News For Dogs by Lois Duncan

Author:Lois Duncan [Duncan, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-545-41515-6
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2011-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The hardest part was feeling so helpless. Although Bruce and Andi wanted desperately to stay with the Bernsteins, they had to go back to Aunt Alice’s house for dinner. Not only that, but they had to stay there all evening, as they’d promised their parents they wouldn’t leave the house after dinner.

To make matters worse, they couldn’t even phone the Bernsteins. That would tie up their line and make it impossible for the dognapper to contact them.

So they dutifully ate their chicken and their spinach salad and responded to Aunt Alice’s questions about what they had done that day and whether they had read their parents’ e-mail from Paris and did they think the white roses would look better in the blue vase or the crystal one.

“Would you like to start coming to Garden Club with me?” she asked Andi. “It’s never too early to start learning about flower arranging.”

“Maybe sometime,” Andi said, trying not to seem ungracious. “It does sound interesting, but I’m kind of busy right now.”

Aunt Alice regarded her with surprise. “What are you doing now that you’re no longer publishing a newspaper?”

“I’m writing a novel,” Andi told her. The words leapt out of her mouth of their own volition, but as soon as she heard herself say them, she knew they were true. She was going to write a novel, and she would start it immediately. Like her poems, that novel was probably already inside her, just waiting for her to pick up a pencil and release it.

“What is your novel about?” Aunt Alice asked with interest.

“About a dog,” Andi said immediately. “He vanishes from his yard, and his owners are afraid he’s been dognapped. They’re so scared of the dognapper that they start carrying baseball bats in case the criminal comes back to do something even worse.”

Bruce glared at her across the table and silently mouthed, “Shut up!”

Luckily, Aunt Alice didn’t see him.

“That sounds like an exciting story,” she said. “I hope it has a happy ending.”

“So do I,” Andi said fervently.

In the kitchen after dinner, as Bruce scraped plates and Andi loaded the dishwasher, he hissed at her, “You told! You promised you wouldn’t, and you did! You told her about Bully!”

“I did not,” Andi hissed back. “I told her about a book I’m going to write. I can’t help it if the plot is like something that’s really happened. All good plots are realistic.”

“Novels are fiction,” Bruce said. “If you put true stuff in there — one single name or detail about a real person — it won’t be just Mr. Murdock’s lawyer who’ll come after you. Every real person that you put in that book will have a lawyer.”

Since Bruce was too angry to talk to her, and she was afraid that if she stayed downstairs Aunt Alice would ask her to help arrange roses, Andi went up to the guest room, which was her bedroom while she was staying there, and got out a notebook and pencil.

She opened the notebook and sat for a moment, enjoying the empty page.

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