Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week, page 12
Emily took them. The glass was cool in her hand.
Underneath the surprise of seeing Rani’s mom, the relief of knowing that Otto was safe, and a touch of worry about what all the grown-ups were talking about this time, she felt a tiny pit of unhappiness deep inside.
So much had happened this afternoon. The finding of Jonah. The rescue of Otto. The arrival of Rani’s mom. It took Emily a little while to sort through it all and trace this feeling of unhappiness back to its source.
“Rani?” she asked her friend. “Is your mom going to stay in the attic now?”
The unhappiness quivered a little when she asked the question.
It had been just one week since Emily had met Rani. And a lot of that week had been worrying. Some of it had been scary. But most of it, she thought, had been amazing.
What would happen now? Would everything in Rani’s attic be just as much fun? With a grown-up around all the time?
Emily didn’t see how that could possibly be.
“Sure. She gah huh mum hummuck,” Rani said through a mouthful of cookie.
Emily thought she understood. “Where will your mom hang her hammock up?” she asked.
Rani swallowed. “Right next to mine.”
“Has there always been a trampoline up here?” Emily heard her father ask.
Rani rolled over onto her back, tucked a cookie between her toes, and managed to take a bite. “Until fee goh tuh aw ail uh,” she said.
Emily couldn’t sort this one out. “What?”
Rani offered the remaining half of her cookie, still between her toes, to Araminta.
“Until she goes to Australia,” she said again. “To photograph the giant worms there. They’re very shy and hard to take pictures of, so it will be a real challenge. I thought if I sang to them, it might coax them out of their holes. Would they like lullabies do you think? Or opera?”
It was worse than Emily had imagined. Much worse.
She wasn’t going to have to get used to having a grown-up around in Rani’s attic.
She was going to have to get used to losing her new best friend.
“You’re going to Australia?” she asked weakly.
“Well, my mom could use my help with the worms,” Rani said. She planted both feet and both hands on the floor of the loft and did a backbend. “So I thought maybe I should.”
“I hope you have a good time there,” Emily said as politely as she could. “With the worms.”
Rani inched over until her head was near her glass of chocolate milk. “Will the milk come out of my nose if I drink it upside down?” she asked.
Emily couldn’t answer.
Rani wiggled until the straw was in her mouth and took a drink. “Nope! It goes down! I mean up!” she said. She licked a dribble off her upper lip before it could ooze into her nose. “But then I wondered if we could make a roller-skating rink,” she went on. “And how about a trapeze? Right there?” She picked up one leg to point a toe at the ceiling. “Because I kept thinking…”
“Of course education is vital,” Mr. Cleary was saying below.
Rani flopped down to lie on the pillows. “About how I’ve never had friends before,” she finished. “It was always just my mom and me and Otto. And we went everywhere, and we saw everything, and we made friends, lots of them. But I never got to keep one. Because we always had to leave.”
“Oh,” Emily said.
Rani sat up and beamed at her. “But then I met you. And you took me to school with you. And shopping. And you got Otto back for me!”
“Anson helped,” Emily told her. “Penelope too.”
Rani’s smile grew wider, which Emily would not have thought was possible. “So I thought I should stay here. And even go to school. For a little education. Not too much. But a little might be fun.”
Emily dropped her lemon cookie. Otto, on his belly, inched closer. He picked up the cookie, looked at Emily, and ate it in two bites.
“You’re going to stay?” Emily asked.
Rani grinned and nodded.
“All by yourself?” Emily felt a rush of worry underneath a thrill of excitement. If Rani stayed in the attic alone, would the trouble start all over again?
“Of course not by myself,” Rani said. “Otto’s here!”
Emily nodded. But still…
“We’re getting him a license right away. And a collar. Do you think they have them at the SuperSmartSaverMart?”
Emily was smiling.
“And I can’t be alone when I have Mr. Armand! He says you and your mom and dad can come and have dinner with us anytime if your dad brings cookies. Plus there’s Rich! And Mrs. Pinkney and Penelope and Jonah and Anson and you! All my friends!” Rani bounced up to stand on her feet. “Do you think if I jump off from here I could hit the trampoline?”
On her hands and knees, Emily scrambled to Rani’s side.
“I bet I’ll bounce right up to the ceiling,” Rani said, her eyes wide and bright and full of delight.
She spread her arms like a diver on the high board. Emily could see that if she jumped, she’d soar right over the heads of her mom, Mr. Cleary, and Emily’s parents.
The trampoline was pretty far away from the loft. Could Rani do it?
Emily thought about telling Rani that the trampoline was too far away. That the grown-ups would be upset. That she might get hurt.
But she decided not to say any of that.
Instead, she looked up at her friend—her friend who was staying. Her smile stretched into a grin.
Could Rani jump as far as the trampoline?
Could she stay in the attic all by herself?
Could she make Penelope into her friend? Maybe even Mrs. Pinkney too?
It didn’t seem likely, but Emily had learned one thing for sure in this past week.
With Rani, anything was possible.
Sarah L. Thomson, Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week
