A DARK PLACE
It was the middle of the next week when an entirely new problem landed in Justin’s lap. He was just getting on his almost-new blue bike to go home after practice when he saw something on the sidewalk across from the school that should not have been there—a group of kids, gesturing wildly at him.
His sister Kate and his brother Chip, plus Luther and Lily, were motioning for him to stop. They all should have been home long ago.
Justin coasted across the street and stopped next to Kate. “What’s up?”
“Lots,” said Luther.
“Bad,” Chip added, sounding tragic.
“Come see,” Lily said.
Justin looked at Kate. Presumably she knew what this was all about. “Follow us,” she said in a mysterious voice.
Lily, Chip, and Luther had left the sidewalk and were trotting up an alley. This particular alley ran behind a row of ordinary houses, some with attached garages and some with the old-fashioned wooden kind out back. On the other side, behind the garages, a long wooden fence separated the alley from a vacant lot. Halfway up the block, the kids stopped at one of the older garages.
Justin pedaled along just behind Kate and pulled up where Chip, Lily, and Luther were standing. Nobody said a word. That spooked Justin. He had never known them to be quiet for so long—certainly not all at the same time.
Kate motioned Justin over to the back of the garage and pointed at a shuttered opening just over her head. She stood on tiptoe, slid back the bolt that held the shutter closed, and swung it open. “Look.”
Before Justin reached the window, he knew what he was going to see inside that garage, but he just couldn’t believe it. He stood on tiptoe and peered in. For a few seconds he couldn’t see anything in the dark, but the smell was terrible. Then, he spotted something white on what looked like a workbench. He leaned in to get a better look. It was a big rabbit in a very small cage.
“A rabbit?” He pulled his head out and looked at the others.
“That’s not all,” said Chip.
Justin’s heart sank. No doubt about what else was in there. A soft bleat came from inside the garage. Lily took a carrot stick from the pocket of her soccer shorts, probably one she’d saved for Honey, and handed it to Justin. He dangled it down as far as he could reach. Sure enough, out of the gloom Little Billy appeared and snatched the carrot stick from his fingers.
Justin drew back, away from the bad smell, and closed the shutter. “How did you find him?”
“We saw Mr. Grimsted when we were waiting to get on the bus,” Chip explained. “He was driving him down the street. Hitched to a cart that was way too big.”
“We followed them,” Lily said.
“He kicked Little Billy,” Chip said angrily.
“Kicked him?” Justin felt sick.
“Yeah,” said Luther, drawing back his foot to demonstrate. “Just because Little Billy didn’t want to go back in that old dark garage, that man pulled back his big old foot and kicked him right in the behind!”
“Twice,” Lily added.
“When I saw they weren’t on the bus, I went looking for them,” Kate explained. “I caught up with them just as Grimsted turned into the alley.”
“Did he see you?” Justin asked.
“No,” Chip said. “We stayed back until Mr. Grimsted went into the house.”
“Well, we can’t do anything about it now. We’ve got to get home. Kate, can you walk with them? I’ll hurry on ahead and if Mom gets there before you do, I’ll tell her you’re at the Wilsons’. She wouldn’t be too happy to hear that you’ve been peeping into someone’s garage.”
Justin straddled his bike. “Go on,” he said. “You’ll have to walk fast.”
But nobody made a move. Nobody wanted to leave Little Billy locked up inside that dark garage. Thinking aloud, Justin said, “I wonder what he intends to do with the rabbit.”
Kate frowned thoughtfully. “That day we first met Grimsted, when he tried to buy Old Billy, he said that if he could find a goat to pull a cart, he’d train a rabbit to sit in the cart with the reins wrapped around its paws like it was driving. He said animal shows go over big at mall openings, and a rabbit driving a cart would be a big attraction around Easter.”
“That’s stupid,” Chip muttered. “A rabbit can’t drive a cart.”
“It was hard for Little Billy to pull that cart anyway,” Lily pointed out.
“Of course. He’s only two months old,” Kate reminded them.
“That’s a huge rabbit,” Justin said. “I bet he weighs as much as Little Billy all by himself.”
“We’ve got to get Little Billy out of there,” Lily said. “But how?”
The others stared at Justin, waiting for an answer. He stared at the ground. “It’s probably illegal to keep a goat in this neighborhood. Especially in a place like that, with no light. And you can tell from the smell he hasn’t been cleaning up the poop. I’m surprised the neighbors haven’t complained already.”
“We could call the police,” Chip suggested.
“We could. But if we go to the police, and they make Mr. Grimsted move Little Billy, he might move him to a worse place. Then we’d never know what happened to him.” What Justin was thinking was that a guy like Grimsted wasn’t going to change. If he mistreated an animal in one place he would do it in another place—only next time he would take care not to get caught.
“We can’t leave him here in the dark!” Luther protested.
“We’ve got no choice,” Justin said. “At least we know where he is.”
“We can bring him snacks,” Lily added.
Justin glanced toward the house. “Just don’t let Mr. Grimsted see you.”
He didn’t think he had to tell them why. It was obvious that anybody who would treat an animal like that was not only a bad person, but possibly a dangerous one.