“Wait! Stop!”
Mavis was running after the van.
But it didn’t stop.
It kept going until it disappeared from sight.
Mavis stopped running and stomped her foot. “Dang it!”
Rose ran to catch up with her.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you hear what that man said?”
“About what?”
“About Henry.”
“Um, I…”
Mavis gestured in the direction where the van had disappeared. “He said Henry doesn’t race anymore.”
“So?”
“So why is he there?”
“Well, I guess he, well, um…”
“We have to go there,” Mavis said.
Rose had a bad feeling that Mavis was about to talk her into doing something she wouldn’t want to do.
“Go where?” she asked.
But she knew the answer.
“Wonderland,” Mavis said, throwing her arms out and then dropping them with a loud slap against her legs.
Yep, Rose had been right. Mavis was going to try to convince her to go to Wonderland. But that would be crazy. In fact, that would be the craziest thing Rose had ever done.
Crazier than going back in those woods where she wasn’t supposed to go.
Crazier than taking those little quiches her mother always kept for company.
Crazier than bringing Henry to Mr. Duffy.
“Don’t you get it?” Mavis said. “If Henry isn’t racing anymore, then what’s he doing there? What happens to the dogs who don’t race? Maybe they get sent to a dog pound or something. Let’s go find out.”
“How are we gonna go to Wonderland? I don’t even know for sure where it is, but I know it’s way on the other side of the highway. I’m not even allowed to go near the highway.”
“We’ll ride bikes. We can do it.”
Then Mavis started rambling on and on about how they would go to Wonderland and find Henry.
Mavis always made everything sound so easy.
Suddenly there were two Roses.
One Rose wanted to say, “No.”
She wanted to say, “Forget it.”
She wanted to go back home and sit in Grace’s room by herself.
But the other Rose wanted to do their special handshake and say, “Let’s go for it!”
But both Roses just stood there, listening to Mavis make everything sound so easy.