Tommy’s frown suddenly turned into a smile. “Hey! Do you think my new neighbors gots any kids?” He toddled over to the front door to take a peek out the window so he could try and get a glimpse of his neighbors across the street.
Danny shrugged. “I don’t know.” Then he grinned. “But we can always find out!” He went into the living room and walked over to his new, small, blue bag. Danny then opened the zipper, rummaged through the bag a bit, and pulled out a pair of small, blue binoculars. He headed back to the front door to where Tommy was still waiting for him.
“Wow, Danny!” he exclaimed. “What is that?”
“They’re called binoculars. You can use them to look at things from a far distance. Now,” Danny continued, “let’s see who’s moving in!”
He moved closer to the window, and held the binoculars up to his face. Danny was surprised to find that the lenses were very dark and blurry.
“Huh?”
He turned the binoculars around to see if he was holding them the right way, or if the lenses were dirty. But it turned out that there was a label stuck to the front of them! Danny peeled the label off as carefully as he could, and read it. It said:
WARNING: OBJECTS MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.
Danny chuckled and rolled his eyes. ‘Why do the manufacturers need to put this on a pair of binoculars?’ He shrugged, crumpled the label in his right hand, and put it in his pocket. Then, Danny started to look across the street with the binoculars again. The lenses were much clearer now.
All he could see so far was a giant moving truck, along with Tommy’s star ball right behind it in the backyard of the Pickles’ new neighbors.
“You never told me that there was a moving truck across the street!” Danny said, not taking his eyes off the binoculars.
“There is?” Tommy asked, with excitement in his voice. “It wasn’t theres when I was looking for my ball! Let me sees!”
Danny handed the binoculars to Tommy, and he looked through them with amazement. “Wow! You’re right! There is a giant truck out theres!”
A few more minutes passed without any luck of seeing the neighbors. Stu Pickles came up from the basement with his toolbox, and glanced over to see Danny and Tommy looking out the window. Stu chuckled to himself. ‘What are those boys up to now?’ he wondered.
He approached Danny and Tommy as slowly as he could. Then, he lifted Tommy up into his arms as fast as he could. Tommy gasped at first when he was unexpectedly grabbed. But, when he saw it was his Dad, he giggled with delight.
Danny turned around to see what was making Tommy laugh so hard. “Oh, hey, Mr. Pickles!” Danny exclaimed. “What’s new?”
“I was just going to ask the same thing.” Stu said, pointing to Danny’s binoculars.
“Oh, these? Well, we saw the note about Mrs. Pickles visiting the neighbors across the street, so, Tommy and I decided to see if your new neighbors have any kids we can play with.”
Stu set Tommy back down, and leaned next to Danny. “Have you boys had any luck yet?”
“Not yet.” Danny said, lifting the binoculars up to his face again. Nobody was in the neighbors yard yet.
“Well,” Stu said, “I don’t think reading my notes and spying on our new neighbors is going to help anything.”
Danny glanced up at Stu when he realized what he was trying to say. “I guess I should’ve thought of that beforehand.” he said, apologetically. “Sorry, Mr. Pickles. I wasn’t trying to invade yours or the neighbors privacy.”
Stu nodded. “It’s okay, Danny.” He paused, then said, “Tell you what, why don’t I give you and Tommy some lunch, and then we’ll go over and see the new neighbors. Sound like a plan?”
“Sounds great!” Danny exclaimed. “Thanks, Mr. Pickles!”
Stu nodded again, and headed toward the kitchen, while Danny and Tommy started to build a block tower. Just when Stu was about open the refrigerator, the doorbell rang. He quickened up his pace a bit and got to the door before the doorbell’s forth ring. Stu grinned when he looked into the peep hole and opened the door. It was Chas Finster and his two-year -old son, Chuckie.
Chas greeted Stu with a big smile and said, “Sorry to come here in such short notice, but my Dad has a huge cold and my Mom needs some help around the house for a few days.”
Stu frowned. “Is he alright?”
Chas nodded. “I just need someone to watch Chuckie until Tuesday, and I haven’t been able to get anybody to baby sit.” he explained. “Betty and Howard are taking Phil and Lil to the doctor’s for a checkup. Charlotte and Drew are with Angelica at a hotel for Charlotte’s business meeting. And Danny, Sam, and Tucker’s houses are in a whole different town!”
“Don’t worry about it, Chas!” Stu exclaimed. “Bring all of Chuckie’s stuff over here so he can spend the night. Danny’s staying here until Tuesday anyway, while his parents are at an inventors science meeting. Jazz is at a friend’s house. Tucker, Sam, and their parents are away too.”
“Wow!” Chas cried, setting Chuckie down into the Pickles’ hallway. “And I thought spring break was supposed to be relaxing!”
As Chas and Stu continued their chat, Chuckie toddled over to where Danny and Tommy were playing. “Hi’ya guys!” Chuckie greeted them happily.
“Hi’ya, Chuckie!” Tommy exclaimed.
“What’s knew, Chuck?” Danny asked.
“Well, I’m staying here for two whole days!” Chuckie replied.
“Cool! So am I!”
“That’s great!” Chuckie paused, then asked, “What are you guys doing?”
“We’re building a block tower!” Tommy answered. “Do you wanna help us out?”
“Sure!” Chuckie picked up a block, and carefully set it on top of the block tower. “Why are we building a block tower anyway?”
“We’re waiting for my Daddy to make us some lunch, then we gets to go visit the new neighbors!”
“Oh.” Chuckie carefully placed another block on the tower. He paused again, then said, “I didn’t know you gots horsys, Tommy!”
“You’d better start asplaining, Danny!” Tommy exclaimed, patting his playmate on the back.
Danny sighed.
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