"M! A! D! D! O! G! S! What does it spell? MAD DOGS! Gooo Mad Dogs!"
In the Middleton High gym, the cheer squad was hard at work practicing for the Lowerton game. This particular cheer was quite complex, and required Kim to perform a difficult somersault down from the top of the cheer pyramid. Being Kim, she expertly pulled it off, although Bonnie still found something to criticize.
"Kim, you have to land right in front of the pyramid. Not three inches to the left."
"Bonnie, I landed right where I was supposed to."
"Uh-huh. Let's try that again, and this time—"
The girls' argument was interrupted by Bonnie's cell phone ringing. Rolling her eyes, Bonnie headed over to her bookbag to pick up her phone. "Um, Lonnie, I'm in the middle of cheer practice. Can it—No, of course Johnny's not with me. Why would—wait, what? What do you mean, he's gone?"
Kim, and the other cheerleaders, watched with concern as Bonnie's expression grew increasingly horrified. "O-okay," she finally stammered as she hung up. She turned to the rest of the squad, looking like she was on the verge of tears. "Guys, I—I have to go. Family emergency." And with that, Bonnie hurried out of the gym without even taking her bookbag with her.
The rest of the squad stood in stunned silence for a moment, taking in what had just happened. "Um—" Tara finally said, "this might be a good time to call it a day."
"Agreed. As team captain, I declare this practice over," Kim replied. She hoped everything was okay with Bonnie—whatever she was talking about on the phone sounded bad. Bonnie was hardly her favorite person, of course, but Kim certainly didn't wish her harm.
Missing!
Bonnie rushed home as fast as she could, hoping against hope that everything was alright. Maybe this was all a misunderstanding. Maybe Johnny had gotten off at the wrong bus stop, or had gone to a friend's house without telling anyone. Those sorts of things happened all the time, right?
But when Bonnie got home, what she saw took her breath away. There was a police car with its lights on in her driveway, and Lonnie was standing outside looking devastated. When she saw her little sister approach, the older girl went over to hug her—a clear sign that things really were as bad as they sounded. Connie and Lonnie NEVER showed Bonnie any kind of affection, so for Lonnie to act this way towards her was a huge red flag.
"Nobody's seen Johnny," Lonnie said sadly. "The police are talking to Mom and they're saying he never even got on the school bus like he was supposed to. We've called all of his friends' parents and Connie's driven out to look for him, but we haven't found anything. The police have said they'll do what they can, but they don't have any leads right now."
"What about Dad? Could he have broken the custody agreement?" Bonnie had heard that divorced parents like hers would sometimes do that. If her father had taken Johnny without permission, it would have been a low move, but at least it would mean her brother was safe. That was a whole lot better than some of the other scenarios Bonnie was worried about.
"The police thought of that, but he has an alibi. Plus he's as upset as we are." Lonnie was starting to tear up, causing her makeup to run. "Bonnie, it's—it's like Johnny just vanished."
It really was. Bonnie tried, without much success, to fight back the incredible fear that had taken hold in her chest. Johnny was only seven years old. He was so, so vulnerable to being harmed, and the world was a very dangerous place. Nightmarish images popped into her mind—Johnny crying for his mommy and big sisters but not getting an answer, Johnny lying on the ground somewhere hurt and in pain, Johnny being tricked into a stranger's car with a missing puppy story. He was so kind that it would be just like him to fall for that-
That last thought caused Bonnie to completely break down. What if someone really had snatched her baby brother? What if they had done something awful to him? She had heard plenty of horror stories before about such things on the news, and for all she knew Johnny was already another statistic. Bonnie knew there was no reason to assume that was the case, at least not yet, but she simply couldn't help thinking about the worst-case scenario. "Oh, Lonnie!" she bawled. "W-what if we n-never see J-Johnny again?"
Lonnie didn't have an answer for that. Struggling not to start bawling herself, she hugged her sister and tried to comfort her as best she could. Their normal conflicts suddenly seemed so trivial.
Can't Find Him
After the police left, Bonnie and Lonnie both went to work knocking on doors in their neighborhood, asking if anyone had seen Johnny. No one had. Everyone was concerned and agreed to keep a look out for him, with a few even offering to help look for him when they had time. Meanwhile, Mrs. Rockwaller continued to call relatives and friends. None of them had seen Johnny, either.
The sisters reluctantly stopped going door-to-door as it got dark. People were eating dinner and didn't want to be disturbed, and they were no closer to finding Johnny then when they had started. Around an hour later, Connie pulled into the driveway, looking completely heartbroken and defeated. "I couldn't find Johnny anywhere!" she told her family through her tears. "I drove all through Middleton, Lowerton, Upperton. I even went into Go City. But there's no sign of him! None!"
There was really nothing more the family could do at this point except wait until morning, but it was gut-wrenching to do that. Bonnie reluctantly went upstairs to her room, but couldn't help but stop in Johnny's room for a moment. On his bed was his beloved teddy bear, Wally. Johnny never wanted to go to sleep at night without that bear, and now he had no choice. Assuming, of course, he was even still alive.
Bonnie wanted so much to find her little brother. To shower him with hugs and kisses and tell him how loved he was. But she couldn't. There was a chance she would never be able to do that again. So she did the closest thing to that she could. She walked over to Johnny's bed, picked up the teddy bear, and hugged it tightly as her tears flowed.
I love you so much, Johnny Rockwaller, she thought. You can't be gone forever. You can't. Please, please be okay.
