The Squirting Donuts (7 page)

We have no homework, so we can get right to our Lollipop hunt. It's exciting to be a lost dog detective. When we find Lollipop, maybe Mrs. Cakel will be so happy and will become warm and loving like my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Herman.

I don't think so.

On our first day with her as our teacher, we were really noisy. Most of us hadn't seen each other since June. Mrs. Cakel just stood there and looked at her watch. She didn't say a word. She just waited. When we were finally quiet, she told us, “I waited twelve minutes and thirty-six seconds for you. You'll wait that long after the lunch bell rings before I dismiss you.” And she did, even the thirty-six seconds.

She's not a screamer but she's strict. She'll never be warm and loving.

“Let's leave our book bags at my house,” Calvin says on our way home. “Maybe Mom has some bakery treats for us.”

She does.

We walk in and his mother tells us, “I was promoted. I'm now in charge of jelly donut research and development.”

Calvin says, “But you were only working there one day.”

“Two days.”

Mrs. Waffle walks toward the kitchen. Now she turns and says, “Well, come on. You have to help me with my research.”

In the kitchen, on the table, is a large plate of jelly donuts. There's also a container of milk and paper cups.

“A man came into the bakery this morning and he's wearing a suit and tie and the suit is blue with thin white stripes, like he works as a banker or some job that doesn't get his hands dirty. You know, when I bake, my hands get covered with flour and jelly. If my nose tickles and I scratch it, I get flour and jelly on that too. I look like a clown. That must be fun, being a clown, and making people laugh.”

“Mom,” Calvin says, “what about the man in the suit?”

“Did I tell you about him? He came into the bakery and said that yesterday he bought a jelly donut and it was the best he ever had. He said it was messy, but he liked all the extra jelly. That's when I told my boss that I put two shots in every donut. Now there's a sign in the window advertising our ‘Double jelly donuts.'”

Calvin and I sit by the table. His mother gives each of us a paper plate.

“My boss wants me to do donut experiments.”

She cuts one donut in small pieces. We each taste it.

“This is my double flavor donut. It's got one shot of raspberry and one shot of apricot.”

It's good and that's what I tell Mrs. Waffle.

I take another piece.

She cuts a few more donuts.

The next piece I take has what looks like black jelly. I taste it.

Yuck!

“It's filled with prune butter.”

“Not good,” I tell Mrs. Waffle.

I need to wash away the prune taste. I pour some milk in a cup and quickly drink it.

The next one is filled with colored candy sprinkles. I bite into it and sprinkles spill all over the table and my pants.

“I like sprinkles on cookies and cake,” I tell Mrs. Waffle, “but in a donut, they are kind of dry.”

I tell her that of the three, my favorite is the raspberry apricot.

We finish our snack and walk toward Clover Street.

“How could anyone eat a prune donut?” Calvin asks.

“Old people like prunes,” I tell him as we walk. “They like toast and tea and boiled chicken and dry cake.”

“Maybe that's what made Mrs. Cakel sick,” Calvin says. “Maybe she ate too much dry cake. Maybe she's de-something.”

“Dehydrated.”

“Yeah. Maybe she needs a big drink of water.”

We're on Clover Street, across the street from Mrs. Cakel's house. Her car is not in the driveway.

“Maybe she's at her doctor's office being examined,” I tell Calvin.

“Maybe she's at the movies,” Calvin says, “or in some teacher store buying more workbooks for us to do or at the printer making up a new ‘NO' sign with lots more things not to do.”

We walk toward town. The lost dog posters are still on the trees, so I'm sure Lollipop is still missing. If she had her dog, Mrs. Cakel would take down the signs.

We walk past the butcher shop to the next block where there's a pizza shop and a restaurant. We walk to the back of both places and look at the garbage. There's a large metal garbage bin behind each store. The lids on them are heavy. We're sure that a small dog couldn't lift them.

“Lollipop wasn't here,” I say.

We walk to the next block and Calvin grabs my arm. “Look by the traffic light,” he whispers. “There she is.”

I look toward the corner and expect to see a small dog with a fancy haircut. But I don't. I see an old blue car.

“It's Mrs. Cakel,” Calvin whispers. “Look how slowly she's driving. She must be looking for her Candy-On-A-Stick dog.”

We stand real close to the window of a clothing store. As the old blue car approaches, we turn and face the store. I don't know why, but Calvin doesn't want her to see us.

She drives past.

“We can't let her find her dog,” Calvin tells me.

“Why? All that really matters is that someone finds Lollipop.”

“No, that's not what matters. All that matters is that you and I find her little dog with the froufrou haircut. I need her to stop thinking of me as the troublemaking kid who doesn't do his work. I need her to think of me as the hero who found her dog.”

“Why don't you just do your work?”

Calvin shakes his head.

“Don't you think I tried that? I sit down by the kitchen table, check my notepad, and open my workbook or whatever to the page she assigned. I look at what she wants us to do and I just can't do it. It's too boring. Sometimes I think my mind is like my mother's conversation. It can't stay on one topic very long.”

“One day you'll get a job and have to do whatever the boss says.”

“The boss won't tell me to do thirty multiplications. I won't take a job like that. I'll take a job doing something I like. Mom did that. She loves to bake.”

I think about Dad.

I hope he gets a job he likes.

I hope he gets a job.

On the next block, we walk behind a supermarket. The garbage bin is tough to get into. It has a heavy lid that's snapped shut. This can't be where Lollipop is eating.

We go behind a restaurant. It's clean here too, and the garbage bin is closed. We're about to leave when Calvin points to a small bowl by the back door.

“That's a doggy bowl,” Calvin says. “Maybe Lollipop doesn't have to dig in the garbage. Maybe someone feeds her.”

The bowl is empty.

Calvin asks me for the reward poster and I give it to him. He folds it so only the picture of Lollipop is showing. We walk to the front of the restaurant and go inside.

It's mostly empty. It's too early for people to be eating dinner. We walk past several round tables already set with dishes, glasses, knives, spoons, and forks to the door to the kitchen.

Calvin pushes open the door and calls out, “Is anyone here?”

“I'll be right with you,” a woman answers.

We wait a few minutes. Then a tall woman wearing a long white apron comes from somewhere in the kitchen.

“You're a little early,” she says. “We begin serving dinner at five.”

She looks at her watch.

“Oh, my. That's in just ten minutes.”

“We didn't come for dinner. We're looking for this dog,” Calvin says and shows her Lollipop's picture.

“Ah, isn't she cute,” the woman says and sighs. “She comes here every night.”

“YES!” Calvin shouts. “We found her.”

He leans close and whispers to me, “My dad will be proud. One day I'll be a great spy like him.”

The woman tells us her name is Naomi.

“The dog is not here now,” she says. “She comes by much later. Is she yours?”

Calvin says, “She's Beatrice Cakel's dog. She's our teacher.”

The way Calvin said that it sounded like Lollipop is our teacher, not Mrs. Cakel. But Naomi understood what he meant. She tells us that a few nights ago she saw Lollipop by the back door.

“That dog looked hungry and she didn't look like she was accustomed to search for her dinner, so I gave her leftovers. Wow, did that dog eat fast! After that, I told my waiters not to throw out large leftover portions of meat. We put it in a bowl by the back door. We get busy here about seven. That's when the dog comes by.”

We found Lollipop!

“She's skittish,” Naomi says. “Whenever one of us gets near her, she runs away. We couldn't even read her dog tag.”

That means we can't get Lollipop and bring her to Mrs. Cakel. We have to bring Mrs. Cakel to Lollipop.

I tell Naomi that we'll be back at seven.

On the way home, I tell Calvin, “We have to call Mrs. Cakel and tell her we may have found her dog.”

“Not yet,” Calvin says. “First, we have to find out what reward we're getting.”

“No,” I say and stop walking. “We'll call and tell her what Naomi said. Then at seven o'clock, we'll go with her and hopefully find her Lollipop.”