Free On the Road to Mr. Mineo's by Barbara O'Connor Page B

roared with laughter as Stella and Gerald disappeared around the corner of Waxhaw Lane.
    â€œI told you she’d fall for it,” Levi said, beaming at C.J. and Jiggs. “She’s a ding-dong doodlebrain.”
    They slapped each other’s backs and high-fived and whooped it up until finally Levi said, “Now we’ve got to get up there on Gerald’s garage and wait for that pigeon.”
    The three of them dashed across the street to Gerald’s house. They tiptoed up the driveway and along the shrubbery to the ladder.
    Levi shot a quick look over his shoulder to the back door of Gerald’s house, then whispered, “Come on.”

 
    CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
    Stella Wouldn’t Slow Down
    Stella pedaled and pedaled and pedaled.
    Every now and then she glanced behind her at Gerald.
    His face was red. His hair was damp with sweat. He huffed and puffed and hollered, “Slow down!”
    But Stella wouldn’t slow down.
    She was going to find that pigeon before Levi did.
    No matter what.
    She pedaled past the hardware store and the church and on out toward the outskirts of town. She passed the Ropers’ small brick house with the big wooden barn.
    She passed the dirt driveway that led to the cluster of ramshackle houses where the Raynards lived.
    Then she turned down the road that led to the lake.
    The road to Mr. Mineo’s.
    As she pedaled, she scanned the trees and rooftops and telephone wires, searching for the pigeon. But she didn’t see him.
    She studied the road ahead, looking for Levi and C.J. and Jiggs. But she didn’t see them. She was starting to worry that maybe Levi had tricked her.

 
    CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
    The Story Continues
    Mr. Mineo drove his pickup truck on the side roads of Meadville. His fat dog, Ernie, sat beside him with his head stuck out the window, panting in the summer breeze. Every once in a while, Mr. Mineo got out of the truck and rattled a can of birdseed, calling, “Come and get it!”
    Meanwhile, Stella and Gerald pedaled their bikes along the narrow road toward the bait shop. Stella looked very determined, searching the trees and rooftops along the way.
    Gerald looked very hot and tired. His face grew redder by the minute as he tried his best to keep up with Stella.
    Ethel Roper drove her blue-and-white station wagon around the lake, searching for the little brown dog and the pigeon. Amos slouched beside her, grumbling.
    Luther and Edsel slept in the white delivery van on the side of the road.
    Over on Waxhaw Lane, Gerald’s mother yelled at Levi and C.J. and Jiggs to get off her property before she called the police, sending them scampering down the ladder from the garage roof and racing home.
    In Emmaline Raynard’s garage, Mutt flapped his arms and hollered at the cats, while the one-legged pigeon swooped and fluttered above them.
    And the little brown dog trotted up the dirt driveway toward the cluster of ramshackle houses.

 
    CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
    The Boy Who Cried Wolf
    Mutt’s heart raced.
    The cats jumped onto sacks of fertilizer and climbed over car parts and leaped onto rusty paint cans and tractor tires and milk crates.
    Mutt tried to grab them, but they hissed and yowled and darted away from him. He tried to grab the pigeon, but it flapped and fluttered and swooped from one side of the garage to the other.
    And then suddenly …
    â€¦ a little brown dog burst into the garage, barking and carrying on like crazy, chasing the cats around and around until they scurried outside.
    Then everything got calm and quiet.
    The dog sat in the corner of the garage and stared up at the pigeon, his tail swishing back and forth on the cool cement floor. The cats sat out in the yard in the shade of a scrawny dogwood tree, grooming themselves and looking annoyed. The pigeon nestled in the rafters of the garage and cooed softly down at the dog.
    Mutt’s heart settled down, and he let out a sigh of relief.
    But just