"Just like me," remarked Francine.
"I asked her if she would come over," said Van, "but she said she's too busy with school."
"But she just got here," Alan observed. "How can she be busy with school already?"
"If she's anything like you, Alan," Arthur joked, "then she's probably finishing her homework from her old school."
"We could really use someone like that," said Francine disappointedly.
"I've been looking all over for a new member," Van told the trio. "I even put up fliers in other schools. I guess there's not much interest in jazz nowadays. We'll just have to wait until Fern gets tired of playing a cow."
As the kids discussed their musical future, Mrs. Read walked in through the front door, holding a blue porcelain lamp in her hands. D.W., who was reading a picture book at the kitchen table, saw the new lamp and was intrigued by it. It looked almost identical to the one Nadine had accidentally...yes, that was it...
She rushed into the living room while her mother was carefully setting the lamp on the empty stand. "Mom, I remember now!" she exclaimed proudly. "Nadine was dancing, and she knocked over the lamp and broke it, and it scared Pal, and he ran away, and Nadine tried to blame it on Pal, but I told the truth, and now we're enemies."
Arthur looked up from his sheet music, astonished. "She did what?"
"She was dancing," answered D.W., "and she knocked over the lamp and broke it, and..."
Outrage filled Arthur's voice as he stood up from the bench. "She tried to blame it on Pal? But Pal hasn't broken anything in years!"
"He broke stuff when you first got him," said D.W. Next to her, Mrs. Read had finished inserting a new lightbulb and was plugging the power cord into the wall.
"But he knows better now," Arthur insisted. "If you hadn't told the truth, Pal would've been punished. He would've had to stay outside for a week."
"So?" D.W. shrugged. "He's just a dog."
"To you, maybe," said Arthur, gesturing toward the door. "Come on. We're going to Nadine's, and you're gonna tell her that she was wrong to try to frame Pal for breaking the lamp."
"But she doesn't want to talk to me," D.W. protested. "She hates me."
Exasperated, Arthur turned to his friends Van, Francine, and Alan, who seemed eager to start practicing. "I'll be right back, guys," he told them.
With that, Arthur pulled open the front door, and found to his surprise that Nadine's mother, Maria Harris, was coming down the sidewalk in a green sequined knee-length dress and high-heeled shoes. Her bleach-blond hair was attractively molded, and her cheeks were painted with a rosy pastel hue.
"Hello, Arthur," said the dolled-up Maria as she stepped into the Read house. The first thing she noticed was the new lamp that Mrs. Read had just turned on. "Oh, Jane, you shouldn't have. How much was it? I'll repay you."
"That won't be necessary, Maria," Mrs. Read replied.
At that moment Adil happened to emerge from the guest bedroom, clutching a book about the solar system in his hands. He became fascinated with the attractive squirrel woman who stood in the living room, admiring the newly acquired lamp. Without hesitation, he walked up to her and proclaimed, "You are beautiful."
Maria chuckled. "Why, thank you, Adil."
Immensely pleased with himself, the Turkish boy disappeared once again into the guest bedroom.
"So it's time for your date with Angus already," said Mrs. Read idly.
"Yes, and it's so exciting!" Maria rubbed her hands together gleefully.
Arthur got up the courage to tap on Maria's satin-clad arm, and to his suprise, the fabric didn't break when he touched it. "Where's Nadine?" he asked.
"She's at Emily's."
Armed with this information, Arthur started to march toward the door. Then he stopped and turned to D.W., who had returned to her picture book. "Hey, D.W., how do I get to Emily's house?"
D.W. gave him directions to Emily's, and he exited through the front door with a look of determination on his face. The poor boy, thought D.W. as she watched him go. Emily and Nadine will eat him alive.
Five more minutes passed, and the doorbell rang. Maria hastened breathlessly to the door and opened it, revealing the presence of Angus Winslow, dressed in a navy blue suit jacket and well-polished black shoes. "Oh, come in, Angus!" she gushed, and the well-combed rabbit man ducked his head slightly and stepped through the doorway.
"You're a lovely sight to look at," he complimented Maria.
The woman blushed, though it wasn't visible through her pink pastel makeup. "Thank you, Angus," she half-giggled.
"Have a good time," Mrs. Read called after them as they departed, arm in arm.
The sun was beginning to disappear behind the western hills as Winslow led his date toward the sidewalk. "Which movie did you decide on?" he asked.
"'Mateless in Manhattan'," replied Maria enthusiastically.
"Oh, lovely," said Winslow as he cringed within.
He held open the passenger door of his old, dented Pontiac for Maria to enter. "What a nice car," she remarked as her wagging tail beat against the frame and the door.
"It gets me from here to there," said Winslow. "When I first came here I saw Ed Crosswire about getting a replacement for it, but I'm not sure if I can trust him."
As he strapped himself into the driver's seat, turned on the creaky engine, and drove away, two pairs of eyes watched him and Maria from behind a nearby bush.
Arthur waited until the car was out of sight before he said, "She's gone." Then he and Nadine left the concealment of the bush and started quickly toward Arthur's house.
D.W., from her seat at the kitchen table, watched the door open and Arthur and Nadine come through. "Nadine?" she gasped. "You're not supposed to..."
"I'm sorry, D.W.," said Nadine, her expression one of sincere contriteness. "I shouldn't have blamed Pal for breaking the lamp. I should have told the truth."
Surprised at Nadine's unexpected apology, D.W. jumped down from her chair.
"I'm sorry for all the mean things I did to you," Nadine went on. "Can we be friends again?"
As she pondered Nadine's request, D.W.'s mind wandered back to the many good times and adventures the two girls had enjoyed together. She thought of the day she had first met Nadine at kindergarten, and the shock she had felt upon seeing a girl who was identical to her one-time imaginary friend. She recalled the danger Nadine had faced, traveling into another dimension to save Marina from the clutches of the evil Pickles. She remembered...well, you get the idea.
Stretching out her arms, D.W. exclaimed, "I'm sorry too, Nadine. Yes, we can be friends again."
The girls embraced each other, giggling with elation. "My work here is done," said Arthur, who then wandered off to practice jazz with his impatient friends.
----
"Do you, John Muzak, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer, for better or for worse?"
"I do," replied the tuxedo-clad groom with the handsome face and perfectly coiffed hair.
"Do you, Minnie Passenger, take this man to be..."
"Wait," interrupted the rather plain-looking woman in the wedding gown. Turning to the groom, she said with no small amount of hesitation, "John, I...I have a confession to make. I'm just a supporting character."
John's mouth fell open, and he began to stutter. "But...but..."
"The woman you're supposed to be with is stuck in traffic on Fifth Avenue," Minnie told him as she removed the veil from her head and started to back away.
"Minnie, wait!" cried John, reaching toward her. "What about you?"
"My feelings don't matter," said Minnie sadly. "I'm just a supporting character."
Seated in the fifth row of the theater, Mr. Winslow glanced at Maria and saw a look of ecstasy on her face. He could sense that her tail was wagging wildly underneath her seat. For the next five minutes, he struggled not to retch as John Muzak, still wearing his tuxedo, raced down Fifth Avenue in New York City, checking taxi after taxi in search of his true soulmate.
TBC
