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Marvin hoped he’d said the right thing. He didn’t think Joe should have to change. Still, he wondered if maybe he should have told him to change his clothes, at least.
11
Vanished
Joe disappeared.
“Where is he?” Marvin’s mother demanded.
“I don’t know,” said Marvin. “Maybe he walked home.”
“I told him I would drive him,” said Marvin’s mother. “He should know better than to walk home alone.”
It was late Saturday morning. Joe had eaten three bowls of Jell-O for breakfast. He played wizzle-fish with Marvin and his family. Even Marvin’s mother and father liked playing wizzle-fish.
Then Marvin’s mother told Joe to get his things together, and she would drive him home.
Joe didn’t have any things. He just put his toothbrush in his pocket.
Nobody saw him after that.
They looked all over the house for him. Then Marvin and his father got in the car and drove around the neighborhood. Marvin’s mother stayed home with Linzy.
“Do you know where he lives?” Marvin’s father asked him.
“No,” said Marvin, looking out the window. “Don’t worry. He’s okay.”
“Do you know his phone number?” There was a phone in the car.
“No,” said Marvin.
Marvin’s father called Information and asked for the phone number for somebody named Normal. He spelled it “N-O-R-M-A-L” and looked to Marvin to make sure that was correct.
Marvin shrugged.
“It’s a new listing,” his father told the operator. “They just moved here last week … from Chicago.”
The operator couldn’t find the number.
Marvin’s father tried other spellings—“N-O-R-M-E-L-L” and “N-O-R-M-U-L” and “N-U-R-M-A-L.” There was no listing.
“It’s my fault,” Marvin’s mother said when they got home. “I should have insisted upon speaking with his parents before I let him spend the night.”
“They were in a top-secret meeting with the president,” Marvin pointed out.
“Do you really believe that?” asked his father.
“Yes!” Marvin declared. “He’s my friend.”
“Joe wouldn’t lie,” said Linzy.
Marvin smiled at his sister.
“I’m just worried about him, that’s all,” said Marvin’s mother. “He never even told his parents he was staying here.”
“He said he told them,” said Marvin.
“When?” asked his mother. “When did he have a chance to call them?”
