Peter Reynolds was enjoying his poached egg on toast on his covered back porch. It was one of his mom’s specialties and he loved it. He pretty much loved anything his mom cooked for him. He had slept later than usual today and wasn’t very hungry, but finished it all the same. It was that good.
When he was done he strolled inside and put on the TV. He plopped in the chair his dad usually occupied and put his feet up on the conveniently placed ottoman. He found his favorite science show was on and so he settled back to enjoy a relaxing mid-morning rest.
He was so into the show he didn’t notice the crash of collapsing bikes onto his front walkway, or the stomping of feet up his front steps. The sudden pounding of bare fists on his front door shook him and he nearly fell out of his comfy chair.
“Peter! Pete! Peter!” yelled both Suzie and Cass as they knocked and pounded and repeatedly rang the doorbell.
Mrs. Reynold’s instantly appeared. She had a shocked look beneath her dark brown hair as she opened the door quickly.
“Oh, my! Hello girls. What on earth is going on?” she asked through the screen door.
“Is Pete home?” they both asked in unison, smiling politely.
“Sure, come on in,” she opened the screen door wide and they piled in.
Peter strolled in from the living room. He closed his dark blue terrycloth bathrobe around his pajamas and stood scratching his head while they quickly surrounded him. His mom left the room.
“Pete,” Suzie started, “we need your help.”
“I lost a dog!” Cass blurted out.
“Wow- I didn’t even know you had a dog,” Peter said with a confused look as he put his hands into the front pockets of his robe.
“No, not my dog- Sarah Simmons’ dog.” Peter was still confused. Cassidy continued, “You’ve met her, Sarah, next door.”
“Oh right- little girl, yup, yup.” Pete replied through half a yawn. “Nice little dog. Why would you want to lose a nice dog like that?”
“I didn’t mean to!” Cass said and looked at Suzie. “Zeesh!”
“Anyway,” Suzie stepped in, “point is- Cass feels awful, and she’s with us, so we feel awful too.”
“We do?” Peter asked.
“Yes, we do- you do.” Suzie answered. “And we have to go out there and do something about it.”
“Out there?” Peter asked, pointing to the street.
“Well, not right there.” Suzie answered.
“We have to find him!” said Cassidy.
“Alright, yeah, sure. My show is finishing up. And my mom said I can have a marshmallow peanut butter with banana sandwich today. It is ridiculous!” Peter got all excited as he spoke about it. “Hey mom, how long until lunch? Hey, do you guys want to stick around and have one too?”
“Listen up! We’ve got no time for peanut-banana-crazy-nutjob sandwiches!” Cass said firmly as she stepped forward with a pointed finger towards Peter. Suzie quickly put her arm between them.
“What she means is,” Suzie said calmly, “we need your help right now. We have to get everyone together and spread out, like a search party. Canvas the neighborhood. That’s what they call it on detective shows.”
“On TV? Okay, now you’re talkin’.” Peter started to slowly nod his head. “It’s like a manhunt- or more like a dog hunt!” He giggled to himself.
“Whatever,” Cass said motioning to the street outside, “but we have to go!”
“Yeah- like now!” Suzie said firmly.
“Hey mom- they need me,” Peter yelled to the back of the house, “but save my sandwich!”
Peter couldn’t find a shirt to wear before the girls dragged him out. With shorts and his plaid pajama top he ran to his bike and they were all on their way. They circled around from Peter’s house on Lefferts Boulevard and made their way back through the neighborhood, looking for recruits. The first stop was the Nelson twins, Jesse and Jimmy.
It was easy to get them out of their house. Mrs. Nelson even helped get their bikes out of the garage. She said to be home by the time the street lights went on. The twins’ fights between each other were legendary, but with Suzie involved they were eager to help and work together. They even came up with more people to enlist.
The next kid to call on was Dwayne Wiggins. He was a year older, but he was all in. He had two dogs himself and wanted to make sure the little guy was okay. He brought out his bike, a banana seat special with the front wheel stretched out way forward. Everyone stopped and checked it out for a quick second with a collective, “Whoaaah!”
“Yeah- my uncle tricked out the wheel last week,” Dwayne said as they all looked at him turn the small tire. “Every time I make a turn it feels like I am going to flip right off the bike!”
“Cool!’ Cass said, then added, “C’mon, we’re wasting time!”
They next called on their elusive friend Roberto Rodriguez. He lived in one of the oldest and largest houses in Richmond Hill. They knew him from school, but rarely saw him during the summer. He was always at some sort of camp, or off to violin lessons, piano lessons, tennis lessons, and even karate lessons. They always called on him because when he was around he was funny. He also had the largest backyard and could host any type of game you could come up with. Plus, his house was always loaded with the best candy you ever saw. Jars of the stuff would be laid out all over. It turns out his dad worked for a candy company and he had quite the sweet tooth, so he always kept the candy stock full.
Roberto answered the door wearing a tennis outfit; a bright blue collared shirt with white shorts complete with bright white tennis sneakers. He looked a little shocked to see all of the bikes crowded into the long neatly manicured garden path that led to his front porch. He stepped out with a confused look on his face.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?” he asked, turning to Suzie.
“We are in a hurry, we need your help,” Suzie said quickly.
“Yeah,” Peter said, “we’re on a mission!”
“Oh-kaaay,” Roberto said slowly.
“We need to find a lost dog,” Cass stepped up and continued, “and we are in sort of a hurry, so are you in?”
Roberto looked over the entire group sitting on their bikes and took a quick glance back to his front door and down at his watch. A few of the gathered kids leaned on their handlebars and impatiently glared in his direction.
“C’mon, man. This is holding us up,” Dwayne said as stood up high on his pedals and jumped back down.
“Yeah,” Cass said, “let’s go already!”
“Okay,” Roberto answered, “I’m in. Give me a second to tell my mom. Meet me by the garage and I’ll grab my bike.”
They all spun around and rode past the neatly trimmed line of bushes until they arrived at the driveway. They could see Roberto inside his garage, pulling his bike down from a rack next to a red convertible classic car that was half covered by a canvas tarp. They all wheeled their bikes closer to peek in. In the back corner was an old stand up arcade game and a darkened pinball machine that looked interesting. Everything was neat, organized and very clean.
He popped his bike down. It was a sleek 24-speed racing bike. It had a white frame with red pinstripes and a little Italian flag on the front with a brand name nobody recognized. From the way Roberto was handling it, it looked super lightweight. Roberto was tall for his age but he still had a tough time reaching the ground when he climbed aboard.
“C’mon, let’s find that dog,” Roberto said as he motioned to Suzie to lead the way. All of the kids turned their bikes around and poured down the driveway behind Suzie. Roberto pushed off next to Peter. “Pete, you wearing pajamas, bro?”
“Suzie was in a hurry.” Peter answered shaking head. “They can be very tough. It’s a mission, ya know.”
“Right,” Roberto chuckled as he changed gears and caught up with the rest.
Suzie led them the few blocks back to Cassidy’s house, where her neighbor, Mrs. Simmons, was walking by. She turned and seemed a little sta
rtled by all of the bikes pulling up.
“I searched up the block, all around,” she said. “He’s gone. I think I lost him.” Mrs. Simmons was struggling to talk through tears.
“We’ll find him,” Cass blurted out and jumped off her bike. Mrs. Simmons shook her head and walked back inside her yard. Cassidy wandered around kicking at the ground and looked hard at Suzie.
“Alright,” Suzie spoke up, turning around to everyone. “We’ve got to get this going, and do it the right way.” The kids all gathered around her on their bikes. “What we are going to do is a simple grid.”
“A what?” asked Dwayne.
“It’s a canvas...uh, thing. Like a manhunt,” said Peter, feeling important. “That’s, like, TV detective talk.”
“Okay, a grid. What does that even mean?” asked Roberto.
Suzie continued, “The only way this works is if we all move at the same time.” She then explained she wanted everyone to line up at each corner, starting with the main cross street, Jamaica Avenue, and continuing in one direction, going block by block. She gave some other last minute instructions and then they took off.
They all moved out after each block was clear and looked over to see the others riding out with no sign of success. After the fourth block Suzie was about to wave her arm down to move to the next one when she stopped and looked around.
“Where’s Roberto,” she yelled out to Peter. Peter raised his arms and shrugged his shoulders.
Another minute passed by and all of the other riders were getting anxious. Suzie was about to ride over when out shot Roberto’s racing bike like a white streak. It went clear into the street and Suzie could hear his hand brakes squeal as he jammed on them. Suzie caught her breath for a moment, squinted her eyes and tried to make out what he was doing.
He jumped off his bike, stood tall, and waved his arm in the air in large circles over his head. It was the ‘roundup’ signal, as Suzie had called it, and it meant Roberto had found Cody!
Suzie laughed aloud and could make out the bright white teeth of Roberto smiling back. She stood high on her pedals and started to repeat the round up signal, this time pointing towards Roberto so everyone behind her could see. Roberto turned around and disappeared back into the block.
She was joined by Peter and Dwayne first, then Cass zoomed in next to her saying, “Ya think he really found him?”
“He wouldn’t be doing that if he didn’t,” Suzie said as they all converged on Roberto’s street.
“C’mon, we’re gonna miss him!” Roberto yelled back as he raced ahead of them while they all tried to follow as fast as they could. Suzie was first as she slam-shifted into a higher gear, but she still couldn’t catch up to Roberto who was speeding towards the middle of the block. She could see him jam on his brakes in front of a dark green house that was mostly hidden in the shade of some overgrown willow trees. He waved at them to hurry and pointed to the closest tree on the left side of the house.
Suzie stopped her bike next to his and let it fall gently to the ground as she stepped closer to the tree. Underneath the long flowing branches of the willow was the small figure of a little dog, backing up into the shadows. The light sparkled off his eyes as they darted back and forth. He was looking nervously at the two approaching faces. It was so dark Suzie couldn’t tell what the dog even looked like.
“Wow,” Suzie whispered quietly to Roberto, “how did you spot him?”
“Eagle eyes. They used to call me that in cub scouts,” he answered in the same whispering tone.
More tires skidded and screeched to a stop as Dwayne, Peter and Cassidy appeared on their bikes in front of the house.
“Shhhhh!” Suzie whispered, putting her finger to her lips. Then she made some hand motions to the others who were coming in behind them. “Go around that way, in case he runs!” She ordered the Nelson twins in one direction and Dwayne and Peter to cover the other.
“We’ll make a road block, it’ll be great!” Peter said as he tried to keep his front tire in contact with Dwayne’s.
“It’s a dog, Pete. He’ll run around us,” Dwayne said as he folded his arms over his high handlebars and gazed at Peter in disbelief.
Cassidy dismounted her bike carefully and peered into the darkness. “Cody, is that you, boy? Is that you in there?” She slowly crept underneath the willow branches with Suzie at her side. The dog looked nervously around and his little face caught a bit of the light. “It is him!”
The door of the house opened to their right and out came someone onto the top step of a moldy chipped cement stoop.
“Hey, what are you kids doing over there?” said an old woman’s scraggly voice. She stepped forward and they saw an old lady bent over a cane wearing a long black sweater and two pairs of eyeglasses; one on her wrinkled face and the other dangling back and forth from a chain around her neck. It swung feverishly as she waved her free arm at them. “I said hey! What are you up to there?”
She came out another step and the green wooden screen door behind her creaked back and slammed closed. The loud bang shook everyone, including Cody. The little dog sprang forward and started to run! He dashed past Cass and around Suzie. Roberto tried to grab him, but Cody went right through his legs.
He ran onto the sidewalk and turned right, but there were the bikes of Peter and Dwayne blocking the way. Dwayne leaned out to grab him, but Cody turned around too quickly for that and ran back the way he came. One of the Nelson twins, Jimmy, had leapt off his bike and was closing in from that direction. Cody stopped when he saw him. Jimmy let out a roar like a lion. Everyone stopped and stared at him in astonishment for a brief moment. The roar made Cody scamper back in fear towards the willow tree. He then leapt into the arms of the one person he knew well: it was Cassidy.
She grabbed him and hugged him tight, making sure not to let him go. He let out a scared whimper and was shaking in her arms.
“What was that, a lion?” asked Roberto to Jimmy.
“Well, it worked didn’t it?” he answered.
“Nice work everyone!” Suzie said as they gathered around Cassidy with little Cody secured in her arms.
Peter smiled and patted the top of his handlebars and said to Dwayne, “See, I told you, roadblock.”
Dwayne answered, smiling, “Yeah right, road block.”
Chapter 4