The old man pulled a large ring of keys from his pocket. “The closet is locked,” he said as he walked through the door near the front of the theater. “I try to keep it locked when there are children in the building.”
“But while you’re cleaning, you have to open it sometimes, don’t you?” Diane asked. “And you might even forget and leave it open for a while.”
Diane was walking beside the old man. Kevin, Gary, Donna, and Max were right behind them.
“Sure, I open it. All my mops and brooms and things are in there.”
“And the food for the fish and birds,” Diane said.
“We did keep it in the kindergarten rooms. But the children kept feeding the animals. They made a mess, and the animals were getting sick from eating too much. Now I keep the food in my closet.”
The old man stopped in front of a metal door with the number 157 painted on it. As he turned the key in the lock, someone on the other side of the door said, “Stick out your tongue. Take a deep breath. Say ‘Ah.’ Tell me where it hurts.”
“Jackie!” Gary, Kevin, Donna, Diane, and Max all called out.
“It sounds like there’s a doctor locked in here,” the old man said as he opened the door. He turned on the light.
“Oh, Doctor, save me,” Jackie called.
“Just look at this mess,” the old man said. The floor was covered with papers. Open boxes of fish food and bird food were spilled on the floor. “How did that bird get in here? He’s worse than the children.”
“Jackie probably flew out of the disappearing box by himself and you probably left this door open for a while,” Diane said. “Jackie saw the food and flew right in.”
Max was standing just outside the closet. He held out his hand and said, “Come to me, Jackie.”
Jackie flew toward Max. But he kept on flying.
“Quick! Catch him,” Gary called as he ran after Jackie.
Jackie flew toward the theater. Gary and the others ran after him.
“I’ll get the cage,” Max said, and he ran into the theater.
Jackie flew into an open stairwell. When the twins got there, Jackie was gone.
“He could be anywhere,” Kevin said. “These stairs go to every floor in the building.”
The twins ran up the stairs. Gary and Kevin ran through the second floor halls. Diane and Donna ran through the third floor. Max ran out of the theater carrying the cage.
Each of the twins ran from one floor to the next. They ran past each other. But they didn’t find Jackie. They all met in the third floor stairwell and walked downstairs together.
“Maybe Max found him,” Kevin said.
As the twins walked to the theater, they passed the principal’s office. “It’s these children,” they heard Dr. Smiley say. “Some of them do the strangest things. They give me a headache.”
“Take two aspirin,” they heard Jackie tell the principal. Then they heard the principal and Max laugh.
The twins walked into the principal’s office. Max was sitting in a chair. Jackie was in his cage.
“I found Jackie in here talking to Dr. Smiley,” Max told the twins.
“This bird is great,” Dr. Smiley said. “Listen to this.”
Dr. Smiley sat on the edge of his desk near Jackie’s cage. “What should I tell my teachers?” he asked Jackie.
“Take a deep breath. Stick out your tongue.”
The fourth floor twins stood around Jackie’s cage.
“Why did you fly away, Little Jackie?” Donna asked.
“You had us all worried,” Diane told Jackie.
“Oh, Doctor, save me. Save me,” Jackie called out.
“I didn’t save you,” Dr. Smiley said.
Then the twins and Max all said together, “We did!”