Chapter 7

Chapter seven, Frankie and Ashley arrived bright and early the next morning. I had already put out three pairs of my mom's rubber gloves on the dining- room table. Next to the gloves, I laid out the butterfly net that came with my Junior Science Explorer Kit. Next to that, I added a medium- size strainer that my mom uses for making some of her horrible vegetable dishes. And next to that, I placed the plastic container that we use to store leftover potato salad. "What's going on?" Frankie asked me, looking at the assortment of things I had put out on the table. "Welcome to Fred's search-and-rescue team," I answered.

"Where's the team?" Ashley asked. "We're it. And these are our tools." "A butterfly net?" Frankie asked. "Some people call it that. I prefer to call it a Frog Scooper." "And what's the strainer for?" Ashley asked. "I couldn't find another net. So the plan is we wait until my mom and dad leave for the movies. The minute Emily gets picked up for her reptile show and Papa Pete arrives to watch us, we set out on our frog-finding mission." "You actually think that Fred is somewhere out in the neighborhood?" Frankie asked. "I was watching him when we walked home from school, Frankie. And I saw him looking at that puddle on 78th Street. The one in front of Mr. Park's grocery store. I'm pretty sure that's where he would go." "Are you saying," Ashley asked, pushing her glasses up on her nose, "that you think Fred took the elevator down to the street and hopped away?" "Why not?" I answered. "He's got suction

cups on his toes, so he could climb up to the elevator buttons with no problem." "I guess anything's possible," Frankie said with a shrug. We raced around gathering the rest of the supplies: granola bars in case we got hungry, a magnifying glass to look for frog footprints, and pad of paper to write down clues. As I bent down to look for a pen on the coffee table, I almost tripped over Cheerio. "Hankster, what's that your crazy dog is doing?" Frankie asked. Cheerio had picked up one of my mom's roses and was walking across the living room with it between his teeth. "Hey, those are Mom's flowers," I said, taking the rose out of his mouth. "If Dad sees

this, he's going to get mad at me." "Why?" Ashley asked. "You didn't do anything. Cheerio did." "Yeah, but he's my responsibility, just like Fred is... I mean... was." Ashley took the rose from me and put it back in the vase. "How come your dad only bought nine roses? That's weird. People usually buy a dozen." "Oh, that's great," I said. "Now we have one missing frog and two missing roses." "Make that three missing roses," Frankie said with a little smile. "Twelve take away three is nine." "You know me and math," I said. "We're not exactly best buddies." By the time my parents and Emily left and Papa Pete arrived, we had packed all our frog- finding equipment in a shopping bag, and had our jackets and rubber gloves on.

"What's this?" Papa Pete asked when he saw us. "Are we going on a science field trip?" "We're on a mission," I told him. "Fred is lost, and he could be in terrible danger." "Hank thinks Fred ran away to the puddle on Seventy-eighth Street," Frankie added. "That's quite a theory," Papa Pete said. "We better go see if you're right."

That's what I love about my grandfather. He never makes fun of any of my ideas. And he's always willing to try anything. You can't say that about most grown-ups. "Do I have time to grab a cheese Danish from the kitchen?" Papa Pete asked. I shook my head. "We'll snack later. Frogs before food. That's our motto." As we hurried out the door, I noticed Cheerio walking over to the vase and taking another one of my mom's roses. I had no idea why he was suddenly so interested in flowers. Usually all he wants to do is pee on them. But I had no time to find out. I had to get Fred before anything horrible happened to him in that puddle. We couldn't waste any more time. It took forever for the elevator to come. And once it did, it seemed like we would never get down to the lobby. When the doors finally opened, we raced outside. "Here we come, Fred!" I shouted. If only he could hear us...