THE MALL
The others must have felt the same way Justin did—lucky to have wriggled out of the goatnapping mess without getting caught—because none of them even mentioned nosing around Grimsted’s house to find out if the dogs were being mistreated.
“I hope Grimsted didn’t see you,” Kate fretted.
“Let’s get out of here,” Justin said. “The more distance we put between us and him, the better.”
Just then, a familiar voice shrieked, “Kate! What are you doing here?”
Justin turned and saw Kate’s friend Mary Ellen coming out of the store. She was alone, and looked really glad to see them. “I didn’t know you’d be in town today! Did you come in for the grand opening of the new mall?”
“Well … uh …,” Kate stammered.
Justin saw that his sister was having trouble shifting gears from Grimsted to a grand opening on such short notice. In the same instant, he realized that going to the new mall would be a great excuse for them to be in town. “Yeah,” he said. “How about you?”
“I wouldn’t mind walking over there with you,” Mary Ellen said, cutting her eyes at him.
Justin tried not to be obvious about staring at girls, but it was pretty hard with Mary Ellen. Her skater pants slid so far down her hips that the top of her blue panties showed all the way around, and her sleeveless T-shirt only reached about halfway down her stomach. A lot of bare skin was showing in the middle, which he would have noticed even if she hadn’t had a shiny gold ring in her navel.
“Sure!” Kate said happily. “Let’s go!”
“What about them?” Mary Ellen motioned to the younger children like they were pets that should be on a leash.
“They’re with us.” Justin grimaced. Given how many times he had been forced to take the younger children to town lately, it probably looked like he had no friends his own age. Which some days felt like the truth.
“We’ve got babysitting detail,” Kate muttered.
Lily gave her an evil look. “I already told you, Kate! We’re not babies! If you don’t want to go to the mall with us, we’ll go by ourselves!” She marched away down the sidewalk, followed by Chip and Luther.
“Wait!” Justin commanded. “We’re all going together. Got it?”
So off they went, the three younger children in the lead with the three older ones following, Mary Ellen in the middle. When they had to move to the side to let someone else go by, Mary Ellen crowded closer to Justin than was necessary, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t even mind that he had no money to spend. Going to the mall would be a fun thing to do, exactly what all of them needed to get their minds off goats and Grimsted.
There was a surprisingly big crowd at the grand opening. It was really only a strip mall, but it was the biggest one ever to be built in their town. The huge discount store in the middle seemed to be the center of all the action. A clown was giving out balloons at the entrance, a band was playing oompah music, and in the store’s food court, just about every stall was offering free samples.
As they walked along the aisles they got a little separated. Kate and Mary Ellen dawdled in front of the clothes, and once Chip and Luther got to the toys, they didn’t want to leave. Justin and Lily left them there and went to browse around in the sports equipment section.
Justin had just taken a soccer ball away from Lily to keep her from kicking it in the aisle, when Kate and Mary Ellen appeared.
“Mary Ellen wants to go outside to see the show,” Kate said.
It was a normal enough thing to say, but Kate, who was standing behind Mary Ellen, looked scared stiff.
“What show?” Justin and Lily asked in the same breath.
“The Dancing Dogs. Come on, Justin,” Mary Ellen said in a teasing voice. “Maybe you’ll pick up some tips, in case you, like, want to invite a girl to a dance sometime.”
“Dogs can’t dance,” Lily said scornfully, taking the soccer ball off the shelf again and giving it a kick that sent it spinning down the aisle. A clerk blocked the ball before it crashed into a display rack, then looked to see where it had come from. He pointed a scolding finger at Justin, naturally assuming he was the one, not little Lily, who had given the ball such a powerful kick.
“Out!” Justin said, giving Lily a shove. She followed Mary Ellen toward the front of the store.
Kate hung back and put a flyer into his hand. There, big as life, was a picture of Grimsted holding two terriers, one in each arm. Under the picture it said, “The greatest dancing dogs you’ll ever see! Cha-cha, salsa, swing—give them a tune and these bow-wows will dance to it.” Below that, in bigger type, were these words: “Under the direction of Corky Grimsted, world-renowned animal trainer, comedian, and entertainer.” Then, in super-big letters, “DON’T MISS THE 2 PM SHOW AT THE GRAND OPENING OF PALMETTO MALL!”
Justin read the notice over twice. His first thought was to leave the mall immediately. “Where are the boys?” he asked.
“There.” Kate pointed out the store window. A small wooden stage had been erected in the mall parking lot.
At first Justin didn’t see Chip and Luther, but then he spotted them standing on tiptoe at the back of the crowd, trying to see whatever everyone else was watching.
By the time Justin reached the place where the boys had been, they’d already squeezed past the taller spectators and were near the front where they could get a better view. Lily immediately dived into the crowd and worked her way forward so she could see, too.
Justin sighed. What was the point in running? This was a small town, and they were bound to meet up with Grimsted now and then. The sooner they learned to act natural, like they had nothing to feel guilty about, the better. One more day and Booker would take Little Billy away. Then there would be no possibility of getting caught. Remembering that they had Booker on their side, Justin relaxed a little and watched the show.
All it was, really, were two terriers, one wearing a pink tutu and the other wearing a blue vest, two-stepping around the stage on their hind legs. The dogs didn’t exactly keep time with the music. It was more that the choppy tunes seemed to keep time with the jerky way the dogs moved. Grimsted kept up a steady flow of corny jokes, entertaining the smaller children up front. Even a few of the adults and teenagers laughed a little.
Justin didn’t find any of it funny. He was wondering how Grimsted had trained those dogs. If he did it with treats, the way Luther used to get Little Billy to stand on his hind legs for a carrot stick, that wouldn’t be so bad. But if he used an electric prod—that was a different matter. Just remembering the way Little Billy had jumped when Grimsted gave him a shock caused Justin’s muscles to tense up.
The longer he watched, the more he remembered other animals he had seen on TV and in movies and in the circus. He’d enjoyed watching at the time, but now he found himself wondering if putting on a show like this was ever fun for the animals.
That line of thinking depressed him so much that he turned to Kate and said, “Let’s get out of here. Time to find the others and go home.”
Mary Ellen gave him a surprised look, but Kate just nodded in agreement. She seemed to understand. Maybe she’d been thinking along the same lines, or maybe it made her nervous to be so close to Grimsted. She wiggled through the crowd, looking for Chip, Luther, and Lily.
“Can’t you stay, Justin?” Mary Ellen asked. “I’m not leaving yet.”
Actually, Justin would have liked to spend the rest of the afternoon with her, not at the mall, with Grimsted there, but maybe downtown or somewhere. He gave Mary Ellen an apologetic smile that he hoped said, I’d really like to, but I can’t.
Mary Ellen glanced at Kate and the younger children, then looked back at him and batted her eyelashes. Her look asked, plain as words, Why can’t your sister take care of them?
Justin couldn’t explain to Mary Ellen how they’d all been involved in something a lot more serious than mall-walking and how, even though it was more or less over, he didn’t feel right about skipping out on them. If it hadn’t been for all of them coming up with part of the money, he would have had to sell his bike for sure. So he just shrugged and said, “Can’t. I got to get these kids home.”
“Well, I’m staying,” Mary Ellen said, trying to look as if she couldn’t care less. She then glanced over at Kate to see if she might be willing to stay. But Justin could tell that his sister had lost interest in mall-ratting, too. Or maybe she was offended that Mary Ellen had been so ready to dump her for a chance to spend time with her brother.
“We do have to go,” Kate said, without bothering to give a reason.
Justin could tell Mary Ellen’s feelings were hurt. She’d probably get even by telling her friends that he was “immature” and that was why he spent so much time with younger kids. Desperate to let her know that he did have a life of his own, he blurted out, “Besides, my dad’s coming by to take me to the movies.”
Justin almost added, And I’ll be driving his car. But he couldn’t risk one of the younger kids overhearing and blabbing to Mom.
As Kate headed for the street, Justin looked back over his shoulder at Mary Ellen. She had already struck up a conversation with a couple of older guys from school.
The sun was hot as they walked home from the mall. “I’d like to’ve stayed at the store in the air-conditioning,” Kate complained. “Grimsted being there just ruined everything.”
Justin told himself he didn’t want to stay, not after he’d seen Mary Ellen flirting with those older guys before he was even out of sight. But something more than Mary Ellen’s attitude seemed to be weighing him down. Which was weird, because he should have been feeling great. After all, they had done what Booker expected of them, and the Little Billy problem was as good as fixed.
“It was stupid the way he had those dogs dressed in people clothes,” Lily grumbled. “But at least it wasn’t Little Billy.”
“I’m going to miss Little Billy,” Luther said sadly. “What kind of life is he going to have after he leaves us?”
Nobody answered, because nobody knew. But the question stayed in Justin’s mind. It reminded him that if he decided to go with his dad, he didn’t know what kind of life he’d have either, whether it would be better than the one he had now, or worse.