there really wasnât any case. Thereâs no mystery to shooing birds off a field. So nothing had been solved. I shouldnât have felt bad that Jack said Melody was better than me.
Melody is my best friend. I should have been glad Jack said that dumb thing, glad because it made her feel good.
But I wasnât glad. And I didnât want to go home and work on my drawing anymore. Jack was right. My drawing looked bad.
Besides, Iâm not crazy about birds, although I had to admit Taxi was. Taxi would have loved this case. Probably any cat would.
âWhatâs the matter with you?â Kate rode her bike in the street beside me. I wasnât surprised to see her. She lives just a couple of houses over from Jack.
âNothing,â I said.
She hopped off and walked the bike up onto the sidewalk. âWhy are you frowning?â
âIâm not,â I said.
âYouâre in a bad mood.â
âNo Iâm not.â
âWell, I am,â said Kate.âMy motherâs acting bad.â
Kate was the only person I knew who expected her mother to do whatever she said. âWhat happened?â I asked.
âShe said I had to go ride my bike for an hour.â
âThat doesnât sound bad,â I said.
âI donât like riding my bike. But my mother is on a health kick with her friend Julie. She thinks exercise is wonderful. So after I finished my homework, she made me go outside.â
âYou already finished your homework?â
âIt was easy. I traced a bird out of a magazine.â
âThatâs cheating.â
âNo itâs not. The teacher didnât say we couldnât trace. And donât you tell.â Kate nudged me with her elbow. âAnyway, what choice did I have? Itâs impossible to draw good with pen.You canât erase.â
âShe doesnât want us to erase. Thatâs the point.â
âI know,â said Kate. âSheâs crazy.â
âSheâs not crazy,â I said.
âYes she is. She said weâre going to draw birds all winter.â
âThereâs nothing crazy about that,â I said.
âSure there is. Birds fly away in winter.â
Ruined Grass
âWait!â Melody was calling me.
I turned around.
Melody ran up with Pong.
âOh, I love that puppy,â said Kate. She laid her bike on the ground. Then she sat on the sidewalk and held her arms out to Pong.
Pong ran straight up Kateâs front and licked her face. Kate laughed.
âI thought you were helping Jack,â I said to Melody.
âHe has a bad temper.â
âDid he get mad at Pong?â
âHe got mad at both of us. Iâm never helping him again.â
Pong was still licking Kate.
Kate was still laughing.
Melody laughed now too.
I thought of angry Jack, alone on the field with the birds. Sleuths have a responsibility toward their clients. Even clients who fired them before they were hired. âSee you later.â I walked back to the field.
Jack was jumping in the middle of the birds. He flapped his arms like a madman.
âWhat happened?â I called.
âThat stupid dog chased the soccer ball instead of the birds.â
I laughed.
âItâs not funny.â
âWhat else happened?â
âWhat do you mean?â
âYou know. You got mad at Melody too.â
âShe said she could kick better than me. Then she scored on me. But only because she fouled me. Her and her stupid ballet.â
âKickingâs not that important,â I said.
âIn soccer it is. If I donât get better at kicking, the coach will make me stay on the bench the whole game.â Jack looked really worried.
I knew how he felt. I love baseball, but Iâm not that good at it. âWhy donât you practice somewhere else?â âLike where?â
âYour backyard.â
âMy mother says soccer ruins the lawn.â
I looked out