Hide and Seek (7 page)

“Ada, tell me what happened to that pup.”

“Well …” Keisha looked at baby Paulo for some inspiration, but all he did was drool and chew on his keys. “The little puppy started to moan and then it started to howl. It was just a little
roorooroo
, but I knew that if it got any louder, you would hear and do something else with it. So I tookitoutofthecrateandsleptwithitinmybed.” Keisha hustled that part right along because that was what would get her in hot water. “Anyway, it was
fine
, but then Razi came in and started yelling and then the puppy dove to the end of the bed
and then
Grandma came in and sat on it.”

“We may need to have another talk about the right
way to handle wild animals,” Mama said, giving Keisha her serious look.

“I’m sorry, Mama. I guess I was exploring the gray area.” Daddy liked the gray area more than Mama. It wasn’t right; it wasn’t wrong. It was a creative solution somewhere in between. “Can I be the one to find him?” Keisha begged. “Please?”

“I think we may have to amputate here unless I get some assistance!” Grandma called from Keisha’s bedroom. “I got my foot close enough to my eyes to see that my toe is purple!”

Mama’s lips were pressed together in a way that no member of the Carter family liked to see. She preferred mornings to be peaceful, especially before she had her coffee. She held up four fingers. “One, I will see to Grandma; two, you will find your father; three, we will find the pup; and four, we’ll all do what we’re supposed to do first thing in the morning, and that is get ready for school.”

Keisha knew there was no use arguing. And she knew where to find Daddy, so that wouldn’t take much time. She ran back to her room. Grandma was lying on Keisha’s bed with her feet up in the air. Normally, she called this her L-takes-a-nap pose, but she didn’t have the happy expression she usually did when she was doing her gentle yoga poses.

“I’m draining the blood out of my legs to reduce the possibility of digit loss,” Grandma said. Keisha grabbed her shawl off the peg and went to the window to look for Daddy. There he was out back doing his morning check. At the moment, there was an eastern screech owl that had gotten tangled in a barbed wire fence, the skinny bunnies and a pigeon that couldn’t fly. Keisha tugged on her slippers and ran downstairs, out the back door and down the steps to the wildlife pens.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Daddy said. “Still in your pajamas? Don’t tell me you’re chasing a loose coyote pup, because I seem to be missing one here.”

Keisha jumped into Daddy’s arms. Even though she was practically grown, he could still hold her the way he did when they used to play rescue-the-princess-from-the-fire-breathing-dragon. “Daddy, I explored the gray area.”

“I knew something was topsy-turvy. When the animals get loose, they don’t usually take the crates with them.”

“Plus Grandma’s toe is purple—the one she put Big Bob’s ring on—and Mama wants you to come right now.”

“Well, the patients won’t be happy about waiting for breakfast, but I guess rescuing Grandma’s toe takes priority.” Daddy started walking toward the house with
Keisha still in his arms. “Whew. This is hard work. Is it warmer than normal or have you grown again?”

Keisha thought about that. She didn’t always like being the second-tallest girl in the class. “It’s still warm,” she said. “For October.”

“Well, there’s a cold front coming, according to the weather satellite. We’ll have to make sure the pens are snug.”

They climbed up the back steps, and Daddy set his eldest child on her feet before opening the door.

“Daddy …” Keisha stood inside the house but held her father back from entering. “I think there’s more Canis Major than
Canis latrans
in that little puppy. Coyotes are wild animals, but he was happy to sleep in my bed. And that’s what domesticated dogs like to do.” She stepped aside so Daddy could come in the door, too. “But still, I don’t think we should take him back to the Humane Society yet.”

“I agree that he has some of the characteristics of a domestic dog, but who’s going to want a puppy that howls at the moon? This problem bears further study.”

Keisha nodded. Daddy had told her he used that sentence when he wanted to buy time to think things over. Keisha hoped he was thinking along the same lines as she was: a half-wild puppy might be just right for the Carter family.

Upstairs, the baby was rolling around on the bed while Mama examined Grandma’s foot.

“Whoa, your foot really is swollen, Mom,” Daddy said.

“I think my blood pressure medication needs to be checked again,” Grandma said. “My feet are always bigger in the morning.”

“But now this ring is stuck tight. Let’s keep your foot up, Alice.” Mama turned to Daddy. “Fred, will you get me an ice pack? Maybe if we bring a little of the swelling down, we can get it off.”

The baby grabbed his own toes, rolling back and forth and giggling.

“Show-off,” Grandma said. “I can do the happy baby pose, too, when I’m not injured. Fayola, do you think we can save this toe?”

“I think we can save your toe
and
this pretty ring,” Mama said, piling up pillows so Grandma’s foot stayed elevated. “Now, Keisha, it is time for number three. Search every room on this floor. I don’t know where your brother has disappeared to, but tell him to bring me the liquid soap from the bathroom. Maybe we can get Grandma’s toe slippery enough to slide off the ring.”

Keisha walked slowly down the hall, peering first into the bathroom and Paulo’s dark room before she looked into Razi’s.

“Razi, you need to help Ma—” Keisha stopped short in the doorway. There was Razi sitting on the bed and holding Racket out at arm’s length.

“I found your puppy, Key,” he said.

Keisha rushed over. You held a puppy so that his hind feet were supported. Dangling in the air like that made an animal feel vulnerable. Keisha took Racket into her arms like a baby and cooed to him. He licked her face.

“Razi, how—”

“I was under the bed and then I felt something. I thought it was you because you’re the only one who fits under there, too. And then I got some wet on my neck and then I said, ‘Key, uck, don’t kiss me,’ and then I turned around and it was your puppy. I started to say, ‘Bad doggy,’ and then before I did he licked my nose.” Razi smiled at the memory. “And then he licked all over my face!”

“See, Razi? Every dog is not a bad dog.”

Keisha and Razi looked at the puppy. One of his ears flopped forward. His little tongue lolled out at the side. He was the opposite of bad doggy. He was adorable doggy. Keisha turned him over and placed him on her lap.

“Do you want to pet him?”

Razi sat on his hands, all of a sudden remembering his fear of dogs. He shook his head.

“Do you want to watch me pet him?”

Razi nodded yes.

After a moment of serious stroking, Racket stretched out again. Keisha tickled her fingers behind his ears. Before long, one hand crept out from beneath Razi’s thigh, and he began making little taps on Racket’s behind.

Keisha heard Daddy coming up the stairs with the ice pack. Razi shouted: “Daddy, come see. I’m petting the doggy. I’m not afraid!”

The sound of Daddy’s work boots clomping on the wood floor, combined with Razi’s shouting, startled Racket. He wriggled out of Keisha’s hands and dove under the bed again.

“What a scaredy-coyote,” Keisha said. She got down on her hands and knees to search for the puppy.

“So we’ve found our little runaway?” Keisha heard Daddy’s voice behind her.

“We did, but then the sound of your footsteps scared him,” she said.

“That’s our second D.I.D. this week.”

Keisha thought for a moment. “Oh, right. Dog in Distress. Don’t forget our G.I.D.”

Daddy held up the ice pack. “Right. I’m on my way to our Grandma in Distress.”

Had a school day
ever
gone so slowly? During math, Keisha made up story problems about how little difference it would make to add one coyote pup to the feeding schedule. Everyone worked extra hard in social studies because Mr. Drockmore had decided to let them do their oral reports in any costume they wanted. The extra-credit points would still be given, but they would be based on costume creativity. Keisha was almost as happy as Aaliyah that she didn’t have to wear the funny hat and the apron in front of the whole school. Since her report was already written, Keisha spent her social studies time rereading Phillis Wheatley’s poetry to see if she ever mentioned dogs. In art, she pressed her clay eraser into the shape of a puppy head with ears that stuck up and little button eyes. What a relief to get to the end of the school day and use up some of her puppy-wanting energy in jump rope practice.

Usually they practiced in the multi-purpose room, but the janitor was polishing the floor, so they had to share the gym with the boys’ basketball team. In all the confusion made by boys and basketballs, they couldn’t
count out their jumps to synchronize, so Mr. Rose just had them practice speed jumping and double unders. Keisha jumped until her heart thumped as fast as she swung the rope. Between sets, she told Aaliyah and Wen what had happened the night before.

“So let me get this straight …,” Aaliyah said after they started another set (Aaliyah was the only one who could talk while jumping). “You want us to help you figure out how to get your mama—not an average mama who doesn’t already have lots of animals to take care of, like Wen’s or mine, but
your
mama—to let you keep a puppy that howls at the moon loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear?”

Mr. Rose blew the whistle, signaling the end of practice.

Keisha stopped jumping. She nodded her head. “In addition to being adorable,” she panted, “he’s the only puppy Razi’s not afraid of. It’s my best chance.”

Wen sat sideways on the bleachers, hugging her knees. Keisha noticed that one of Wen’s socks had fallen down to her ankle while she was jumping.

“I guess we can’t use the guard dog argument,” Wen said. “If he’s afraid of your daddy’s boots and Razi’s screaming.”

“But he is so cute!” Keisha pulled a mat back out on the floor to get the gym ready for Mr. Rose’s K–2
class the next day. “When he cuddles up with me and stretches out his legs and licks my hand … ooh, he’s the canine version of baby Paulo.”

Aaliyah was not convinced. “You’d have to have a reason like … his howling woke up the family and saved you from a fire, to convince your mama.”

Keisha chose to ignore Aaliyah for the moment. “Your socks, Wen. Then help me with this big mat, will you?”

Aaliyah left them to drop all the coiled ropes into the jump rope bin. Before Wen grabbed the royal blue mat, she lined up her socks just right. The two girls dragged the mat into place. Keisha fell on it and did a somersault. So did Wen. They met in the middle.

“Do you think it’s impossible?” Keisha whispered, taking Wen’s hands and starting a “Miss Lucy” handclap.

“Nei-Nei says nothing is impossible,” Wen said, referring to her wise grandmother. “Some goals are just harder to reach than others.”

“How do I reach getting a puppy of my own? Now that I’ve slept curled up next to one, I want him more than ever.”

“Well, Aaliyah’s right that your mama will be the hardest one to convince. What does
she
think is important? Maybe if we looked at it that way.”

Wen and Keisha had been hand-clapping since kindergarten. They didn’t need to say the words to know the clap. They could clap to anything.

Keisha thought hard for a moment. Mama cared about her family. She cared about the business. She cared about being a good neighbor.

“How about if I go home and do this?” Keisha stopped clapping and put her hands in her lap. It was their signal to begin again.

Aaliyah scooched in next to them and they started to do the handclap again. With three girls, it was a lot more complicated. It had taken them all the way to third grade to get it just right. Aaliyah chanted loudly:

Basketball practice was ending, too, and Marcus dribbled over to the girls. “What did you just say about me, Aaliyah?” he asked.

“I almost forgot,” Wen said, trying to rescue Keisha from potentially the most embarrassing situation ever. “When Marcus and I read
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
this morning to the first graders, Razi kept telling everyone that a deer took his trick-or-treat pumpkin.”

“Yeah, what was that about?” Marcus kept dribbling.