Chapter 2
Owen
Meanwhile, Owen and his little brother Michael and their dad had had a good time at the Science Museum. Owen read all the description signs in the dinosaur-bones
room, which he wanted to do; Michael pushed all the buttons on the talking descriptions, which he wanted to do; and they both climbed on the “PLEASE CLIMB ON ME” pretend-dinosaur exhibit just outside the dinosaur room, which both of them wanted to do. And later, in the exhibit on electricity, all three of them—Dad included—made their floppy hair stand straight in all directions.
After they rode the bus back to their own neighborhood, they walked the last block home. And as they neared the For Rent house, Owen’s dad paused. “The sign is gone.”
Sure enough, the For Rent sign was not there.
“It’s not the For Rent house anymore,” said Michael sadly. “Hey, can I run all the way home?”
“Yes,” said their dad. Home was only three houses farther. Michael raced away.
Owen stopped to look at the For Rent house. It almost looked lonely without the sign in the yard. “Do you think someone rented it?”
“Probably,” said Dad. “And, maybe it’s someone with kids. More kids on the block would be nice, right?”
More kids? Did they really need more kids than him and Eleanor? Owen felt a little lurch in his stomach. What if the new kid was really cool, and Eleanor liked the new kid more than she liked Owen?
Then he shook his head to himself. No. She had just said the other day at the ice-cream store what good friends they were, and that she liked Owen exactly the way he was. She would stay his friend even if a new kid moved in. He knew that.
But the question was still there. Did they really need a new kid in the neighborhood? Weren’t Owen and Eleanor happy the way things were? Why should more kids move in?
“What are you thinking, sweetie?” asked Dad.
“Just thoughts,” said Owen. “Nothing important.”
Michael was already on the steps of their duplex, panting. They were home.
Almost as soon as they got inside the apartment, Eleanor was at their door, knocking very loud and fast. Owen let her in, and she blew past him into his and Michael’s room. “Michael,” she said, “there is a giant leaf pile in the backyard.”
Michael yelled to his dad and ran outside.
“Let’s go,” said Owen, starting to the door. A leaf pile sounded good.
But Eleanor didn’t run downstairs right away. She stood in the middle of Owen and Michael’s room. “There are new people in the For Rent house.”
“I know,” said Owen. “We saw.”
“You saw the new people?” She sounded disappointed.
“No, we saw that the For Rent sign was gone.”
“Oh, good. I think we should be detectives. I even have detective glasses and a detective coat for us and everything. And we have spy notebooks.”
Owen was confused. What did this have to do with the new people in the For Rent house?
“We’ll spy on the new people and observe them, like detectives, and figure out who they are and what they are like.”
“That’s kind of like the scientific method,” said Owen. “We just talked about this at the Science Museum today. Did you know that scientists observe things and make theories? We were talking about dinosaurs—”
“I did not know that,” said Eleanor, bouncing on her toes. She bounced when she was excited. “We’re not going to be scientists. We’re going to be detectives. But if you want to be a scientific detective, that’s fine. We’ll find out all about the new people.”
“We will?”
“Yes. And we’ll keep detective notes in our notebooks. I’ll wear the spy glasses since you have your own glasses already. But you can wear the detective coat if you want.”
Owen thought about it. Detective sounded like a good game. And he was curious about the new people. “Okay. Can we jump in the leaf pile now?”
Eleanor stopped bouncing and froze, a shocked look on her face. “Yikes! We better hurry, or Michael will get all the good jumps!”
First they grabbed Owen’s notebook from his room and stopped at Eleanor’s apartment to grab her notebook too—and the spy glasses and detective coat. Then they ran outside.
Michael was half-hidden under the pile of leaves, only his lower body sticking out, legs kicking.
“What are you playing?” Eleanor called to him. “Wait, I’ll detect it.” She shoved the glasses onto her face. They wobbled on her nose and rolled their googly eyes. Spy glasses didn’t normally have googly eyes, Owen was pretty sure, but these were Aaron’s Mad Scientist glasses from Halloween a long time ago. Eleanor said they were just like real spy glasses.
Owen rolled up the sleeves of the white detective coat (also from Aaron’s Mad Scientist costume) so he could use his hands. The pocket of the coat, which held his notebook perfectly, said “Dr. Frankenstein” on it in official-looking black letters. Eleanor said he’d be Frankenstein the Detective and she’d be Sherlock Vader.
Eleanor tried to explain all this to Michael, but he didn’t seem interested. He was still head-first in the leaves. “I’m busy. I’m digging a hole to catch a fairy.” Michael’s legs slowly disappeared into the leaves.
“Well, we need a turn too,” said Eleanor. “I raked that pile.”
“By yourself?” asked Owen, impressed.
“Aaron helped.”
Michael emerged out of the side of the pile, covered with leaves. “The fairy escaped,” he said. He wandered off to the woods at the back of the yard.
Eleanor took off her spy glasses and Owen took off his real glasses so they wouldn’t get smooshed, and they put their glasses on the little table near the house. Then they held hands and ran together as fast as they could toward the pile, Eleanor yelling, “Charge! Defeat the Empire!” and Owen imagining that all of the Star Wars Empire soldiers were standing against them and they were detectives, racing into unimaginable danger. They didn’t need any more friends. They needed exactly what they had now.
Owen and Eleanor jumped, and leaves went flying, and everything was perfect just the way it was.
