by Nancy Krulik
“What can I do for you boys?” Mr. Hammersmith asked as Leo and I entered his hardware store.
“A lot,” Leo told him. “I’m building a robot for the science fair. I’m going to program it to clean my room.”
Ever since I can remember, Leo has been building robots from kits. Most of them just walk around or have flashing lights and voice chips. A cleaner-upper robot was going to take some major work.
Leo pulled a sheet of paper from his backpack. “These are my plans,” he said.
“Here, let me see those,” Mr. Hammersmith said. “I was interested in robots when I was your age. Made a few myself.”
I’d never thought of someone as old as Mr. Hammersmith as having ever been a kid. To me, he’d always been an old guy with hair growing out of his ears who walked with a cane.
“I’ve made robots from kits,” Leo said. “But this time, I’m going to use a kit motor and build the rest myself.”
Mr. Hammersmith looked at Leo’s list of supplies. “This is pretty impressive,” he said. “You’re a smart boy.”
Huh? I had never heard Mr. Hammersmith give anyone a compliment before. He’s usually all business. He must have really liked Leo’s idea.
“Some of these things are in the back storage closet. I’ll get those, and you go get a package of screws and a screwdriver. Third aisle, on the left. Make sure you don’t mix up the screws. I’ve got them divided by size,” he added sternly.
Okay, that was the Mr. Hammersmith I knew.
“I won’t,” Leo promised.
As Mr. Hammersmith went off to help Leo, I looked around the store for something that could give me a project idea. But all I saw were nails, hammers, and screwdrivers.
“Hi, Jack.”
The voice came out of nowhere. I looked around and came face-to-face with the Brainiac.
Oh man. I wasn’t in the mood for Elizabeth’s smiling and eyelash batting. Unfortunately, there was no escaping her.
“Hi,” I grunted. I looked away. I figured she was pretty mad at me after what I had done to her at recess.
“I bet you’re shopping for the science fair,” she said. “Unless you don’t have an idea yet.”
Okay, I was right. She was mad. I could tell because that wasn’t the kind of thing the Brainiac usually said to me. And she wasn’t batting her eyelashes or twirling her wormy red hair either.
“I’m sorta shopping,” I told her. Which was true. I was looking for something. I just didn’t know what.
I wanted to get away from Elizabeth. But that wasn’t easy. She kept following me around the store.
“What project are you doing?” Elizabeth asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”
Elizabeth shook her wormy red hair. Ugh.
“You better hurry,” she told me. “There’s not a lot of time left.”
Gee, tell me something I don’t know, I thought. But all I said was, “I gotta go. I hear Leo calling me.”
Actually it wasn’t Leo I’d heard at all. I heard a voice that sounded like a cat meowing when it talked. I looked in the direction of the voice and spotted a fat, striped, gray cat in the corner of the store. He was staring at what looked like a hole in the bottom of the wall. I figured it had to be a mouse hole.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I heard the cat purr.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Elizabeth said.
“Well, I have really good hearing,” I said. “I hear lots of things other people don’t.” That was definitely the truth!
“Okay,” Elizabeth said.
I walked away from her as fast as I could. But no matter which way I turned, there was someone I didn’t want to see in Mr. Hammersmith’s hardware store.
“Do you and your girlfriend do everything together now?”
It was Trevor the Terrible.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I insisted.
“She sure seems to be wherever you are,” Trevor said.
That was true. But it wasn’t like it was my fault.
“I’m here with Leo,” I told Trevor.
Trevor looked around. “I don’t see him.”
“He’s probably talking to Mr. Hammersmith,” I said. “Leo is making something amazing for the science fair.”
“Oh yeah?” Trevor asked. “What is it?”
I figured I’d better not give away Leo’s idea to someone like Trevor. So I just said, “It’s a surprise. But it’s going to blow you away.”
“We’ll see,” Trevor said. “What are you doing?”
Not that question again! I pretended I had no idea what Trevor was talking about.
“Waiting for Leo,” I said. “I just told you.”
“Here I am,” Leo said, popping up behind me. He had a big Hammersmith’s Hardware Store bag in his arms, and his backpack strapped across his back.
Just then, I heard talking coming from the corner of the store, where the cat was still sitting and waiting for the mouse to come out of its hole.
“You don’t want me. I’m just a small, skinny mouse,” I heard a mouse’s soft, squeaky voice say to the cat. He sounded really scared.
I knew how that mouse felt. He was a little guy trapped in a room being threatened by a big bully. Just like Leo and me.
Only, we could escape. “Let’s get out of here,” I told Leo.
“Right behind you,” Leo agreed.
Chapter 5
“Tug-of-war! Let’s play tug-of-war!”
Scout dropped a toy at my feet. It was later that afternoon, and Leo and I were playing Space Crusaders, a new video game my uncle had sent me.
“Not now,” I told Scout. “Leo and I are playing. I’ll play with you later.”
“You always say ‘later,’ “ Scout insisted.
“I do not always say ‘later,’ “ I said.
Leo laughed. “It’s like you two are actually having a conversation.”
Oops. I’d completely forgotten that I was talking to my dog. To Leo, it just sounded like Scout was barking. I was going to have to watch that.
“I just know what his different barks mean,” I said. Then I knocked two aliens off the screen. “Oh yeah! Space Crusader to the rescue!”
“What’s that smell?” Scout asked. He was sniffing around. “Mmm … baloney!”
“Get your dog out of my backpack,” Leo said.
“He smells food,” I told him. “Did you leave part of your sandwich in there?”
Leo shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s pulling out my calculator. I don’t want dog slobber on it.”
“Scout, get out,” I said, taking the calculator and wiping the dog slime on my shirt. “Leo and I are busy.”
Leo laughed. “Like he’s gonna understand that,” he said.
I frowned. Leo might have been great at math and science, but when it came to talking to animals, I understood plenty.
Leo was the one who didn’t.
Part of me really wanted to tell Leo what was going on. I mean, he was my best friend. Well, my best human friend. But I didn’t know how long my new ability would last. It could be gone tomorrow. So what was the point in telling Leo? He might think I was crazy.
Just then, my mom poked her head into my room. “Leo, your mom’s here,” she said.
“Can I have five more minutes?” Leo asked. “I’ve almost captured Jack’s spaceship.”
“Not today,” my mother told him. “Your mom has two stops to make on the way home. She needs you to go now.”
And that was it. Even if I’d wanted to tell Leo, I couldn’t do it now.
That’s my favorite kind of decision. The kind you don’t have to make for yourself.
“Hey, Jack, okay if I stop by and get my robot plans tomorrow morning?” Leo asked me that night on the phone.
“I don’t have your plans,” I told him.
“But they have to be at your house,” Leo insisted. “They were in my backpack, and now they’re not.”
“I never even saw
them,” I told Leo. “Check again.”
“They’re not there,” Leo said. “The only thing in there is my notebook, the receipt from the hardware store, and a slimy calculator.” He stopped for a minute. “Your dog was poking around in my backpack. I bet he ate them!”
“Why would Scout eat your robot plans?” I asked.
“Your dog will eat anything,” Leo said. “Remember the time he grabbed the steak before the Fourth of July barbecue? Or when he ate your sister’s ice-cream cake at her birthday party?”
How could I forget? My sister, Mia, had cried for an hour. She was five now, but she still acted like a baby sometimes.
“Those were foods,” I pointed out. “Why would a dog eat paper?”
“Dogs are always eating homework,” Leo insisted.
“But …” I started.
“Now I won’t have a project for the science fair because of your stupid dog,” Leo said.
“My dog is NOT stupid,” I shouted. “And anyway, why can’t you just do the plans over again?”
“Because it takes too long,” Leo said. “The robot’s really complicated. The science fair is next Friday. I don’t have time to plan the whole thing again.”
“Well, Scout didn’t do it,” I said. “He isn’t a thief!”
At the sound of his name, Scout came running into my room. He leaped up on my bed and barked.
“That sounded like a confession,” Leo said.
“Shows what you know,” I told Leo. “He said, ‘Let’s play fetch.’ ”
“Oh, right,” Leo said. “So you speak dog now?”
I sure wasn’t going to tell Leo what had happened to me now. Not after what he’d just said about Scout.
“You can play fetch with your dumb dog all you want,” Leo told me. “I’m not playing with you until I get my plans back.”
“Fine!” I said. I slammed down the phone.
Except it wasn’t fine at all. It was rotten.
Chapter 6
At first, I was really mad at Leo. He was the one who lost his stupid robot plans. Why was he blaming Scout?
But then I thought about it. Scout had been known to chew up a lot of stuff. Half my socks had holes in them because of his chewing. And Mia’s baby doll did have one pretty chewed-up arm, thanks to Scout using it to play fetch. So it was possible….
No! No way!
I reached down and scratched Scout on his belly—right on that special spot that makes his leg move up and down.
“A little to the left,” Scout said. “Yeah, there. Perfect.”
I barely even jumped when Scout started talking to me. Am I getting used to this whole animal-talking thing?
“Ouch!”
That was a new voice. A squeaky, little, high-pitched voice.
“Stop scratching,” the voice said. “Fleas have very delicate skin.”
“I gotta give you a flea bath,” I told Scout.
“You’re telling me,” Scout answered.
“You didn’t eat Leo’s robot plans, did you, boy?” I asked as I scratched.
Scout’s leg stopped moving. He rolled over and stared at me.
“I can’t believe you asked me that,” he growled. “I don’t eat homework. I eat food.”
“And socks and dolls,” I reminded him.
Scout’s ears flattened and his tail drooped. His eyes opened wide, and he raised his lip so I could see his teeth. Then he raced out of my room.
I was in the kitchen making a snack when my mom brought Scout in from his evening walk.
“I don’t know what’s with Scout tonight,” my mom said. “The minute we got outside, he started howling, like he was mad at the moon.”
I frowned. Scout was mad, all right. He was mad at me.
Great. Now my best friend and my dog were both mad at me. How rotten was that?
But by the next morning, Scout seemed to be back to his old self. He licked my face to wake me up.
“Get up,” he urged. “I gotta go out.”
“I’m coming.” I rolled out of bed and threw on my nothing-to-do-on-a-Saturday Mets T-shirt. Then I ran downstairs, got Scout’s leash, and took him outside.
“Aahhh,” Scout sighed as he let out a long pee on a fire hydrant. “That’s better.”
Nobody was around, so I figured it was safe to talk to Scout. “I’m sorry I thought you ate Leo’s homework,” I said.
Scout looked up and gave me a smile—the kind where his tongue hangs out so far that he starts to drool. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’re pals. But you owe me a treat when we get home.”
I gave him a kid smile. The kind where my mouth is shut so I don’t drool. “You got it.”
We walked a little farther. Then Scout stopped to talk to one of his dog friends.
“Hey, Biscuit,” Scout greeted a brown and white boxer who was sitting on his lawn. He sniffed Biscuit’s butt.
“Hey, Scout,” Biscuit said, taking a sniff. “What’s happening?”
“Just taking a walk,” Scout answered.
Biscuit looked up at me and growled. “What’s the traitor doing here?”
Scout rolled around on the grass. “I need someone on the other side of the leash.”
“I’m not a traitor,” I said. And I knew it was the truth. But for some reason, the way Biscuit was staring at me, I almost felt like one.
I wished there was some way to prove to Scout, Biscuit, and any other dog in the neighborhood that I was on their side. But I didn’t know what to do to show Biscuit I believed Scout. I mean, it wasn’t like I was about to sniff Scout’s butt or anything.
There’s only so much a guy’s willing to do for a friend.
Chapter 7
I tried to pull Scout away from Biscuit, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He was with his buddy, and that’s where he was going to stay.
I didn’t want to make Scout mad again. So I just had to stand there and take whatever Biscuit dished out, while Scout circled around, raised his leg, and peed on the begonias in Biscuit’s front lawn.
“We’re tired of being blamed for every chewed sock, scratched door, stolen steak, and everyone’s missing homework,” Biscuit explained to me.
“But you guys do chew socks, scratch doors, and steal steak,” I said.
“Who are you talking to, Jack?”
I jumped suddenly as a new voice joined the conversation. It wasn’t a dog voice. It was something much worse … an Elizabeth voice.
Why is Elizabeth showing up wherever I am?
“It sounded like you were talking to those dogs,” Elizabeth said.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her. “You don’t live on this block.”
“I was bird-watching in the park,” Elizabeth told me. “It was great. I saw a rose-breasted grosbeak. My first one ever.”
I tried hard not to laugh. Elizabeth got excited about the weirdest things.
“But you didn’t answer my question,” she continued.
Oh man. This was bad. Really bad. Elizabeth seemed excited about catching me talking to dogs. She had the same smile on her face that she’d had in the library. It was like I was some sort of science project.
That got me thinking. What if she decided to change her project for the science fair? What if instead of whatever she had planned on making, she did her presentation on kids who talk to animals? Then everyone in school would know about me!
I was starting to feel really sick, so I sat down on a nearby bench. Elizabeth sat right next to me.
“Are you an animal psychic, Jack?” Elizabeth asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. She just kept talking. “I’ve never known anyone who could talk to animals before. I’ve read about them in books, but I’ve never seen one in action. It’s a very unique talent and …”
Elizabeth was still blabbing, but all I could think about was what would happen if Trevor found out about this. He’d tell everyone. I’d be an international freak of nature.
Somehow, Elizabeth seemed to understand. She smiled
at me. “Don’t worry. I won’t say a word,” she said. “It’s our secret.”
The Brainiac and I had a secret. Oh, man. This is bad.
Still, I was glad Elizabeth had told me that other people were able to understand what animals were saying. I wondered if they’d been hit by magic acorns, too.
“So, what are you guys talking about?” Elizabeth asked me.
At first I thought about denying it. But I didn’t. Maybe I felt bad about making fun of her during recess. Or maybe I wanted to hear more about other people who could talk to animals. So I told her the truth.
“Leo accused Scout of eating his robot plans for the science fair,” I said. “Scout says he didn’t, but Leo thinks he did.”
“And he’s going to keep thinking that unless we solve this mystery,” Elizabeth said.
“What mystery?” I asked.
“The mystery of the missing homework,” Elizabeth answered. “Don’t you read mystery books?”
I shook my head. The only kind of books I read for fun are sports books.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll solve this case.”
“What do you mean ‘we’?” I repeated.
“You need me,” Elizabeth said. “I’m very good at solving mysteries. Usually I just have to read a few chapters to know who did it.”
Oh man. First I lose my best friend, and now Elizabeth was telling me I needed her.
Even worse, it was the truth. I didn’t know the first thing about solving mysteries. But Elizabeth did. If I had any chance of getting Leo back as a best friend, I was going to have to work with her.
“Okay, you can help,” I said finally. “But you can’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “It’ll be our second secret.”
“Oh brother,” I muttered under my breath.
All of a sudden, Scout started jumping up and down and wagging his tail. “JACK’S GOT A GIRLFRIEND! JACK’S GOT A GIRLFRIEND!” he shouted.
Scout couldn’t understand what the Brainiac was saying, but he could tell from the way she acted that she liked me. But that did not mean I liked her back!
