Page 29 of Noble Neighbor

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“Mom?” he called out.

The laugh stopped.

And Clement sucked in a breath.

He slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out the pocketknife Grandpa Frank had given him for his last birthday.

“All six-year-old boys need a pocketknife,” Grandpa Frank had said, “but you have to promise me to only use it for whittling?”

“Yes, Grandpa,” he’d replied, feeling very grownup.

Clement flicked the knife open and crept up the stairs with his back to the wall. Just like a cop. Like Dad.

Reaching the top, he looked around, confused.

He wasn’t atthathouse anymore.

Instead, the empty school hallway loomed ahead.

All the classroom doors were closed.

Except one.

And scuffle noises were coming from it. Clement raced to it, and burst through the opening, and—

“Kenzie!”

Clement shot upright, his heart about to fly right out of his throat. Nala whined and jumped on the bed, her wet nose nudging his hand.

“A dream,” he sobbed, pulling his dog closer. Only a dream.

But not like before. It wasn’t Mom he found.

It was Kenzie.

He felt around the bedside table for his pocketknife, then remembered he left it on the kitchen table.

Clement slipped from the bed and gave Nala a pat. “It’s okay. Stay.”

Quietly, he padded down the stairs. He didn’t want to wake Dad, because if Dad knew he was having his bad dreams again, Dad would take him to talk to a doctor again.

He didn’t need to talk to anybody. He knew what his dream was about. In the kitchen, he closed the door before switching on the light.

“Put it off. Put it off,” Harvey squawked.

“Shh. Everyone’s sleeping.” But to make sure Harvey kept his mouth shut, Clement threw the blanket over his cage.

“No. No,” the parrot protested.

“Sorry, Harvey.” Clement sat and picked up the piece of wood he’d been working on after supper.

And thought about a solution for the problem at school.

*

“Clement says he’s my nononary brother,” Molly informedSunny as soon as she pushed in through the kitchen door, leaving it open for her sister

What a sweet thing for Clement to say. “I think you mean honorary brother, hon.”

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