42  

THE SECOND BEST NEWS

“I parked up at your mom’s, easier to walk back,” Joey’s dad said as they left the school. But Joey couldn’t go slow. He broke into a run.

“Be careful!” Joey’s dad called out after him. He thought he heard his dad chuckle.

It was a nice day, but it wouldn’t have mattered. There could have been a hurricane. The houses, trees, and people were a blur.

“Hi, Joey!” Mr. Edwards yelled from his porch. He never yelled. He was beaming and holding Zola back.

“She’s back, Joey! She’s back!” Zola barked.

“I know!” Joey bounded through the gate, up the porch steps, and through the front door. In two strides, he hug- attacked his mom. She’d had her back to the door as she’d been talking to a couple of people. He didn’t care who saw him.

“Mom!”

His mother kissed the top of his head, “You, you, young man, are the thing I missed the most.” She held him at arm’s length and looked at him hard. “You’re more handsome than I remember.” There were tears streaming down her cheeks. Joey burst into sobs.

“Can you give us a minute, please?” she said to a man who looked familiar and a woman who went out onto the porch.

Joey realized the man was the photographer from the paper. But the other person was different—not the lady from before.

“The newspaper again?” Joey said.

“Yes, but they sent a different reporter. Not the lady who called in the animal incident.”

Joey’s dad tapped on the screen door. “Hi.” He looked bashful. Joey had never seen him look like that before. In a flash, Joey wondered if he’d been a shy kid, too. He’d told Joey this enough times, but Joey thought he only said it to make him feel better.

“Hey, Carlton, come on in. How was our boy?” Ann said. “Was he any trouble?”

“Not at all. You know it’s great having him around. You should have seen him with Mary—got on like a house on fire,” Carlton said.

“Probably up to something, in my experience,” she said and ruffled his hair again, but Joey didn’t mind.

“I’ll let you all settle in. I just wanted to say welcome home. Suzette will bring Joey’s things and the computer back this afternoon, after she’s picked up the kids.”

“You want anything before you go—a cup of coffee? There might be sodas in the fridge,” Ann said.

A TV truck pulled up in front of the house. A cameraman and a woman got out.

Ann looked stricken. She touched her hair. “Carlton, would you stall them? This is turning into a real zoo,” she said.

“I can do that.” Then to Joey, “Here’s my cell, text Suzette and tell her I’ll be here helping out.” Joey took his dad’s cell, texting as he walked out the back.

“Hey Joey—my main hu-man!” Melvin rolled around on the warm deck.

Joey gave Melvin a rub. “Did Pixie talk to the cops? Did she give her statement?”

Zola’s head popped over the fence. “She must have. But we don’t know for sure.”

Oswald popped out from under the deck. “Joey—wonderful to see you!” He started up the deck steps then stopped, looking unsure as to whether or not he was welcome. He cleared his throat, “Yes, yes. Well, it was all up in the air after, see, after Pixie ran off—too scared to talk to the police face-to-face was all we could surmise.”

There was a commotion next to the garage. Grunting, leaves crunching, and branches snapping were followed by a green-and-yellow lampshade rolling out of the overgrowth.

Pixie lay spread-eagled, catching her breath. “I came back to tell y’all that I did it. I went to the police and made my statement.”

“You did it then! It worked—my mom’s home!” Joey spilled down the steps and ran toward Pixie and Oswald, arms spread for a group hug, a huge grin splitting his face. Oswald retreated under a bush, looking nervous at the prospect of physical contact. But Pixie ran toward Joey with her own toothy grin. After he let go of Pixie, he crouched down and looked at Oswald blinking out from the dense foliage.

“You gotta let me thank you. You saved my mom!”

Oswald crawled out and blinked up at Joey. “I did? I mean I did. Actually we did. It was a true team effort. There was Tiny and of course Frank did some of the directing, and—”

“Ah, my mom’s got to hear all this. She’s going to love it. She’s starting to speak Animal now, too.”

Oswald blinked some more. “So you think she wouldn’t mind seeing me?”

“Mind? Are you crazy? Come on!”

As boy, possum, cat, and groundhog walked toward the front of the house, the raccoons—Tessa, Reggie, Hazel, Simone, and Frank—all came out of their various hiding places.

Miss Ann was sitting in one of the chairs on the porch, talking to the TV interviewer. The cameraman filmed and the photographer clicked away. The reporter recorded the interview on her phone.

The humans turned at the sound of paws, claws, and wings.

Miss Ann grinned. “And here they are. Let them tell you—it’s their story.”

She moved things to make more room. “Please, everyone come on up on the porch,” she said.

The TV people told everyone where to sit. Joey’s dad got more chairs from the deck. Joey and even Ann helped with animal translations. The interview took quite a while. There was a lot to tell.

By the time the media left, everyone was exhausted. Suzette came by with the kids and Joey’s stuff. They ordered pizza for everyone, all beings. Carlton and Suzette carried Mary and Noah, who had fallen asleep, into their car and said their good-byes.

“You can stay home from school tomorrow if you want. Your dad told the school you might,” his mother said.

And then the big news—the animals could stay.

“Oh wow, I knew you’d come around, Mom!” Joey said.

Pixie sat up, the lampshade jangling. “Ooh, I could dig a lovely burrow in the backyard. I could make it just like home, with a grass bed, and cubbyholes, and . . . ” She stopped talking for a moment—looked wistful. “Actually, I think I may move back home, if that’s all right—I do miss it.”

“Of course,” Ann said, “But do come by and visit us.”

Then the raccoons started reminiscing about their den in the tree and how it always smelled like leaves and how it was the best sleeping place.

“I do miss our place, and our 120, or is it 122 relations?” Tessa said.

And soon all of them realized they wanted to go home to Barnard Hill Park. All of them except Oswald, of course, who was home. After promises to stay in touch, to have picnics in the park, visits at the house, and for Ann to let Pixie “touch up those roots,” Joey, Ann, Oz, and Melvin waved as the animals walked down Perry Street, the rats on the raccoons’ backs, and Frank flying off ahead.

“Please give our regards to Queenie the cat,” Oswald called out as they left.

Oswald relaxed on the porch with Joey, Ann, and Melvin.

The Edwardses’ screen door creaked open. Mrs. Edwards stepped out with Zola and another animal by her feet. She leaned against her porch railing. “Welcome home, Annie.” Oswald had never heard her call her that before. “I just wanted to show you something. I mean someone.” She pointed to the table where the second animal had jumped up—Esmeralda.

“Hi, everyone,” was all she said, but she did seem to be smiling. Zola gave her a big lick down her back, nearly lifting her off the table.

Ann leaned back in the chair with Melvin in her lap and her hand on Joey’s back. “That’s the second-best sight I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Isn’t she, though?” Mrs. Edwards said. “She’ll be staying here until she’s fully recovered, with Zola’s help obviously. Then it will be up to her if she wants to stay or go back to the park.”

“What about Mr. Edwards? I thought he was against feeding grown wild animals?” Joey said.

“You’re as surprised as I am. But I guess it’s true, the only guarantee in this world is change.” Mrs. Edwards smiled.

The Joneses’ house phone started ringing again. It had hardly stopped since Ann got home.

“Hey, Oz—it’s Oprah. She wants you on her show. . . . Hey, Oz, it’s Ellen DeGeneres on the phone for you . . . ” Joey said.

“Very funny,” Oswald said. But their joking wasn’t too far off. Everyone was interested in the story: woman wrongly jailed; animals make a confession video that goes viral and saves the day. There were loads of angles and everyone wanted one.

They put the phone on silent and let voice mail pick up.