We spent the rest of the day at the park with Danny and Eric. Kristal filmed Merlin bounding around the dog run and chasing the tennis ball. She got some great shots of him setting off the water fountain and trying to jump in it. She even videotaped him jumping up to lick the camera lens.

Around dinnertime, Camellia called my cell phone to say it was safe to come home. She still wasn’t very pleased with Merlin, though. And nothing I could say would change her mind about putting him in his crate for the night.

“We’ll put something in there that smells like you,” she said. “That’ll make him like it better.” She had gotten this idea from one of the books, of course. So I had to go get an old T-shirt and stick it in the crate with the blanket and the treats. Merlin sat up on the couch and watched me do this. He looked pretty suspicious. His long, dangly ears scooted forward on his head and he even stopped smiling for a few seconds.

As soon as I stood up and stepped toward him, Merlin leaped off the couch and went tearing off down the hall.

“Camellia!” I shouted. “Dad! Help me catch him!”

Dad came out of his study, blinking in surprise, and Merlin galloped right into him. Dad tried to reach for his collar, but Merlin scrambled around like lightning and disappeared up the stairs.

“I hope your door is closed,” I said to Camellia as she came running out of the kitchen.

“It definitely is!” she said. We chased Merlin up the stairs, but when we got up there, we couldn’t find him. He wasn’t in the bathroom. He wasn’t in Dad’s bedroom. He wasn’t on my bed. Camellia’s door was still closed, but we opened it to double-check. Half her stuff was packed away in suitcases and boxes. It made me sad to look at it. But there was no Merlin in there.

“He is a magician!” I said.

“He’s a big dog,” Dad said. “He didn’t just disappear. Let’s look again.”

We checked all the rooms again more carefully. Finally I spotted a long golden tail sticking out from under my bed. I lay down on the carpet and looked. Merlin’s big brown eyes met mine and his tail went thump thump. He looked so happy to see me, I felt bad telling on him. But if I didn’t, my sister and my dad would keep looking for him all night.

“Come on, boy,” I said, holding out my hand. “It’s just for the night. Don’t worry.”

With a small, sad noise, Merlin wriggled forward on his belly a little, but he didn’t come all the way out from under the bed. I reached for his collar and tugged on it, but he wouldn’t come. Camellia and Dad both tried calling him, too. In the end I had to go downstairs and get some treats. Those got him out from under the bed in a hurry.

I held out another treat and led him down the stairs. Chomping happily on the first treat, he followed me. He poked my hand with his shiny black nose. He didn’t even notice where we were going until we were standing in the living room.

Then he suddenly planted his feet, staring at the crate. He started to back away, but my dad and Camellia were ready for him. Dad grabbed his collar. I tried to give Merlin the treat, but he wasn’t interested anymore. He just wanted to get away. He was wriggling and scrabbling in place. My dad tried to pull him over to the crate, but Merlin was flailing around too much. Camellia ran over and brought the crate to Dad. With a heave, Dad wrestled him inside and closed the door.

“WOOF!” Merlin protested, clawing at the door. “WOOF! WOOF!”

“I’m sorry, buddy,” I said, kneeling and poking the treat through the bars. He gobbled it up, giving me this look, like he was thinking You’re not going to bribe me into liking this. Then he started sniffing around the bottom of the crate, digging up the blanket. He found another of the treats and ate that, too.

“Quick, while he’s distracted,” Camellia said, turning off the light. We all snuck upstairs and got ready for bed in a hurry. I listened hard while I was brushing my teeth, but all I could hear from downstairs was snuffling and sometimes crunching when he found another treat.

Everything seemed quiet when I got into bed. The house was dark and still. Dad was in his room reading and Camellia was in her room, making lists of last-minute things she needed. I was tired from running around the park. I started to fall asleep right away.

Then I heard a mournful whimper from downstairs. Merlin went “arooo arooo aroooo” a few times and then stopped. I heard the scrabbling of claws on metal. Then I heard RATTLE CLANK RATTLE CLANK RATTLE CLANK!

“Merlin!” Camellia said from the top of the stairs. “Shush! No!”

He was quiet again, and she went back into her room.

A long pause. I closed my eyes.

RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE.

“Just ignore him,” my dad called. “He’ll calm down eventually.”

Pause.

RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE CLANK CLANK.

More whimpering. More scratching noises.

RATTLE RATTLE. RATTLE RATTLE. CLANK. RATTLE RATTLE.

“Aroooooo. Aaaarrrrrooo.”

Pause. Long pause. I began to drift off.

RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE CLANK CLANK CLANK RATTLE RATTLE CLANK RATTLE RATTLE CLANK CLANK CLANK …

BANG!

I leaped out of bed. Dad and Camellia were already running down the hall from different directions. We nearly crashed into each other at the top of the stairs. Merlin was sitting proudly at the bottom, wagging his tail and grinning.

Camellia gasped. “How did he do that?”

“Let’s go see,” my dad said, rubbing his forehead.

We all went down to the living room. Merlin came and pressed himself up against me like, Don’t worry, I sorted it out. We’ll never be separated again! I knew I wasn’t supposed to pet him, but he was wagging his tail so hard, I couldn’t resist scratching behind his ears just a little bit.

The tray at the bottom of the crate had been pushed out and was lying halfway across the room from it. The crate itself was on its side — the bang we heard must have been when it fell over. The blanket and my shirt were scrunched up at one end. And the door was lying open.

Camellia was flabbergasted. “That — that is — I can’t — how —”

“I have an idea,” Dad said. “Why don’t we see if he’ll sleep on the floor beside Parker? That way we all might get some peace and quiet.”

Merlin and I looked at Camellia hopefully. She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not sure that’s sending the right message,” she said, giving Merlin a stern look. “But I guess nothing else is working….”

“I’ll be very bossy,” I promised. “I’ll alpha-dog him right off the bed, I swear.”

She sighed. “OK, let’s try it.”

I dragged Merlin’s bed into my room. He was so excited to see this. He kept jumping and leaping and pouncing on it and trying to play with me. “No,” I said firmly. “Bedtime.” Wagging his tail, he came over and bumped my elbow with his nose. I settled his bed on the floor next to mine. “Bed,” I said, pointing to it.

He jumped up onto my bed, turned around a few times, and curled up right in the center of the sheets. His tail swished back and forth. His fur puffed out around his legs like a fluffy jacket. He smiled at me like he was saying OK, sure, you sleep down there, and I’ll sleep up here.

Camellia was watching from the door. “Nope,” I said. “You sleep down here.” I pointed to his bed.

Merlin flopped his head way over to the side in this aw, shucks kind of way. He covered his nose with one paw, then peeked out at me like, But aren’t I so cute?

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Your bed is down here. Merlin, off.”

Heaving the most enormous sigh, Merlin pushed himself slowly to his paws and jumped down to the floor. He sniffed his bed dubiously. He started digging in it with his front paws, rearranging all the folds and wrinkles like I had dropped it all wrong and it needed fixing.

“Good work,” Camellia said. “Let’s see if he stays there.”

“He will,” I said.

She closed the door behind her and I got back into bed. Merlin turned around a few hundred times, but at last he flopped down in his bed and rested his head on the furry edge of it. He looked up at me with big brown eyes.

I reached down and rubbed his long white belly fur. “Better than the other options, isn’t it?” I said.

He made a sleepy, contented noise. I switched off the bedside lamp. The moonlight from the window made his fur look silvery and pale and mysterious.

“Just like a magic dog,” I murmured.

Merlin fell asleep before I did. I know because he snored.