The Goatnappers

  The Goatnappers

  ROSA JORDAN

  Published by

  PEACHTREE PUBLISHERS

  1700 Chattahoochee Avenue

  Atlanta, Georgia 30318-2112

  www.peachtree-online.com

  Text © 2007 by Rosa Jordan

  Jacket illustration © Julie Monk

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Cover design by Loraine Joyner

  Book design by Melanie McMahon Ives

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Jordan, Rosa.

  The goatnappers / by Rosa Jordan. – 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Justin’s place as the first high school freshman in twenty years to make the varsity baseball team is at risk when his math grade plummets while he is trying to cope with the abuse of a young billy goat he sold and a visit from his estranged father to Lost Goat Lane.

  ISBN 978-1-56145-767-0 (ebook)

  [1. Family life–Florida–Fiction. 2. Goats–Fiction. 3. High schools–Fiction. 4. Schools–Fiction. 5. Florida–Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.J76815Goa 2007

  [Fic]–dc22

  2006030173

  To my mother, Carmaleta, who knows everything about raising kids—two-footed and four-footed.

  —R. J.

  Contents

  1—Sudden Changes

  2—Cattle Auction

  3—Pet Parade

  4—So Long, Little Billy

  5—Charlie

  6—A Dark Place

  7—Driving Lessons

  8—The Old Place

  9—The Plan

  10—Goatnappers

  11—Crime Number Two

  12—Suspects

  13—The Invitation

  14—Charlie’s World

  15—Trouble from All Sides

  16—Complications

  17—The Spread Factor

  18—Brad’s Situation

  19—The Chase

  20—Luther’s Decision

  21—Booker

  22—The Deal

  23—How Grown-ups Think

  24—Getting It Together

  25—Booker and Mom

  26—Grimsted Revisited

  27—The Mall

  28—Another Goodbye

  29—Friends

  30—Traveling with Mom

  31—Booker’s World

  32—Justin’s Decision

  33—Later, Alligator

  34—Families

  1

  SUDDEN CHANGES

  Justin waved goodbye to his friend Brad and sauntered toward the school bus. Children from the elementary school on the other side of the parking lot pushed and shoved to get on the bus. It was Friday, and the kids were even more rowdy than usual. Justin’s brother Chip, a second grader, was right in the middle of them. Their thirteen-year-old sister Kate waited until the scramble was over, then she climbed on.

  Just about everybody was on the bus by the time Justin got there, which was the way he liked it. Most of his friends either rode their bikes home or hitched a ride with someone who had a car. It bugged Justin to be nearly fifteen years old and still riding the bus, but what could he do? It was more than an hour’s walk from his house to school, and he didn’t have a bike.

  He glanced at Kate as he walked down the aisle of the bus, figuring he could tell by her expression if she’d heard the news. But she was looking out the window, her straight blonde hair swung forward so he couldn’t see her face. None of Kate’s friends rode the bus either, which was why she was sitting next to Lily Hashimoto. Lily had only started riding the bus in January, when her family bought the big house across the highway from Justin’s family’s farm and opened a plant nursery. She was seven but so small you’d think she was a five-year-old.

  Chip and his best friend Luther were in the seat ahead of Kate and Lily. All Justin saw of them was the backs of their heads, Chip’s a mess of floppy blond curls and Luther’s a tight mass of black ones. They were on their knees in the seat, turned around to give Lily a hard time. They hadn’t got used to the fact that such a little girl could run them ragged in soccer.

  Justin plopped onto the backseat of the bus among the sixth- and seventh-grade boys, in the place next to the driver’s side window, which was more or less reserved for him. He barely noticed the younger boys, even though his own best friend, Brad, was a seventh grader. Brad threw the trickiest baseball in the entire school, and it was a well-known fact that if you could catch Brad’s throws, you could catch anybody’s. Justin was pretty sure that he was such a good fielder because of all the time he spent practicing with Brad.

  Justin stared out the window, oblivious to the smaller houses and vacant lots as the bus passed through the edge of town and the cornfields that lay beyond. The images he saw were inside his head: Justin easily catching balls and winging them to the catcher. The umpire calling one out after another. The whole school cheering each time his throw reached home plate before the other team’s runner. Justin’s fingers squeezed the baseball in his jacket pocket, itching to throw it, hard, fast, and far.

  The bus made several stops before it pulled up at a dirt road called Lost Goat Lane. The Martin farm was on the corner, across from the Hashimoto house and nursery. Further down Lost Goat Lane, out of sight, was the Wilson farm where Luther lived with his mom and grandparents.

  Kate and Justin followed Chip, Luther, and Lily off the bus. The seven-year-olds raced down Lost Goat Lane, turned in at the Martin driveway, and cut across the side yard to the goat pen. The triplets, born only two months ago on Christmas Eve, ran up and down the fence bleating a welcome. Kate stopped to give the triplets’ mother, Sugar, a couple of carrot sticks she had saved from lunch. Lily dug into her pocket and pulled out some corn chips for Honey, the littlest of the triplets and therefore Lily’s favorite. Luther favored Little Billy because he looked exactly like Old Billy, who belonged to Luther’s grandfather. Little Billy was pure white, just like Old Billy. Chip was feeding Go-Girl, the triplet Kate had given him for Christmas.

  “Yuck!” Kate made a face at the squishy mess Chip was offering his little goat. “What’s that?”

  “Salad,” Chip said. “Go-Girl loves it, especially with French dressing.”

  Justin walked past the goat pen, half-listening to the chatter of the younger children, but mostly lost in his own thoughts. He was halfway to the house when he just couldn’t hold his excitement in any longer.

  “Yahoo!” he shouted, flinging the baseball high into the sky. “I made it!”

  Kate ran to catch up with him. “You made the team? Really?”

  “Yes, yes, yes! I am SOOOO GOOD!”

  He threw the ball skyward again. It came down splat!—a perfect catch in his well-worn, as-good-as-magic baseball glove.

  “But how? They never put freshmen on the varsity team!” Kate exclaimed. “At least that’s what the kids at school said when I told them you were going to make it.”

  “Nope,” said Justin. “Not since seventeen years ago, when Booker Wilson made it his freshman year.”

  “You think it’s because Booker gave you his old glove?” Kate asked.

  “That and the fact than I’m the best ballplayer this school has seen since Booker graduated.”

  If Kate agreed, Justin didn’t hear her. He was too busy leaping into the air, turning circles, running and jumping, catching imaginary fly balls, all the way to the house.

  “Ouch!” Justin said, as he lifted pasta from the stove to dr
ain it, hot steam billowing up into his face.

  “Move over,” Kate said, elbowing Justin out of the way so she could get to the stove. “Chip, put glasses on the table and sit down. That’s Mom now.”

  Justin heard their mother pause on the back porch to kick off her muddy boots. He glanced up as she pushed open the screen door. He caught his breath. It wasn’t just that she looked tired; she always looked like that when she got home from the dairy. She looked upset, like something was seriously wrong.

  But when his mother saw the table, her worried expression vanished. “My goodness!” she gasped, her face breaking into a wide smile.

  Justin, Kate, and Chip watched as she took in the big bowl of white spaghetti and another of red spaghetti sauce sitting on the red-and-white checkered tablecloth. A salad at every place added a touch of green, and in the center was a bouquet of yellow daffodils.

  “That’s about the prettiest supper table I ever saw,” Mom exclaimed as she slid into her place at the table. “Where’d the flowers come from?”

  “Luther’s grandma sent them.” Kate went around the table pouring out glasses of goat milk.

  “Is this a special occasion?” Mom asked.

  “You tell her, Justin,” Kate said.

  “I made the team,” Justin said, hiding his smile behind a big swallow of milk.

  “The varsity team?”

  “Yep.” Justin was beaming, unaware of the big white mustache on his upper lip.

  “Now that is something worth celebrating! A toast to our soon-to-be-champion!” Mom held her milk toward the middle of the table and they all clinked glasses. “That is the best news I’ve had in a long time!”

  Grinning, they dug into the spaghetti. After he had cleaned his plate once and started on seconds, Justin mentioned what was on his mind. “Thing is, Mom, there’s practice nearly every day. I’ll miss the bus and have to walk home.”

  “It’s not that far.” Mom smiled. “And after tomorrow, no calves to look after.”

  “Yes, but … well, I was thinking … if I had a bicycle—”

  Suddenly the strained look he had seen on Mom’s face was back. All of them saw it now, and stared at her, more worried than she was because she knew what was wrong and they didn’t. Nobody noticed that a small black boy had come up on the porch and was standing there quietly at the screen door.

  Mom laid down her fork. “This is something I didn’t want to worry you with until I figured out what I was going to do.” Mom’s voice was thin and tight, like she was trying not to cry. “But maybe it’s better to tell you now, when we’ve got something else to make us feel good.” She sat there for what seemed like a long time, stirring spaghetti around on her plate. Finally she said, “I lost my job at the dairy.”

  Justin was stunned. For a minute nobody said a word. Then Chip spotted Luther outside the screen door.

  “Luther!” he yelled. “Come on in.”

  “Can’t,” Luther called back. “Mama says I’m not to go inside when folks are eating supper.”

  “I’m done,” Chip said. He hadn’t eaten half of what was on his plate. “He can come in, can’t he, Mom?”

  “Might as well,” Mom said with a sigh. “It’s not as if this is going to stay a secret.”

  “What secret?” Luther asked, pulling the kitchen stool up next to Chip. “You want me to leave?”

  “No,” Mom gave him a sad smile. “That’s okay, Luther. I was just explaining that I’ve lost my job. It’s not a secret.”

  “What happened?” Justin asked. He couldn’t believe Mr. George would fire Mom. She’d worked at the dairy four years, and she hadn’t missed a single day—not even Christmas!

  “Mr. George has sold the dairy,” Mom explained.

  “Sold it?” Kate exclaimed, like she didn’t know what that meant. “Why? I thought he said he wasn’t going to retire for a long time.”

  “That’s what I thought, too,” Mom said. “But apparently somebody made him a good offer, and his wife wants to move to Fort Myers to be near their grandchildren. She talked him into accepting it.”

  “Can’t you go on working for the new owners?” Justin asked.

  “I just met them today,” Mom said. “Turns out they have a big family, with several grown kids. They won’t be needing any hired help.” Mom swirled the spaghetti round and round on her fork, playing with it the way she didn’t allow them to do.

  “What’s going to happen to us?” Kate asked. She looked scared.

  “Nothing, providing I can get another job right away. I haven’t been looking because I’d just assumed I could go on working there.”

  “My grandpa’s got a job,” Luther piped up.

  All heads at the table swiveled toward Luther. He looked at them with big, dark brown eyes from behind thick-lensed glasses that made his eyes look even bigger.

  “Your grandpa?” Mom echoed. Mr. Wilson had been retired for years. As far as they knew, he had plenty of work to do around his own small farm.

  “He waters plants at Lily’s dad’s nursery. And keeps them trimmed and stuff like that.” Luther turned his big serious eyes up to Mom. “Mr. Hashimoto offered Mama a job, too. Cashier.”

  “Ruby’s gone to work there?” Kate cried in dismay.

  “Really?” Mom asked. “Your mother’s working at the nursery, too?

  “No …” Luther wasn’t looking at Mom. He was looking at the door.

  His mother Ruby was frowning through the screen. “Luther!” she snapped. “What did I tell you about visiting when people were in the middle of a meal?”

  “It’s okay,” Mom said quickly. “I invited him. We’re done eating.” She got up and held the door open for Ruby. “Except for dessert. Come on in and try the key lime pie Kate made for our special occasion.”

  “I heard.” Ruby flashed Justin a dazzling smile. Justin grinned and ducked his head. Ruby was in her twenties, and she didn’t look like anybody’s mama to him. She didn’t look like somebody who had just walked over from the next farm, either. Even wearing jeans, she looked great.

  “I called Booker and told him,” Ruby said, sitting down next to Justin.

  “You called Booker?” Justin was surprised, and pleased. “What did he say?”

  Booker Wilson was a genuine hero. Everybody knew he was the best baseball player ever born in their town, but it wasn’t until last fall that Justin had learned that Ruby’s brother was more than just an outstanding athlete. After college Booker had gone into the army, and his unit was sent to the Gulf War. While on a mission, he had stepped on a land mine and got his feet blown off. That kept him from playing pro ball, but it didn’t keep him from becoming a baseball coach at a college up in Atlanta.

  If Justin hadn’t met Booker when he was home visiting his family last Thanksgiving, Justin would have given up and dropped out of baseball first semester. But Booker had encouraged him to stick with it. He’d believed in him so much that he gave Justin his own glove, the very one he’d played with in Triple A.

  “Was he surprised I made the team?” Justin asked.

  “Not a bit.” Ruby grinned. “He said, ‘I told you that boy was a natural.’ He wanted to know if you’re ready for a new ball glove.”

  “No way! Tell him I’m going to keep using his old glove till I’m a hundred years old!”

  While Justin and Ruby talked, Kate served the pie.

  Mom sat down and looked across the table at Ruby. “Luther said Mr. Hashimoto offered you a job.”

  “He did,” Ruby replied. “But the candy business that Kate and I started before Christmas is booming. We have nearly thirty orders of Valentine candy to get out, and then there’s Easter coming up. Plus, I’m pretty sure Brenda’s Boutique will take some of my clothes designs—if we ever get them off my sketch pad and into actual clothes.”

  “But a regular job—” Mom started.

  “Not for me,” Ruby interrupted. “I’m just not a regular enough person.”

  “Mrs. Martin lost her j
ob at the dairy,” Luther told his mother.

  “Really?” Ruby cocked one eyebrow. “What happened, Betty?”

  “Mr. George took the offer on the dairy,” Mom said glumly. “And the new owners aren’t planning to keep any of the old workers.”

  “Well, woman, what are you waiting for? Get on the phone and call Mr. Hashimoto! I know the job’s still open, because when I went by there today, he and his wife were arguing. I heard her tell him he had better make up his mind whether he wanted a traditional Japanese wife or a cashier at the nursery, because this was the last week she was going to be both.”

  Mom let out a halfhearted laugh. “I don’t know—”

  “Go on, Betty,” Ruby urged. “It won’t hurt to call him.”

  “At home?” Mom asked.

  “The sooner the better,” Ruby insisted, pushing her toward the phone in the hallway. Then she turned to Kate. “I came down here to ask if you wanted to come up to the house tonight to help me wrap the rest of the Valentine candy. Can you?”

  “Sure!” Kate agreed, cutting her eyes over at Justin.

  He didn’t wait for Kate to ask whether he would trade dishwashing nights with her. He just went to the sink and started running the water. He was in such a good mood that he didn’t even mind taking an extra shift.

  Mom came back into the kitchen, her face shining.

  “Well?” Ruby asked. “What did he say?”

  “He said, ‘Mrs. Martin, I think you have saved my marriage. If you want the job, it’s yours.’ He didn’t even ask if I had any experience.”

  Ruby grinned. “I guess experience isn’t as important as having somebody you can trust handling the money. Who could be more trustworthy than a neighbor with three kids, four goats, and a flock of ducks? It’s not like you could slip away in the middle of the night.”

  They all laughed at the idea of Mom trying to sneak off in the middle of the night with three kids, four goats, and a flock of ducks.

  “Okay if Kate stays over at our place tonight?” Ruby asked. “We might be up late, getting all the candy orders ready to take to town tomorrow.”

  “All right,” Mom agreed. “And since Luther is going to the cattle auction with us in the morning, maybe he’d like to spend the night here?”