“Excuse me. Excuse me,” Max and Gary said as they walked past children toward the woman in the green jacket.
“Do you have Jackie in there?” Gary asked the woman.
“What’s that? Jackie? No, I don’t think I have Jackie in here,” the woman said as she bent down and reached into the bag.
She pulled out an old pair of sneakers and said, “I wore these when I was in high school. Now I’m giving them to ‘I Like to Help.’ It’s a group that helps poor people. Look what else I’m giving them.”
The woman gave the sneakers to Gary. “Hold these,” she told him. Then she took three bright red shirts out of the bag and said, “My children wore these whenever we traveled. I could always find them with these on.”
The woman gave the shirts to Gary to hold.
“We really have to go now,” Max told the woman.
“But look at this teddy bear. It was my son’s favorite. There’s a bell inside the bear’s tummy.”
Gary gave the sneakers and shirts to the woman. Then he and Max walked quickly to the back exit. They watched the fifth graders and their parents leave the building. No one was carrying a bag or box big enough to hold Jackie. After everyone had gone, they walked slowly back to the theater.
Kevin and Diane were sitting in the front row of the theater. When they saw Gary and Max, Kevin shook his head. They hadn’t found Jackie.
Gary said, “Maybe someone took Jackie and is hiding until everyone has gone.”
“Where would he hide?” Diane asked. “All the classrooms are locked, and we checked the halls and the bathrooms.”
“I don’t think he’s stolen,” Kevin said. “I think Jackie is lost. But where could he be?”
Diane, Kevin, Gary, and Max watched as the old man in the yellow sweater pulled a large box down the aisle. He picked up papers and threw them into the box. And he swept.
Donna walked onto the stage. Ms. Benson and the principal, Dr. Smiley, were with her. They talked for a while. Then Donna left the stage and walked toward the others.
“They said it was a great show,” Donna told them. “And Dr. Smiley thought my jokes were real funny.”
“Jackie is missing,” Diane told her sister.
“What?”
“He really disappeared,” Gary said. “We haven’t seen him since I put him in my disappearing box.”
Donna sat in one of the theater seats. “I think I heard him,” she said. “When Gary was onstage, a lot of the kids in the show were laughing. I thought they were laughing at one of my jokes. But I remember hearing, ‘Tell me where it hurts,’ and, ‘Oh, Doctor, save me.’”
Gary stood up and said, “That’s Jackie. Why didn’t you catch him?”
“I was offstage on this side,” Donna said and pointed to the left. “And the laughing was on that side.” Donna pointed to the right. “And I was busy. An MC is real important. She has to watch every act and go onstage at just the right time.”
“Let’s look for him,” Gary said.
“Where?” Kevin asked. “We’ve looked just about everyplace.”
The old man in the yellow sweater pulled the box to the front of the theater. He picked up a few papers and showed them to Max.
The old man said, “I wish they wouldn’t give out programs for these shows. They all end up on the floor.”
Max, Gary, Kevin, and Donna helped the old man pick up the programs. Diane began to help. But she stopped. She looked at the old man and rubbed her chin. Then she asked him, “Did you say before that you have a closet like Max has, where you keep all your brooms and things?”
“Sure.”
“And you keep bird food there, too?”
“Yes, and I have fish food and plant food in the closet, too. Sometimes plants need extra minerals to help them grow.”
“Would you please take us there?”