tooth.” Dr. Goo handed Lester an enormous brush. “It should reach all your teeth easily. Take especially good care of those fa—uh, those tusks.”
“Does he get a prize?” asked Melody.
“He certainly does.” Now Dr. Goo produced a tube of toothpaste. “It’s coffee-flavored,” he said, and Lester’s eyes brightened.
“How did you know he likes coffee?” asked Melody.
“Just a hunch. Okay, Lester, you’re all set to go.”
Missy, Melody, and Lester walked along Juniper Street until they were back in town. Then they kept going until they were standing outside A to Z Books. Missy waved through the window to Harold, and he waved back. A moment later he switched off the lights in the store, turned the sign on the door so that it read CLOSED, stepped outside, and locked the door.
“All better?” he said to Lester.
Lester held up his new toothbrush and the tube of coffee toothpaste and offered Harold a smile. Then Harold took Missy by the hand, and Melody took Lester by the hoof, and the four of them set off for the upside-down house.
That night, when the animals had been settled into the barn, and Lester was tucked into his bed, Missy sat at the table in her warm kitchen. Wag and Lightfoot curled up on the floor next to her. She chewed thoughtfully on the end of a pen and wrote Dear Auntie. Then she set the pen down. “
Where to begin?” she said aloud. Wag glanced at her sleepily. Missy thought about the Effluvia. She thought about Lester’s tooth. She thought about the right-side-up house and the Sticky-Fingers Cure and the Pants-on-Fire Cure. There was so much news, Missy thought it could fill a book.
Finally she picked up the pen again and wrote: Things here at the upside-down house are fine. She crossed out fine and wrote never dull. She crossed out never dull and decided to start over with a fresh piece of paper.
Missy didn’t know where Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was, or where she might be in a week or two weeks or a month. But she knew just how to send the letter to her. She slipped it into the toaster before she went to bed.
* * *
Dear Auntie,
Greetings from Little Spring Valley. In your last letter you asked a very important question. You asked if I could carry on at the upside-down house. Here is my answer: YES!
I love Lester and Wag and Lightfoot and Penelope. I love the barn animals. I love the children in town. I love spending time with Harold Spectacle. Every day I’m learning new things about cures and potions.
How wonderful that you and Uncle are together again, and that you’re sailing the world. Sail and explore for as long as you want. The upside-down house is safe, and I am happy—very, very happy—to stay here for as long as I’m needed.
Your loving and devoted niece Missy
* * *
In the morning it was gone.
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About the Authors
Ann M. Martin is the New York Times–bestselling author of Rain Reign, and many other award-winning novels and series, including the much-loved Baby-Sitters Club. She lives in upstate New York. You can sign up for email updates here.
Annie Parnell worked for the better part of a decade with some of the most successful writers and producers in television. It was during that time that she often thought about how she could help bring her great-grandmother’s books to a wider audience. Today she works as a mommy, photographer, and writer, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Chris, and their two perfect children. You can sign up for email updates here.
About the Illustrator
Ben Hatke is the author of the New York Times–bestselling Zita the Spacegirl series as well as the picture book Julia’s House for Lost Creatures. In addition to writing and drawing comics, he also paints in the naturalist tradition and, occasionally, performs one-man fire shows. Hatke lives and works in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife and their boisterous pack of daughters. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
1. The Winter Effluvia
2. The Right-Side-Up House
3. The Sticky-Fingers Cure
4. The Pants-on-Fire Cure
5. The Who’s-the-Boss Cure
6. The Chatterbox Cure
7. The Nitpicker Cure
8. The I-Forgot Cure
9. Melody Saves the Day
10. Lester and Dr. Goo
About the Authors and Illustrator
Copyright
Text copyright © 2018 by Ann M. Martin Inc. and Elliam Corp. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Ben Hatke.
A Feiwel and Friends Book
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
All rights reserved.
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is printed in the hardcover edition as follows:
Names: Martin, Ann M., 1955- author. | Parnell, Annie, author. | Hatke, Ben, illustrator.
Title: Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Sticky-Fingers Cure / Ann M. Martin; with Annie Parnell; Illustrations by Ben Hatke.
Description: First edition. | New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2018. | Summary: Even though she, her upside-down house, and its animal occupants are under quarantine with the Winter Effluvia, Missy Piggle-Wiggle manages to dispense cures to the misbehaving children of Little Spring Valley.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018002550 | ISBN 978-1-250-13229-1 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-250-13230-7 (ebook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Behavior—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Humorous stories.
Classification: LCC PZ7.M3567585 Mk 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018002550
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First hardcover edition 2018
eBook edition 2018
eISBN 9781250132307