The next morning, there he was, snoring away on the pillow beside me. I grinned and scratched his head. He opened his eyes and licked my nose again.

“You’re a very bad dog,” I said to him. His tail thumped on the bed.

“WHAT?” I heard Camellia shriek from down the hall. She came tearing into my room. “How did he do that?” she demanded, pointing at Merlin. He sat up alertly. “How did he get out? Parker, did you — ”

“I didn’t!” I said. “I swear!”

Luckily Camellia believes me more than Katie believes Sarah. We have a rule about honesty in our house. She threw up her hands. “That is just crazy. You are crazy, dog.”

Thump thump, went Merlin’s tail.

“I’m leaving for college in two days,” Camellia said. “If you haven’t figured this out by then, I won’t be here to help you.”

I had forgotten that she was leaving so soon. I didn’t like to think about it.

“Let’s try it again and see if we can figure out what he’s doing,” I said.

Dad was already at work, so it was just the two of us. I got dressed and then we took Merlin down the hall and into the bathroom. He sat down on his bed on top of the bath mat and tilted his head at us like, I don’t get this game. Camellia and I backed out of the bathroom and shut the door. We pretended like we were walking away, stomping our feet on the floorboards. Then we sat down a little ways away from the bathroom and watched the door.

First we heard the jingle jingle of the tags on Merlin’s collar. Then we heard him snuffling along the bottom of the door. His claws went scrabble scrabble on the tiles like he was thinking about digging his way out. He made this sad little whining sound that made me want to jump up and let him out, but Camellia put one hand on my arm and motioned for me to wait.

Then we heard a thud. I guessed that Merlin had got up on his back paws with his front paws on the door. There were scratching noises and a few more little whimpers. He walked away from the door and then back again. Another thud. Scrabble scrabble scrabble … and suddenly the knob turned and the door opened.

Merlin came bounding out. When he saw us he looked surprised and a little bit guilty, but then he galloped over and started licking our faces. His tail was swishing back and forth, and he barked happily a couple of times. I could tell he thought he’d won whatever game we were playing. He was so pleased with himself, it was impossible not to laugh at him.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Camellia said, fending him off and standing up. “I think we’re going to have to put him in his crate if we want him to stay put.”

“He really hates his crate, though,” I said. “Watch, I’ll show you.” I led Merlin downstairs into the living room. As soon as I walked toward his crate he crouched down low to the ground and then slowly started to sneak away. I’d noticed he always went in a big circle around the furniture to stay away from it.

“He should like it,” Camellia said, catching his collar. He leaned against her, wagging his tail. “I wonder why he doesn’t.” She picked up one of the dog books from the coffee table and flipped through it. After a minute, she took out her phone and went into the kitchen. I could hear her calling Katie.

“It’s all right, Merlin,” I said, sitting down on the carpet next to him. “It’s not so bad in there. Here, look.” I crawled over to his crate and put my head inside. “See? It doesn’t scare me.”

Merlin stopped panting and cocked his head. He looked kind of confused.

“Nothing to worry about,” I said. “You’re being a big ’fraidy-cat.” I climbed all the way into the crate and sat there with my legs crossed. It was a pretty big crate, actually. And we’d put a blanket over the metal tray at the bottom so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

Of course, right when I was sitting inside a dog crate had to be the moment when Kristal Perkins walked into the room. She took one look at me and started cracking up.

“Oh — uh — hi, Kristal,” I said. I could tell my face was turning bright red. “How did you get in?” Merlin trotted over to her, wagging his tail.

“Your sister let me in,” she said. “Why are you inside the crate and the dog’s out here? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?” She laughed again, showing her braces. Usually she smiles with her mouth closed so people won’t see them, but I like it when she laughs without thinking about it. Except, of course, when she’s laughing at me.

“I’m trying to show Merlin it’s not scary in there,” I explained, crawling out of the crate. “He won’t even go near it.”

She knelt down and buried her hands in Merlin’s fur, rubbing his back. He licked her face and she laughed again. “Are you a silly dog?” she said to him. “Are you afraid of your own crate? Come on over here, silly.” She inched toward the crate and Merlin followed her. But when she got about a foot away from it, he stopped and lay down again, covering his nose with his paws.

“I think I get it,” Camellia said, coming back into the room. She tucked her cell phone into her jeans and put the dog book back on the table. “Katie says they put him in his crate whenever he was being bad. He probably associates it with punishment.” She shook her head with a sigh. “That’s exactly why the book says not to do that. Sometimes I think Katie didn’t even read any of these books.”

“Awww,” Kristal said, scratching Merlin’s head. “You’re not being punished, poor dog, don’t worry.”

“Let’s try leaving the door open and putting some treats inside,” Camellia suggested. “Maybe he’ll smell them and go in looking for them, and that’ll make him feel better about the crate.”

I got some of the treats that were shaped like tiny steaks and scattered them around the inside of the crate. But Merlin stayed on the other end of the room, wagging his tail, and then he followed us into the kitchen.

“We’ll just leave it like that,” Camellia suggested, “and see if he finds them later.”

“Are you taking him to the park again?” Kristal asked. She sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen island. “Skye told me she saw you guys yesterday, and I was wondering if you’d let me film Merlin.”

“Sure!” I said, impressed. “You have a video camera?” Merlin got up and trotted out of the room. I hoped he was going to search his crate for treats.

“Dad let me borrow his for my art camp projects,” she said. “Yesterday was the last day, but I thought making a Merlin movie would still be fun.”

“Yeah, that’d be cool,” I said.

“Merlin!” Camellia shouted. “Where did you get that?!”

Merlin poked his head around the door. Dangling from his mouth was a pair of girl’s underwear.

I don’t know who was more embarrassed, me or Camellia or Kristal. Certainly not Merlin — his tail was going a hundred miles an hour.

Camellia dove at him, and he immediately took off. We listened to him run up the stairs with my sister chasing him. I could hear her shouting and feet thumping as they galloped around upstairs. Then we heard him coming back down the stairs, and Kristal and I jumped up to help.

We chased him around the living room and through my dad’s study and into the kitchen and around the island and back up the stairs. You’d think three of us would have had more luck catching one dog, but Kristal was laughing so hard she wasn’t really much help. And Merlin was really good at dodging when we jumped at him.

By the time we finally cornered him in Camellia’s room, I was pretty near convinced that he really did have magical disappearing powers.

Camellia’s room was usually superneat and tidy, but today there were open suitcases on the floor and piles of clothes laid out on the bed. I held Merlin while Camellia wrestled her underwear away from him.

“I never thought I’d agree with Katie,” she said, “but seriously, gross, dog.” She dropped it in her laundry hamper. He made a lunge for one of the piles of clothes, and I had to practically wrap myself around him to hold him back.

“I’ll take him to the park while you pack,” I suggested.

“Great idea,” Camellia said, pointing to the door. “Out you go, all of you. And don’t come back until all this stuff is in suitcases!”

I dragged Merlin down the stairs, and Kristal followed us. Of course, then she had to watch the mad chaos of me trying to get his leash on him. This was definitely the highest number of embarrassing things that had ever happened to me in front of her. All thanks to Merlin. I knew dogs could be difficult, but embarrassing? Why didn’t anyone warn me about that?