For Billy, the rest of the Wedding was a bewildering blur. He had never seen so many grown-ups standing and talking forever. AND THEY TALKED SO LOUD. What is it with grown-ups and talking SO LOUD? They were always telling Billy to use his indoor voice, and here they all were, indoors, and practically shouting every. Single. WORD. THEY. SAID. And there were a bunch of guys playing musical instruments, which made everything ten times louder.
“That’s a band,” explained Billy’s mother. “Aren’t they fun?”
Billy didn’t even try to explain to her his new understanding of grown-up fun: that it was strange and boring and loud and embarrassing. And he had been subjected to constant embarrassment for the past seven hundred hours. His parents had dragged Billy to about a million different grown-up people, and to each one of them his mom or dad would say in a really shouty way, “HELLLLLOOOOOO . . .” And then they would hug or shake hands and smile in a kinda alarming way and then they’d turn to Billy and say, “This is our little boy, Billy,” and then . . . things . . . became . . . insane. Embarrassing. And insane. The grown-ups would scream, “He is so CUTE!” or “HE’S ADORABLE!” Sometimes they would add, “I COULD JUST EAT HIM UP!” What? Are they CANNIBALS? wondered Billy. And the grown-up men—every one!—would say, “Well, isn’t he the handsome little man.”
And almost every. Single. Time the grown-ups would put one of their hands on his head and do this weird mess-up-his-hair thing. Or worse. Hug him. And worse. KISS HIM ON THE CHEEK.
Billy could barely believe what was happening. Weddings make grown-ups nuts, he decided. He knew better than to try to tell Ollie now. It was too loud, and the grown-ups might see Ollie, and who knows how bad it would get after that. The hugging. The kissing. I mean, come on!
Finally, everyone sat down at a table. And his mom brought him a plate crowded with “fancy food,” meaning horrible things wrapped up in other horrible things to disguise the horribleness, and Billy was no way, no how eating hidden asparagus! Blechhh! But then came the cake. The cake was actually impressive. It was huge and white and had a toy man and woman on top, which nobody played with. So Billy ate cake until he couldn’t eat any more. And that’s when he got sleepy.
The next thing he knew he was being slung over his dad’s shoulder, being carried away from the Wedding.
“Where’s Ollie?” he managed to mumble through a haze of sleepiness.
“Right here,” his mom told him, holding up the backpack and giving it a pat.
Then Billy was in the backseat of the car, and he could see that the backpack was beside him, but then he must have fallen asleep again because next thing he knew, he was already in his pajamas, lying in his own bed.
“Where’s Ollie?” Billy mumbled again as his mom pulled the covers up.
“Right here,” she said again, gently placing the backpack near Billy’s pillow.
Sleepily, Billy rolled over and reached inside, but when his fingers didn’t touch the familiar plush softness, he bolted upright.
“Where’s Ollie?” he nearly shouted, wide awake.
“Well, I’m sure he’s . . . ,” Billy’s mom began, reaching a hand into the pack herself. When she realized it was empty she let out a little moan. “Oh honey, we told you not to take Ollie out at the wedding.”
“I didn’t!” Billy cried, checking the backpack once more. “I never took him out!”
“Maybe he fell out in the backseat,” Dad suggested, and he hurried down to the car, but he came back shaking his head. “Not there, buddy. I’m sorry.”
Billy stared at his parents. He felt like he was going to be sick. “We’ve got to find Ollie,” he said. “We have to find him. Now.”
It was late, and Billy’s parents were tired. But they knew how important Ollie was to their son, and so they kept looking.
“Let’s retrace our steps,” Billy’s dad suggested. “That always works for me when I’ve lost something.”
Billy got out of bed and followed his parents out the front door. It was dark, of course, and it had gotten colder. Billy shivered as they checked the porch and then went down the steps and walked slowly along the sidewalk, stooping to look under the bushes.
“You’re cold,” Billy’s mom said, and she tried to take him in her arms, but he shook her away and headed for the car.
His parents helped him search every nook and cranny of the car, but Ollie was nowhere to be found.
So they retraced their steps again, this time from the car to the porch and back up to Billy’s bedroom.
“He must have fallen out at the wedding hall,” Billy’s mom said at last.
“Then we have to go back and get him! We have to retrace our steps to the Wedding.” Billy started for the door again, but his mom stopped him. She knelt on the floor so they would be eye to eye.
“Listen, sweetie. It’s too late to go back there tonight. The place will be closed by now. Everyone will have gone home already.”
Billy shut his eyes. He imagined Ollie under the table, in the dark, in a strange place. Alone. Ollie had never slept alone.
And neither had Billy.
“We’ve got to go get Ollie,” Billy said again firmly.
“I’m sorry, buddy.” His dad put a hand on his shoulder and knelt down as well. “It’s just too late tonight.”
“It’ll be okay, I promise,” his mom said. She hugged him close. “We’ll go get Ollie first thing in the morning. No one will take him. He’ll be safe there, and we’ll get him back and everything will be okay.”
That’s what they kept repeating: everything will be okay. And Billy wanted to believe them—he did. But he couldn’t. He knew something was wrong; he knew Ollie was in trouble. He wasn’t sure how he knew. But the feeling was there, and it wouldn’t go away.
“Let’s get you back in bed, sweetie,” his mom said, and that’s exactly what Billy did. He got back in bed, and he let himself be tucked in.
“Everything will be okay,” his mom repeated one last time as she and his dad kissed him good night, and Billy nodded like he believed her, and closed his eyes.
Then he waited. He waited for his mom and dad to leave the room after watching him for a long while. He waited for their footsteps to fade down the hall, for the sound of their voices to fade as well. He waited until everything fell into silence and the only sounds were the creaks of the old house itself. He waited until the moon was at the very top corner of his window.
And then Billy opened his eyes.
He was going on his Hugest A-venture yet.
He was going to find Ollie.