Janey’s Big Idea
Half an hour later, the Simpsons dropped Janey and Lolli off at Janey’s house. Janey rushed inside. “Mom! Daddy!” she yelled. “Where are you?”
Her mother came into the front hall from the kitchen. “Hello, Lolli,” she said. “Janey, you look like you’re in a better mood than when you left.”
“I’m sorry about earlier,” Janey said, hurrying over to give her mother a hug. “You too, Daddy,” she added as her father wandered in carrying a news magazine. “I loved all my presents, even if none of them is a dog.”
“Good, good.” Her father looked relieved. “I’m sorry we can’t get a pet, sweetheart.”
“I know. But listen, I had a great idea that might be the next best thing,” Janey said.
Her mother smiled. “Uh-oh,” she said. “What is it—a robot dog?”
Lolli giggled. “That definitely sounds like something Janey would invent!”
Janey giggled, too. “Maybe someday. But my great idea does involve technology—namely, my awesome new tablet!” The tablet was still on the table where she’d left it. She hurried over and picked it up. “You said this has a blogging program, right?”
“Yes,” her father said. “It’s a brand new platform made specifically for bloggers under fourteen. There are all kinds of safety features, and—”
“Perfect,” Janey interrupted. “Because that’s my idea. I’m going to start a blog! It’ll be called, um, Janey’s Pet Place, and kids can use it to share cute pictures of their cats and dogs and other pets.”
“What a wonderful idea, love!” her mother said.
“I know.” Janey smiled. “That way, it’ll be like I have all the pets in town around me all the time!” She grabbed Lolli’s hand. “Come on, I can’t wait—let’s go up to my room and figure out how to get started!”
An hour later, Janey was feeling both excited and frustrated. “The text we wrote is perfect,” she told Lolli, “but it won’t do any good if we can’t figure out how to get the blog set up the way I want it!”
“I know, right?” Lolli poked at the tablet’s on-screen keypad. “If this blog thingy is made for kids, shouldn’t it be easy to use?”
Janey pulled the tablet closer again and tried—again—to load the text into the box she’d just finished creating. It looked really cool, with a border of frolicking puppies and kittens and a background of clouds. But when she hit the enter key, all she got in return was an annoying error message—again.
“Aargh!” she cried. “I want to get it working already so I can start getting cute pet photos!”
A bark drifted in through the window. “Maybe that dog outside wants to be on your blog,” Lolli joked. “He’s telling you to hurry up!”
Janey hopped off her bed and went to the window. A cute golden retriever was sniffing the bushes along the sidewalk. A familiar figure was holding the dog’s leash.
“Hey, it’s Adam!” Janey told Lolli. “He’s walking one of his dog-sitting clients. Let’s go ask him if he knows how to work the blog software.”
“Adam?” Lolli sounded dubious. “He’s not that interested in computers—just dogs.”
Janey tucked her tablet under her arm and headed for the door. “Still, he’s smart, right?” she said. “Maybe he can figure out what we’re doing wrong. Besides, I love that golden retriever he’s walking right now—I want to go out and pet him.”
Lolli smiled. “In that case, what are we waiting for?”
The big, friendly dog greeted Janey and Lolli happily. So did Adam. But he shook his head as he studied the blog screen.
“Sorry, guys,” he said. “I have no clue. Maybe you should ask Zach. He’s practically a technology genius.”
“Zach? Really?” Now it was Janey’s turn to be doubtful. She didn’t think Zach was good at anything except being totally obnoxious!
“Uh-huh.” Adam bent down to untangle the leash from around the golden retriever’s leg. “He helped my parents set up a photo-sharing site last year so my relatives can all see pictures of my little sisters and me. And he’s always fixing the computer his dad uses for work. I bet a blogging site will be no problem for him.”
“It’s worth a try,” Lolli said. “Zach lives near here, doesn’t he?”
“He’s on the next block,” Janey said. She frowned at Adam. “Are you sure he’s good with computer stuff? What if he wrecks my new tablet?”
“He won’t,” Adam said. “Trust me, he can get your blog working if anyone can.”
Janey sighed. “Fine,” she said. “I guess we can go see if he’s home. I’d do just about anything to get my blog started!”
Going Live
“There he is,” Lolli said as the girls turned the corner onto Zach’s block.
Janey saw him, too. Zach was in front of his house. He was messing around with his skateboard, trying to get it to jump over a big crack in the sidewalk.
“Hi,” Janey said, hurrying up to him. “What are you doing?”
“Learning Chinese,” Zach said with a smirk. “What does it look like?”
Janey looked at the house. Loud music was coming out of an open window. “Is someone having a party?”
“Nah, that’s just my older brothers.” Zach rolled his eyes. “A bunch of their dumb friends came over. They’re lucky my dad is the only one home. My mom would never let them play their stupid music so loud.”
“Where’s your mom?” Lolli asked.
Zach flipped his skateboard up, catching it in one hand. “At work. Her clinic is open on Saturdays.”
“Oh.” Janey thought it was so cool that Zach’s mom was a veterinarian. That was practically her dream job! She didn’t say that, though. She figured Zach would probably just make fun of her. “Listen, Adam says you’re good at computers….”
She and Lolli told him about all the problems they were having. When Janey held out her tablet, Zach’s eyes lit up.
“Cool!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been dying to get one of these!” Then his face fell. “I probably won’t, though. My parents say one computer is enough for the whole family to share.”
“We only have one computer, too,” Lolli told him.
Zach grinned. “Yeah, but that’s because your parents are weirdos,” he teased her.
“They are not!” Janey retorted with a frown.
But Lolli just laughed. “It’s okay. Mom and Dad call themselves weirdos all the time. So Zach, do you think you can help us with the blog?”
“Duh, that’s easy.” Zach sat down on his skateboard with the tablet on his lap. His fingers flew over the keypad.
“What are you doing?” Janey couldn’t help being a little nervous. What if Zach broke her new tablet? Then she’d have to wait until she got it fixed to start her blog.
Zach didn’t answer for a second. Finally he looked up and grinned. “There,” he said, showing Janey the screen. “Is that all you needed me to do?”
Janey gasped. The blog looked perfect! The text was exactly where it was supposed to be. Zach had cropped and resized the photos of cats and dogs Janey had pasted onto the page, too. She hadn’t asked him to do that, but the photos looked better, so she didn’t complain.
“Awesome!” she said. “Thanks, you really…”
She cut herself off with a gasp. Something was happening on the screen. As Janey stared in horror, the edges of her blog page seemed to peel back. Then a cartoon dinosaur leaped into view and started chomping on the text box!
“Hey!” she cried while Zach started laughing so hard he almost fell off his skateboard. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“No, it must be a virus or something.” Zach was laughing so hard he could barely get the words out. “You should see your face, Janey!”
Lolli giggled. “That’s pretty funny, Zach,” she said. “How’d you do it?”
“I could tell you, but you wouldn’t understand.” Zach grinned. “Cool, right?”
“No.” Janey was still frowning.
“Fix it!”
“Okay, okay.” Zach rolled his eyes. “Next birthday, make sure you ask for a sense of humor, okay?”
Lolli smiled at Janey. “Come on, it was a little bit funny, right?” Lolli said in her soothing way. “Besides, I’m sure Zach is going to fix it right now. Right, Zach?”
“Right.” Zach was already bent over the tablet again.
Janey was tempted to grab it away from him. But she decided to give Zach one more chance.
And ten minutes later, she was glad. Zach got rid of the dinosaur and adjusted a few other things. Now the blog looked perfect!
“There,” Zach said, pressing a key on-screen. “You’re live. Kids should be able to see the blog now.”
“Thanks, Zach!” Janey took her tablet back and smiled at the screen. “I can’t wait for the cute pet pictures to start coming in!”
“How’s the blog going, sweetheart?” Janey’s father asked the next day as Janey helped him clear the lunch dishes.
“Fab.” Janey dropped a handful of silverware into the dishwasher. Then she hurried back to the table and picked up her tablet. “People are already posting tons of awesome pictures! This one’s my favorite so far.”
She scrolled down and showed him a photo of an adorable black-and-white cat leaping at a butterfly. Her father chuckled.
“Very cute,” he agreed. He checked his watch. “Ready to head over to Lolli’s? I want to be back here before the game starts on TV.”
Janey nodded. She’d made plans to spend Sunday afternoon over at Lolli’s house so they could write the next blog entry together. Janey was planning to post every few days with her thoughts about animals and anything else she could think of to write about. She was also going to choose her favorite photos in several categories—cutest pet, funniest pose, best action shot, and other stuff like that. She figured that would encourage people to keep sending photos.
It took about ten minutes to drive to Lolli’s farm on the edge of town. Soon the Whitfields’ car was bumping and jangling up the Simpsons’ long gravel driveway. There was an orchard on one side, and a pasture on the other with two goats and a sheep in it. Usually Janey liked to stop and say hello to the animals, but today she just waved at them as the car passed.
“Have fun,” her father said as he stopped in front of the Simpsons’ two-story, pointy-roofed farmhouse. The wooden porch sagged a little, and a small flock of chickens was pecking at the dandelions growing on the front lawn. It was very different from the Whitfields’ tidy suburban home. But Janey thought the farmhouse was beautiful. She and Lolli had helped Mrs. Simpson paint the shutters a gorgeous shade of sky blue. And everywhere she looked, something was blooming.
As Janey climbed out of the car, the front door opened. Roscoe bounded out, barking happily.
“Hey, buddy!” Janey greeted Roscoe as he almost crashed into her.
Lolli was right behind Roscoe. She waved to Janey’s father as he drove away. Then she grabbed Roscoe by the collar and pulled him away from Janey.
“Leave her alone, Roscoe,” she said. “You’ll make her drop her tablet!”
“Don’t worry, I’m holding on tight,” Janey said with a laugh. “Ready to see more cute pictures?”
Just then the tablet let out a ping. “Ooh!” Lolli said. “Does that mean someone else just posted a photo?”
“Uh-huh. We should try to guess what kind of animal it will be this time,” Janey said, holding her hand over the screen. “I’ll guess that it’s a fluffy long-haired cat.”
“I guess it’s, um, a cute potbelly pig,” Lolli said with a giggle.
“And the answer is…” Janey moved her hand and looked.
Then she gasped. The picture wasn’t of a cat, or of a potbelly pig, either. It wasn’t anything cute at all.
It showed a cowering, matted, skinny little gray dog chained in a bare yard.
Search and Rescue
“Oh, it’s horrible!” Janey blurted out. She wished she hadn’t seen the photo at all. The dog looked miserable. He had floppy ears and big, brown eyes. Other than that, he was so dirty and dusty that Janey couldn’t even guess what kind of dog he was.
Lolli’s eyes filled with tears. “Who would treat a dog like that?” she cried. “We have to do something!”
“What can we do?” Janey rubbed Roscoe’s head.
“Let’s go ask Mom and Dad.” Lolli grabbed the tablet and hurried into the house.
The inside of the farmhouse smelled like scented candles, coffee, and Roscoe. Lolli’s parents were sitting at the big wooden kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the Sunday newspaper.
When Lolli showed them the picture, her mother looked concerned. “Oh, the poor thing,” she said.
Lolli’s father ran a hand through his curly hair. “Where did this photo come from, girls?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.” Janey shrugged. “Whoever sent it didn’t put her name on it.”
“What can we do to help that dog?” Lolli asked her parents.
Mr. and Mrs. Simpson glanced at each other. “That’s our girl,” Mr. Simpson said. “ ‘The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.’ ”
“Huh?” Janey blinked. Was Lolli’s dad going crazy, or did he think she and Lolli were men?
“It’s a famous quotation,” Mrs. Simpson explained with a smile. “It means we’re very proud of you two for wanting to get involved.”
Lolli’s father nodded. “Why don’t you forward that photo to the animal shelter?” he suggested. “The people there will know how to get the authorities on the case.”
“Good idea.” Janey found the shelter’s website. She forwarded the photo of the skinny dog to the e-mail address on the contact page.
“I hope they can help that dog,” Lolli said softly, staring at the photo.
Janey glanced at it one more time, then shuddered and clicked it off. She didn’t want to look at the poor little dog’s sad face any longer.
“Let’s look at some nicer pictures now,” she said.
But it didn’t work. Janey couldn’t stop thinking about the sad gray dog for the rest of the day.
“I can’t stand it any longer,” Janey told Lolli the next day at recess. “I’m going to ask Ms. Tanaka if I can call the shelter.”
“Good idea,” Lolli agreed.
Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Tanaka, was the playground monitor that day. Janey was glad it was her and not grumpy old Mr. Wells. Ms. Tanaka was young and wore cool clothes and laughed a lot.
“Oh, wow,” Ms. Tanaka said when she heard about the neglected dog. “Go ahead and check in with the shelter. Here—you can use my phone.”
“Thanks.” Janey took the phone the teacher handed her.
“Third Street Animal Shelter, may I help you?” a familiar-sounding voice answered when Janey called the shelter’s number.
“Kitty? Is that you?” Janey said. She told the shelter worker who she was and why she was calling.
“Oh, I’m so glad you checked in, Janey,” Kitty replied. “Do you know anything else about the dog in that photo?”
“No.” Janey clutched the phone tighter. “That’s why I sent it to you guys. That dog needs help!”
“Oh, yes, we agree.” Kitty sounded apologetic. “We forwarded the photo to the town’s animal control officer. But she can’t take action since nobody knows where the dog is located. If you can find out more, please call us back, okay?”
“Um, okay.” Janey wasn’t sure how Kitty expected her to find out more. She was just a kid!
She hung up the phone and gave it back to Ms. Tanaka. The teacher was listening to a third grader complain about a boy teasing her, so she just nodded and smiled.
Then Janey went back over to Lolli and told her what Kitty had said. “Now what?” Janey finished. “We have to figure out how to help that dog!”
“Yes, definitely,” Lolli agreed, looking worried. She glanced toward the playing field, where several kids were kicking a soccer
ball around. “Adam’s over there. Let’s see if he has any ideas.”
They called Adam over, showed him the dog’s picture, and told him what was going on. “Wow,” he said with a frown. “That’s messed up. How can anyone keep a dog that way?”
“Have you ever seen this dog?” Janey asked him. “You know—while you’re out walking dogs and stuff?”
“No way.” Adam shook his head. “I’d definitely remember!”
Janey bit her lip. Adam walked dogs all over town. “What if that dog isn’t even around here?” she wondered. “It could come from a town miles away. Then we’ll never find—hey, watch it!”
Zach was zooming straight toward her on his skateboard. He stopped just in time to avoid crashing into her.
“Hey.” He grinned. “I didn’t scare you, did I? So how’s the blog business?”
Janey didn’t answer. She wished Zach would go away. But Lolli and Adam started telling him about the skinny dog.
“…but we don’t know where the dog is, so they can’t help him,” Lolli finished.
“No problem.” Zach grabbed Janey’s tablet out of her hand. “I can find out who sent the photo. Then all you have to do is track him down and ask where he saw the dog.”
“You can?” Adam brightened. “How?”
Zach was already typing on the keypad. “You need to have a verified name and address to post on the blog,” he mumbled as he worked. “It’s part of the kid-safe software.” He hit one more key. “Here you go—this is who sent that picture.”
“Vanessa Chaudhry,” Lolli read aloud. Her eyes widened. “Hey, she goes to this school!”
Janey knew Vanessa, too. She was the best singer in the fifth grade—she always had solos in the school concerts. “The fifth graders should be coming out for recess while we’re on our way in,” Janey said. “Let’s try to talk to her then.”
Vanessa looked startled when Janey and the others surrounded her a few minutes later. At first she tried to deny she’d taken the picture. But when Janey told her that the animal shelter couldn’t help the dog without more information, Vanessa bit her lip.
A New Home for Truman Page 2
