The Case of the Barfy Birthday Read Online Free PDF Page B

recess.
    “What can I do for you today, Ms. Simmons?” Drake replied.
    “Something plumb awful’s happened. My poor little pet pig, Dolly, broke out of her pigpen and fell into a pit.”
    Drake breathed a sigh of relief. Rescuing a piglet sounded like easy work. Easy work was a good thing on such a hot, hot day.
    “You gotta come quick,” Jessie was saying.
    “‘Quick’ is our middle name. Exactly where do you live, Ms. Simmons?”
    “The ranch house at Porcupine Loop. Hurry!”
    Immediately Drake phoned Nell. “Piglet meets pit at Porcupine Poop—I—I mean, Porcupine Loop. Meet me at the ranch house.”
    “Check.”
    Click.
    Naturally, Nell was already there by the time Drake rode up. (Not only was she the fastest runner in the fifth grade, but she could ride like the wind, too.) She stood waiting for him with her notebook in hand, a pencil behind each ear, and Dr. Livingston at her side. Nell was about the handiest partner a science detective genius could ask for. “Ready?” she asked.
    “Ready,” said Drake.
    Just then, Jessie came running around the side of the house. Her pigtails were messy, and dirt was smeared across her face. “Thank the stars, you’re here! Follow me ’round back. Hurry! Poor little Dolly’s in the pit.”
    They followed Jessie. She ran behind the house and then pointed down. There, in the ground, was a very dark opening to a very dark pit.
    “It’s an old, dried-out well,” Jessie explained. “Dad was going to fill it in next week once we got settled. He put a piece of plywood over it so no one would fall in.”
    Drake pushed up his glasses. “How did Dolly fall in, if it was covered with plywood?”
    “See for yourselves,” said Jessie, still pointing.
    Drake whipped out his flashlight and flicked it on. Together, Drake, Nell, and Jessie peered down the well. “Helloooooo, Dolly!” cried Drake.
    Down, down, down, went the well.
    Helloooooo, Dolly! went the echo.
    And then they saw her. It was horrible. It was awful. Quite possibly, it was their worst nightmare, ever. You see, Dolly wasn’t a little piglet at all. Dolly was ONE BIG FAT PIG! In fact, she looked more like a baby hippo than a baby pig.
    OINK! oinked Dolly.
    “Great Scott!” cried Drake.
    Woof! yelped Dr. Livingston.
    “She’s enormous!” cried Nell. “She broke right through the plywood!”
    “This is impossible!” cried Drake. “We’ll never get her out!”
    And then, as if finding one big fat pig at the bottom of a deep dark well on a hot, hot day wasn’t bad enough, Jessie burst into tears. That’s right. She sat back on her cowgirl boots and just blubbered. It was pitiful.
    Drake and Nell looked at each other, astonished. Other than watching Jessie twirl her lasso at school, they really didn’t know her very well. “Uh, anything we can do for you, Ms. Simmons?” asked Drake. “Hankie, perhaps?”
    Jessie wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Goshdurnit, Drake, Dolly’s my best friend. She’s the only thing I got to take with me from Oklahoma. All my other critters done got sold. If Dolly’s a goner, I think the twirl will go right out of my lasso. I’m plumb lost without her.”
    “Can’t your parents help?” asked Nell.

    “They’re in Oklahoma, attending the Poultry Producers’ Prancing Promenade. My grandma’s the only one here. And she can’t lift Dolly.”
    “Fire department?” asked Drake.
    “I already tried them. They said they’d be right over, ’cause they ain’t had a pork barbecue for about a week now and they was starved. ’Course I told them thank you kindly, but never mind. Don’t you see? You just gotta save Dolly.”
    “Well,” said Drake. “Looks like it’s up to us.”
    “But what can we do?” asked Nell. “We can’t just lasso her and pull her up. She must weigh one hundred eighty pounds.”
    “Two hundred,” corrected Jessie.
    Both Drake and Nell gasped. Drake crunched a few numbers with his calculator. Meanwhile, Nell glanced around,