When he was finished, Cody gently smiled, set his pencil down, and lay down on his bed with the clothes he wore to school that day still on. He was exhausted.
That night, he didn’t sleep that well. Cody woke up several times and eventually changed into clothes more suitable for bed. When he finally did drift off to sleep again, weird dreams circled his brain.
He was right back on the sidewalk where the car had pulled up on his street. This time, when the man asked the question, Cody went to the passenger door and opened it. Olive was in the front seat, telling him that it was okay. He tried to pull his sister out of the car, but the door shut and the car drove off. He chased after the car as fast as he could and eventually lost sight of it.
Another dream had him on the other side of the street, watching the black vehicle pull up to another kid younger than Olive. The kid got in the car, and it drove off. Cody tried to yell at the kid, but nothing came out of his mouth.
The final dream that stood out had the black car in an unfamiliar driveway. As if he were floating through the air, Cody entered the house where the black car was parked. He went from room to room in the dark, creepy house and found the same thing over and over. It was completely empty. The dream ended with a door where light was coming from underneath. It was the basement door. As soon as he opened it, the dream was over, and he woke up dripping in sweat.
CHAPTER V
The Plan of Attack
The next morning, Cody awoke to his mother at his door.
“Are you up? You’re going to be late for school, and Zach’s here,” she lightly shouted.
“Zach’s here?” he quickly thought aloud. “That’s right, Zach never called me last night, but why is he here?” he continued to think.
“Tell him I’ll be right down, Mom,” Cody said while stretching out his arms.
Cody rushed out of bed; went to his disorganized closet; grabbed a flannel shirt, jeans, and some socks; and put everything on. He hurried to the bathroom, rinsed his face with ice-cold water, and brushed his teeth.
He went back to his room, picked his book bag up off his desk, and raced downstairs where Zach was patiently waiting on the living room couch.
“What’s up, bud? I never heard from you last night,” Cody said.
“Yeah, I know. Sorry, dude. My mom had me do something that took forever,” replied Zach.
Cody’s mother yelled from the kitchen, “Zach, honey, are you hungry? I made a bagel with cream cheese for Cody—would you like one?” she said.
“No thanks, Ms. Roberts. We have to get going anyways,” Zach shouted back.
Cody and Zach threw on their jackets, shoes, and hats and scuttled out the door. Georgiana handed the bagel to Cody in a napkin. Although it was still cold, it was a little warmer than yesterday, and the wind was hardly blowing. As the two went down the driveway, an uncomfortable feeling ran into Cody’s stomach. They were headed the same way Cody went the day before.
“So why did you come to my house? School is just a block away for you,” Cody politely asked.
“I felt bad about last night and wanted to make sure you didn’t have to walk alone today. It’s what best friends do. Besides, I want to talk more about what happened to you, if you don’t mind?” Zach replied.
Though still shaken from the incident and nightmares, Cody appreciated his friend’s gesture and actually wanted to talk more about it.
Zach fired off all types of questions like “What kind of car do you think it was?” “Did you write down the plates?” “Was the guy young or old?”
As he answered Zach’s questions as best he could, Cody began to see a bigger picture. He saw how animated his friend was about the whole thing and then stopped walking.
“It happened right here, Zach,” said Cody.
“Wow, right here? In broad daylight? This guy has some balls,” Zach said toughly.
“Yeah, right here, and if I had gotten in with him, you probably would never see me again,” Cody replied.
The boys kept walking.
Cody continued, “Zach, let me ask you something. If I asked you to do something completely crazy, would you do it?”
“Depends on what it was, but most likely yes,” Zach replied.
“Good, that’s what I thought,” said Cody.
“Dude, if I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t have woken up super early so I could be at your house to walk to school with you. I’ve known you since kindergarten, man. We are like brothers,” Zach added.
“I know. Please keep this a secret like I asked, and let’s meet up after school. I have an idea,” Cody explained.
“Okay, what is it?” asked Zach.
“We will talk after school, buddy,” replied Cody.
The two were almost at school. They walked into the main building.
The bell rang, and the kids both entered first period together. With the exception of lunch, the two only had one class together, and it was first-period homeroom.
The day flew by, and classes kept Cody occupied. Although he hated reading, he was actually enjoying The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. His brain was occupied for the time being, but other thoughts and ideas were also forming on the other side of it. By the school day’s end, Cody had thought of a risky, but important, plan. He couldn’t wait to share it with Zach but was also worried he wouldn’t understand.
The two friends met up after school and walked all the way to Cody’s house. On the walk home, they talked about a lot of things, but nothing had to do with Cody’s idea. Cody and Zach arrived at the house and walked through the front door.
He waited till they got to his house and upstairs in his room to tell Zach.
Before Cody could blurt out the idea, a knock on the bedroom door was heard. They both knew who it was—Olive.
“Sorry, Olive, Zach and I have a big homework assignment we need to work on. I’ll play with you later. I love you, though!” Cody yelled at the door.
“Okay, love you too,” the little girl’s voice squeaked.
When he knew she had left the hallway, Cody started talking, “Okay, Zach…”
Before he could say anything else, Zach said, “Dude, I know what you want to do. I’m pretty sure I know what your plan is.”
“You do?” Cody sounded surprised.
“Yeah, dude. I’m all for it. Let’s find the man in the black car,” Zach replied.
“Wow, man, how did you know?” said Cody.
Zach set his book bag on the floor and looked at Cody’s desk. “I just saw how much it affected you yesterday. Is this the car?” Zach was holding up the drawing Cody did last night.
“Yes, but I’m not sure. It’s just everything I can remember. It all happened so fast,” said Cody.
“It’s okay, buddy. It’s a start,” Zach replied. “So how are we going to do this? I mean, we are twelve years old, we don’t have any clue how to go about this, do we? And what are we going to do once we find the car?”
“I know, I know. If we are going to do this, we need to be smart. We need to put in the time and effort on top of our schoolwork. I understand if you don’t want to do this,” Cody explained.
“I’m in, dude,” Zach replied.
The boys continued to devise a plan. Both Cody and Zach were smarter than they appeared. Even though Zach was considered a jock and class clown at school, he could always think of ideas.
The first step was simple. The boys needed to find out if the man in the black car lived in Tippwood. They made a map of the city and drew a radius from where the vehicle pulled over. On foot or with their bicycles, they both covered zoned areas and would take notes of any vehicle that even remotely resembled Cody’s drawing. With Cody’s new camera, which he received for Christmas, they would secretly snap pictures of every car and license plate. They knew they had to be careful doing so. Step one of their plan was in place.