Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I used to watch the show.

A/N Several readers have been asking me to visit Eliot again, so here he is. I missed him.

This summer I'm going to day camp in the Hamptons which I like because it has all these cool activities like Name the Trees and Birds and Bugs which we did yesterday on a nature walk. But then one of the older kids, Christopher, who is nine and a half and a big show-off, wrecked it.

He pointed to a bug that was on a rock. "There's a daddy long legs. It's a spider."

And I said, "It's a daddy long legs, but it's not a spider."

"Duh. Same thing, Yelliot."

If he hadn't called me that I probably wouldn't have said anything, but he was mean plus he shoved me since the counselor wasn't looking. "Nope. It's an arachnid, like a spider, but it's a different order."

"You know what? I'm not gonna call you Yelliot, I'm gonna call you Sheldon. Like in Big Bang Theory. You are totally creepy weird like Sheldon."

I am six point nine eight years old so I am too big to cry but I almost did then. Being called creepy weird is horrible. Kids in my school are used to me and they hardly ever tease me any more. But I don't know the camp kids very well because it's only for a few weeks. And then when we got on the bus at the end of the day Christopher sat behind me and kept leaning over and saying "Shelllllllldon" in my ear and his breath smelled icky of tuna fish which I hate. Then when we were getting off the bus he whispered, "You should be in the circus. In the freak show, you little freak."

Thank goodness it was 4:30 so that I could get away from him. Mom and Dad were going to dinner at somebody's house so I hardly got to see them before they went out. The baby sitter made supper for the twins and me and put us to bed even though I don't need supervision. Not at home, anyway. But that's a good word, right? Supervision. It's weird because if it were two words it would be what Superman has, which is super vision. But when it's one word that's not what it means at all but I'm sure you know that.

When Mom opened my door when they got back, I pretended to be asleep. Luckily I told Scrapple so he pretended to be, too. I didn't want to tell her how upset I was because Christopher made fun of me and I was afraid I might cry if I talked to her right then. So I didn't. She kissed me on the forehead and put her hand on my hair which is what she always does and said softly, "Sleep tight, sweet pea."

This morning I got up and tiptoed downstairs in my bare feet. I was hoping that Mom might be there by herself because it's easier to talk to her about some stuff than Dad, like this kind of stuff which was somebody being mean. She goes for a run while everyone else is sleeping and she had just come back. "Good morning, early bird." She smiled with her whole face. I love it when she does that. "What are you doing up already?"

"Morning, Mom." Then I started feeling a little chicken about saying anything, which was funny because she just called me early bird. I don't think she meant early chicken. Anyway, I had to tell her, so I did. "I'm not going to camp today."

She put down the bag of coffee which meant she was really paying attention. If she puts down the coffee she's really serious about what you're saying. "You're not going to camp? Do you feel sick?"

"No."

"Then why?"

I was trying to be brave, I promise, but it was hard. "Because of Christopher."

"Christopher?"

"I shouldn't have told you his name, Mom."

Her eyes got squinty. That's another thing with Mom. When her eyes get squinty you're usually in trouble and that didn't feel like it was fair since I didn't do anything wrong, Christopher did. Even though I shouldn't have said his name because that's being a tattle tale.

She patted the seat on one of the kitchen stools. "Why don't you sit here? I'll get us some juice and we can talk about Christopher."

"Can we call him Mister X?"

"Fine. Mister X."

She let Scrapple out in the yard and she'd barely poured our juice when he scratched at the door to come in.

"You didn't stay out long, Scrap. Are you hungry?"

"I just thought you might like me to hang around while you tell Mom what happened."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I explained to Mom all about the daddy long legs which is not a spider and Christopher–Mister X–shoving me and calling me Shelllllldon.

"That wasn't nice. I'm sorry he did that. But I don't think that's enough to keep you away from camp, is it? There are always going to be mean people around. I wish you didn't have to put up with that and it's crummy that sometimes you have more than your share, but Dad and I are very proud of how you deal with it. You know that, don't you?"

She put her arm around my shoulder and gave me a little squeeze and then she kissed me on the top of my head. And that's when I burst into tears. Because she's so nice and Christopher is so rotten.

"Oh, sweetheart."

I had to wait before I could say the rest of the story and my nose was all runny and I had to wipe it on my pajama sleeve before I could start again. "That wasn't the worst part."

"It wasn't?"

"No. The worst part was when were leaving he told me I should be in a freak show because I'm a freak."

In our family–except when the twins are hollering at the same time or Gram is doing a voice exercise with a lot of loud sounds–Dad is usually the noisiest and Mom is the quietest. She can stand stiller than anyone I know, too. She doesn't even scratch or have to move her feet or anything. But right then she got so, so still and so, so quiet. And then she hugged me so, so hard it was harder than a bear, I bet, even a polar bear or a Kodiak bear which are the biggest ones in the world. And then she held my face with her hands and she said, "That was a terrible thing for Christopher to say, and it must have hurt your feelings."

It did, but I didn't want to say it out loud so I just nodded.

"No one should ever, ever be called a freak. I just want to make sure that you understand that you are not a freak, no matter what some kid who thinks a daddy long legs is a spider says. Especially him, okay?"

"Okay. But I still don't want to go to camp today. It's Friday. Can I please stay home, please? I'll go back Monday."

I could tell Mom was thinking about it.

"You know how sometimes Dad doesn't write or go to the precinct or anything because he says he needs a mental health day? I think I need a mental health day."

That made her laugh so I was happy for a lot of reasons. "I guess even someone who's six years old deserves a mental health day once in a while," she said.

"Six point nine eight three five six one six four three eight years old, Mom. 'Cause I'll turn seven in six days."

"All right Mister six point nine eight three whatever years old. You don't have to go to camp today. How about if you and I do something together, just the two of us? Dad has to go into the city for a meeting, but Otis and Abby can be with the sitter."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Could we visit the library?"

"Of course."

"And maybe go to see a movie?"

"Yes, provided we find an age-appropriate one that we think will be good."

"It's summertime, Mom. There are a lot of kid movies playing."

She sent me upstairs to get dressed. "And put those PJs in the hamper, please, since you wiped your nose on them."

When I came down again Mom and Dad were outside on the deck talking and Scrapple was waiting for me next to the refrigerator, which is one of his favorite spots.

"Dad came into the kitchen right after you left and Mom told him about Christopher."

"We're not supposed to eavesdrop."

"I know, but I was eating my kibble and they were standing right next to me so I couldn't help it."

He was probably going to say more but just then Mom and Dad came indoors. I wondered if Dad would say something to me about it but he didn't. I bet Mom told him not to. All he said was, "Morning, Eliot. I'm happy to have further evidence that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"What's that mean, Dad?"

"It means that I'm delighted to know that you, the apple, are a lot like me, the tree. Mom said you're taking a mental health day today. Atta boy."

"So I'm an apple?"

"Yup, and I'm an apple tree."

"What kind of apple am I?"

"Hmm, maybe a Mac, because you love your Mac laptop." Dad cracks me up.

"Know what I think?" Mom said. She grabbed me by my tee shirt and gave me a big kiss on my cheek. "I think you're a Delicious apple. Because you are totally delicious."

So my morning was sad at the beginning, but then it was great, even though the twins started fighting at breakfast about whose turn it was to pick the game we were going to play after supper because Friday is Game Night at our house. And guess what? They both chose Clue so it didn't matter.

At eleven o'clock Mom and I went to the library where I got to talk to Ms. Gerard. She is the best librarian ever and last time I was where she showed me books that were written a long time ago, way before Gram was born, in Victorian times which means when Queen Victoria was Queen of England. We say Victorian times even though this is the United States and we don't have a queen or a king. Ms. Gerard told me about this great old book called The Cuckoo Clock which has a girl who becomes friends with the cuckoo in a clock which may sound dumb but it's magic and the girl learns a whole lot from it. Today Ms. Gerard showed me a book by E. Nesbit. I asked her what E stood for, maybe Eliot? And she laughed and said no, it was Edith. In the olden days some women just used an initial for their first name so people wouldn't know they were women. Mom told me about that.

"This is E. Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers. I think you'll love it, Eliot. It's about the adventures of a family in England called the Bastables."

Uh-oh, I thought she said the Bastardables and b-a-s-t-a-r-d is a word I'm not supposed to use. I must have looked at Mom kind of like oh, boy, and she got it right away and said "Ba-sta-bles" and then I knew it was okay.

"If you like it there are two more about the family," Ms. Gerard said.

So I thanked her and we borrowed the book on my library card and then Mom and I had BLTs for lunch in a diner where you can see the ocean from the window. It is called Tide's In even though when we were eating the tide was out. I think the diner should have two names, depending on what the tide is doing.

For our last activity we went to the movies. It was a cartoon. I know you're supposed to say animation when it's long but I like the word cartoon even if it makes me sound like I don't know what animation is. Before it started I got up from my seat and said to Mom, "I'll be right back. I have a surprise."

"Does this surprise involve your leaving the building?"

When I said no she said okay. In my shorts pocket I had $3.92 which I had saved up and I went to the concession stand and bought some gummy bears because they are Mom's favorite. Then I went back and gave it to her and luckily the movie hadn't started. "I only had enough money for the little bag but thank you for the ME day. I don't mean the day is about me, I mean it's Mom and Eliot day."

I don't know why but she looked like she was about to cry.

"Mom, please don't cry. The candy is supposed to make you happy."

"It does, and so do you, especially you. It's happy crying."

I don't know, Maybe you have to be a grown-up to cry when you're happy.

We loved the movie. People went back in time and ahead in time and then it got mixed up so it was very funny especially when a dinosaur walked out of a spaceship. We went home afterwards and Dad was there and we all had supper later and then we played Clue. The twins needed help but I was pretty sure I knew that Colonel Mustard was the bad guy and sure enough he was. Clue is hard if you're only five years old like Otis and Abby.

I was in bed but not really sleepy when I got a big idea. My birthday is next Thursday, which you probably remember because I already said it. Anyway I was thinking about being 7 and then I thought there are so many things that come in sevens and I would make some clues and leave them around the house!

This morning as soon as I woke up I took a bunch of little pieces of paper and wrote things on them. Then I snuck downstairs and hid them all over the place. The first one I stuck under the pepper grinder on the table because I knew Dad was going to make eggs and he always puts more pepper on his. It seemed like an hour before he picked it up.

"Hey, Dad. I think there's something under there."

He looked a little bit surprised. "You're right. Let's see." He unfolded the note. "It says nitrogen."

I took a bite of bacon.

"Looks like your handwriting, Eliot," he said.

"Yup."

"Nitrogen?"

"Yeah. It's a clue! Like in the game."

"There better not be any dead bodies around here. I get enough of that at work."

"Castle!" Mom said. She doesn't like him to talk about things like that in front of us kids.

"No dead bodies, Dad. But it's still a clue."

"Huh. I might have to call in some help. Like your mother, best detective on the planet. What do you think 'nitrogen' means, Kate?"

"She knows what nitrogen is, Dad. The clue is something special about nitrogen."

"Are there other clues, Eliot?" Mom said.

"Lots. There's one for Abby on the piano." My little sister ran into the living room and came back with a piece of paper. I had to make the twins' clues pretty easy because they can't read complicated stuff yet.

"It's a B," she said, waving the paper around. "And he left it on a B."

Then everyone wanted a clue so I started sending them around the house. I told Otis to go look at the globe in Dad's office. "I'm pretty sure this says Africa," he said when he put the paper on the table. "It was Scotch-taped to Africa."

"You're right."

Mom found two. One was in a flower pot of African violets on the kitchen window sill and the other was on a box of Kleenex on the counter. "Violet and Sneezy," she read.

"I don't get it," Abby said.

"Neither do I," Otis said. "This is a dumb game of Clue."

"It's not a dumb game," Dad said. "Let's see if we can figure this out. We could write all the clues on a mur–" He stopped right there because Mom was giving him her death-ray glare. That's what Dad calls it. It's a lot worse than the squint. I bet you a gazillion dollars Dad was going to say murder board, but Mom stopped him in time. So he said, "Why don't we write all the clues down on a piece of paper and see if we can work figure it out."

He got a crayon and wrote in big capital letters like this.

NITROGEN
B
AFRICA
VIOLET
SNEEZY

When he was done he said, "Are there any more clues?"

"Yes, but I think you should be able to figure it out with five of the."

Mom looked at the paper and then leaned over and whispered one word in my ear.

"Mom's got it!"Dad gave her this look that he only ever gives to her that has a big grin and something he does with his eye or eyebrow and he said, "Told you she was the best detective on the planet." She looked at him like the way he looked at her. I never know what that means except I can always tell that it's something good, whatever it is.

"Tell 'em, Mom."

"Don't you want to? You invented it."

"But you figured it out."

"It's seven. I was confused by nitrogen, but once I got the others I knew. B is the seventh note in the C major scale which I never would have known except for Abby's piano teacher. Africa is one of the seven continents. Sneezy is one of the seven dwarfs in Snow White, and violet is the seventh color of the rainbow. Right?"

"So what's nitrogen?" Dad said. "Eliot, you tell me."

"Seven is the atomic number of nitrogen. I learned that with Ernie when he was teaching me the elements. I called it Elementary School."

Then Otis hollered, "Hey! I get it. This is 'cause you're turning seven. Right?"

"Yup. I thought I'd remind everybody."

"No way I can forget that, kiddo," Dad said.

"You sound like Gram, Dad."

"Well, I guess I'm the apple that didn't fall very far from that tree."

We had a fun day, and when I went to bed tonight Scrapple curled up next to me. Unless it's broiling hot he likes to do that which makes him look like a shrimp except he's a dachshund. And he has hair which a shrimp doesn't.

"I loved your game, Eliot."

"You did?"

"Yes. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I bet Christopher never would have figured it out."

"I'm so glad you're my dog, Scrap."

"I'm so glad you're my boy."

A/N Coming up in the near future: Eliot's birthday.