Dog Gone (9 page)

She picked up her lunch from her desk and headed off towards the staff room without locking either door. Finally, a bit of luck!

I fiddled around in my bag, pretending to get my lunch out. When the corridor was clear, I slipped back into the classroom and closed the door. This was going to be easy. My luck had changed. Everyone was out on the basketball court.

I opened the door into Miss Beech's office and quickly closed it behind me. I looked around for the tests. It was dark in the office and I didn't want to put the light on to draw attention to myself. I couldn't see the tests anywhere. Drat it! Where were they?

Then I spotted the filing cabinet in the corner. It had four drawers, just like Dad's. Easy! I'd filed stuff for him before, heaps of times. Lucky for me the key was in the keyhole!

Everything in the top drawer seemed to be about sport. I carefully closed it, lifting as I pushed to stop the metal creaking. I held my breath and pulled gently on the second drawer. Thankfully, it slid out smoothly. Nothing to do with maths tests in this drawer either.

I slid out the third drawer. This one looked more promising: mid-year reports, spelling-level sheets, parent-teacher interviews, spelling tests –
maths tests
! I yanked out the folder and opened it on the little table beside the filing cabinet.

There were three bundles of papers and the bottom one contained the tests we'd done this morning. Yes!

Brody's paper was on the top, just as I'd expected. I was about to look at it, when the main classroom door opened.

I frantically looked around for somewhere to hide. Towards the back of the room was a large cardboard box full of some kind of old clothes – it was hard to tell exactly what they were without the light on. I could hear Miss Beech's voice getting closer as she spoke to someone.

Not daring to close the drawer, I hopped in the box, still clutching the pile of maths tests, and arranged the clothes over the top of my head.

The door opened and the light flickered on.

‘That's odd,' said Miss Beech, slamming the drawer shut, ‘I could have sworn I closed that.'

‘Are you sure you've got one in my size, Mildred?' asked a man's voice. ‘I'm not exactly small around the middle these days. Betty keeps nagging me to go on a diet.'

‘Stop worrying, Ken. I've got basketball tops for all sizes – midgets through to giants. They're all in this box here.'

I could hardly
breathe. I wanted to shrink and become a little ant at the bottom of the box. And stay an ant, just crawling around in the dirt all day, so I never had to deal with Miss Beech or Brody Callahan ever again.

Two sets of footsteps came closer to the box. I was trapped. Any moment now I was going to get sprung and there was nothing I could do. I closed my eyes and held my breath.

Then I sneezed.

‘What the –?' Miss Beech's voice exclaimed.

I heard her shuffling backwards.

‘Where did that come from?' Ken asked.

They went quiet.

I don't know what made me do it, but I suddenly stood up, just like a jack-in-the-box. Miss Beech screamed and Ken yelled out as he clamped his hands to his chest.

‘Oh my God, it's the new boy!' squealed Miss Beech. ‘What in heaven's name – Ken, are you okay?'

‘Yes – just,' Ken gasped. ‘The boy gave me one helluva fright.'

I stood there with a basketball top draped over my head, still clutching the maths tests.

‘I'm sorry, Miss Beech,' I said, not knowing what else to say.

‘Sorry! You're sorry?' yelled Miss Beech. Her eyes caught sight of the maths papers in my hand. ‘What have you got there?'

‘Um –'

‘Give me those! How dare you break into my office and rifle through my personal files!'

‘I didn't break in, Miss Beech. It wasn't locked,' I protested.

Miss Beech's face turned even more crimson than it already was. ‘Don't you be smart with me, young man,' she fired back, shuffling through the tests in her hand. ‘It's pretty clear to me what you were doing in here.' She pulled out my test, and after placing the others on the table beside her, ripped my page in two, adding, ‘This is what happens to cheats.'

A little gasp escaped from my mouth.

‘And to think I believed all that garbage about you wanting to do your homework at lunchtime,' continued Miss Beech. ‘All the while you were planning to come in here and cheat on your maths test by copying someone else's answers.'

Ken had propped himself up on the table and was still rubbing his chest. His eyes were kind. I wished Miss Beech would go away so I could explain everything to him.

‘I have a basketball match to umpire. Go and sit outside Mr Stilt's office,' ordered Miss Beech. ‘We'll deal with you later.'

I thumped down on the bench outside Mr Stilt's office. A cheer went up from the direction of the basketball courts. I stared at his name on the office door. I hated him and everyone else.

I'd had enough.

I ran down the corridor, out the front entrance and down the long driveway without looking back. I didn't care who saw me. I just wanted to get out of this prison as fast as I could.

By the time I got to Gran's, I was wheezing and my throat hurt every time I took a breath. I turned the handle on Gran's front door, but it didn't move.

Gran never locked her front door. I knocked and waited, puffing and panting, wishing she'd hurry up. I peered in through the stained-glass window at the side of the door, looking for movement down the hallway, expecting the sound of Gran's footsteps any second. My heart sank. The only thing I heard was a magpie singing out on the front lawn.

I went round the side of the house. Gran's old Hillman wasn't parked in its usual spot. This was really odd. She hardly ever drove anywhere during the week.

I'd stopped puffing, but my throat hurt from breathing in the cold air. Where was Gran? The back door wasn't locked. Good! I went in and yelled out, then checked in all the rooms. There was no sign of her. I went into my room and flopped onto my bed, then stuffed my face into my pillow. It was better than looking at Lucky's empty bed. Then I must have fallen asleep.

I woke with a start. For a moment I thought I was in my bedroom back at home. Through the window one of the boughs of the peppercorn tree nodded up and down in the breeze, and I remembered where I was.

I thought about Lucky and wondered where he was and if he was still alive. He'd had so many close calls in his life. My journal was sitting on the end of the bed, so I finished off a poem I'd started a few days ago.

Day 10 - Unexpected Delivery

It's the man who delivered our new freezer on Friday

standing at our front door

he's holding my dog in his arms

Lucky tries to wag his tail

it only does one flick

mum is crying

dad is calling the vet

today is Tuesday

no one saw Lucky climb in

that van could have been

a coffin

So far, Lucky had always lived up to his name. But what if he'd finally used up all his luck? What if he was dead? I tried not to think about it. If only he could find a way to come back to me.

I closed the journal and realised this would be a good opportunity to sneak a look at Molly's tarot cards. Maybe they'd help me find Lucky. I also realised I was hungry. I fished around in the pantry, found some dry biscuits and poured myself a glass of milk.

I felt a bit guilty sneaking into Molly's room, but the cards might give me a clue. Molly was always either up in the peppercorn tree with her book or in her room with the tarot cards. One day her door wasn't quite closed and I saw her with the cards all spread out on the floor, in a circle around her. She had the light off and the room lit with candles. If Gran had seen the candles, she'd have had a fit. She'd banned Molly from candles when one dripped wax all over her fake Persian rug.

Mum gave Molly the cards before she set off for Mongolia. Gran thought they were silly and a complete waste of time. She'd said she didn't know what had gotten into Mum lately – all this palm reading and lighting candles and incense. It was a miracle Mum hadn't burned the house down.

Gran told Mum straight out that a set of tarot cards was a totally inappropriate gift for a fifteen-year-old. Mum told Gran to mind her own business and Molly to keep the cards close to her heart.

Molly wouldn't be home for at least an hour.

The cards were on the dressing table, on a pile of Molly's books. They were bigger than normal playing cards, and each one had some writing and a brightly coloured picture. I so hoped they'd show me where to find Lucky.

I laid them face down across Molly's bed and closed my eyes. I twirled my finger in the air, then jabbed at one of the cards. I held it for a while before turning it over. It was a picture of three fish, intertwined. At the bottom of the card was the word ‘affection'.

They reminded me of the humungous fish I'd caught the day I'd seen the ghost at the cemetery. The day I couldn't even remember catching them or bringing them home.

And the fish reminded me of the river and Grandpa. The word
affection
summed up everything about him. He was so much fun to be with. Whenever I was with him, I felt important. He made me feel like I could do anything if I tried hard enough.

That's what the river reminded me of – Grandpa and feeling important.

I couldn't stop looking at the card. Out of all the cards, I'd picked this one. Amazing!

I felt goose bumps break out all over me. The cards were telling me Grandpa would help me find Lucky. The ghost
had
to be Grandpa!

I needed some place to think. Climbing the pepper-corn tree in the backyard was my first choice. You had to take a bit of a run at it and jump up to reach the first branch, then scramble up the trunk with your feet. Once you'd pulled yourself up onto it, there were lots of branches that were easy to get to and you could climb right to the top. That's where I sat to wait for Gran, with my journal stuffed inside my jacket and a pen in my pocket.

It was great to have the tree to myself.

I crushed a small clump of leaves between my fingers and breathed in the smell. When Grandpa took me fishing, we always grabbed a handful of peppercorn leaves from the tree in the back lane, on our way down to the river. Grandpa reckoned it stopped your hands from smelling fishy. I looked down at the crushed leaves in my palm and wondered if I'd ever get Grandpa's rod back. And, funnily enough, I had a feeling the rod would somehow help me get Lucky back.

Just as I was about to climb to a different spot in the tree, I heard a cough below me. Thinking it was Gran, I opened my mouth to yell out hello, but snapped it shut the instant I saw who it was.

What on earth was Brody Callahan doing in my yard – with my fishing rod? Why wasn't he at school? He peered cautiously in through each window, as if he didn't want to be seen. He even went round to the back door and knocked loudly, then ran and hid behind the peppercorn tree. I had a perfect view of the top of his head. I held my breath and prayed I wouldn't sneeze.

After a little while, Brody knocked at the door, then hid behind the peppercorn tree again. What was he going to do? Burgle Gran's house?

Brody opened the back door and slipped inside. What was he doing inside our house? Maybe he was going to return the fishing rod? I didn't know what to do. But he came out again, still with the fishing rod. He looked around for something and started to brush away dead branches and some junk that had collected behind Gran's rose garden at the back of the yard. What was he up to?

I carefully climbed to the other side of the tree to get a better view. A grating noise in the yard made me jump, and I gasped, nearly slipping off my branch. I made a wild grab at a clump of leaves just above my head and they pulled off in my hand, leaving behind a twiggy fishbone that danced up and down, threatening to give away my hiding place.

Luckily, Brody was too busy to notice. He tugged at something heavy, then shifted his position to get a better grip, giving me a clear view of what seemed to be a large circular metal plate with handles at each side.

Whatever it was suddenly came away. Brody fell backwards, grunting as he did. I could see the metal plate had covered a circle of bricks. When Brody got to his feet and peered down into the middle of them, I realised he'd uncovered the old well.

Brody picked up my fishing rod then dropped it down. He looked very pleased with himself as he rubbed his hands together, before starting to pull the cover back on.

I wasn't going to let him just walk away. I'd had enough of Brody Callahan wrecking my life. I reached around behind me to grab a branch so I could lower myself down quickly, before Brody had a chance to get away. As I did, a scream came from the direction of the well. I looked back to see that several of the bricks were missing from around the top.