{"id":153,"date":"2009-08-10T22:54:06","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T02:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/?p=153"},"modified":"2009-08-10T22:54:06","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T02:54:06","slug":"chapter-8-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><em>Pretty weird to walk everywhere with a compass,<\/em> thought Ari, realizing he was now standing at the edge of the giant inlaid floor compass, at \u201cN\u201d for north. Math was not Ari\u2019s favorite subject, but he knew that on a compass there was a big circle divided into three-hundred and sixty spaces which started and ended at North.<\/p>\n<p>\t<em>So the lion,<\/em> he said to himself as he walked clockwise around the room along the compass points, <em>is on the east side at ninety degrees. Weirdo Helga\u2019s desk is south&#8211;one-hundred and eighty degrees. The frog is a little past south which is about&#8230;one-hundred and ninety something. The dog that looks like Kipper is a little bit past west&#8230;so it\u2019s not two-hundred and seventy degrees&#8230;it\u2019s a little more than that, like&#8230;300.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\tSuddenly Wilton Daylatch\u2019s disdainful voice popped into his head.<br \/>\n\t<em>\u2018He took that flea-bitten little mutt with him everywhere..\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\t<em>That\u2019s what Daylatch had said. Flea bitten. Fleas live on dogs, as in a dog is a home for the fleas&#8230;a home for the fleas at three-hundred degrees.<br \/>\n\tThree-hundred degrees wasn\u2019t a temperature, it was a compass point! This compass point, where the statue of Kipper sat looking like it was ready to find its way home just like the real Kipper used to do.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\tAri stroked the statue, as if it were a real dog. Then he rapped on it with his knuckle and it rang like a dull gong. It must be hollow, he realized, and made of some kind of metal.<\/p>\n<p>\tMaybe it wasn\u2019t as heavy as it looked. He grasped the neck and tipped the statue sideways. Actually, it was quite heavy, but he could tip it. He slipped his left hand under the dog and felt an opening in the base. An opening just big enough to fit his hand in.<br \/>\n\tAt first he felt nothing but empty space and cobwebs.  Then  something flat crinkled between his fingers and the metal body of the dog, and he pried it away from the edge.<\/p>\n<p>\tSuddenly the door to Daylatch\u2019s office flew open and Uncle Ellery stormed into the cracked-glass room, followed by Helga.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cYoung man,\u201d said Helga, immediately spotting Ari with the tipped dog statue. \u201cThese are valuable artifacts!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cSorry,\u201d said Ari, hoping she wouldn\u2019t notice as he slipped the flat object from inside the dog into his pocket. <\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d said Uncle Ellery. Ari followed him, with a glance back into the greenhouse as they exited. Wilton Daylatch had come out of his office and was now standing by the dog statue, his gaze drifting between Ari and the metal dog. Ari wondered if he was about to be stopped for thievery.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cUncle Ellery,\u201d said Ari. \u201cYou aren\u2019t going to fight that vitamin guy, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tUncle Ellery shook his head.  \u201cThere has to be another way out of this,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll find it. And you,\u201d he continued, firmly patting Ari\u2019s shoulder, \u201cjust concentrate on getting along with that Finbar what\u2019s his name at school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cFinbar Fenker,\u201d said Ari.<\/p>\n<p>\tAri didn\u2019t know what Uncle Ellery had said to Daylatch before coming out of the office, but he must have gotten something off his chest, because now he was relaxed enough to race Ari through the alley toward home, and win.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cHomework first, then deli clean-up?\u201d asked Uncle Ellery.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cYep,\u201d agreed Ari. He ran upstairs and slung his backpack on his bed. First though, there was the matter of the mysterious paper in his pocket. Homework would have to wait until he\u2019d had a look at it.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe paper was old, with a musty smell, and the bits of cellophane tape that had held it inside the statue were flaking off. But it only ripped a little as Ari flattened it out on his bed.<br \/>\n\tIt was typed. Ari knew it was typed because old typed things always looked a little messier and smudgier than new computer-printed things. He read:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Come and find me where I moulder,<br \/>\n\t\tSome are dog-eared, few are older.<br \/>\n\t\tFirst you have to guess my  name,<br \/>\n\t\t\u2018Mongst chiseled stones, begin the game.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Look for Lottie and her hubby,<br \/>\n\t\t(I\u2019ve heard rumors he was chubby,)<br \/>\n\t\tNo baker\u2019s dozens anymore!<br \/>\n\t\tWhat name stood above their door?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Baby Huey, little love,<br \/>\n\t\tWhat was he the apple of?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>You\u2019re an oldie Myrtle Mutt!<br \/>\n\t\tLet the angels be your what?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Effie had her choice of men,<br \/>\n\t\t\u2018til that June of sixty-when?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Yumigawa crossed the seas!<br \/>\n\t\tNotice where he came from please&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Now make a rhyme for Charlie Krew.<br \/>\n\t\tIt\u2019s something pretty. Most wear two.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>What to climb is where I\u2019ll point you.<br \/>\n\t\tHope the prize won\u2019t disappoint you!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\tThere\u2019s a prize? <\/em> thought Ari. <em>As in, if I can figure out the answers to all these weird questions there\u2019s a prize?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\tHe only held that hope for a few fleeting seconds until it occured to him that the note must have been in the cast-iron dog forever. Probably some Daylatch kid from a hundred years ago put it there, and if there ever was a prize it wouldn\u2019t be there anymore. But something, and he wasn\u2019t sure what, made him fold the paper back up and stick it in his backpack anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pretty weird to walk everywhere with a compass, thought Ari, realizing he was now standing at the edge of the giant inlaid floor compass, at \u201cN\u201d for north. Math was not Ari\u2019s favorite subject, but he knew that on a compass there was a big circle divided into three-hundred and sixty spaces which started and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}