Chapter 3 Part 2

     ‘The Scream’ looked a lot like what Danny had expected.  But, it also looked a lot different too.  It was a man with a strangely shaped head screaming.  But, it had a lot of red, orange, yellow, brown, and black colors too.  They were both on the man’s face and in the background.

     ‘Wow!’ Danny thought.  ‘Whoever painted this picture did a really good job!’  He walked down the hall to look more paintings. After looking at paintings for awhile, Danny figured he should head back to where Mr. and Mrs. Pickles were.  Chuckie was probably eager by now to get to the Children’s Art Center.

     As he was heading back down the hall, Danny heard a man’s voice coming from behind him.  “Hey, kid!  Could you come over hear for a moment?  I need to ask you a question.”

     Danny stopped, and hesitated.  His parents had taught him and his sister Jazz to never talk to strangers.  But it sounded like this guy really needed some help.  So, instead of walking up to the stranger, Danny turned around to face him, and stood in the same spot a few feet away from the man.  “Y-Yes, sir?” he asked, nervously.

     The man smiled at Danny, and pointed to the directory map in his left hand.  “Do you know where I can get one of those?” he asked.

     He was a tall, skinny man, probably about six feet tall.  He was bald with a bit of stubble on his face.  The stranger wore a light blue button up shirt, with brown jeans, and black shoes.  In a strange sort of way, it reminded Danny of one of those male school teachers you see in the movies.

     Danny glanced down at his copy of the museum directory map, back up at the stranger, and quickly said, “A nice lady gave me one when I entered the museum.”  He glanced back down at the map.  “But, you can have this one if you want.  I have an extra copy.”

     Just to be safe, Danny set the directory map on the ground, and walked down the hall as fast as he could, away from the man.  He heard the man saying, “Thanks, kid!  You’re a real help!”

     Danny smiled to himself.  He enjoyed helping people.

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     When Danny came back down the hall, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles ran up to him.

     “Are you okay, Danny?” Didi asked, concerned.  “We saw that man trying to talk to you, and we wanted to make sure you were alright.”

     Danny nodded.  “I’m fine, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles.  I stood a good distance away from him.  He just wanted a map to the museum, so I gave him my extra copy.”

     Stu sighed.  “Well, that’s a relief!” he exclaimed.  “Just remember to be careful if that ever happens again, Danny.” he said, sternly.

     Danny nodded once again, and the six of them headed to the Children’s Art Center.  It was a pretty big place, with lots of little kids there.  Some were drawing and playing with clay at round tables.  Some were painting pictures on easels.  There were even a couple of babies in playpens scribbling on paper.  The babies were amazed.

     “Wow!” Susie exclaimed.  “Look at all the art stuffs!”

     “Yeah!” Tommy exclaimed.  “It’s really big!  And look, Chuckie!” he said excitedly to his friend.  “There’s lots of pictures that babies drawed and painted hanging on the walls!”

     Tommy was right about that.  There were all sorts of drawings and paintings hanging on the bright, orange walls.  All of them looked pretty cool.

     Chuckie was grinning at all of the pictures.  “How many of them do you think there are, Tommy?” he asked.

     Tommy looked around the room some more, smiled, and shrugged.  “I don’t know.” he replied.  “Probably elevendey.”

     Chuckie nodded.  “That’s a pretty good guess, Tommy.”

     “Thanks, Chuckie!”

     While Stu and Didi were checking the babies in, Chuckie headed over to the drawing table.  The others followed.

     “What are you going to draw this time, Chuck?” Danny asked, once he got close enough to the round table.

     Chuckie smiled at his friend.  “You’ll see!” he exclaimed, taking a sheet of paper and an orange crayon from the middle of the table.  He carefully started drawing.

     About a minute later, Stu and Didi walked up to the four kids.

     “Okay, kids!” Stu exclaimed.  “Didi and I are going shopping for new parts of my latest invention.”  Stu worked as a kids’ toy maker.  Unfortunately, most of his toys never ended up working.  But he never seemed to give up.

     Didi quickly leaned down, and kissed Tommy on the forehead.  “You be good sweetie.” she said in a cutesy baby voice.  “We’ll be back in about an hour!”

     Tommy smiled up at his mother, then turned back to try and look at Chuckie’s latest drawing.  But, of course, he wouldn’t let him.

     As Stu and Didi were leaving the Children’s Art Center, Danny suddenly realized something.  He started searching through his vest pockets, then patted both his side and back jean pockets.  “Uh, oh!” he cried.

     “What is it, Danny?” Susie asked.

     “I think I dropped the box of crayons I brought with me somewhere.” he replied.  “They aren’t in any of my pockets!”

     “Well, maybe you just dropped it somewheres in the Arts Center!” Tommy exclaimed.  “We’ll helps you looks for them!”

     Chuckie quickly slipped his drawing into his red folder, then the four of them started looking for Danny’s box of crayons.  They checked behind the counter and in the bathrooms.  They even asked some of the babies if they had seen it.  But, no matter where they looked, they just couldn’t seem to find those crayons!

     While the kids were still searching, two janitors in dark green suits came walking into the Children’s Art Center.  Danny glanced up to have a look at them.  One of them was the tall, bald, skinny man that Danny had met earlier.  The other man was also bald, but he was much shorter and heavier than his friend.  He was also wearing a dark, green baseball cap.

     The tall man walked up to the counter where the young lady who was watching all of the babies was sitting.  He smiled at her then said, “The regular janitors called in sick today, and we’re their replacements.” he explained.  “We were told that the mops, buckets, and toilet scrubbers were in here.”

     The lady smiled at the two men.  “May I ask what your name is sir?” she asked.  “It’s for security reasons.”

     The tall man nodded.  “I’m Zack, and this is my partner Jerald.”

     The chubby man took off his baseball cap.  “How do you do Madam?” he asked, then put his cap back on.

     “Just fine, thank you!” the lady replied, looking at the list of employees.  “Yes, you two are on the list.”  She handed the museum keys to the skinny man.  “Here are the keys to the whole museum, and to the janitor’s closet.  Thanks for coming on such sort notice.”

     “No problem!” Jerald exclaimed.  “That’s what we’re here to do!  Clean!”

     They both headed over to the janitor’s closet near the bathrooms.  As soon as they got the supplies they needed from the closet, the two men hurried out of the Children’s Art Center.

     Danny then decided to look underneath the tables.  He knew that the babies hadn’t looked there for his crayons yet.  As he was searching around the tables, Danny spotted his box of crayons near the small entrance door to the Art Center.  He crawled over toward the door, that way he wouldn’t pop up and scare any of the kids at the tables, and quickly grabbed his box of crayons.

     Just as he was about to stand up, Danny heard a voice outside of the door.   “What do we do now, Mark?” it asked.

     Danny slowly stood up, and took a quick peek outside of the door.  It was the two substitute janitors who had just left just a few seconds ago.  But why did Jerald call the skinny man Mark?  Danny was totally confused.

     He slowly ducked down so the janitors wouldn’t see him.  Danny figured he better listen in on the conversation.  It could be important.

     Danny heard Mark shush his friend.  “Be quiet, Jasper!” he whispered.  “We don’t want anybody listening in on us!”

     ‘Jasper?’ Danny thought.  ‘He said his name was Jerald to the lady behind the counter.’  He put his ear to the door so he could hear them better.

     “Who’s going to listen in?” Jasper asked.  “The babies and kids in the Art Center?  They wouldn’t understand what we were saying anyway.  They aren’t very bright.”

     Danny frowned at this.  ‘Neither are you, buddy.’ he thought.

     “You’re right.” Mark replied.  “But, listen.  This what we’re going to do.  We’ve already taken care of the real substitute janitors.  And I’ve got the map of the museum right here!”

     Danny heard Jasper gasp.  “Where did you get that?” he asked, with a surprised tone of voice.

     “Well,” Mark explained, happily, “since we snuck in through the back door of the museum, I couldn’t walk to the lady at the entrance door.  She wouldn’t have recognized us!”  He paused, then continued.  “So, I just asked this little boy where he got his map, and he was nice enough to give me his extra copy.”

     “Anyway,” Mark continued, “that’s not important!  I need to explain to you how we’re going to deal with The Mona Lisa!”

     “Yeah.” Jasper sighed.  “I’m sure she’s really pretty.”

     Danny stuck out his tongue in disgust.  He was startled by a huge slap.

     “She’s not a person, Jasper!” Mark whispered, madly.  “It’s a painting of a girl!”

     “Oh.” Jasper replied, sounding slightly disappointed.

     “Now,” Mark continued, “here’s the plan.  We pretend we’re cleaning the floors, right?  And then we’ll ‘happen’ to walk past the copy of The Mona Lisa.”

     “Okay.”

     “Then we’ll trade it with this copy of The Mona Lisa I bought from the museum’s gift shop.  We’ll then get on an airplane, and go to the big museum to steal the real copy of The Mona Lisa.  Are you with me so far?”

     “Uh, huh.”

     “Then we’ll replace the real copy of the Mona Lisa with the one hanging around somewhere in this museum, fly back here, go to our headquarters where our boss is, and we’ll be rich!”  Mark laughed.  “It’s a fool proof plan!  Nobody can stop us!”

     “That’s great, Mark!” Jasper exclaimed.  “Except there’s one thing I don’t get.”

     “What’s that?” Mark asked, irritated.  “I thought I explained the plan pretty clear enough.”

     “Oh, you did a good job explaining it to me, Mark!” Jasper said.  “It’s just that, if we’re going to give The Mona Lisa to the boss, how are we going to get the cash?”

     Danny was startled again by another slap.

     “Jasper, you idiot!” Mark whispered, sternly.  “Our boss is going to give us the money!”

     “But where will he get the cash?” Jasper asked.

     “Where do you think he’s going to get the cash?”

     “Um, I don’t know.” Jasper said, hesitantly.  “The money making place?”

     Mark sighed.  “It comes from…well, never mind!  We need to get to work before the guards come back from their lunch break!”

     Once Danny heard the footsteps start going down the hall, then fading away, he quickly stood up and ran past the art tables, trying to look for his friends.

     ‘Oh my gosh!’ Danny thought, panicking.  ‘I just gave directions to two criminals!’

Rugphan

Chapter 3 Part 1: A Trip to the Art Museum

The next morning, Susie’s dad started painting her black room walls with different colored, polka dotted circles.  But before her dad painted the polka dots, he had to paint the walls white.  Susie was so excited about her room, she kept walking in while her Dad was painting.  So, her Mom had to take her to Tommy’s house for the day.

     When Susie got to Tommy’s house, Chuckie was waiting for her.  “Hi’ya, Susie!” he exclaimed.  “Has your Daddy finished painting your bedroom yet?”

     Susie smiled, assuming that Didi had told them that she was coming, and shook her head.  “He only just started painting awhile ago.  He thinks you’re a good drawer, Chuckie!”

     Chuckie smiled.  “Danny and Tommy are upstairs talking to Sam and Tucker on the speaker phone.” he said.

     “Who’s Sam and Tucker?”

     “Some of Danny’s friends from school.  They come to play here all of the time.  Tucker’s my playmate!”  He paused, then said, “You can come talk to them if you want!”

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     “That’s pretty cool, you guys!” Tucker exclaimed.  “I was hoping Chuckie would find something to do that he isn’t scared of!”  He was staying at his uncle’s house for spring break.

     “So, has Chuckie been doing anymore drawings?” Sam asked.  She was visiting some old friends of her parents for a few days.

     “Yeah.” Danny replied.  “He drew one picture yesterday, and two today.  He seems to enjoy it.  Plus, he seems to like Susie Carmichael a lot.”

     “Who’s Susie Carmichael?”

     Tommy answered Sam’s question for Danny.  “Susie’s my new next door neighbor!  She moved up here ‘cause her daddy’s job moved here from a different town.”

     “Wait a minute!” Tucker exclaimed.  “Jobs can move to different towns?”

     Tommy was about to say something to Tucker, when Danny interrupted.  “I’m not going to explain it again Tommy.” he said.  Then he continued.  “Anyway, I think I hear footsteps.  We’d better stop talking about ‘you know who’ now.”

     A few seconds later, Chuckie and Susie entered Tommy’s room.

     “Hi’ya, guys!” Susie exclaimed.  “What are you doing?”

     “Hi’ya, Susie!” Tommy greeted his new neighbor.  “Me and Danny were just talking to our friends Sam and Tucker.  Do you wanna say hi?”

     Susie smiled and nodded.  “Sure, why not?”

     Tommy scooted over so Susie and Chuckie could have a spot to sit on the floor.  “It’s on speaker phone, so you don’t haves to picks up the phone.” he explained.

     After a couple of brief introductions, Susie chatted with Sam and Tucker for a few minutes.  “I can’t wait to meet you guys in person.” she said, happily.  “You both seem very nice.”

     “Thanks, Susie!” Sam exclaimed.  “You seem very nice too!”

     “Thanks, Sam!”

     Didi came upstairs to check on the four of them.  “Okay, kids!  It’s time to get off the phone!”

     Danny smiled at her.  “Okay, Mrs. Pickles.  I’ll be downstairs in a second!”

     Chuckie, Susie, and Tommy said goodbye to Sam and Tucker, and toddled out of the room.

     Once Danny was sure his friends were out of earshot, he said, “Okay, you guys, I have to go downstairs, but before I do, I have a couple of things to tell you.”

     “Go ahead, dude!” Tucker said, excitedly.  He knew when Danny had something important to say just to him and Sam, it meant business.  Fun business that is.

     “Okay.” Danny glanced back out of Tommy’s bedroom door just to make sure the babies weren’t listening in.  They weren’t.  “First of all, since Chuckie is into artwork now, Mrs. Pickles is taking us to an art museum later today.”

     “That’s so cool!” Sam exclaimed.

     Danny nodded, even though his friends couldn’t see him doing it.  “The only thing is, is that the babies don’t know yet.  Mrs. Pickles said I’m not allowed to tell them.”

     “Why?” Tucker asked.

     “I don’t know.  To surprise them I guess.”

     “Anyway,” Sam interrupted him, “what else were you going to tell us?”

     Danny grinned.  “I think we have a new ghost group member!”

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     About an hour and a half later, the four of them were on their way to the art museum.  Stu and Didi Pickles had already told them they were going after lunch.  As promised, Danny pretended to be surprised.

    Danny, who was looking out the car window moments before, glanced at Chuckie, who was sitting two seats away from him on his left.  He was holding a small, red folder with both hands, and grinning excitedly.  Didi had been to this museum before, and had told the kids that there was a Children’s Art Center where people posted up the kids artwork on the walls.

Chuckie was looking forward to it, and hoped that at least one of his three pictures would get picked.

     When they got to the museum, and found a good parking spot, the four kids were looking forward to see what kind of artistic creations were waiting for them.  Chuckie was practically trying to pull Didi across the street.  He was so excited.

      “My goodness!” Didi exclaimed, surprised.  “Chuckie, dear, slow down!  Any minute your going to pull my arm out of its socket!”

      Tommy, who was holding Stu’s left hand, glanced at his mother worriedly.

      Danny smiled at his playmate from Stu’s right.  “It’s just an expression, Tommy.” he explained.

      Tommy grinned with relief, and quickly nodded.

      Soon enough, the six of them entered the doors to the art museum.  The babies stared around in awe.  There were sculptures, drawings, and paintings everywhere.  It was like someone took all of their imaginations out of their heads, and created it into a place full of color.  They had never seen anything like it.

     Chuckie was smiling all over the museum.  He enjoyed the fact that something he loved to do was all in this one big place.  He stopped looking around when he spotted a picture that really caught his eye.

     “Hey, Danny!” Chuckie called out.  “Come here!”

     Danny quickly hurried to where his friend was standing.  “What is it, Chuck?” he asked.

     Chuckie pointed to the painting he was looking at.  “Who’s that girl in that painting?” he questioned.

     Danny glanced at who Chuckie was talking about, and smiled.  “That’s the Mona Lisa.” he answered.  “But this is just a copy of the painting.  The real one is somewhere else in the United States.”

     Chuckie tilted his head, trying to look at the picture from different angles.  “Really?” he asked.  Then he paused.  “Wait a minute!  Her name’s the Moaning Lisa, but she’s not moaning.” He paused again, then walked off to take a look at the next picture.  “That’s inneresting!”

     Danny was a little surprised by what Chuckie had just said.  He had never said something was ‘inneresting’ in his whole life!  Danny shrugged it off, thinking it was something he was saying because of his new hobby, and pulled his museum directory out of his left vest pocket.  He walked over to where Didi was and told her he was going to take a look at some of the paintings.

     Didi smiled and nodded.  “Alright.” she agreed.  “Just stay where I can see you, Danny.”

     “Thanks, Mrs. Pickles!” Danny exclaimed.

     He quickly opened his directory, and looked at the column where the paintings were.  Danny soon decided to take a look at the painting called ‘The Scream’.  He had never seen that one before.  He quickly walked down the hall.

Rugphan

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Chapter 2: Chuckie’s Masterpiece

“Okay, babies!” Tommy exclaimed.  “Start those crams!”

     Chuckie, Danny, and Tommy had just gotten home from the Carmichaels’ new home, and the three young boys were eager in trying to draw some good pictures for Susie’s room.  Tommy had gone up as fast as he could to his room, and grabbed a twenty-four pack of crayons and plenty of sheets of paper from underneath his bed.  Now, all of them were coloring away on the coffee table in the Pickles’ living room.  Well, almost everyone anyway.

     Chuckie kept lowering his purple crayon toward his blank piece of paper, hesitated, then raised his hand, and switched his crayon to his other hand.

     Danny happened to notice this.  “Is something wrong, Chuck?”

     Chuckie jumped, startled, then said, “Um, sort of.”

     “What is it?”

     Chuckie hesitated once again.

     “You can tell me and Tommy anything, Chuck!” Danny said, smiling.  “We promise we won’t laugh.  Right, Tommy?”

     Tommy glanced up at Chuckie and nodded.  “We promless, Chuckie!”

     Chuckie took a deep breath and said,  “My Daddy says, I’m anti-dexterous.”

     Danny smiled, and held back his laughter.  “I think you mean, ambidextrous, Chuck.” he corrected.

     Tommy glanced at Chuckie, puzzled.  “What does that mean?” he asked.

     Danny turned to Chuckie before answering.  Chuckie nodded to let Danny know that he could answer Tommy’s question.

     “You know how you draw with your right hand, Tommy?” Danny started.  “And I draw with my left hand?  Well…” he paused.  Danny couldn’t think of a good enough way to explain what ambidextrous meant.  So, Chuckie took over.

     “It’s like when we go on the seesaw at the park, Tommy.” he explained.  “There’s one side of the seesaw that doesn’t have the little soft pillow thing on one end.  So, when my bottom gets all sore, we switch places.”

     Tommy nodded.  “But I still don’t gets what seesaws gots to do with drawing pictures for Susie.”

     “I’m going to tell you that right now!” Chuckie exclaimed.  “When my left hand gets tired of holding this crayon, I put it into my right hand.  I’m able to write with both my hands.  That’s what anti-dexterous means.”

     Tommy smiled.  “I thinks that’s pretty cool, Chuckie!” he said, happily.  “But how comes you was afraid to tell us?”

     Chuckie shrugged.  “When I have to switch the crayon to my other hand, my other hand has to get used to drawing for a few minutes.  So, all of my pictures end up looking really messy.”

     Danny shrugged.  “That’s no big deal, Chuck!” He showed his friend his drawing.  “I’m drawing some yellow stars, but they’re not perfect looking!  Besides,” he added, “your drawing doesn’t even have to be a picture!  It could be rainbow colors or something.”

     Chuckie grinned.  “You just gived me a great idea, Danny!  Thanks!”

     Danny nodded, and watched Chuckie take a few crayons and his sheet of paper toward the playpen.  “Chuck, what are you doing?” he asked.

     “I’m going over to the playpen to draws my picture.  I wants it to be a surprise for tomorrow!”

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     “Hey, Chuckie!” Tommy exclaimed.  “Can you tell us what your picture is, now?”

     Chuckie shook his head while smiling at his best friend.  “Sorry, Tommy!” he said, happily.  “You gots to wait until tomorrow!”

     “But tomorrow’s a long time away!”

     Danny grinned and shook his head.  “Tommy, no matter how many times you ask Chuck to see his picture, he’s not gonna show it to you until tomorrow.”  He quickly rolled out his dark green sleeping bag onto Tommy’s bedroom floor.  “Besides,” he added, slipping on his red pajama pants, “you know that I want to see the picture too!  It’ll give us something to look forward to in the morning.”

     Tommy, who was standing on top of his bed plopped down onto his bed as a sign of giving up on asking Chuckie about his drawing.  He was wearing dark blue footie pajamas.  “You know Danny, you can sleeps up here with me and Chuckie.  There’s a lota room up here!”

     Danny nodded, and pulled his red pajama shirt over his head.  “Thanks for the offer Tommy, but my Mom and Dad gave me this sleeping bag, and I’d better put it to good use!”

     Danny had brought his sleeping bag to the Pickles’ house for a few reasons.  Number three:  It was the middle of spring break, and it was raining.  Number two:  It was pretty cold in Tommy’s room during winter and springtime, and his sleeping bag was comfy and warm.  And Number One:  Danny really didn’t want to sleep with two babies that weren’t (or had hardly any experience in) potty trained.  Besides, Danny liked his sleeping bag.  It was something he could relax in while his parents and his sister were away.

     After about fifteen minutes of chatting, Didi Pickles entered the room.  “Okay, boys!  It’s time for bed!” she said, smiling.  “You don’t want to be tired when Susie comes over tomorrow!”

     Tommy and Chuckie slid under Tommy’s bedcovers, while Danny slipped into his sleeping bag.  They were all very sleepy.

     “Goodnight, kids!” Didi whispered, giving the three boys each a quick kiss on the cheek.  “See you in the morning!”

     Danny closed his eyes.  “Goodnight, Mrs. Pickles.”

     Didi flicked down the light switch, and quietly left the room.  The only light in the room was the light that shone through the crack underneath Tommy’s bedroom door, and his Reptar nightlight on his dresser.  No more than two minutes later, the three young boys were soon fast asleep.

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     The next morning, Danny had a surprise awakening.  He was waking up to go use the bathroom, when he saw a smiling face staring straight at him.

     “AHHHHHHHHH!” Danny screamed.

     “Good!” Tommy exclaimed.  “You’re awake!”

     Danny was breathing hard, like he had just run a marathon.  “W-What t-time is it?” he asked.

     Tommy toddled across his bedroom toward his dresser, stood on his tippy-toes, and grabbed his Reptar nightlight.  Tommy’s Reptar nightlight was a nightlight that had a digital alarm clock attached to the bottom of it.  He showed the alarm clock to his playmate.

     Danny squinted at the alarm clock.  He couldn’t see very well in the dark.  “Tommy, it’s 6:45 in the morning!”

     “But my Mommy always makes pamcakes on Monday mornings!” Tommy exclaimed.  “I knows it’s Monday ‘cause my Mommy is never up this early in the morning!”

     “Do you always get up around this time on Monday mornings?” Danny asked.

     “Mostest, of the times, yes!” his playmate answered.

     Danny sighed.  “Fine.  Just let me go use the bathroom, and I’ll be downstairs in a minute.”  He slowly got up.  He knew he wasn’t going to be getting anymore sleep at this point.

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     “Good morning, Danny!” Didi greeted him happily.  “Would you like a plain or a blueberry pancake?”

     Danny let out a small yawn.  “Blueberry, please.” he murmured, walking toward the kitchen table.  He was still a little bit tired.

     Danny hoisted himself onto a chair and glanced at Tommy and Chuckie.  They were smiling at him while chewing on their plain pancakes.  They both had maple syrup all over their faces.

     “Hi’ya, Danny!” Chuckie exclaimed.  “You should try one of these pamcakes!  They’re really nummy!”

     “Yeah, Danny!” Tommy replied.  “Tries one!”  He took another bite of his pancake, paused, and quickly grabbed his bottle of milk sitting on the left side of his highchair.  “But makes sure you gots something to drinks firstest, or else you’ll gets really thirsty.”  Tommy took two sips of his milk, then sighed.  “That’s betterer!”

    Danny nodded at his playmate.  “I’m going to get a pancake in a minute.”

    Chuckie looked at Danny, and smiled, recognizing the expression on his friend’s face.  “Did Tommy surprise you this morning, Danny?”

    Danny nodded, and laughed a little.  “He was so close to my face, I nearly wet my pants when I woke up!”

    “Yeah, he does that to me too.  You’re gonna have to get used to it.” 

Chuckie took another bite of his pancake.

    Tommy shrugged.  “Sorry, Danny.  That’s the only way I can wait for peoples to wakes up when I’m the only one awakes!”

    Danny smiled.  “It’s okay, Tommy.  As long as it keeps me asleep longer, it’s just fine with me!”

    His playmate grinned, and licked some of the syrup off of his face.

    Chuckie suddenly groaned.

    “Are you alright, Chuck?” Danny asked, worriedly.

    Chuckie quickly shook his head.  “No!” he cried.  “I think I ate too much of my pamcake, and drank too much of my milk!”  He jumped out of his booster seat, quickly took off his Dummi Bear bib, set it on the table, and ran out of the room.  “I’ll be right back!” he called to his friends.

    Tommy was still looking down into the living room where Chuckie had ran just a moment ago.  “Speaking of the bathroom,” Tommy started, “why did it take you so long to comes out heres?”

    Danny glanced up at his playmate.  “Tommy, I was only in the bathroom for ten minutes.”

    “I know.” Tommy replied.  “It’s just that Chuckie takes only two minutes to go use the potty.  It took you eight extra minutes.”

    “That’s true, but-,” Danny cut off, surprised by what Tommy had just said.

    Tommy looked at his friend with a puzzled look on his face.  “But, what?”

    “How did you know that it took me eight extra minutes in the bathroom?  You don’t know how to do any math!”

    His playmate shrugged.  “I don’t know.  It was just a lucky guess.”

    Danny blinked twice with amazement.  “Anyway, I was in the bathroom for so long because I always ruffle my hair perfectly, that way it doesn’t look like a mess.”

    “But, Danny,” Tommy interrupted, “no fence or anything, but your hair always looks like a mess.”

    “Point taken.” Danny said smiling.  He paused.  “Do you wanna here a secret?”

    “Sure!” Tommy exclaimed.  “As long as it’s between us!”

    Danny sighed.  “Tommy, that’s what a secret is.”

    “Really?” Tommy’s eyes widened.  “No wonder Angelica doesn’t tell me anything anymore.”

    Danny paused for a moment.  Then, he glanced around to make sure no one was listening, and said to Tommy, “I was born with a ton of hair, Tommy.”

    “It makes sense to me.”

    “No, Tommy!  I mean,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “my hair was a lot like Sam’s when I was born.”

    “Wow!  What did you do?”

    “What all newborns do.” Danny said, answering Tommy’s question.  “Cry.  I didn’t know where I was at the time.  I had just come out of my small little…” He paused.  Tommy was staring at Danny, wanting him to finish his sentence.  “…hospital bed,” he continued, “and the doctors were going to staple all of my hair to my head.”

    “STAPLES?!” Tommy cried.

    “SHHH!” Danny hushed his playmate.  “Tommy!  I don’t want anyone to hear you!”

    “Whoops!  Sorry, Danny!  I mean,” he lowered his voice, “staples?”

    Danny nodded.  “That’s why my hair is like this.  But remember, Tommy,” he said sternly, “you can’t tell anybody about this.  Not even Chuck.  Got it?”

    Tommy nodded.  “Don’t worry, Danny!  Your secret is safe with me!”

    Danny smiled at his playmate.  That’s when Didi had just finished cooking his blueberry pancake.  Danny took a plastic fork that was sitting in front of him, cut up a piece of his pancake, took a bite, and grinned.  “You and Chuck were right!  These are good pancakes!”

    “Told you!” Chuckie said, as he was walking back into the kitchen.

J                                   J                                   J                                   J

     An hour later, after everyone was clean and dressed, Chuckie, Danny, and Tommy were sitting on the Pickles’ living room couch, waiting for Susie and her Mom to arrive.  Each of them had their drawing in their hands.  Tommy, who was sitting next to Danny on his right side, was trying to glance at Chuckie’s picture.  The only problem was, Chuckie was on Danny’s left side.  No matter how hard Tommy tried to look at his friend’s picture, Chuckie just wouldn’t let him see it.

     Danny noticed this, and cut in for a moment.  “You guys, I need to say something.”

     “Sure, Danny!” both boys exclaimed.

     “You’ve gotta promise me,” he started, “that no matter who’s picture gets picked, or doesn’t get picked, you can’t get upset about it.  Susie will feel bad if you do, plus we would all start arguing.”

     Tommy nodded.  “We promless, Danny!  I just wants to see Chuckie’s picture!  I’m sure he did a really good job on it!”

     Chuckie smiled.  “Hey, thanks, Tommy!” he exclaimed, then added, “But you’re still gonna haves to waits until Susie gets heres!”

     About five or ten more minutes passed until the three boys heard the doorbell ring.  Soon enough, Susie came running into the living room.

     “Hi’ya, guys!” she greeted.

     “Hi’ya, Susie!”

     “What’s up?” Danny asked.

     “Nothing really.” she said.  “But my Daddy wants to buy paint colors that we don’t haves today.  So, we gots to decides quickly what I want my room color to be before he leaves!”

     “Okay.” Danny replied. “So, who would you like to go first?”

     Susie thought for a moment.  “I guess I’ll go from my left to my right.  So, I guess Tommy gets to go firstest.”

     Tommy smiled.  He was excited to show his picture to his new friend.  “Since your Daddy works for the Dummi Bears, and you likes the Dummi Bears, I drews you a pink Dummi Bear.” He paused, gave Susie the picture, and added, “It doesn’t haves to be pink, though.  Sorry.  I didn’t knows whats your favorite color was.”

     Susie smiled at the picture of Tommy’s poorly drawn Dummi Bear.  “It’s very nice, Tommy!  It would brighten the walls a lot!” She paused.  “But the problem is, I’m not sure if the Dummi Bear would cover all of the walls of my room.  Sorry, Tommy.”

     Tommy smiled.  “It’s okay, Susie.  I’m just trying to help a friend.  Maybe you’ll like Danny’s betterer.”

     Danny gave his picture to Susie.  “Since your room is black, I figured it would save less time and money to paint stars on your walls.  I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of things you liked, and this was the best I could come up with.”

    Susie grinned.  “I love stars, Danny!” she exclaimed.  “But I’m not eggzactly sure how much the yellow stars would brighten up the room.  Thanks for trying, though.”

    Danny smiled, and shrugged.  “It’s cool.” he replied.

    Susie turned to Chuckie.  “Okay, Chuckie.  Let’s see what you gots!”

    Chuckie glanced around the room nervously, and started shivering.  He didn’t know what Susie would think of his picture.  What if she thought it was no good?

    “Don’t be ascared, Chuckie!” Tommy exclaimed.  “We won’t laugh or make fun of your picture!  We promless!”

    Chuckie glanced around the living room some more, hesitated, then quickly tossed his drawing face down on the table, and covered his face with his knees.  He was scared and excited at the same time.

    Chuckie peeked up over his glasses.  Everything was blurry, but he could tell Susie was looking at his picture.  She wasn’t saying anything.

    ‘She doesn’t like it!’ Chuckie thought, humiliated.  He buried his face even more into his knees.

    “Susie,” Danny started, “are you alright?”

    “You guys have gots to look at this!” Susie said.

    Chuckie heard Danny and Tommy walking toward Susie to see what he had drawn.  Chuckie felt sick.  He didn’t want his two best friends to see his really bad picture.

    Danny and Tommy didn’t say anything either.

    A few more minutes passed, then Chuckie couldn’t take it anymore.  “Alright!” he cried.  “I know my picture’s horrible!  But you guys don’t needs to rubs it in my face!”

    Danny glanced at Chuckie with a puzzled expression on his face.  “Horrible?” he asked, smiling.  Then he laughed.  “Chuckie!  We weren’t silent because we didn’t like it!  We were just so surprised that a two year old could draw so well, that we couldn’t say anything!”

    “Yeah, Chuckie!” Tommy exclaimed.  “This is one of the bestest drawings I’ve ever seen!”

    Susie nodded at him.  “I could never draw circles that perfect, Chuckie!  How did you do it?  You’re an artist!”

    Chuckie could feel his cheeks turning red.  He smiled, shrugged, and answered Susie’s question.  “Anti-dexterousisum.”

Rugphan