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CHAPTER 6
A bulldog sniffed greedily at the ground, following the bird’s tracks. The tracks stopped suddenly, and the dog sniffed madly. “Oh, here it is,” he said after a moment. “I picked up the bird’s scent.” The dog’s name was Gamma, and he wore a high-tech collar like Dug’s.
Another dog—a rottweiler named Beta— sniffed nearby. “Wait a minute, what is this? Chocolate? I smell chocolate.”
“I’m getting prunes … and denture cream!” Gamma narrowed his eyes. “Who are they?”
“Master will not be pleased,” Beta said. “We’d better tell him someone took the bird, right, Alpha?”
Alpha sat nearby, his back to the others. He was a fierce Doberman pinscher and the lead hunting dog. “No,” Alpha said. “Soon enough the bird will be ours yet again. Find the scent, my compadres, and you two shall have much rewardings from Master for the toil factor you wage.”
Though Alpha’s commands seethed with menace, the voice from his collar came out high and squeaky.
“Hey, Alpha,” Beta said, “I think there’s something wrong with your collar. You must have bumped it.”
“Yeah, your voice sounds funny!” Gamma agreed. He and Beta cracked up.
Alpha silenced them with a glare. “Beta. Gamma. Mayhaps you desire to—squirrel!”
All three dogs turned to stare at a tree. They stood stock-still, quivering with attention. Nothing moved. False alarm.
“Mayhaps you desire to challenge the ranking that I have been assigned by my strength and cunning?” Alpha finished.
Beta looked at the ground. “No, no. But maybe Dug would. You should ask him.”
Gamma snickered. “Yeah, I wonder if he’s found the bird on his very special mission.”
“Do not mention Dug to me at this time,” Alpha snapped. “His fool’s errand will keep him most occupied, most occupied indeed. Hahaha! Do you not agree with that which I am saying to you now?”
“Sure,” said Beta, “but the second Master finds out you sent Dug out by himself, none of us will get a treat.”
“You are wise, my trusted lieutenant.” Alpha nosed a button on Beta’s collar. A video screen flickered to life. “This is Alpha calling Dug. Come in, Dug.”
The screen showed grass and rocks moving past. The camera on Dug’s collar was pointed at the ground. “Hi, Alpha,” Dug said. “Your voice sounds funny.”
Alpha gritted his teeth. “I know, I know,” he growled. “Have you seen the bird?”
“Why, yes,” Dug said, “the bird is my prisoner now.”
Gamma snorted. “Yeah, right.”
But the camera shifted slightly, and a pink wing appeared on the screen. It was the bird! It lowered its head and hissed at the camera.
“Impossible!” Alpha snarled.“Where are you?”
“I am here with the bird,” Dug said, “and I will bring it back and then you will like me. Oh, gotta go.”
A boy in uniform appeared on the screen. “Hey, Dug!” Russell said. “Who you talking to?”
The screen went blank.
“No, wait!” Alpha shouted at the blank screen. “Wait!”
“What’s Dug doing?” Beta cried.
“Why is he with that small mailman?” Gamma asked. To the dogs, anyone in a uniform was a mailman.
Beta looked at Alpha. “Where are they?” Beta’s collar beeped, locating Dug.
“There he is,” Alpha cried. “Come on!”
The dogs blasted into the jungle. They were back on the trail.
Carl trudged along, pulling his house. The going wasn’t so bad, as long as he wasn’t walking against the wind. And it wasn’t half as hard as putting up with that dog’s constant begging.
“Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please be my prisoner!” Dug pleaded. He had latched on to Kevin’s foot and wouldn’t let go. The giant bird hardly seemed to notice, though. Kevin just kept plodding along, following Russell.
“Dug, stop bothering Kevin!” Russell ordered.
“That man there says I can take the bird,” Dug said, nodding at Carl, “and I love that man there like he is my master.”
“I am not your master!” Carl snapped. Sheesh, he thought irritably to himself, you would think I asked this circus act to come with me.
Finally, Kevin seemed to notice that there was a golden retriever attached to its leg. The bird stopped and tried to shake the dog off. But Dug didn’t budge, so Kevin hissed at him.
“I am warning you once again, bird!” Dug said. Kevin pecked at Dug, and the dog scrambled to attack.
“Hey, quit it!” Russell shouted.
Dug was discovering that it wasn’t easy to attack a twelve-foot-tall bird. “I am jumping on you now, bird,” the dog explained. It didn’t do much good.
Russell waved his arms and tried to get between the dog and the bird. The group toppled to one side, dragging Russell and causing the house to wobble and tilt.
Crash!
A window smashed against a rock.
Carl gasped, looking up at the house. Ellie’s clubhouse—it was being ruined!
Dug and Kevin stopped fighting. The dog looked sheepishly at Carl. He could tell his new master was angry. Shouting was always a good clue.
Carl glared at Russell, who gave him a nervous smile. “I’m stuck with you.” He turned to Dug and Kevin. “And if you two don’t clear out of here by the time I count to three …” Carl raised his cane to show that he was serious.
But Dug didn’t get the threat. All he saw were the tennis balls that were stuck to the bottom prongs of the cane. “A ball!” Dug cried, leaping and bounding. “Oh, boy, oh, boy! A ball!”
“Ball?” Carl stared at his cane. That wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting. Still, it gave him an idea. Carl popped one of the balls off the end of his cane and waved it in front of Dug. “You want it, boy?”
“Yes, I do.” Dug danced impatiently. “I do ever so want the ball!”
“Go get it!” Carl heaved the ball as hard as he could. It sailed down a ravine … and Dug streaked after it. “Oh, boy, oh, boy!” Dug gushed. “I will get it and then bring it back!”
“Quick, Russell,” Carl urged, “give me some chocolate.”
Russell hesitated. He was saving that chocolate for Kevin. “Why?”
“Just give it to me!” Carl snapped.
Russell pulled the chocolate bar from his pocket and handed Carl a piece.
Carl waved the chocolate. “Bird,” he called. “Bird!”
Kevin looked over. Carl tossed the chocolate, and the bird chased after it.
“Come on, Russell!” Carl shouted. He hurried away as fast as he could, which wasn’t really very fast. After all, he was an elderly man pulling an entire house behind him.
“Wait,” Russell said, following Carl.“Wait, Mr. Fredricksen. What are we doing? Hey, uh, we’re pretty far now. Kevin’s going to miss me.”
But Carl kept going. He climbed over a ridge. Finally, Carl paused and looked back. “I think that did the trick,” he said to himself. He sat down on a log to rest.
But when he turned around, he came face to face with the golden retriever. The dog had the slobbery tennis ball in his mouth.
Then the bird showed up.
Dug dropped the ball in Carl’s lap.
Well, that didn’t work, Carl thought.
Darkness fell … and so did rain. Sheets of rain poured from the black sky. Every now and again, lightning flickered. It lit up the house, which was tied to a rock. Beneath it, Carl sat on a rock near a small fire as Russell tried to put up a tent. Dug was still wrapped around Kevin’s leg. Both animals were asleep nearby.
“Which one’s the front?” Russell asked himself as he fiddled with different parts of the tent. “Is this step three, or step five?”
Carl rolled his eyes. Some Wilderness Explorer, he thought.
Russell tightened something. He loosened it again. “There!” Russell got tangled in the tent poles and ropes. He frowned at one of the poles.
Carl looked away while Russell struggled.
“All done,” Russell announced finally. He pointed proudly toward the tent. “That’s for you!”
The tent fell over.
“Aw,” Russell said. “Tents are hard.”
“Wait, aren’t you Super Wilderness Guy?” Carl asked. “With the GPMs and the badges?”
Russell bit his lip. “Yeah, but … can I tell you a secret?”
“No,” said Carl.
“All right, here goes.” Russell took a deep breath. “I never actually built a tent before. There. I said it.”
“You’ve been camping before, haven’t you?” Carl asked.
“Oh, never outside,” Russell explained.
Carl eyed Russell’s sash full of badges. “Why didn’t you go ask your dad how to build a tent?”
Russell shrugged. “I don’t think he wants to talk about this stuff.”
“Why don’t you try him sometime?” Carl suggested. “Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
“Well, he’s away a lot,” Russell explained. “I don’t see him much.”
“He’s got to be home sometime.”
“Well, I called, but Phyllis told me I bug him too much.” Russell looked at the ground.
“Phyllis?” Carl repeated. “You call your own mother by her first name?”
“Phyllis isn’t my mom,” said Russell.
Carl looked away, finally understanding. Russell’s parents must be divorced. “Oh,” Carl said gently.
They both stared into the fire for a moment. Each was thinking his own thoughts.
“But he promised he’d come to my Explorer ceremony to pin on my Assisting the Elderly badge,” Russell said at last. “So he can show me about tents then, right?”
Carl looked at Russell. The kid seemed hopeful, but also sad. Suddenly, Carl felt bad that he hadn’t been nicer to Russell. The poor kid tried so hard. He had a sash full of badges, but he had never even been camping.
Carl thought about the pin that Ellie had given him. It was made out of a grape-soda bottle cap, but it meant the world to him. She’d given it to him because they were in an adventurers’ club. But they’d never even had an adventure.
We’re not so different, I guess, Carl thought, watching Russell.
The empty place on Russell’s sash caught Carl’s eye. Assisting the Elderly. Has anyone ever worked so hard to get a stupid badge? Carl wondered. He doubted it.
“Hey, uh, why don’t you get some sleep?” Carl said gently. “Don’t want to wake up the wild kingdom over there.” He nodded at Dug and Kevin.
“Mr. Fredricksen, Dug says he wants to take Kevin prisoner,” Russell said. “We have to protect him!” With a yawn, Russell lay down on the log next to Carl. “Can Kevin go with us?”
Carl sighed. “All right. He can come.”
“Promise you won’t leave him?” Russell asked.
“Yeah.”
“Cross your heart?” Russell asked.
For a moment, Carl didn’t answer. He’d only ever crossed his heart for Ellie. “Cross my heart,” he said at last.
Carl glanced up at the house. The rain had stopped. The clouds had blown through, revealing a bright moon. The house was lit by its glow.
Carl looked around the camp—from Russell to Dug to the crazy-colored bird—and shook his head. At that moment, Paradise Falls seemed farther away than ever.
“What have I got myself into, Ellie?” Carl muttered.