The Ones You Call When Everyone Else Is Busy (2)

After a while, Nick’s parents went on with their every day routine. Nick went to school, came home, and did his homework and then he went out to walk around his neighborhood and look for Chewy. It was after a few of these walks that Nick noticed Chewy’s picture was missing from the poles. In its place was a picture of another missing puppy. In store windows, on fences, in the local papers – different missing puppies were cropping up everywhere. Something weird was going on here, thought Nick. Why have so many dogs disappeared?

When he got home, Nick ran to find his mom. He was all out of breath. “Mom! Mom! Mom!” he shouted. “I’m in here Nicky and for goodness sakes, quiet down. I’m trying to do the banking.” “But mom, this is important.” “Okay Nick, what is so important?” “The dogs, they’ve all disappeared, just like Chewy.” “Nicky, what are you talking about?” Nicky sighed and impatiently pushed his hair out of his eyes. “I was out walking and looking for Chewy and I saw a sign and then another sign and that’s three dogs mom! Three! Something’s weird.” Jen stared at Nick for a second, thinking very carefully about what she was going to say because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Nick, honey, puppies get out sometimes. Now I know that you miss Chewy and you want to find him, but don’t make more of something then it is. Chewy got out and we just have to wait and hope that someone finds him or that he finds his way home.” “But moooooom,” Nick whined. “Not now, Nick, I have to get back to this. We’ll talk about it later.”

When John came home from work, Nick pounced on him as soon as he could. He told him his story and his idea. John had had a really long day at work, meeting after meeting and he was very tired. He didn’t really pay attention to what Nick was telling him. “Hmmm that sounds interesting Champ. Honey, what’s for dinner?” Nick thought if his parents wouldn’t listen maybe his teachers would. He would tell them tomorrow. He went to bed that night at least feeling like he had a plan and maybe just maybe he would find Chewy.

Only when he went to school the next day, his teachers all said the same thing his mom did. Nick was starting to get frustrated. He told Kate all about it at recess. “I believe you Nick,” Kate said. “Let’s think. If your parents won’t listen and the teachers won’t listen, maybe you could talk to the police or maybe the news.” “Yeah maybe, I feel like I need a detective or a superhero.” “Don’t be silly Nick, superheroes aren’t real.” Nick just looked at Kate. She was cool and all but sometimes she was such a girl. Nick knew in his heart that superheroes were as real as he was. Just because you didn’t see them every day didn’t mean they didn’t exist. Geez, Santa was real even though you didn’t see him walking down the street. What did girls know anyway? “Let’s go to the police station after school Nick, while we walk around and look for Chewy. They have to listen. We’ll talk to Officer Kelly, you know the policeman that came to school to talk to us about safety.” Kate thought Nick was about the smartest boy she had ever met. If he said that there was something going on, she figured, he was right.

After school, they walked to the police station and told Officer Kelly everything that had happened. Officer Kelly was very nice and it seemed like he was going to take them seriously. “Listen kids, I know that you miss your puppy and I bet he is just out exploring and having a great adventure and he’s going to come home any day, but you can’t just go making up stories and thinking everyone is going to listen. We’ll keep an eye out for any ‘dognappers’ but in the meantime why don’t you just keep looking for Chewy. In fact, if you bring in a picture, we’ll hang it right on our bulletin board. The police ride all over the town and maybe someone will see him.” “Okay Officer Kelly, thank you, I’ll bring a picture by tomorrow.” Nick and Kate left the police station. Nick walked over to a telephone pole and started banging his head against it. “Why won’t anyone listen to me?” Kate said, “Well, we haven’t tried the newspaper yet. Let’s go back to my house and call them.” When Nick called the newspaper and told his story to the reporter, the only thing the reporter said was, “Listen kid, I’ve got real news to report. Does your mom know you’re making crank calls?” Nick hung up the phone. “He just thinks I’m a stupid kid. Everyone thinks I’m a stupid kid. What am I going to do?” Kate gave Nick a hug. “Maybe you do need a detective.” “Or maybe a superhero,” Nick said. Kate just looked at him strangely.