Dog Daze (8 page)

“Did you girls have your project to tell us about?” The man’s voice boomed over the mic, and it squealed again. A boy in Aneta’s class had squeaked a balloon at a classroom birthday party at the end of the school year. It sounded like that, only so loud it hurt her ears.

She glanced over at the gallery where The Fam whispered to each other. Mom gave her the thumbs-up, a smile, and a nod. If Aneta could not get herself out of this chair, she would shame the entire family. And they had driven the string of scooters to cheer on the girls’ idea of Dog Daze during the Oakton Founders’ Days park festival. If she didn’t get out of her chair and make the council see that they had a good idea, Wink would not be the poster dog, and Mom would not learn to love him. And what would happen after that is her heart would smash in a million tiny pieces.

She stood. Well, almost stood. She fell back into the seat.

Two rows back, a voice sailed across the silence that was getting heavier and heavier.

“I’m prepared as a Junior Event Planner, Mr. President.”

Turning her head, although she already knew that voice, Aneta saw Melissa leap from her chair, a briefcase in one hand. It was nearly as big as Mom’s.

“Oh, please.” That was Sunny, and a snort of laughter followed the mutter. “Like she needs a briefcase?”

Making her way to the front, Melissa stood at the podium like she went there every day and loved it.
She probably does
, thought Aneta.

Her father walked with her to the podium and then drew a square box out of the briefcase. Melissa removed a laptop from the other side of the briefcase and set it on the podium. A murmur began among the watchers.

“Oh, please.” This time it was Vee. “She’s got a PowerPoint presentation complete with projector?” She glanced at the list in Aneta’s sweating right hand and the drawing of Wink in her left. Her face descended into a frown.
She knows I cannot do this
.

“Mr. Council President, my group will support the food bank by conducting a food drive at the park during the Oakton Founders’ Days. My father will, of course, provide a matching donation from Snipp’s Super Saver grocery store.”

The president tipped his head and peered around Melissa. “Where is your group, Melissa?”

Melissa didn’t reply. With a remote she pulled from the briefcase, she clicked through a colorful, well-organized slide presentation with pie charts they had learned about in math last year. Each slide prominently displayed the Snipp’s Super Saver logo.

“Excellent,” Ms. Blue Suit said with a sidelong look at the four girls. “Wonderful job.”

Melissa dipped her head in acknowledgment. “Thanks, Mom.”

The four girls’ heads swiveled between Melissa and her mother. Sunny muttered under her breath. Vee’s frown hadn’t lifted. Esther chewed the inside of her bottom lip.

“It looks like a crummy commercial for Snipp’s Super Saver groceries.” Sunny frowned and turned to Aneta. “You better un freeze your legs and wow them with your drawing, or we’re toast as Junior Event Planners!”

Melissa tossed a triumphant look at the four girls. “I will now take questions.”

The president spoke. “Thank you, that won’t be necessary, Melissa. We see how thorough you are. But where is the rest of your group? What role will they play in the project?”

“Oh, I’ll find something for them to do that they can’t mess up. If a leader is strong enough, she can make any group work.” Another sideways glance at the four girls. “Whereas with a bad leader—or worse, no leader—nothing gets done.” With that, her father darted forward, and the two of them repacked the briefcase. Melissa sat across the aisle from the girls. To Aneta, her look said, “See if you can top that” as clearly as Aneta knew Gram drove a pink scooter.

At that moment, a high, wispy howl rolled through the chambers.

Aneta jerked toward the back, where the double doors had opened. Frank and Nadine walked in, both holding leashes. As they neared the front, a happy swell surged through Aneta.
Wink!
She jumped to her feet the same moment the other three did.

The little puppy with the squinty eye trotted up to the front row, bumping into the larger, older basset with a white muzzle. The big basset nosed Wink back into the aisle. Frank and Nadine glanced over at the girls and stepped into the row behind them. Aneta couldn’t take her eyes off Wink. The black patch of fur on his back, now dry and shining, looked like a saddle. The long, droopy ears, tripping him as he investigated the carpet with his nose to the ground, were a rich caramel brown, the color split by a white blaze down the middle.

“Are we too late?” Frank hissed over Melissa’s mother’s insistence that they go through the list and return to the

“unprepared group” at the end.

Stepping around the edge of her row, Aneta sank to her knees next to Wink. She tipped his puppy head up and fell in love all over again. The velvety ears slipped through her fingers. Mom! Mom could see Wink. Over her shoulder, she saw Mom’s head turned toward Uncle Luke. She hadn’t seen him!

“Girls.” It was the council president.

Aneta kissed the top of Wink’s head and stood. She would do this. She would do this for Wink. She rose from the floor, walked to the chair, picked up the drawing and the list, and walked to the podium.

“M—my name is Aneta.” She raised the drawing of Wink up toward the faces on the curving high stand. This was good. She had opened her mouth. “This is our—” Our what? She glanced down at the list. What was she supposed to say next? Vee’s neatly typed bullet points swam in front of her eyes. Oh no. At least she’d been right about one thing. This was not like the poster awards. This was worse. Her head began to swim and not in a good way.

“We are the group who will support the Oakton Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies.” It was Esther’s voice, loud as ever.

Aneta felt the others brush against her. Sunny snatched the poster from her and shoved a warm, wriggling Wink into her arms.

“We will have a Dog Waddle fund-raiser for the Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies who help dogs. Anyone can come from anywhere and parade a basset hound in a costume during the Oakton Founders’ Days parade. They participate for a donation and fill a pledge sheet for how many turns around the Waddle course. We’ll have a King and Queen of the Waddle.” It was Vee’s quiet voice. How did she do that? Aneta was still shaking, and she’d
stopped
speaking! “Paws ‘N’ Claws Animal Buddies does a great job. We want to help.”

“And here’s our reason for the Basset Waddle!” Sunny said. She dug an elbow into Aneta’s side. “Hold him up!” she hissed.

Aneta’s hands, full of puppy, shot into the air, as though fired from a gun. He obliged his audience with a wobbly howl. The chamber erupted into laughter.

“Thank you, girls. You have a real team effort going on there. We look forward to the Waddle.” The president smiled.

“Thank you, God,” Esther said softly, letting out a big breath.

Sunny turned to her. “You were praying, too?”

Aneta knew she would have if she’d thought of it. Her head cleared on the way back to their seats. The Melissa girls who couldn’t agree on anything had saved the day. Wink had saved the day. She had failed, but they’d won anyway. She drew in a deep breath and turned toward The Fam in the gallery. They were standing, clapping. Cousin Zeff had his fingers to his mouth, poised for his ear-splitting whistle of approval. Mom was looking at Wink, who was now happily howling and wriggling in Nadine’s arms.
Uh-oh
. Mom’s face wore that peanut-butter cookie look.

Big Plans, Big Trouble

S
o, let’s make this”—Esther was standing with her hands on her hips again, but this time she was smiling and gesturing to the right—“the judges’ stand.”

She pointed toward one side of the park lined with tall oak trees, some of them grown from the beginning days of Oakton. Running parallel to the trees ran Park Street and five houses. Since today was the beginning of the July Fourth weekend, picnickers and families having reunions in each of the three pavilions made the park lively with running children, Frisbees, and lawn chairs next to colossal coolers.

Aneta, walking Wink in a matching red harness and leash—a present from her and Gram—was sort of paying attention. She was lost in a haze of happiness. Wink stomped along, often on his ears, at the end of a leash in
her
hand. According to Vee’s plan, and Esther’s grumpy agreement, the girls had met at the library to head over to the park. Fortunately, none of their families were going out of town for the holiday weekend.

There they would figure out “which way to Waddle,” as Sunny said. Vee informed them she would be twenty minutes late. Esther asked why, and Vee froze her out with the slit-eyed glare, the Vee Stare. At the library, little Wink slept in a small wire enclosure behind Nadine’s desk as a children’s librarian. He awoke, however, at the sound of the girls’ laughing voices. The little basset tripped over his ears hustling his short legs to get to Aneta and offer his belly for love rubs.

“Squishy alert!” Aneta said, gently squeezing his loose wrinkles. Wink sighed gustily. Gram and some of The Fam would pick them up later to take them home. Via the ice cream store, if Aneta knew her Fam. The time spent waiting for Vee sped by.

After Nadine heard the girls were going to the park, she encouraged them take Wink with them. Sunny took the proffered leash. “With my brother’s allergies, this is the closest I’m ever going to get to owning a dog.”

Vee, whose eyes looked red, said she didn’t care if she held the leash; she just wanted to get their list done. What had happened to Vee before she came? Wink made it clear, however, that Aneta was the one he preferred. As Esther took the leash for her turn, the puppy hop-stomped over to Aneta and sat on her foot, tipping his long nose and squinting up at her. Sunny and Vee insisted Aneta walk a couple of steps ahead so the puppy would bumble forward.

“And we’re off!” Sunny cried. The party surged across the street and into the park.

“We’ll have them waddle around within the park so they go past all the other booths and everyone can see them,” Esther said.

“Fine with me,” Vee said, checking off her list. “Judges’ stand done.”

Aneta, meanwhile, watched the little puppy’s nose skimming the ground as though he were a pirate intent on buried treasure. Squatting to stroke his smooth head, Aneta listened to Vee read off from her notebook. So far she’d come up with no memories of that day she rescued Wink. How could she find the Crocs Killer if she couldn’t remember anything? The Mission Mom plan was struggling. Mom had ignored all the cute Wink stories as opportunities to suggest adopting Wink. Why, if she drove past Wink posters to work and back every day, could she say they weren’t ready for a dog? The smell of peanut-butter cookies lulled Aneta to sleep several times a week.

They were doing great on Vee’s list. Volunteers from Esther’s youth group at church would be pooper-scoopers dressed in crazy costumes. Three enthusiastic judges were signed up who promised they did not own a basset hound. Vee’s stepmom had made the fancy crowns for the King and Queen of the Waddle with little loops to go over the long ears so they would stay on. The girls’ squeals over them had made Vee smile.

Gram and Aneta found a dog biscuit recipe with healthy ingredients and made many, many bone-shaped biscuits. She thought that might be why Wink loved to sniff her hands.

When Aneta told them what she and Mom had found as an additional surprise for the Waddle, the girls clapped their hands together in a high-five salute.

“We have the best group!” Sunny said.

Aneta agreed.

Suddenly the hand sniffer at the end of the red leash lifted his head. Aneta tried to pull him back toward the community center. These pastel-colored houses had been along the park nearly as long as the trees, from what Frank had told them. The poster puppy, however, insisted on snuffling his way toward the curb, leash stretched tight. For a small dog with a squinty eye, he was strong.

“What do we know about the Crocs Killer?” She gave in and walked after him, interrupting Esther telling Vee her father knew someone who had a flatbed truck they could use for a judges’ stand. Vee nodded and made a note.

“What?” Vee asked, finally looking up from her list. The four girls were midway across the park. Ahead of them stood the pink-and-white The Sweet Stuff ice cream store, the Park Street houses on the left.

“What do we know about the Crocs Killer?” Aneta repeated then giggled, watching Wink. Wink had his own beat to walk by. Step, stomp-on-the-ear. Step, step, stomp-on-the-other-ear.

“We don’t remember anything. It was too scary.” Esther shivered.

“Let’s stay focused on the Waddle, please,” Vee said, but her smile was nice.

Okay
, thought Aneta. I
will think harder about the Crocs Killer
. “C.P. told me a good idea for Wink’s costume for the Waddle.” Aneta changed the subject obediently. “He says Mom will laugh. She will want Wink because he looks cute.”

“Look how determined he is.” Sunny skipped forward and back. “He smells something over near that house, for sure.”