Cody and the Fountain of Happiness Read online

  “Have you hypnotized other cats?” he asked.

  “What a question!” she said.

  “Whenever my parents hire someone, they check references. That way they know the person is dependable.”

  Spencer’s parents didn’t sound so hot in the dependable department, if you asked Cody. But did she point this out? No. Instead, she went straight to the heart of the matter.

  “I know I can do it,” she said.

  Half an inch! That’s how close he was to being convinced! But Spencer had one last question.

  “How do you know you can if you never did it before?”

  Cody stopped the swing so fast, their heads thunked against the back.

  “The lining of your gut replaces itself every three days,” she said.

  “What’s that got to do with —”

  “Wyatt explained it to me. Your body makes new cells around the clock. It throws the old ones out. Right this instant, you’re manufacturing new skin and toenails!”

  Spencer examined his toes.

  “You’re not the same Spencer you were five minutes ago,” Cody said. “Part of you is brand-new and improved! You might have all-new, undiscovered talents!”

  Spencer folded his hands in his lap.

  Cody waited.

  She decided they were elephants.

  She wondered if that baby skunk had gotten home okay.

  She hoped Mom was having a good day.

  Just when she was about to give up on him, Spencer whispered, “Okay.”

  Late that night, Cody woke up. Her Dad radar was beeping. She raced to the kitchen. Dad sat at the table with Mom. Jumping into his arms, Cody breathed in great gulps of Dad smell — a mix of diesel oil, coffee, and eggs over easy.

  “Little Seed!” he said, cuddling her up. “How are things in the petunia patch?”

  Cody told him all about Spencer and GG and MewMew. Holding her close, Dad hung on every word.

  Next thing she knew, she was waking up in her bed, morning sun spilling through her windows. Cody pulled on her clothes. Mom and Dad’s bedroom door was shut. When he came home from a haul, they required their personal privacy.

  In the kitchen, Cody stuck a banana in her pocket. She clapped Dad’s cowboy hat on her head and wrote a right-handed note.

  Wow. Her right-handed writing was getting quite excellent.

  Spencer waited on the porch with MewMew. He wore a pair of enormous sunglasses. He looked ready to brave an attack of mutant aliens armed with deadly lasers.

  “I want to make sure I don’t get accidentally hypnotized,” he explained.

  For some reason, this made Cody slightly nervous. She peeled her banana and ate it extra slowly. Her mouth got that dried-up, after-banana feel.

  “Let’s go in the backyard,” she said. “It’s too distracting out here. MewMew and I need to concentrate.”

  “All right.”

  In the back, Cody gazed down into the amazing hole. She tugged on the brim of Dad’s hat. She scratched a mosquito bite on her ankle. She plucked a blade of wet grass off her big toe. Wow, now that bite really itched. She scratched some more.

  “You’re not stalling, are you?” asked Spencer.

  Teachers say there are no stupid questions. But teachers are not always correct.

  “Please hand me the subject,” Cody said in a voice of command. “Then fetch a blanket and a glass of water.”

  Spencer handed over MewMew, then ran inside. In Cody’s arms, MewMew lay sound asleep, paws tucked up. If this worked, she could bring MewMew home. Cody couldn’t bring her inside, since Wyatt was allergic. But she could make a cozy cat-bed under the tree. And feed MewMew tender morsels from her own plate. It’d be the next best thing to having a real pet of her own. If only it worked!

  Spencer came back with a bedspread printed with swirly designs. Cody instructed him to spread it on the grass. Holding MewMew with one hand, she drank the water with the other. Then she took off Dad’s hat and handed it to her assistant.

  Lying on her back, she settled MewMew on top of her.

  “Look into my eyes.” Cody made her voice deep. “You cannot hear, but you can understand. You will obey us, MewMew.”

  MewMew stretched her neck and yawned. Cody yawned back. Having a cat this big on top of you was like being crushed beneath a thousand fuzzy blankets.

  “You are growing sleepy.”

  MewMew gazed at Cody. Cody gazed back at MewMew. MewMew’s eyelids drooped. Cody’s eyelids drooped back.

  “Hear our command, O great scaredy-cat,” said Cody. “You will never run away again. You will stay close beside your beloved masters. Forevermore.”

  Cody crooked a finger at Spencer.

  “Touch her ears,” she whispered. “To make sure she receives the command.”

  Spencer touched a gray ear, then jerked his hand back.

  “Did you feel something?” Cody asked. “A tingle? A small shock?”

  Spencer nodded.

  “MewMew, you may awake,” commanded Cody. “Or, okay . . . you may continue to sleep.”

  Cody slid the cat onto the bedspread and sat up. Spencer removed his giant sunglasses.

  “Did it work?” he asked in a voice of hope. “Did we really do it?”

  Till this minute, Cody had concentrated on how wonderful it would be for her if hypnotizing worked. But now she looked deep into Spencer’s eyes. And she got a surprise. Cody saw how wonderful it would be for him, too. If it worked, Spencer would know that when he truly tried, he could do new and amazing things.

  Cody covered her eyes. All this gazing into other eyes was making her dizzy.

  “You think we did it?” Spencer repeated. “Do you? Are you sure?”

  Cody put her hands down. She looked at Spencer, and she nodded. Slowly, bit by bit, his round face lit up like a birthday cake. He looked so nice, you wanted to make a wish on him.

  “Far out!” said GG when they asked if Spencer could go to Cody’s house. “I’ll get a jar of my green-tomato chutney and walk you right over.”

  “MewMew’s invited, too,” said Spencer.

  GG raised her eyebrows. She tapped her bottom lip.

  “You don’t need to worry.” Spencer stuck out his chest. “She won’t run away. We hypnotized her.”

  “Is that so?” GG rummaged in her hair and found a pair of glasses. She put them on and looked at MewMew, who was back asleep. “It’s hard to tell.”

  “The lining of your gut replaces itself every three days,” said Spencer. “You never know what new talent you might develop.”

  “I can’t argue with that,” said GG. “Tell you what. Let’s put her in the cat carrier.”

  You could smell Cody’s house half a block away. Dad had his big smoker fired up. He took his hat off Cody’s head and put it on his. Then he took it back off and tipped it to GG. He said he’d heard all about her, and the next time she was having a dance party, he wanted to come.

  Mom invited GG to stay for the barbecue. But GG said it was nice for Spencer to do something all grown-up and independent. And Mom said ah, she got it. And then they exchanged smiles of secret, grown-up understanding, and GG went home.

  Overhead, the sun was a big yellow beach ball on a bright-blue blanket. Cody set MewMew’s carrier in the shade of the maple tree. She unlatched the door, but MewMew stayed inside.

  Wyatt did chin-ups on a tree branch. He chased Spencer and Cody with the hose. He even gave Spencer a lesson in the Houdini headlock.

  “The angle of the elbow is all-important,” he said, grabbing Cody. “The victim is rendered helpless.”

  Spencer nodded gravely. “There’s some kids back home I could use that on.”

  Mom carried out bowls of potato salad and coleslaw. For a practically once-in-a-lifetime treat, she gave them cans of pop. It was hard to believe, but Spencer had never shot root beer out his nose.

  “There are more useful things to teach a person,” Mom said.

  But then she kicked off her hot-pi
nk espadrilles. Wiggle-wiggle (her toes). Smile-smile (her mouth).

  Cody did a left-handed cartwheel. She did a right-handed cartwheel — and for the first time in her long life, she didn’t fall on her bungie!

  There are days that should never be.

  And then, there are days that, oh, if only they could go on forever!

  While they ate, Cody felt something fuzzy on her foot. A something way too heavy to be a caterpillar. She ducked her head under the picnic table.

  Mew? said MewMew. Mew mew?

  That is cat for “May I join you?”

  Cody set MewMew on the bench and fed her bits of burger.

  Dad said, “Call the zoo. There’s a wild animal on the loose.”

  Mom said, “I’d love a dress the same green as her eyes.”

  After a while, MewMew jumped down into the grass. Cody and Spencer watched her sniff and explore. They could hardly breathe. This was The Test. What if something scared her? Would she run?

  MewMew tenderfooted her way toward the maple tree. All at once, a blue jay squawked. Like a tiny fighter jet, it zoomed over MewMew’s head.

  The cat coiled tight, a big furry ball in a slingshot.

  Then, boing! She leaped, spun in midair, and dove under the table, where she huddled on Cody’s foot.

  Cody looked at Spencer.

  Spencer looked at Cody.

  In perfect sync, they raised their palms and high-fived.

  “It worked!”

  If this were a movie, everyone would hug, music would swell up, and ta-da! Happy Ending Time. The whole audience would burst into applause.

  Only this was real life.

  Where things are not so simple.

  At all.

  Dad had three more days off, so Cody got to stay home with him.

  Is there any need to say how wonderful that was?

  But the day before he was due back on the road, two things happened.

  Neither one was in the Happy Ending category.

  Thing #1: Wyatt fainted at doctor camp.

  When camp called, Cody and Dad jumped in the car and sped there. Wyatt sat in the nurse’s office, his face like an uncooked marshmallow.

  “Are you all right?” cried Dad.

  The nurse had brown eyes and a kindly smile. She said, “It’s common to faint when they do their first dissection.”

  At the word dissection, Wyatt leaned his head against the wall.

  “He’ll be fine,” said the nurse. “But you better take him home for the rest of the day.”

  In the car, Wyatt sat with closed eyes. Cody knew what dissection was. She’d watched her brother do it online. You cut open a once-alive creature, and then you removed its internal organs. Watching made her stomach feel like a blender on high. But if she ever said “Ack,” or “Ugh, that is so gross,” Wyatt called her a fainthearted, weak-kneed girl.

  “What did you dissect?” Cody asked from the backseat.

  “An earthworm,” croaked Wyatt.

  Cody gulped. Worms were not in her top ten of the animal kingdom. But still.

  “I would never do that,” she said.

  “Surgeons have to do it,” said Wyatt. “If you can’t dissect, you can’t be a surgeon. End of story.”

  This was bad news, all right.

  Dad cleared his throat. Some grown-ups give so much advice, you don’t need to listen. You can be sure plenty more is on the way soon.

  But not Dad. His advice was rare and precious as golden coins.

  “Wyatt, when I drive my rig down that lonesome highway, I pay attention to what’s in front of me,” he said. “But at the same time, I keep my eyes on what lies up ahead. I see the big picture.”

  “Uh,” said Wyatt. “Okay.”

  “It’s the same on the Road of Life,” Dad went on. “You have hit a pothole here. You have hit a traffic jam. But you can’t focus on that. The road stretches before you. Keep your eyes on the many miles that lie ahead.”

  He pulled up in front of the house and said he was going to the grocery store. Inside, Wyatt collapsed on his invisible bed. Thinking of his life as a road full of potholes wasn’t helping.

  But before long, Dad came back with all of Wyatt’s favorite foods. He heaped a plate with chips and dip and filled a bowl with moose-tracks ice cream.

  “I have another surprise,” Dad said as Wyatt began to eat. He turned to Cody with a grin. “I figured out what to do with you, Little Seed!”

  Thing #2: Dad hired a kid-sitter.

  It got even worse.

  “I saw an ad on the store bulletin board. I called and spoke to the world’s nicest girl. She has lots of experience. She even offered to give me references! She’s just your age, Wy.”

  Wyatt’s mouth was too stuffed with chips to reply.

  “In fact, she knows you,” said sunbeam Dad. “Her name is Payton Underwood.”

  Wyatt started choking. Dad pounded him on the back. Slimy chip bits landed on Cody’s arm.

  “Payton?” Wyatt sputtered. “Here? In our house? With Cody?”

  “What?” Dad looked concerned. “Is something wrong with her? Payton, I mean?”

  In this life, what grown-ups don’t know can be astonishing.

  “She’s the girl of his dreams,” Cody told Dad in a low voice. But not low enough.

  “She is not!” howled Wyatt. “But you have to call her back and say she can’t come.”

  “Too late for that,” said Dad.

  “You have to! Right now! It’ll be too embarrassing! It’ll ruin my life!”

  “You! What about me?” Cody flicked a slimy chip bit off her arm. “I’m the one who’s getting a hard-hearted shampoo commercial for a sitter. You think that’s going to be any fun for me?”

  “This is definitely the worst day of my life,” said Wyatt. “This day will live in infamy.”

  “Besides,” said Cody, “did you just call me embarrassing?”

  “Is the sky blue?” said Wyatt. “Do bears poop in the woods?”

  “Go easy,” said Dad. “It’s going to be all right. Cody will behave.” He rested his hand on top of her head. “I can count on you. Right?”

  “You can count on me. But possibly not some other people around here.”

  Dad’s talent was giving magic hugs. When you were in the magic middle of one, you magically felt kind toward the whole world. You magically couldn’t stay mad at anyone or thing for long.

  Even a brother who called you embarrassing.

  Because probably he was still faint-brained. With no idea what he was saying.

  When Cody woke up the next morning, Dad was already gone. But he had left a note on her pillow.

  When Mom poked her head in the doorway, she was holding her ashtray.

  “I miss him already, too.” She heaved a sigh. “To make things worse, Mr. O’Becker asked me to come in early today. Asked me, ha-ha!” She walked down the hall, laughing way too loud. “As if!”

  Poor Mom. The whim-whams were winning. Cody found her markers. She turned over Dad’s note and drew a red circle. In the middle she wrote her message, then made a fat red slash across it, like those signs for No Smoking.

  In the kitchen, she found Mom’s big work binder and slipped the note inside.

  Today was turning out to be the Day of Notes. Another one lay on the table.

  Click-click-click. Mom came into the kitchen wearing her electric-blue dress and her silver sandals with kitten heels. She’d just poured her coffee when the doorbell rang.

  “You must be Payton,” said Mom. “Right on time!”

  Payton wore a red sundress and sparkly flips. She and Mom admired each other’s outfits. Then Mom gave her a quick tour of the house and a list of five hundred emergency numbers. Payton nodded and smiled.

  “I kid-sit all the time?” She made it sound like a question.

  “Wyatt should be home around five,” said Mom. “I’ll probably be late again. We start inventory today.”

  “Wow,” said Cody. “Are
you going to invent new shoes?”

  Mom and Payton laughed merrily. It was like they were instant best friends!

  Mom gulped her coffee and grabbed her binder.

  “I’ll call at lunchtime.”

  And then it was just the two of them.

  “I have to feed the ants,” said Cody.

  “All right,” said Payton.

  She pulled out her phone and began texting. She was still texting when Cody came back inside. Cody narrowed her eyes.

  “You’re popular, aren’t you?” she said.

  “Me?” Payton looked surprised. “I wish?”

  Payton smelled delicious. She smelled like a recipe Mom made with apricots, cinnamon, and chicken, only without the chicken. Cody sniffed her own hair. Nothing.

  I have boring hair, she realized.

  “So you’re Wyatt’s little sister?” said Payton.

  “How come you say everything like a question?” said Cody.

  Payton’s cheeks got rosy. “It’s a bad habit? I mean, a bad habit. I’m trying to break it? Break it.”

  “I used to suck my thumb,” said Cody.

  “Oh, me too! And twirl my hair at the same time.”

  Payton had a toe ring. It was a silver dolphin with a twinkly green eye. She let Cody try it on. She said it looked so perfect, Cody could have it.

  “You have really long toes,” Payton said. “My aunt says that’s a sign of intelligence.”

  It was getting harder by the minute to dislike Payton Underwood. But then Cody reminded herself: this girl had broken Wyatt’s tender heart.

  “Too bad my big brother’s not here,” she said. “He’s at doctor camp.”

  “Really?” Payton looked amazed. “I might want to be a doctor? But I got a D in science this year.”

  “That’s just a pothole on life’s long highway,” Cody told her.

  Payton’s phone rang. While she talked, an idea planted itself in Cody’s brain. It grew super fast, like that bean in “Jack and the Beanstalk.” By the time Payton hung up, the idea was so big, it practically lifted off the top of her head.