The living room felt better, now that Baxter was there. Because if his whapping tail and crazy bounding hadn’t broken anything yet, maybe I wouldn’t, either. The purple couch and the orange chair looked as comfortably mushy as our couch. The wooden floor gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the window, but the wood was old and scuffed, just like at our house. If Baxter belongs here, I thought, I do, too.
I stood up. “Are you ready for a walk?”
Instead, he turned and looked back toward the doorway to the basement stairs.
And that’s when I noticed a strange buzzing sound, and since the lab was down there, I thought, Well, it’s probably not the washing machine.
At that moment, I realized that Professor Reese might be home and that I hadn’t knocked on the door, I’d just let myself inside. But it seemed sort of silly to go back outside, lock the door, hide the key under the begonia, and go around to the front door to ring the doorbell.
The buzzing getting louder decided it for me. Baxter took off for the basement, and I followed him.
As I came down the stairs, I saw Professor Reese sitting in front of the main computer: all the cables came out the back like it was the head of a big octopus, connecting to the console, the other computers, and what used to be a tanning bed.
And what used to be a tanning bed was now vibrating, glowing with a red light.
“Professor Reese?”
She jerked in surprise and turned. “Jordie, you gave me such a fright!”
“I knocked on the front door, but I guess you didn’t hear it.” (That wasn’t technically true, but if I had knocked, she wouldn’t have heard it over the buzzing, so it was sort of untechnically true.) “I came to walk Baxter. Like we talked about,” I reminded her, in case she was mad I’d just come into her house, like a lot of grown-ups would be in a situation like this. Only I didn’t think a lot of grown-ups would be in a situation like this—because what used to be a tanning bed had started vibrating like crazy.
I walked down the rest of the stairs. “What are you doing?” And I had to raise my voice because it was getting noisy.
“A system check,” she said as the buzzing got even louder.
Baxter tucked his tail between his legs and scooted under one of the desks. The vibrating increased, and the buzzing got louder and louder until I practically had to yell, “Is it supposed to do that?”
“I have no idea!” she yelled back. “This is the first time I’ve ever tried it with all the components hooked up together!”
What used to be a tanning bed looked like it was going to vibrate itself into a pile of little pieces on the floor. The glowing got redder and redder. Professor Reese’s eyes got wider and wider. The buzzing grew so loud the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.
All of a sudden there was a huge POP!
When the POP popped, three things happened at the same time: Professor Reese jumped back in her seat, Baxter bolted up and bonked his head on the underside of the desk, and I screamed (just a little).
My scream made Professor Reese scream, too, so all in all things were very exciting for a minute.
Then one of the little computers went beep-beep-boop, and Baxter whipped his head around and booped back. What used to be a tanning bed wasn’t glowing or vibrating or buzzing anymore. It was just sitting there, still in one piece somehow.
I walked a little closer (but not too close). “What is this thing?”
“It’s part of the project I’m working on—but I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
“Oh.”
She walked over to the electronic console with lights and buttons, and pushed the big red one off.
She turned to me. “Let’s take Baxter on a walk—I need to find my hat.”
“Um . . . OK,” I said, thinking if I had just made a basement full of equipment, an old lady, a girl, and a shaggy dog practically blow up, I wouldn’t be wondering where my hat was. But maybe when you’re a physicist, that’s just a regular day at the office. “I have to get TJ first.” I hurried up the stairs. “Be right back!”
I stuck the key back under the begonia and ran home.
TJ was at his desk, working on his stop-motion short. He moved Caveman’s right leg a step forward.
He took a picture.
“Come on! It’s time for Baxter’s walk!”
“In a minute.”
TJ moved Caveman’s left leg a step forward.
He took another picture.
“If we don’t go now, she’ll leave without us!”
I hurried into the kitchen and came back out with three Popsicles. TJ grabbed the only cherry one, of course, which meant Professor Reese and I were stuck with grape.
Then we all set off to find Professor Reese’s hat.
On the weekend, when we’d walked around the neighborhood, Baxter had stayed calmly at our sides. But now he charged ahead, pulling me down the street. I had to hold on to the leash with both hands, which meant TJ got to eat my Popsicle.
“He’s galloping!” Professor Reese said.
“He’s crazy!” TJ hurried behind me with a Popsicle stick in each fist.
“Is he heading to where you think you lost your hat?” I asked.
“As a matter of fact,” Professor Reese huffed as we were all practically running by then, “he is. Interesting.”
We practically ran a few more blocks until suddenly Baxter reached an intersection and stopped. He looked around.
Professor Reese read the street sign. “Nineteenth Avenue.” She studied Baxter for a moment. “Hmm.” She started looking around, too. “Do either of you see my hat?”
All I saw were some apartment buildings, some trees, and a parking lot. “Your hat’s red, right?”
But Baxter was taking off again, pulling me farther down the street.
“Where are you going?” TJ ran after me.
“Come back!” Professor Reese called. “It should be right here!”
“That’s not what Baxter thinks!”
