We looked at the prints of markets and rivers and people and tried to guess where they were from. Mom thought maybe France and Russia and somewhere in South America. I wondered what it would be like to go to all those places. Then the kettle whistled, and Professor Reese brought in a yellow teapot and four yellow cups.
We all sat down at the dining table. The dog flopped in the corner like he’d been living in the house his whole life. And TJ just scowled down at his muffin because every time he looked up, the dog was panting, watching him eat.
Mom and Professor Reese did that thing grown-ups do, asking about each other’s jobs—like how Mom worked in a doctor’s office billing insurance, and Professor Reese taught physics at the university and served as an adviser to the science museum.
“So you have a lab in your house?” I asked.
“I will.” Professor Reese nodded. “I’m setting it up in the basement.”
“Can we see it?”
She shrugged. “There’s nothing to see. It’s just a room full of boxes right now.”
“Speaking of boxes, we should let you unpack.” Mom pushed back her chair.
I broke off a piece of my muffin and held it out to the dog. He gobbled it up. “Did you remember the dog’s name yet?” I asked Professor Reese.
She laughed. “No. I can email his former owner, but he’s flying to Dubai today.”
“I can’t believe you’re watching a friend’s dog on your moving day!” Mom said.
“Well, it was an emergency.” Professor Reese explained that her friend got a new job at a university in Dubai. He decided it was too hot there to take the dog, so he found a great family in Portland to adopt him. “Then, at the last minute, they changed their minds.” Professor Reese shook her head. “He was in a panic when he came into work yesterday. So I said I would take care of the dog until I could find a good home for him.”
I looked around the room. “This looks like a good home.”
“Oh, I’m much too busy for a dog, Jordie.”
Darn, I thought.
“But that reminds me,” Professor Reese said. “Is there a veterinarian in walking distance? I don’t own a car.”
“I can show you!” I said. “Me and TJ can go.”
He looked at me like, Wait, what?
Mom frowned, the tiniest bit. “Well, uh—”
“Sure! It’s on the way to the music store where Dad works, and me and TJ walk there all the time,” I said mostly to remind Mom. “And Mom always says it’s nice to help your neighbors,” I added, so she’d say yes.
So Professor Reese put the rest of the muffins on the kitchen counter. Then me, TJ, and Professor Reese headed out, with me holding the dog leash and TJ staying as far away from the dog as he could.
Everyone noticed us—Mr. Hutchins, out pruning his hedges, and Mrs. Wesley, walking her poodle, Moxie, and even Tyler from my class, who was shooting hoops at the park. The whole street noticed because you couldn’t help but pay attention to a dog like that:
“Oh my gosh, your dog is cute!”
“He’s so big!”
“He’s so sweet-tempered!” (“Yeah, right,” said TJ.)
When we got to the vet’s, Professor Reese went over to look at all the flyers stuck on the bulletin board. “I need to find a dog walker to start on Monday until I can find a home for him.”
“I can walk him!” I said.
“I need a professional—someone I can count on, every afternoon.”
“You can count on me! All I do after school is get stuck with TJ!”
“Hey!” he cried.
“Please?” I added. “I really love dogs, and we’re not allowed to have one.”
“Well, you can ask your mom.” She tore off a strip of paper with a phone number from a dog-walker flyer. “I’ll bring this home, in case she says no.”
“She won’t say no,” I said. I swallowed, hard. I didn’t actually know that for sure. Me and TJ got out of school at two thirty. We had to walk straight home—and stay there—until Mom got home from work about four.
I might be able to convince her, but only if I could convince TJ to go with me.
When we got back to Professor Reese’s kitchen, she found the box with glasses and bowls. She got us some water and the dog some water. Then he plopped down, his beard puddling water where he rested his chin.
“I wonder what his name is,” I said.
“I don’t know if it really matters,” Professor Reese said. “Whoever adopts him will probably want to give him a new name.”
“Killer,” TJ suggested. “Or Wolf.”
“You know,” Professor Reese said, “he reminds me a bit of my great-uncle Baxter. He had a beard like that. And those muttonchop sideburns. And, come to think of it, the same bushy eyebrows.” The dog’s eyebrows went up and down, first the left, then the right, as he looked at each of us in turn.
I petted the dog’s head, and he turned his face up toward me.
“You’re a good boy!” I smiled.
He pulled the corners of his cheeks up, like he was grinning back at me.
“Hey!” I looked up to see if they had seen it, but Professor Reese was putting the rest of the glasses in a cupboard while TJ grabbed another muffin from the plate.
I turned back to the dog, but he just flopped down and rolled onto his side.
“Run upstairs, Jordie, and see if you can find a box marked Dog Bed in the master bedroom,” Professor Reese said. “We can’t have Baxter sleeping on the floor.”
3An Awful Lot of Waffles
The next morning, I woke up before everyone, and it was really boring with just me awake. It was so boring that I couldn’t imagine how much more boring it must be when I was asleep, so I was glad I slept through that part.
It was good I woke up early. I had a lot to figure out. I had to convince TJ to walk Baxter with
