Just Grace and the Double Surprise (14 page)

Dad says it's never safe to get in the middle of a dogfight or a catfight. I was guessing the same was true for a dog-and-cat-almost-fight. I tried calling Mr. Scruffers away, but she acted like she couldn't hear me, and maybe she couldn't with all the barking she was doing. She was making a lot of noise. Dad finally came outside and said, "What in the Sam Pete is going on out here?" I pointed at the table.

WHAT DOGS DO

I think dogs listen to dad voices better than they listen to daughter voices. At least Mr. Scruffers does. As soon as Dad yelled her name Mr. Scruffers rolled on her back and put her legs in the air. Dad says that's her way of saying, "Okay, you can be the boss."

He walked over and picked her up. Crinkles must have thought that Dad was the boss too, because as soon as Dad got close he jumped off the picnic table and ran away. "I don't know why that cat would come into the yard when there's a dog here," said Dad. I didn't say anything but I knew the answer. It was Augustine Dupre. It was love.

WHAT TURNED OUT OKAY

I thought that I was going to hate every minute of Mimi being gone, but instead I found something that took up my whole day without me even noticing it.

I worked on my map.

I only stopped for lunch and to take Mr. Scruffers for a walk with Mom. I even let Mom hold the leash. That made her really happy. She said the last time she held a dog on a leash was when she was a teenager. It's hard to imagine her as a teenager—my brain just can't do it. My brain can only imagine the exact same Mom, only shorter.

WHAT WAS LUCKY

It was good we didn't run into Bernie on our walk. Mom would not have been so excited about that.

THE PERFECT TIME TO SAY TA-DA

Mom was loading up the dishwasher from dinner—I don't have to help on Sundays, so I ran upstairs to get my map. I couldn't wait to show her. I jumped into the kitchen doorway and shouted out "TA-DA!!" super loud. "Ahh!" Mom screamed, and dropped the plate she was holding. I had 100 percent surprised her. Lucky for her the plate didn't break. "Goodness, Grace! Do you have to yell?" "Yes, yes, I do," I said, and I waved my map in the air. If you spend an entire day doing homework and not complaining, I think you should get to yell about being happy when you are done.

Mom must have thought so too, because instead of getting angry she said, "Well, congratulations, then."

WHAT WAS A GOOD ENDING TO THE DAY

Even though I didn't get to see Mimi during the day it was nice that we at least got to flash our lights at each other before bed. One day it would be fun if she waved with Robert and I waved with Mr. Scruffers, but I knew she was probably not ready to be wanting to do that yet. Her love for Robert was not like my love for Mr. Scruffers. People love maybe took longer than animal love.

TWO NICE THINGS

1. Dad came in to say good night and he did not even say one word about Mr. Scruffers being on the bed.
   
2. Mr. Scruffers solved the cat-near-Mimi problem before it could even start. Mimi would not have to worry about her brother being a furball. Mr. Scruffers would keep Crinkles away.
   

WHAT WAS A SURPRISE THE NEXT DAY

Mr. Scruffers got me up at seven-fifteen. This was the perfect time for a school day. Instead of letting her out in the backyard, I put on my shorts and went to the front yard. I wanted to be there in case Mimi wanted to visit with me. She can't see our backyard from inside her house.

Mr. Scruffers was pulling on her leash like crazy. I was thinking that maybe she smelled squirrel, but it wasn't a squirrel. It was Sammy Stringer. He was standing at the edge of our driveway with all his newspapers on his bike. "Is that yours?" he asked. He was pointing at Mr. Scruffers. Unfortunately Mr. Scruffers was pooping right when he said that. With a normal person you would not have to think about your answer to the question—you would just say, "Yes, this is my new dog, Mr. Scruffers." But with Sammy it was more complicated. Sammy had a thing about poop, and this made my brain confused for a minute.

"What's its name?" asked Sammy. This was a big clue to my brain's question. "Her name is Mr. Scruffers," I said, and then in my brain I counted, one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, and then I pointed at Sammy and waited for the question. "Why does she have a boy name?" asked Sammy. It was perfect timing and exactly the question I was expecting. Being right made me smile. "She just came that way," I said. "Someone else already picked her name. I wanted to think of a girl name—" "Hey, I know," said Sammy, suddenly interrupting me. "What about Wanda? Call her that. Wanda's a great girl name."

Sammy is not one of those people who understands the word
no
very well, so we had to try out the Wanda name right then and there so he could understand that it was not going to work.

I was glad about that because even though it was weird, I was kind of getting used to the Mr. Scruffers name.

WHAT I DID THAT WAS SURPRISING

Sammy is not anywhere near my best friend, but for some reason while we were standing there my mouth just couldn't stop talking. I told him all about Mimi, about the new sister being a brother, about how I was feeling bad for Mimi and how I wanted to help her know more about boys and brothers so she could maybe feel better. I told him everything, and I didn't even think about what I was saying before I said it. It was like he had the same powers as Augustine Dupre only I had never noticed it before. Were they both super listeners?

WHAT SAMMY SAID

As soon as I finished talking Sammy said, "Wait here!" and he ran over to his bike. He came back with a long, skinny paper tube. "You can borrow this until school starts," he said. "It's my Map of Me. Mimi can study it so she can know more about being a boy." Sometimes when something surprising happens it's hard to know exactly what the right thing to say is.

All I could think of to say was "Wow." "I know," said Sammy, and then he turned around and ran back to his bike. "I have to finish delivering my papers," he shouted. He jumped on his bike and in two seconds he was gone. I couldn't see him anymore, but I could hear him. "Don't forget to bring it to school, and don't get spaghetti on it," he yelled. Sammy is one of those people who always leaves you with a question in your brain.