“Why not?” Melanie asked. “Did we hurt you?”
Marshall shook his head thoughtfully. “Not hurt. Dragged. You dragged me!” he said, and stomped up the stairs.
As it turned out, getting permission to go to the Gypsy Camp wasn’t much of a problem after all. To Melanie’s surprise, her mother seemed to have stopped worrying about kidnappers because of an article in the morning paper. And because of another article, she now seemed to be more worried about rain. While her mother was in the kitchen fixing Marshall’s honey and peanut butter afternoon sandwich, Melanie snuck in a quick call to April. The line was busy at first, but then April answered.
“Hey,” Melanie said. “Your phone’s been busy.”
“Yeah, I called Caroline. You know, about going to the Gypsy Camp. She said okay as long as I wear my raincoat.”
Melanie laughed. “That’s just what my mom said. My mom says the paper said there’d be rain, and”—Melanie’s voice dropped to a whisper—“and a lot of new stuff about Toby.”
“Yeah, that’s what Caroline said too. About how the police have decided that there’s reason to believe that Toby just ran away, instead of being kidnapped, or any other foul play kind of stuff.”
“Right,” Melanie said. “I guess that’s what it said. So we can go to the Gypsy Camp, as long as we all stay together. My mom sounded pretty relieved.”
“Caroline was relieved too, I guess,” April said. “But she’s still awful worried about Toby. And curious. Caroline is major-league curious about the whole thing. She kept asking me if I had any idea why Toby would run away.”
“My folks are the same way,” Melanie said. “My mom thinks we should have noticed that something was bothering Toby. Last night she kept asking about that day we were all in Toby’s dad’s studio. And they really freaked when I told them what it looked like. My dad said he’s heard some pretty weird rumors about Toby’s dad from some people who used to know him when he was in graduate school.”
“What rumors?” April asked.
Melanie shook her head. “I asked him, but he wouldn’t tell me. But it was about something that happened a long time ago, back when Toby was a real little kid.”
It was just then that Mrs. Ross came into the room, followed by Marshall, who was still chewing on his last mouthful of honey and peanut butter. Mrs. Ross reminded Melanie that she’d promised that they’d all stay together. “And don’t forget your rain gear,” she added.
“Yeah,” Marshall said in a sticky voice. “Don’t forget boots.”
Melanie had gotten Marshall into his new yellow slicker by the time April came down the stairs, but they were still arguing about which boots he was going to wear. “But those ones match,” he was saying, pointing to their mom’s yellow boots.
“They’re way too big,” April said. “What if we have to run? You can’t run fast enough in big boots like that.”
Marshall grinned. “Yes I can,” he said. “If you drag me. If we have to run fast, I’ll let you drag me. Okay?”
At that point Melanie gave up arguing and went back in to ask her mother about the boots, and then they still had to put them on him and stop by for Elizabeth. So it was an awful lot more than Ken’s ten minutes before they were finally on their way.
They were going down the front steps of the Casa Rosada when Elizabeth asked Melanie if she’d told her folks about the policemen who’d been looking for Toby. And without stopping to think about Marshall being right there listening to everything, Melanie said, “Well, I told them that some policemen had talked to us, but I didn’t say where exactly. I didn’t mention that they actually came inside the Gypsy Camp because …” At that point she happened to see the look on Marshall’s face and stopped in midsentence. But it was too late.
Marshall, who had been stomping along happily in the big yellow boots, stopped stomping and stared at Melanie, his big eyes wide and accusing. “Policemen?” he asked. “In the Gypsy Camp? Did they see Bear? Did they take him to the pound?” Marshall’s face was beginning to look like one of the sad masks actors wore in the ancient Greek plays. Grabbing Melanie’s arm, he began to shake it. “Did they?” he howled. “Did they take my Bear to the pound?”
It wasn’t easy to calm Marshall down and convince him that Bear was all right. That the kind of policemen who looked for missing kids usually weren’t interested in stray dogs. Or bears either. Especially not bears! But Marshall wasn’t buying it. He started to run, falling over his big boots every few steps and howling at the top of his lungs. He went right on howling until they got to the gate, unlocked it, and shoved it open. And there Bear was, bouncing around, licking faces, and nearly knocking people down, as usual.
Ken was already at the Gypsy Camp all right, sitting on the edge of the shed floor, holding a Domenico’s Deli bag on his lap. He was frowning, but when Melanie asked him if he’d been waiting long, he just shrugged and said, “Not all that long. I had to go to the deli first.”
“To the deli?” April asked. “Why?”
“Because I wanted to bring some more food. You know, just in case we find Tobe and he’s hungry again.” His grin was a little sad. “You know how Tobe is. He gets hungrier than anybody. I was going to raid the refrigerator again, but then I found out my mom was kind of suspicious about all that stuff I brought the other night. So I went to Domenico’s instead.”
“Humph!” April said, thinking, You might have told us. You might have said you were going all the way to the deli first, instead of yelling at us to be here in ten lousy minutes. But since they were already late, she didn’t figure they had time for a really good argument. So she only changed the subject by asking Ken if he’d found any clues when he’d looked around last night.
Ken shook his head. “After all of you left, I walked up the alley a couple of blocks and then down the other way. I didn’t see anything. But I’m going to look some more now. Are you guys going to help?”
They all said they would help if they could, but what could they do? “There’s the whole city,” Melanie said, “and he might be anywhere. Where should we start?” She looked up at the gray January sky. “And whatever we do, we’ve got to do it right away, because it’s supposed to start raining pretty soon.”
Everybody agreed that they had to start soon, but nobody had any very good ideas about how. Or where. Ken said they ought to split up and go in different directions and then meet back at the Gypsy Camp in one hour, but nobody else thought that made much sense.
“Besides,” Melanie said, “we promised we’d stay together.”
Ken shrugged, and after that they just stood around thinking and disagreeing about what they ought to do. When April suggested that they could start at the doughnut shop because Toby was so crazy about doughnuts, nobody took her very seriously. But then Elizabeth came up with a slightly more reasonable idea.
“Maybe we could go out through the hole in the fence like Toby did and then … and then just use our imaginations.”
Ken looked at her suspiciously. “What do you mean, use our imaginations?” Ever since he’d been talked into becoming an ancient Egyptian, Ken had been suspicious of people who went overboard on the imagination bit.
Elizabeth ducked her head and looked embarrassed. “I just meant, we could go out through the fence like he did, and then just stand there and pretend we’re Toby and imagine what he might have done next.”
Nobody really thought it would work, not even Melanie. But since no one had come up with a better plan, they decided to give it a try. They squeezed out into the alley, one at a time, and started concentrating on being Toby and imagining what he would do. They were concentrating so hard that no one, not even Marshall, noticed what Bear was doing. It wasn’t until Bear was out into the alley and running around in circles, that they began to react.
“Bear!” Marshall shrieked. “My Bear’s running away.”
Twenty-three
“CATCH HIM!” Ken shouted as Bear dashed past. “Grab him.” He lunged
and missed, and Bear went on running in circles. Then everyone got into the act, grabbing at Bear as he went by, until suddenly Melanie yelled, “Wait! Wait, everyone. Leave him alone. Look what he’s doing.”
They all saw it then. What Bear was doing was sniffing the ground every once in a while like a bloodhound following a scent: running and stopping and sniffing and then taking off again. Following quietly at a distance, they rounded the corner just in time to see him stopping by a long section of concrete drainage pipe. The same piece of pipe, it occurred to April, that the early Egyptians had once used as a hiding place way back in the beginning of the Egypt Game.
At the pipe Bear stopped, sniffed some more, and began to whine. They stared at each other. “In the pipe,” April whispered. “He’s hiding in the pipe just like we did. Remember?” Ken pushed Bear out of the way, got down on his hands and knees, and stuck his head into the pipe. After a minute he pulled his head out and stood up. “He’s not in there,” he said, “but something is. I can’t reach it but it looks like …”
But April was already wiggling her way into the pipe. It was a tight fit. Ken would never have made it, but Toby might have. A minute later she wiggled back out with a paper bag in her hand, a bag that Melanie immediately recognized.
“That’s mine.” She grabbed it out of April’s hand. “That’s from the French bakery where my mom buys our bread. I used it for my food for Toby.” Opening the bag, she pulled out a cheese rind and an apple core. There was no doubt about it. It was Melanie’s bag. So there wasn’t much doubt that Toby had been in the pipe, at least for a while.
The big kids were still examining the paper bag when a hollow-sounding voice echoed and re-echoed. “Toby! To-by! To-by!” It was Marshall on his hands and knees, halfway into the pipe. All you could see of him was his little rear end and his big yellow rain boots. “Toby,” Marshall called, and the pipe echoed, “To-by, To-by, To-by.”
“Come out of there,” Melanie said. “Toby’s gone somewhere else.”
Ken looked frustrated. “Yeah, but I bet he was in there when I walked right by last night. But he didn’t say anything,” Ken said.
“Were you calling him or talking or anything?” April asked. When Ken shook his head, she went on, “Because if you weren’t, he might not have known it was you. He couldn’t have seen you. Not if he went in there headfirst anyway. So he might have just kept quiet till the footsteps went away. And then he probably came out and went somewhere else.”
“Yeah, obviously,” Ken said. “But the question is, where? Where would he go to hide?” He looked up and down the alley before he asked, “Anybody got any ideas?”
Marshall’s head was still in the pipe. “Not me,” he said, and the pipe echoed, “Not me. Not me. Not me.”
Unfortunately Marshall wasn’t the only one who didn’t have any ideas. As Ken looked from face to face, they tried to think of a good hiding place in the neighborhood, but no one came up with anything. April did suggest the park, but Ken didn’t agree at all. “No. The park is pretty dangerous these days, particularly after dark. Toby knows that. He wouldn’t go there.”
“Well, I guess nobody has any ideas,” Melanie said. “Unless … unless Bear does.” She suddenly began to look around frantically. “Where is Bear?”
No Bear running around everyone in circles. No Bear with Marshall, who was just backing out of the pipe. No Bear …
“There he is!” Marshall shouted. “Up there. By the corner.”
They all saw him then, trotting along the alley and turning the corner in the direction of Norwich Avenue. In a flash they were all running after him.
Bear could run a lot faster than they could. Even a lot faster than Ken, at least when Ken was carrying a big bag of food. And a lot faster than April and Melanie, who were dragging Marshall between them. They might never have caught up if he hadn’t stopped now and then to sniff the ground. He would start sniffing, and they’d almost catch up, but then, when they’d almost reached him, he would be off again, running at top speed. It wasn’t until he came out of the alley onto busy Norwich Avenue that Ken managed to catch up with him and grab his collar.
“Got him,” he yelled, then as the rest of them straggled up, “Whew! It’s a good thing I nabbed him. He might have run right out into the traffic.”
“Not—unless—Toby—did,” Melanie panted. “If he’s following Toby’s scent, he’ll go wherever Toby did.”
“Yeah.” April was pretty breathless, too. “Come on, Bear. Let’s go. Go find Toby.”
But Bear, it seemed, wasn’t going anywhere with anybody hanging on to his collar. Instead, he just sat down and looked up at Ken questioningly. The answer was obviously a rope, but that was back in the Gypsy Camp. “Well, I guess someone could go all the way back for the leash,” Melanie said. “It would take a lot of time, but I don’t know what else we can do unless”—suddenly she stared at Ken—“unless we could use somebody’s belt.”
“Oh no. Not my Gucci belt,” Ken said. “My dad bought it for me. Besides, I need it.”
April saw what he meant. Ken’s pants, which were fashionably baggy, looked as if they might be a problem without a belt.
A brief argument followed, in which Melanie said that it was certainly a dilemma, but that losing your pants wouldn’t be nearly as wrong as letting Bear get lost or even letting him run out into the traffic. And April tactfully pointed out that if a person wore pants that were anywhere near his actual size, a person could get along without a belt, at least in an emergency. At about that point Ken unexpectedly gave up, and a few minutes later they were off again, following Bear down the sidewalk toward the corner of Norwich and Arbor Street. But this time Elizabeth had charge of the Domenico’s Deli bag so that Ken could have his left hand free, in case of an emergency.
Norwich was still pretty busy that afternoon, and a lot of people stopped to stare. April didn’t see why, even though you might have to admit the five of them and Bear weren’t exactly your usual neighborhood gang. Not because they were a lot of different races, either. People in the university area were used to that. Or even that they were different ages and sexes, which was a little more peculiar. There was more to it than that. There was, for instance, Bear himself, an unusually weird-looking black dog who was whining loudly and straining at the end of a wide leather leash, which a large sixth-grade kid was holding with one hand while he held up his pants with the other. A kid who kept stopping to yell back over his shoulder at a bunch of girls, two of whom were dragging a small boy in a yellow slicker and enormous yellow boots.
But there was no reason for people to stop and stare. And certainly no reason to laugh, because it wasn’t funny. And April would have told them so right to their faces if she’d been able to stop long enough to do it. But she couldn’t because they had to keep up with Bear and Ken. So she just tried to ignore the gawkers, and the good news was that as soon as they turned onto Arbor they were out of the Wilson School District, at least. That meant the people who stopped to stare were much less likely to know who they were.
About two blocks up Arbor Street they reached an area that had once been residential but was now mostly secondhand stores and warehouses. The few old houses that remained standing had been changed into businesses like repair shops and liquor stores. The sidewalk was cracked in places, and there were tall dry weeds beside the curb and in the vacant lots. Ken pulled Bear to a stop and looked around.
“Pretty crummy area, huh?” he said. “Toby wouldn’t have come here. I’ll bet Bear isn’t following Toby’s scent anyway. He doesn’t even stop to sniff very often. He’s probably just trying to go back where he came from. And, if you ask me, that’s what we better do. And the sooner the better.”
Melanie knew what he meant. It was a neighborhood she was supposed to stay out of. But, on the other hand, she could think of one reason why Toby might have headed this way. “Wait a minute,” she said. “He might have come here if he was looking for a place where he wasn’t going to see
anyone he knows.” She paused, and then went on, “And besides—just look at Bear.”
Sure enough, Bear was straining at the leash, and his tail was wagging like crazy.
“Well, okay. Just a little farther then,” Ken said reluctantly.
A few minutes later Bear raised his head and began to sniff, not the sidewalk, but the air. Whining happily, he took off, dragging Ken behind him down the sidewalk toward an old boarded-up church.
But Bear wasn’t interested in the front of the church. Pulling so hard against his collar that he almost choked himself, he dragged Ken past the entryway and down a weed-bordered path that led to the back of the building, with the girls and Marshall following close behind.
The path passed some more windows and a boarded-up back entrance and ended at some steps that led down to a basement door. A door that was not only unboarded but was not even entirely closed. Whimpering excitedly, Bear dashed down the steps, pawed open the door, and rushed in, pulling Ken behind him into almost complete darkness.
The air was dank and smelled like mildewed clothing and rotting vegetables. The only light came from a small flickering flame, as if a candle was burning somewhere in the distance. And in the dim candlelight something vague and shadowy was moving. Ken’s eyes were still adjusting to the lack of light when a familiar voice said, “Holy cow, Kamata. What are you doing here?”
Twenty-four
THE NEXT FEW minutes were complete confusion. Bear was jumping all over Toby and whimpering with joy, the girls and Marshall were stumbling down the steps into the semidarkness, and Toby was saying, “Hey, Melanie! And April! Down, Bear. Watch it! Don’t step on the candle. And Elizabeth too. Hey, and more food. Wow, I sure can use that. Down, boy! Cool it. Watch out for the candle.” It wasn’t until he picked up the bottle that held the candle, shoved it into Ken’s hands; and gave Bear his full attention that things began to settle down.
The Gypsy Game Page 13
