Iggie's House (5 page)

“Wow … some puppy!” Winnie said. “What kind of dog is he anyway?”

“This is a Sheep Dog,” Tina announced. “A genuine English Sheep Dog puppy.”

“Ha! A Sheep Dog!” Winnie laughed. “That's funny. That's really very funny. I never saw one before.
But that's what my Mom says I look like when I don't brush my hair. Look!” And Winnie shook out her long hair, letting it fall over her face, covering her eyes. She danced around the wagon hollering, “WOOF! Woof … Woof … Woof …!” She collapsed on the floor laughing.

At first the dog seemed confused. He stood up in the wagon and began rocking back and forth. Then he bellowed … long and low. “Arooo … Arooo … WOOF”—and jumped out of the wagon onto Winnie. “Oh help!” Winnie called out. “Get this monster off me!” But the dog was busily licking Winnie's nose and ears. Glenn and Herbie tried to pull him off. Tina joined her brothers and they all tugged at once. After much grunting, groaning and barking they managed to separate the dog from his new friend.

Tina brushed off Winnie's clothes which were covered with shaggy white hairs. “Never again!” Winnie promised. “I'm never playing doggie again! Let's get out of here now before my mom catches us. She's not big on dogs running loose around here. They're not good for her rose bushes, if you know what I mean.”

“Okay,” Glenn said. “Let's take him for a walk.”

“Why do you call him HIM?” Winnie asked, as
they started walking. “Doesn't the dog have a name?”

Glenn didn't answer. Neither did Herbie or Tina. But they all giggled. Winnie put her hands on her hips and said, “Well, if you're not going to tell me I'm not going for a walk with you!”

“Oh, we'll tell you, Winnie,” Glenn assured her. “It's just a kind of different name. That's all.”

“Okay, so it's different. I don't mind,” Winnie said. “What is it?”

“We wanted to call him SMREG,” Tina said.

“SMREG?” Winnie asked, “SMREG?” What kind of name is that for a dog? That's really crazy! What'd you want to call him that for?”

The Garbers laughed again, and this time Winnie was annoyed at being left out of the joke.

Glenn stopped laughing long enough to tell her. “SMREG is GERMS spelled backwards!”

“GERMS SPELLED BACKWARDS!” Winnie repeated loud enough for the whole block to hear. “Oh, that's too much! That's really great! Too bad it makes such an awful name for a dog! Here Smreggie,” Winnie called, trying it out. “Good doggie. Here, nice Smreg.” She laughed as hard as the others. Finally she remembered that she still didn't know his name. She stopped laughing and asked, “So what
is
his name?”

Glenn cleared his throat and took a deep bow.
“Introducing,” he said … “Introducing Woozie Garber.”

Winnie stared down at the shaggy, white dog who sat scratching himself at her feet. She shook her head and mumbled, “Woozie … Woozie … Woozie. What a name! It's almost as bad as Smreg!” The dog looked up and barked at her. “Okay … okay,” Winnie told him soothingly, while patting his back. “Woozie is a lovely name. Lovely! And you're a lovely doggie! Where'd you ever get a name like Woozie anyway?” she asked Glenn.

Tina looked at the ground and shuffled her feet. Herbie and Glenn smiled. “Go ahead Tina,” Herbie insisted. “Go ahead and tell Winnie.”

“Okay, okay,” Tina said softly, still looking down. “See, when I was real little I had this stuffed dog that I used to take to sleep with me and I called him Woozie and …”

“You've still got that old thing Tina,” Herbie accused, interrupting his sister. “I saw you with it the other night.”

Tina put her hands on her hips and looked straight at Herbie. “Oh sure I've still got him. But I don't
use
him anymore. He's in this box in my closet and sometimes I like to take the box down and JUST LOOK AT HIM. That's all!”

Herbie and Glenn laughed some more. Tina
chewed her bottom lip. Winnie felt sorry for her. “That's not so funny,” she told the boys. “When I was little I had an old blanket I dragged around. I dragged it around for years, till it fell apart. And I called it Blangley. Anyway, I changed my mind. I think Woozie is a great name for him. He looks like a Woozie.” Tina smiled a private thank you to Winnie. Woozie jumped up and barked his approval. Then he suddenly took off like a rocket and ran down the block.

“You naughty old doggie! You come back here!” Tina hollered after him. But Woozie had already run up the Landon's front walk. She poked her brother. “Go get him Glenn.”

Glenn looked at Herbie. “Herbie can run faster than me. Go get him Herbie.”

But Herbie looked at Tina. “Let Tina get him. She's the youngest and she's always complaining about how she NEVER gets to do anything. Right, Tina?”

Tina looked at Winnie pleadingly. “Well, I see I'm elected dog catcher,” Winnie said. “I'm not scared of Germs, Incorporated!” She popped a fresh piece of gum into her mouth, pulled her sailor hat down over her ears, and ran to the Landon's house.

She paused before continuing up the front walk, wondering why Woozie decided to visit the worst
possible house on the block. She looked around. No Woozie. She thought hard about where he might be, then snapped her fingers, remembering the Collie that lived behind the Landon's. At that moment Clarice opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch. She was sucking an ice cube and it was dripping onto her pink and white dress. Winnie nodded at her and cracked her gum.

“Hi Winnie. Want to play?” Clarice asked timidly.

Winnie shook her head from side to side and cracked her gum louder. “That's disgusting Winifred!” Clarice said between slurps.

“So's sucking on an ice cube!” Winnie answered.

“Well, if you don't want to play, what are you doing here?” Clarice asked.

“Oh, just looking for a dog is all,” Winnie said.

“What dog?” Clarice wanted to know.

And that was when Woozie chose to show himself. He appeared around the corner of the house, ran over to Winnie, looked up at Clarice and began to bark furiously.

“Mommy!” Clarice screamed. “Mommy! There's a big dog after me! Help, Mommy … HELP!”

Winnie grabbed Woozie by the collar and tried
to persuade him to leave quietly with her. But Woozie kept barking and Clarice kept screaming until Mrs. Landon came to the door. Clarice hid behind her mother's back.

“Winifred Barringer, what are you doing on our front walk with that dog?” Mrs. Landon asked.

Oh boy, Winnie thought. Here we go! She stood up straight and faced Mrs. Landon. “He ran away and I'm just trying to catch him, is all.”

“Ran away from whom, Winifred? Exactly whose dog is he?” Mrs. Landon demanded.

“He's the Garbers' dog,” Winnie said, biting her lip.

“The Garbers' dog! I see. Please get him out of here, Winifred. I could report the Garbers for letting their dog run loose. I could very well do that.”

“Oh, please don't, Mrs. Landon. They just got him and it was
my
fault … really.” She
would
do something like that, Winnie thought. She just would!

“Very well, Winifred. I see no reason to be nasty.” Out came the smile. “But I never want this to happen again. Is that clearly understood?”

“Yes, Ma'am. Clearly.”

Woozie meekly followed Winnie down the Landon's walk as if he had understood all of what Germs had said. She never even raised her voice, Winnie thought. She can be rotten without even trying!

The next morning Winnie got up at eight. She read over the letter she'd started to Iggie. It sounded stupid. She ripped it up and started again:

“Winnie! Breakfast,” her mother called.

Winnie folded the letter and put it under her school papers in her middle desk drawer.

Later that morning Winnie, Herbie, Glenn and Tina sat on the curb, in front of the sewer grating that was next to Iggie's driveway. Winnie reached over and picked up some pebbles from the hole at the foot of the driveway. Iggie's folks had been planning to fix up that hole in the fall. Winnie threw the little pebbles into the sewer, one by one. They made a clinking sound.

The Garbers looked glum. Nobody had anything to say. Winnie wished she had stayed home and slept all morning. “What's eating you guys?” she finally asked.

“Nothing much,” Glenn answered.

“Well, it must be
something
,” Winnie said.

Herbie jumped up, imitating his brother. “Oh nothing much … nothing much is wrong … like fun it's nothing much!” His voice got very gruff and his fingers automatically went up to his mouth. He started gnawing away at his nails and it was hard to understand what he was saying. “Just a little old piece of paper with a lot of names on it telling the Garber
family to get lost. That's about all!
Nothing much!
”

The petition! They knew about Mrs. Landon's petition. Winnie didn't know what to say. “I'm uh … I mean I … uh …” she stammered.

Herbie slapped his leg. “Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you she wouldn't be surprised. I told you she'd know about it!” he said to his brother.

Glenn held up his hand. “Don't try to explain, Winnie. Please! We don't want to hear a lot of excuses.”

Explain! That was funny. How could she explain a Mrs. Landon? How could she explain why her own mother didn't want them on her block? How could she explain anything? She didn't even understand it herself. “How did you find out?” she asked.

Glenn reported, “Germs, Incorporated paid us a little visit last night. My mother invited her in.”

“But didn't you tell her about Mrs. Landon? About how she told Clarice not to play with any …” Winnie stopped.

“Well, go ahead. Go ahead and say it!” Herbie shouted. “Any
colored
kids!” He spit the words out.

“Leave her alone Herbie. It's not her fault.”

Winnie spoke to Glenn, ignoring Herbie. “But why didn't you tell your mother? You should have warned her.”

“We should have, but we didn't. She's so
jumpy lately that we decided not to give her the news.”

“So your mother just let her in. Just like that?”

“Yeah,” Herbie said, joining the conversation again. “Mom thought Mrs. Landon was being polite and calling on her new neighbor.”

“You should have seen old Germs,” Glenn said. “She was taking it all in. Couldn't look around fast enough. Then she announced that she wants to talk privately to my folks. That means me and Herbie are supposed to take off.”

“What about Tina?” Winnie asked.

“I was in the bathtub,” Tina sighed. “I always miss everything!”

Glenn continued. “So me and Herbie slammed the back door, pretending to go out into the yard. But we really stayed in the kitchen and we heard the whole thing.”

“What'd she say?” Winnie asked.

“Oh, how she's sure we're
lovely
people and that it's nothing personal, but we'd be happier somewhere else. For the children's sake and all that jazz.”

“Then what?” Winnie asked Herbie.

“Then my father says he's heard enough. And would she please leave. All very nice and quiet.… Man! You'd have thought they were talking about the weather or something. Then Mrs. Landon says,
‘Oh, I almost forgot … we've gotten a petition together so that you can see how we really feel about the situation.' And she hands it over to my father.”

“Did you see the petition?” Winnie asked. She'd absolutely die if her parents signed it.

“Yeah,” Herbie said. “I snitched it out of my father's desk this morning.”

“How many signed it?” Winnie was petrified.

“Only nine,” Glenn said.

“ONLY?” Herbie raised his voice.

“Nine out of thirty two … that's not a lot,” Glenn argued.

“Man! It's enough!”

“Do you remember all the names?” Winnie whispered. She'd faint if her family's name was on it.

Herbie picked up a handful of pebbles and threw them into the sewer. “If you want to know if your parents signed it … they didn't!”

“I never even thought of that, Herbie Garber!” Winnie hollered. She hoped the relief she felt didn't show. “What are you going to do about it?” she asked.

“I know what I'd like to do,” Herbie said. “For a start I'd break up some windows on the Germ House. Then maybe I'd dump some paint on that nice green grass. And I'd train Woozie to make on all her bushes!”

“And what would that prove, big shot?” Glenn asked.

“Maybe nothing. But man! It would sure make me feel good!”

“I meant what are your folks going to do about it?” Winnie asked.

Herbie scratched his head. “Who knows? They don't let us in on anything. We're not supposed to know about the petition. It's called ‘protect the children from everything bad in the world.' Just close your eyes and it'll all go away.”

“I know the feeling,” Winnie admitted. “Do your parents whisper a lot at night … when you're all supposed to be asleep?”