Dog Beach Unleashed (23 page)

Josh and the Improvimaniacs are funnier than ever. Sketch after sketch, the audience laughs.

Saturday We Tennis plays our favorite summer songs.

And finally, Larry Park brings his keyboard up to the stage, and my skin prickles. I'm suddenly sad that Lester isn't here to listen to the finale at our birthday party for Seagate.

Larry is halfway through his Bach Invention when we hear it.

Barking! Excited, high-pitched barking.

Lester! He's here! And he's singing along!

Lester runs up to the front of the room, tilts his head back, and sings in his half-singing, half-howling way. And everyone loves it. The crowd cheers and claps. And Larry Park is happy to have his singer back.

At the end of the performances, after an extra-long dance party with Saturday We Tennis, Mr. Brookfield surprises everyone. Including me.

He walks right up onto the stage. Calvin goes with him.

“What kind of Seagate celebration would it be without the Scream?” he says.

And together, they scream.

“AAAAHEEEEOOWWWWW!”

People love it and give the famous scream an instant standing ovation.

A feeling of pride washes over me again.

“Did you know he was going to do that?” I whisper to Claire.

“Nope.” She shakes her head. “Come with me. There's something we need to do.”

We run up onto the stage, and then Claire takes a big breath and screams
“Aaaaheeeeoowwwww!”
and she motions for
me to do it, too. So I try.
“Aaaaheeeeoowwwww!”
And then we scream together.
“AAAAHEEEEOOWWWWW!”

Everyone stays standing and cheering and clapping.

All the stress, sadness, frustration, and worry of our stormy summer pours out of us through the scream. We release it. And it feels so good.

“That was awesome,” I whisper as we walk off the stage. “How are you doing? I know you hate when I ask if you're okay. So I'm asking this way instead. How are you?”

“I'm okay,” she says. “Really.”

I reach over and hug her, and she smiles.

A few minutes later, as everyone is milling about, eating and chatting, I go to find Lester and his family.

“I didn't know you guys came back,” I say.

“We wanted to surprise you,” Lester's owner-mom says. “We never really knew how much Lester missed singing to classical music on the piano until the day you found him before the storm. Now we play classical music for him all the time, and guess what: he doesn't try to run away anymore. He seems so happy now. Thank you for helping us, Remy. Lester is back to his old self, thanks to you!”

It makes me so happy that I've helped Lester and his family.

“He was born to sing!” I say.

And then I realize that Lester wasn't really running away
from
anything. Lester was running
toward
something, something good, something he loved. I can relate.

I'm so happy to be back on Seagate.

After the celebration, my friends and I walk to
Sundae Best.

“Surprise Scoops for everyone?” I ask them.

“Sounds good,” Claire says. “I was getting pretty tired of raspberry cream.”

We sit and eat our ice cream. Some people are pleased with their Surprise Scoops and some aren't, so we pass our bowls around the table so we can sample them all and trade for flavors people like better.

Josie laughs at our commentary on the flavors. “Okay, okay, I get it. No one's into the sweet-potato ice cream. Noted.”

“We tried it,” I offer.

“That's all I ask.” She shrugs. “It's like the sign says.” She points to a beachy-looking sign behind the counter:
BE OPEN TO SURPRISES
.

We finish our ice cream, and Calvin, Bennett, Claire, and Micayla decide to walk to the Seagate community pool. It's open for swimming, and it's sunny out, and everyone wants to jump in. Claire's worrying about her tan again, just like old times, and I'm grateful for that.

I tell them I'm going to take Marilyn Monroe home, and I'll meet them there. On the walk home, I think about what Josie said when she came back after the storm—how God loves ice cream. I guess that's true. The store was completely spared.

I think about her signs:
ICE CREAM IS MY RELIGION
and
BE OPEN TO SURPRISES
.

Josie believes in Surprise Scoops, and now I do, too. Every day is pretty much a Surprise Scoop, I guess.

Some scoops you like, others you don't. Sometimes you want to have the same scoop every day, and some days you have to be pushed to try a new one, because you're afraid of how it will taste.

Like the time I got that key-lime-pie scoop. I hated it. I pushed it to the side and ate my chocolate-milk-and-cookies scoop as fast as I could so the key lime wouldn't melt into it and turn it all sour. But the strange thing was that the key lime pie actually made the chocolate and cookies taste even better.

I think I have a new sign idea for Josie. I'll have to tell her the next time I see her. And I can't wait to share it with my friends, because I know they'll understand:

LIFE IS ONE BIG SURPRISE SCOOP
.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Tamar Brazis and everyone at Amulet
for all of their hard work on this book.

So much love and gratitude for Dave, Aleah, and Hazel. You bring sunshine on the cloudiest of days.

Many thanks to the Greenwalds and Rosenbergs for all of their support.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa Greenwald
is the author of
Welcome to Dog Beach
,
Reel Life Starring Us
,
Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes
, and the Pink & Green series. She works in the library at the Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan. She is a graduate of The New School's MFA program in writing for children and lives in Brooklyn. Visit her online at
lisagreenwald.com
.