by Kara LaReau
“Congratulations,” Yolanda said into the microphone, shaking my hand. I smiled just as the camera’s flash went off. I had a feeling my eyes were closed for the actual photo.
I stood on tiptoe to reach the mic. “Thank you,” I said.
“And how does Bert feel about being the Best Pet in Lambert?” she asked. We both looked down at him. He just stared out into space, and he looked stiff, almost like he was frozen.
“Uh,” I said. “I think we’re both really shocked.”
“Well, he’s going to be really excited to ride in the Harvest Festival parade on the YummCo float with us!” she said. “Everyone, let’s give a hand to our big winners!”
The audience started clapping again. My mom shouted, “Go, Mellie!” and my dad put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. None of this seemed real. The more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed.
I followed Yolanda and the YummCo employee she called Kari. But Kari turned around and stopped me.
“Sorry,” she said. “We don’t have room for you on the float.”
“But I thought the winner was supposed to ride with the Yumms,” I said.
“Right,” she said. “The winning pet.” She seemed distracted by whoever was talking to her on her headset.
“He really should stay with me. He hasn’t been himself all day,” I said as she took Bert from me. He seemed very still and he didn’t make a sound, but his eyes were wider than ever.
“Don’t worry. I’ve been around animals a lot,” Kari said. “We’ll take it from here.”
“No, really. I should be with him. He isn’t feeling —” I tried to explain, but Kari was already talking into her headset.
“Everything’s a go,” she said. Then she barely looked at me and said, “You can meet us at the end of the parade route.”
“Okay,” I said. But it didn’t feel okay. As Kari carried Bert down to the float and put him in Mr. Yumm’s waiting arms, Bert seemed so small and lost. I wanted to say something more to him, to let him know he was safe. But by then the float had already taken off, with the Yumms waving to the crowd.
That’s when it hit me. Bert freaked out at YummCo Animal Pals, and he was freaking out now. Both times, the Yumms were there.
Was Bert afraid of the Yumms?
Once they put the collar on, he couldn’t move, and he couldn’t think.
The lights and sounds around him were muffled, as if there were something surrounding him — a tight, invisible blanket, preventing him from escaping or crying out. The Rough Hands had already found a way to place him under their control.
He wanted to say something to Mellie. She was watching them take him away, and there was fear in her eyes. He wanted to tell her not to be afraid, but he was too busy telling himself, Being afraid is part of being alive. But still, we keep going.
He had no choice now. He was in the clutches of the One, and there was no turning back.
I tried to follow the whole parade route, but there were just too many people lining Main Street. Every now and then I got a glimpse of the big green-and-brown float cruising by, with the Yumms waving and throwing YummCo candy to the kids. The marching band ahead of them played a brassy version of the YummCo jingle, and everyone in the crowd seemed to be singing along.
YummCo brings the fun-co!
The fun has just begun-co!
Be smart, not dumb-dumb-dumb-co!
And fill your day with YummCo!
Close to the end of the route, I spotted Danny, standing on a park bench. He was filming.
“Why aren’t you down there?” he said, aiming his phone at the float.
“They said there wasn’t enough room,” I said. “Something really weird is going on. I think it has to do with the Yumms.”
“Everything looks normal from here,” Danny said. “Though it looks like there would have been plenty of room on the float for you.”
“Can you see Bert?” I asked.
“Yep, he’s front and center, right in the big man’s arms,” Danny said. “I’m surprised he’s so calm. Bert, I mean.”
He handed me his phone so I could look through it. There Bert was, in Mr. Yumm’s arms. He looked like he was almost asleep.
I gave Danny his phone. “I’m going to run down there and meet up with Bert,” I said. “Are you coming?”
“Are you kidding? This is the perfect position for filming,” Danny said. “Honestly, you’ll get a better view up here with me.”
I sighed. Danny was Danny, and that was that.
When I got to the end of the parade route, I had to push through all the marching band members carrying their instruments. I almost collided with a tuba player when I saw the big green-and-brown YummCo limousine. The driver had just closed the door.
“I’m so sorry,” Kari said, stepping in front of me. Even though she wasn’t much bigger than me, I couldn’t get around her.
“Where’s Bert?” I asked.
“Your cat had another episode up on the float. It nearly bit Mr. Yumm, and then it ran away,” she explained.
“What? How could you let that happen?” I cried.
“We didn’t let it happen. That animal is clearly disturbed,” Kari said.
I looked all around the busy festival. Bert really is afraid of the Yumms, I thought. But why?
“Do you at least know what direction he ran?” I asked.
“It all happened so fast. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you,” Kari said. She said something I couldn’t hear into her headset, then turned and got into the limo.
“Bert!” I called. “Bert, where are you?”
“Mellie!” my mom shouted. She ran toward me, my dad close behind, holding a mint chocolate chip YummCo Yummy Cone. “Where have you been?”
“We looked for you on the YummCo float,” Dad said, licking the cone to keep up with the melting ice cream.
“I don’t have time to explain,” I said. “Bert is lost.”
“That cat has always gone his own way,” Mom said. “Just like you.”
“You don’t understand. Something is really wrong,” I tried to explain.
“I’m sure Bert will show up at home eventually, like he always does,” my dad said.
I looked at them both. They seemed tired. I remembered how they’d both been up with Emmett and Ezra the night before, nursing their colds. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to make them come out today.
“I’m going to look around for him a little bit more here,” I said. “I’ll see you at home.”
“Good luck,” Mom said.
“I’m sure he’ll turn up, honey,” my dad added.
After they left, I did my best to keep searching, but there were just too many people around for me to see anything. Where could he have gone? I was just about to go home and look for Bert there when Danny came running toward me.
“You aren’t going to believe this,” he said. I wasn’t in the mood to hear about his dramatic shots and perfect film angles. And I definitely wasn’t in the mood for Owen and Nina and Carl, who showed up, too.
“Hey, we’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Nina said. “We didn’t have a chance to congratulate you.”
“It was pretty unbelievable that Bert won,” Owen said.
“Yeah,” Carl said, his eyes narrow. “Unbelievable. As in not believable at all.”
“Where is Bert anyway?” Nina asked.
“He’s gone, and I can’t find him anywhere,” I said, fighting back tears. “He had another meltdown and jumped off the float and ran away.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Danny said. He handed me his phone. “You need to watch this.”
I wiped my eyes and hit play.
“You’re right, you did have the perfect position for filming,” I said. His footage of the parade was pretty great, particularly the YummCo float. I could see just about every one of Yolanda’s perfect teeth and the brown-and-green stripes on Mr. Yumm’s tie. And I could see Bert, his eyes wide, in Mr. Yumm’s ar
ms. He looked so afraid.
“Keep watching,” Danny said.
“I don’t know if I want to see his meltdown,” I said, wincing. But when the float finally reached the end of the parade route, Bert hadn’t moved. He almost seemed like a statue of himself. And then I saw it.
Kari picked up Bert and put him in a waiting cat carrier. Then she placed the cat carrier in the back of the Yumms’ limousine!
I blinked. I looked up at Danny.
“I couldn’t believe it, either,” he said.
“So Bert had a good reason to be afraid of the Yumms,” I said.
“I knew that contest was rigged,” Carl said.
“Kari lied to me,” I said.
“But why?” Danny asked.
“And why would the Yumms want your cat?” asked Nina.
“There’s something rotten at YummCo, and I’m going to find out what it is,” I said.
“Let’s go get our bikes,” Danny said. He turned to the others. “Are you coming, too?”
Carl hesitated. “You want us to help?” he said.
“You all know you’d want everyone to help if something happened to one of your pets,” Danny said. Then he looked at Carl. “Remember how worried Mellie was when you thought something happened to Chunk a few weeks ago?”
“You did come by to check on her, which was nice,” Carl admitted, giving me a nod.
“I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to Felicity,” Nina said, looking down at her cat carrier. Inside, Felicity yawned.
“Or Mudge,” said Owen.
“Squawk! YummCo brings the fun-co!” Mudge said from his cage.
“I guess it’s settled, then,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
Yummikins, calm down,” Stuart Yumm said to his beloved shih-poo. But the dog only growled louder and bared her fangs at the cat carrier on the floor of the limo. The cat inside stared back with wide yellow eyes.
“You really should put this back on it,” Yolanda said, handing her father the green-and-brown collar the dog was wearing before. “That animal is out of control.”
“She’s merely spirited,” Mr. Yumm said. But once he put the collar on Yummikins, the dog calmed down immediately.
“You need to show it you’re the boss,” Yolanda said.
“And what would you know about that, sweetheart?” her father said, chuckling. He knocked on the glass partition between the back seat and the driver. “Can this thing go any faster?”
“It could. But then we’d be breaking the law, sir,” the driver said.
“I am the law around here,” Mr. Yumm informed him.
“Sir, we don’t want to risk getting into an accident,” Kari said, motioning to the cat carrier. “Not when we’re transporting such precious cargo.”
“I don’t understand why I couldn’t stay at the parade with Roxanne,” Greg said, looking out the window. “It’s not like you really need me here.”
“Because you’re not supposed to be with them. You’re with us,” Kari reminded him.
“Yeah, well, it looks like they are about to be with us fairly soon,” Greg said. He pointed out the back window. “Look.”
Behind them, five figures on bicycles were following the limo. They seemed to be gaining on them.
Kari pounded on the partition glass.
“You heard Mr. Yumm,” she shouted at the driver. “STEP ON IT!”
“And do whatever it takes to lose those kids,” Yolanda added.
The limo’s speeding up!” I shouted at Danny. “We’re going to lose them!”
“Well, we know where they’re going — either the YummCo campus or the mansion!” Danny shouted back.
“We’ll go to the campus,” Carl said, signaling for Nina and Owen to follow him.
“Do any of you have a phone?” Danny asked.
“I do,” Nina said. They exchanged numbers.
“If you find anything, let us know. We’ll do the same,” Danny said. Nina nodded, and they pedaled off.
Danny and I followed the limo, which made a sharp right just before the middle school.
“They’re taking a shortcut through the cemetery,” I said.
“I know that place like the back of my hand,” Danny said. I believed him; it was one of his favorite filming locations. I let him lead us away from the limo and down some side paths meant for walking. Thankfully there weren’t any funerals there that day or we would have had a serious problem.
“If we make it quick, we can head them off,” said Danny. “Pedal faster.”
“I’m trying!” I said. But I was also wondering what we were going to do if we managed to stop the limo. And I was also thinking about Bert. Was he okay? Was he scared? What did the Yumms want with him? I knew it didn’t feel right when Kari told me I couldn’t ride on the float with him, and when he seemed so freaked out. I should never have let her take him.
Twisting and turning around the headstones and monuments, we finally made it to the other side of the cemetery. And just in the nick of time, too. The limo was coming right for us.
“Are they going to hit us?” I shouted.
“They wouldn’t,” Danny said.
RRRRRRRRRTTTTTTT! The brakes squealed. I winced, bracing for impact.
But the limo stopped short, just about a foot before Danny’s front bike wheel. Immediately, he took out his phone and started dialing. I took out my phone and started taking photos. At the same time, Kari got out of the limo and stormed toward us.
“What are you doing? Get out of the way!” she shouted. “And stop taking pictures!”
She tried to grab my phone, but I pulled it away.
“Why? We’re not on YummCo property,” I said. I snapped a couple of extra photos of her for good measure.
It was then that someone else got out of the limo.
“Greg?” I said.
“What?” he said, shrugging. “You knew I worked at YummCo.”
“I didn’t know you worked for them,” I said.
Danny put his hand over his phone. “You used us,” he said. “You used my mom.”
“I liked your mom. A lot. I still do, actually,” Greg said. “Can you let her know? Are you on the phone with her now?”
“I’m on the phone with the police now. They’ll be here any minute,” Danny informed him.
“What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Yumm said, poking his head out.
“Dad, just stay in the car,” I could hear Yolanda tell him from inside the limo. “This will all be over soon.”
“Yeah, it will,” I said. “For you.”
The sound of a siren cut through the air, and a police cruiser soon pulled up beside the limo. An officer got out and took a few steps toward all of us, clearly assessing the situation.
I looked at Mr. Yumm and Greg and Kari and smirked. But not for long.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Yumm,” the officer said.
“Well, hello there, Dave,” Mr. Yumm said, grinning. “How are the wife and kids?”
“Just great,” said the officer. “Thanks so much for the gift baskets you sent to me and the other officers.”
“It’s the least YummCo can do for our boys in blue,” Mr. Yumm said. “Though I’m thinking brand-new green-and-brown uniforms and police cruisers might be in order.”
“That sounds swell, sir,” said Officer Dave. “Now what seems to be the trouble?”
“These children are blocking our path,” Yolanda called from inside the limo.
“You’ll need to move out of the way,” Officer Dave said to me and Danny.
“Wait a minute,” Danny said. “I was the one who called you. These people have stolen my friend’s cat.”
“Your what, now?” Officer Dave asked.
“My cat, Bert,” I said. I pointed to the limo. “He’s right there inside.”
Kari flipped open her YummPad. “I don’t know what this child is talking about, officer. This feral cat found its way onto the YummCo premises and was exposed to some hazar
dous materials. It escaped from our lab several weeks ago while it was under observation.”
“Unintentionally exposed to hazardous materials,” Stuart Yumm added. “Because, of course, we maintain our pledge not to experiment on animals.”
I remembered Danny and I had seen a hazmat team searching the town one night a few weeks ago. Two of them had even chased us in their van. Was it Bert they’d been after all along? It couldn’t be true.
“But he’s mine,” I pleaded.
“This particular animal is the property of YummCo. You’ll note that all of the paperwork is in order,” Kari said. “We’ll be taking it back to the lab for further observation.”
Now she was the one who was smirking. Greg was shrugging, like he was still trying to convince us that none of this was his fault. Mr. Yumm had his arms crossed and his face was red. Yolanda was still in the limo; clearly, I wasn’t even worth worrying about. And Bert was in there, too. It hurt my heart that I couldn’t see him, even just to know he was okay.
“No,” I cried, hanging my head.
“You two’d best get out of the way and get home before I have to have a talk with your parents,” Officer Dave told me and Danny. He looked at Mr. Yumm. “So sorry you had to deal with this trouble, sir.”
“You’ve dealt with it for me,” Mr. Yumm said. He uncrossed his arms and gave Dave his signature thumbs-up.
Dave gave him a thumbs-up in return. “You have a nice day, now,” he said to Mr. Yumm and Greg and Kari. He stood there until they all got back into the limo and drove off toward the Yumms’ mansion.
“What do we do now?” Danny whispered. I shook my head; I didn’t have a plan B. Unless you counted this plan, which was B for busted. I dug my hands into my lab coat pockets. And that’s when I felt . . . something. It was a slip of paper with a bit of writing on it. I knew from all the organizing I’d done in Mr. Witt’s workshop that the handwriting was his.
