Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog (11 page)

Now she had three other raccoons with her. There were a total of four puffy, ringed tails hanging out of the leaves of that big sycamore tree.

They all noticed at once.

“Oh no!” said Stripes.

“She's got help!” whispered Mutt.

“She's assembled an entire Frankfurter Assault Squadron!” Poo-Poo exclaimed.

“Shh,” whispered Stick Dog. He didn't like the looks of this either, but the frankfurters were no longer their top priority. “We have to get Karen first. She should be back there by now.”

They scurried the rest of the way to the patio.

“Where's Karen?” asked Stick Dog, looking around when they arrived. “I thought she'd be here by now.”

“Here I am,” Karen called. She was leaning out of a window on the second floor of the house. “I took one last look for crumbs. Sorry to keep you waiting. Clear out a spot for me! I don't want to land on anyone!”

She then ducked back inside.

“Karen! No!” yelled Stick Dog. “No! Don't jump!”

She came back to the window, and Stick Dog exhaled.

“Why not?” asked Karen calmly. “You want me to check out the kitchen for scraps? I'm pretty sure there's nothing else there. But I guess I might have missed something.”

Stick Dog dropped his head and looked at the ground for a minute. Then he came closer to the house—and closer to Karen. He looked up at her from the lawn. “You can't jump from that high up. You'll break every bone in your body,” he sighed. “When you said you found an open window and were going to jump out, I just assumed it was on the first floor.”

Stripes came up to Stick Dog then and put a paw on his shoulder. “You really shouldn't make assumptions, Stick Dog,” she said. “It can totally mess things up. It's like how I
assumed
you could fly a helicopter. That assumption messed up the whole plan. Otherwise, we'd be feasting on frankfurters by now. You should have learned from that.”

Stick Dog gently removed Stripes's paw from his shoulder. “You're right,” Stick Dog whispered. “I'll try to keep that in mind, Stripes. Thanks.”

“Glad to help,” Stripes replied.

Stick Dog looked at Karen high up in the second-floor window. “Stay there,” he said. “I'll be right back.”

“Okay,” Karen called.

“You guys stay here too,” he said to Mutt, Stripes, and Poo-Poo. In a quieter voice that only they could hear, he said, “Don't let her jump. This will just take a minute.”

Stick Dog ran to the corner of the house and slowly leaned his head out to look at Peter, the frankfurter man. “Come on, come on,” Stick Dog whispered. “Do something.”

He did.

Peter turned around, leaned down, and began to tie his shoe.

Stick Dog's eyes opened wide. “I don't believe it,” he said.

He ran as fast as he could to the laundry line and ripped down one of the two sheets drying there. Without even glancing back, he raced back to the corner of the house with the sheet clenched in his jaws. Once he turned the corner, he stopped and dragged the sheet the rest of the way behind the house. He took one look at Peter and smiled.

Peter was just now standing back up from tying his shoe.

Stick Dog took the sheet to the lawn beneath the window.

“Help me spread this out,” he said.

They all worked to spread the sheet out while Karen watched from above.

“Okay,” Stick Dog said, and began to explain. “We're each going to clench one corner of this sheet with our mouths. We're going to pull it real tight. And then when I signal Karen, she's going to jump and land in the middle. It should cushion her fall just enough. But it might hurt our mouths and teeth a little when she lands.”

Stripes, Mutt, and Poo-Poo didn't say a word. They simply leaned down, bit into the sheet, and lifted it.

“Did you hear all that, Karen?” he called up.

She nodded.

“When I nod, you jump,” Stick Dog said. “Try to hit the middle.”

She nodded again.

And Stick Dog picked up his corner of the sheet.

Okay, we have to stop here for a minute. I'm sorry; I know it's kind of an important part of the story, but I need to make something clear here.

You know not to go jumping out of windows, right? I mean, I don't have to say that, right? It's dangerous—even if you have four friends holding a sheet real tight under the window. You're way too heavy for the sheet to stop you. Heck, I doubt if it would even slow you down.

So no jumping out windows, okay?

Good. Now back we go.

With clear determination on his face and in his eyes, Stick Dog looked in succession at Mutt, Poo-Poo, and Stripes. Each of them had a solid grip on the sheet and were scooting backward to pull it tight. When it was as taut as it could be, Stick Dog raised his eyes to Karen.

He nodded his head.

And Karen jumped.

Do you know what the word “majestic” means? It means awe-inspiring. The Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls would be considered majestic, for instance. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is considered a majestic work of architecture. When referring to movement, it means really beautiful and graceful. An eagle soaring through the sky is majestic.

When Karen jumped from that window, she was not majestic. There was nothing beautiful or graceful about it. First, she caught one of her back paws on the windowsill, which made her start tumbling immediately. And she wasn't quite falling. It was more like plummeting. In fact, I think the best way to describe her descent would be this: she plummeted clumsily.

But here's something really important: while her fall was not majestic, her aim was perfect.

She landed on her back right in the middle of that sheet. Stick Dog, Stripes, Mutt, and Poo-Poo clenched the material with all their strength. They braced themselves with their front legs as hard as they could, but they were still pulled inward with Karen's impact on the sheet.

It sagged rapidly with her weight, and everyone pulled as hard as they could. The sheet brushed against the green blades of grass beneath and then rose again, bouncing Karen safely to the side, where she landed right-side up on the patio.

Then she bowed.

“Thanks, everybody,” she said as the other four dropped the sheet and stretched their mouths and jaws. Then she sniffed at the air. And Stripes, Poo-Poo, and Mutt did too. Karen said, “Those frankfurters smell delicious, don't they?”