Glen Downey

Art by Karen Donnelly

Vocabulary

challenging deduced
collapsed detective
concentration interpret

Theme: Reflections
Word count: 3,752

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ISBN 978-1-4869-0890-5
1 18
 Glen Downey
Art by Karen Donnelly

Literacy Consultants
David Booth • Kathleen Corrigan
 Contents
Chapter 1
Inseparable............................... 4

Chapter 2
The Search Begins................... 8

Chapter 3
Clues and Deductions.......... 15

Chapter 4
Leap of Faith.......................... 26

3
 Chapter 1

Inseparable

“Molly, I can’t find Ginger!” Alan said, sounding

very agitated as he came into the living room.
“What’s that?” Molly asked, only half listening to
her brother. It was early afternoon on a warm July day.
Molly had been reading a mystery book featuring her
favorite detective while Alan played with their dog,
Ginger, in the backyard.
Anxiously, Alan said again, “I can’t find Ginger.”
“What do you mean?” Molly asked, looking up.
“You were playing with her on the porch just now.”
“But she went missing just now,” Alan said. “I
couldn’t have been playing with her just now if she
went missing just now.” Alan looked at Molly in
befuddlement. Alan was very particular about words.
Sometimes he was confused by what other people
said. And often things that were simple to other
people were challenging for him.
Alan had been like this for as long as Molly could
remember. When they were younger, Molly had often
found it difficult to understand the way Alan thought
about the world. That had been until the day their

4
dad came home and told her that her little brother had
been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Alan
was only six at the time, and Molly was just turning
ten, so it was a lot to take in.
But Molly had never wished her brother were
different. To Molly, Alan was a caring and affectionate
child, even though he wasn’t good at showing his
emotions or understanding other people’s facial
expressions. Now sixteen, Molly had come to
recognize how remarkable her brother truly was.

5
 Alan had a strong connection to Ginger, and it
had been that way ever since he’d first seen her at the
animal shelter. Ginger was lying down in a kennel
looking sad and confused. The staff explained that
she had been rescued from the street, malnourished
and dehydrated. They thought she had probably run
away from an owner who wasn’t taking proper care of
her. The shelter couldn’t find her family, and she had
shown signs of having been on her own for weeks.
She wouldn’t play with the staff at all and wouldn’t
connect with any families that showed an interest in
adopting her.
But Alan hadn’t even looked at another dog. He
just sat down on the floor right in front of Ginger’s

6
kennel and said, “This is the dog, and we’re naming
her Ginger.” He had refused to move until they’d
agreed to take her home.
Since that day, Alan and Ginger had become almost
inseparable. Most days Ginger listened to only Alan’s
commands and wouldn’t even eat unless Alan filled
her bowl. Similarly, Alan couldn’t fall asleep at night
without Ginger by his feet. He played with her every
day after school and walked her twice a day, with his
dad for company. Alan had become much more active
and talkative ever since Ginger had arrived.
Molly hoped Alan had simply lost track of Ginger
because she couldn’t imagine what he’d do if they
couldn’t find her.

7
 Chapter 2

The Search Begins

“Maybe she came inside, Alan,” Molly said calmly.

She stood up and walked down to the basement,
calling out all the while, “Ginger! Ginger!”
Molly couldn’t find Ginger in the basement. She
returned to the living room and did her best not to
show panic on her face.
Molly said, “OK, Alan, tell me what happened.”
Instead of answering her, Alan asked in confusion,
“Are you — angry?”
Molly quickly replied, “No, I’m not angry, Alan.
But Ginger’s not here, and we have to find her as
fast as we can. Alan, I need you to tell me exactly
what happened.”
“We were playing, and when I turned around, she
wasn’t there. That’s exactly what happened,” he
replied matter-of-factly, unsure of what Molly was
getting at.
Molly led Alan out of the house and over to the
gate. Molly noticed it was still latched, which meant
Ginger must have jumped over their fence to get out.
It was unusual behavior for her. The only other time she
had jumped over the fence was when she had chased
after the letter carrier, but it wasn’t time yet for mail.

8
9
 Molly opened the gate and walked along the
sidewalk in front of the house. “Ginger! Ginger!”
Molly called as she paced in front of the house, but
the neighborhood was quiet apart from the occasional
passing car, the distant song of an ice cream truck, and
the drone of a lone lawn mower.
Alan asked worriedly, “She’s going to come back,
isn’t she?”
Molly wanted to do everything in her power to
stop Alan from panicking. She thought back to the
mystery books she loved to read, and about what the
detectives would do to solve a case.
Usually, the first thing a detective did was find and
question witnesses. Sometimes witnesses couldn’t
remember every little detail, and other times they
didn’t think something they did remember was
important enough to share with the detective. Molly
figured that in order to find out what she wanted to
know, she had to ask Alan the right questions.
“It’ll be OK, Alan. Just tell me in as much detail
as possible what happened right before you noticed
Ginger was gone.”

10
 “We were playing on the back porch, and then
Ginger started growling.” As Alan said this, he started
to walk toward the backyard again. Turning around
suddenly, he asked,”Is this a bad time for apple slices?”
Alan was easily distracted when he was hungry.
Molly was used to abrupt conversation changes when
talking to Alan. Without batting an eye, she said, “I’ll
get you some in a minute. Do you remember what
Ginger was growling at? I mean, what did Ginger see
that made her growl?”
“She saw the raccoon.”
“The raccoon? Alan, was there a raccoon inside the
fence? Or was the raccoon outside the fence?”
Alan immediately replied, “Inside the fence. Can
you get me the apple slices now?”
“One more question, and then I’ll get you some
apple slices. Did Ginger chase after the raccoon?”
After some thought, Alan replied, “I don’t know.
I didn’t like the growling, so I went behind the shed.”

11
 “And when you came back out, Ginger was gone?”
“You said one more question, but you asked two.”
And Alan refused to say another word until Molly
kept her promise to get him some apple slices.

uuu

Ten minutes later, Alan was sitting at the dining

room table eating apple slices while Molly dialed their
Aunt Abby’s number. Aunt Abby was better known
around town as Detective Abigail Jackson, one of the
most respected members of the county police force.

12
 Molly was concerned about Alan’s mention of a
raccoon. She worried that the raccoon might have
been sick, and if a sick raccoon bit Ginger, it could
make Ginger really sick too.
Aunt Abby picked up after three rings. Molly
stepped into the living room and told Aunt Abby
about the situation in a low voice.
“OK, first of all, let’s not panic,” said Aunt Abby
authoritatively. “Second of all, I happen to have
today off. I can be there in twenty minutes to pick
you and Alan up. We can drive around and look for
Ginger together.”
Molly thanked Aunt Abby and went back to
Alan’s side.
Alan asked, “Is Ginger coming back?”
“We have to go and search for her, Alan. Aunt
Abby is coming to help us look, so let’s go wait for her
out front.”
Alan surprised Molly by refusing to move and
said, “No, we can’t go.”
Not understanding, Molly inquired, “Why not?”

13
 “We can’t go until you call Dad,” said Alan. “When
Dad was leaving for work this morning, he said that
you have to call him if we want to go out.”
“Dad meant if we want to go to the mall or
something, Alan, not if we go out with Aunt Abby.”
But Alan stood firm and insisted, “He said, ‘If you
and Molly want to go out, make sure you give me a
call at the office.’ ”
Molly knew there was no point arguing with
Alan. She had learned that although her brother had
a lot of difficulty with certain things, when it came
to remembering details from days, weeks, or even
months ago, there was no one else with a memory
like his.
Molly had no doubt that those were her father’s
exact words. So she quickly called her father to let him
know what was happening, promising to be careful.
With that, the pair headed out.

14
 Chapter 3

Clues and Deductions

As Alan and Molly stood on the sidewalk in front

of their house to wait for Aunt Abby, Molly looked
up and down the street for clues about Ginger’s
whereabouts. Ginger was a full-grown yellow Lab,
and Molly didn’t believe for a second that such a big
dog could just disappear without a trace.
On the other hand, Ginger was also a very unusual
dog. She never barked, but she did often growl at
animals and people she didn’t like — and she didn’t
like most animals and people. She chased after certain
loud sounds, but she couldn’t stand being around
other equally loud sounds. Molly knew these things
about Ginger, but the real expert on Ginger was Alan.
“OK, Alan, let’s try to figure out where Ginger
could have gone,” said Molly.
Their house stood at the end of a cul-de-sac, so
there was only one direction Ginger could have gone.
Their street led to a three-way intersection, at which
point Ginger would have had to go either left or right.

15
 “Alan,” Molly began after carefully choosing her
words, “when you and Dad take Ginger out on her
walks, where does she especially like to go?”
Alan was silent for nearly a minute as he thought
about the question, but instead of coming up with
an answer, he only grew more agitated and started
to fidget.
Molly knew immediately she had asked the wrong
question. “Sorry,” she said, recovering quickly. “I
meant to ask, where does Ginger not like to go?”
This time Alan answered immediately. “She doesn’t
like the dog park.”
That made sense to Molly. Ginger didn’t get along
with other dogs.
The answer didn’t quite help Molly, however,
seeing as the dog park was quite far to get to on foot.
But she felt that she was on the right track.
“That’s great information,” she said encouragingly.
“What other things does Ginger not like? I know she
doesn’t like our letter carrier, Mrs. Williams. What else
in our neighborhood does she not like?”
“But Ginger loves Mrs. Williams,” Alan replied as
he stared at Molly with a confused look on his face.

16
 It was Molly’s turn to be confused. “But she tried
to chase after Mrs. Williams that one time. She even
jumped over the fence to do it.”
“Ginger loves Mrs. Williams, so of course she
would chase after her.”
Molly didn’t know how to respond to Alan.
She’d never thought about it that way before. It still
surprised her sometimes to know that Alan saw the
world so differently.
Just then, their Aunt Abby pulled up alongside the
pair and said, “Hi, kids. Any luck yet?”
“No sign of her,” Molly replied as she and Alan
climbed into Aunt Abby’s car, “and I’m not sure where
to start looking.”

17
 “We’ll go street by street, Molly,” Aunt Abby said
in her usual no-nonsense fashion. “Keep your eyes
peeled, and let me know if you see anything. I called
my friends at animal control, so they’re out looking for
Ginger as well.”
As they reached the three-way intersection, the car
slowed to a stop. Aunt Abby asked, “Left or right?”
“I — I don’t know,” Molly admitted.
Aunt Abby said patiently, “It’s OK, Molly. We can
circle back as many times as we need to. How about
this? At first glance, does anything stand out to you
as unusual? At the station, when we’re trying to crack
open a case that seemingly has no lead, we always
start by figuring out what is unusual. People, and
even animals, like to follow set patterns, so if we see
anything that’s out of the ordinary, it’s usually a good
sign that a disturbance has happened. That might be
the lead we need to find Ginger.”
Molly couldn’t see anything unusual. The houses,
the grassy lawns, and the neatly paved streets all
looked the same as they always did.

18
 Then Alan squirmed in his seat and said, “Can we
go please? I don’t like the mailboxes.”
Surprised, Molly asked, “What’s wrong with the
mailboxes, Alan?”
After struggling to find the right word, Alan
replied, “They’re not complete.”
Molly looked around the neighborhood. All the
mailboxes looked exactly the same as they always had
to her, but if Alan said they made him uncomfortable,
then there must be something different about them.

19
 Alan not only had a great memory, but he was also
great at recognizing patterns.
“Oh, I get it!” she exclaimed. “Only the houses on
the left side of the street have had mail delivered.”
Sure enough, along the left side of the street to the
left of the intersection, every mailbox’s little red flag
was standing at attention. The unusual thing was that
Mrs. Williams always delivered the mail to that side
of the street first before turning onto the cul-de-sac
Molly’s family lived on. But Molly and Alan hadn’t
seen Mrs. Williams at all that day, which meant that
her route had been interrupted midway.
“Mrs. Williams was probably just about to turn
onto our street when she ran into Ginger,” deduced
Molly. “Mrs. Williams doesn’t know that Ginger likes
her, so when Ginger started chasing her instead of the
raccoon, Mrs. Williams must have gotten scared and
run back in the other direction.”

20
 Aunt Abby grinned widely and said, “Excellent
teamwork, you two!” She put the car into drive and
made a left turn. They drove for a bit and still saw no
sign of either Mrs. Williams or Ginger. Before long,
they were at a four-way intersection, and now there
were three other directions Ginger could have gone.
Aunt Abby stopped the car again and said, “That
was some pretty good deduction back there. What
about here? Do you see a new clue that might help?”
Molly was starting to feel a lot more hopeful about
this search. “I don’t know exactly which way she
went, but I do know it’s not straight ahead. Look,
Ms. Wu over there is almost done mowing her lawn.
Ginger hates the sound of lawn mowers, so she
wouldn’t have gone that way. Right, Alan?”
“Ginger doesn’t like lawn mowers because there’s
no melody to their sound,” Alan said in agreement.
Aunt Abby looked at them in surprise. “I didn’t
know dogs cared about melodies.”

21
 “Ginger is a special dog. Isn’t she, Alan?” Molly
smiled. “But speaking of melodies, I’ve been hearing
an ice cream truck for the last half hour. Ice cream
trucks play loud but fun music. Would that be
something Ginger would like, Alan?”
Alan said that it would, and so they turned right
this time and drove in the direction of the ice cream
truck music. The truck had been slowly but steadily
moving away from them, so they had to drive for
quite a few minutes before reaching its vicinity.
Suddenly, Alan said, “Ginger also likes Shala.”
When Alan didn’t offer any more information,
Aunt Abby asked, “Who’s Shala?”
“Shala is Ginger’s friend,” answered Alan. “She
lives on the street that’s coming up. Shala’s old, so she
just sits in her doghouse, but when Ginger walks by
her yard, Shala always comes out and sits by the fence
to talk to Ginger.”
“I think we should go see Shala, Aunt Abby,”
Molly said.
Without asking another question, Aunt Abby
followed Alan’s directions to Shala’s house. When
they got there, a white terrier with brown markings

22
was walking very slowly back to her doghouse from
the fence.
Molly looked around, but there was no sign of
Ginger. “Ginger must have just left here recently. Shala
is out of her doghouse, so she must have seen Ginger
not long ago.”
Alan didn’t seem nearly as excited as Molly was at
the news that Ginger must have been in the area very
recently. He said rather dispiritedly, “Shala will be sad
if Ginger doesn’t come back.”
Molly shared a glance with Aunt Abby and
smiled. One of the most difficult things for Alan was
expressing his feelings, but Molly had recently learned
that he actually did express himself, just in a different
way. Alan often liked to express his emotions by
putting his feelings onto Ginger or his toys, or in this
case, Shala.
“I know, Alan,” said Molly. “I’d be very sad, too,
because Ginger is a great dog.”
Alan looked at Molly with concern and asked, “Are
you sad, Molly? Hug?” Molly smiled broadly. She
reached across and hugged her brother, which always
made her feel better somehow.

23
24
25
 Chapter 4

Leap of Faith

Aunt Abby decided to continue driving down the

street Shala’s family lived on, because if Ginger had
turned back and gone the other way, they would have
seen her already.
“What’s down this street?”asked Aunt Abby.
“It’s the older part of the neighborhood,” Molly
replied. “I don’t think there’s much — ”
Alan interrupted, saying, “There’s an old house
built in 1896 that the mayor wants to have torn down.
Dad read about it in the newspaper three weeks and
two days ago.”
Sure enough, the street came to a dead end, at
which point they saw a half-collapsed house covered
in vines. All the windows in the house were long gone,
and the paint had chipped off in patches. Both the
front lawn and backyard were covered in overgrown
grass and weeds. It looked as though nobody had
lived in the house for decades.
“Do you think Ginger is in there?” Molly asked no
one in particular.

26
 Aunt Abby said, “When I’m looking for someone,
I always try to think the way they do. You’ve been
doing a pretty good job of that today, Alan. What do
you think? If you were Ginger, would that house be a
place you’d go into?”
Molly watched as Alan stared at the house with
great concentration. She had no doubt he could
answer Aunt Abby’s question. Asking Alan to
interpret feelings that weren’t his own was difficult,
but not impossible, and this was Ginger they were
talking about.
Alan nodded and said without hesitation, “She
likes sniffing old and funny things. That house must
have an old and funny smell, so Ginger would go
in there.”
“Well, let’s go then.”
They got out of the car and walked near the house.
Alan’s ears perked up immediately. “Ginger is in
there! I can hear her growling.”
“You can?” Aunt Abby asked, straining to hear. “I
mean, how can you be sure?”
“He’s sure,” Molly said. “If Alan says it’s Ginger,
then it’s definitely Ginger.”

27
 “Something’s wrong,” Alan announced suddenly,
stopping as he approached the house. And now both
Molly and Aunt Abby could also hear a faint growl
coming from the inside of the structure.
“Hold on, Alan,” Aunt Abby said. “The house
doesn’t look stable. We can inspect its perimeter, but
we shouldn’t get too close. I’ll call animal control on
my cell phone and see if they can come help.”

28
 The three of them cautiously walked around the
house, peering into every window. The growling grew
steadily louder.
Looking through a large bay window facing the
backyard, the three of them finally spotted Ginger. She
was sitting in a far corner, and the floor in front of her
had partially collapsed. Molly could see right into the
basement from where she was standing. Thankfully,
Ginger didn’t look hurt. There was a small strip of
flooring along the wall that Ginger could walk on to
get to the window, but Ginger was shaking too much
and was too afraid to make the attempt on her own.
Ginger was looking at Alan and nobody else, and
Alan called to her, “Hi, Ginger! We’ve been looking for
you. How did you get there?”
Ginger whimpered, but she didn’t move.
Looking back and forth between Alan and Ginger,
Molly said, “I think Ginger needs some encouragement,
Alan. It’s scary in there on her own, but if she knows
you’ll be right here waiting for her, maybe she’ll feel
brave enough to come out.”

29
 Alan nodded without looking away from Ginger.
“Ginger, it’s me, Alan. It’s OK now. We followed clues
and thought like you and came all the way here. We
found you. So you can come out now. Come here, girl.”
Ginger’s expression changed, and her growls faded
to a pant.
“You look thirsty, Ginger,” Alan continued. “Let’s
go home so that you can have some water. We can
say hi to Shala on our way back. Maybe we’ll see
Mrs. Williams again and tell her you weren’t going
to hurt her.”

30
 Testing with her front left paw to make sure the
small strip of floor could bear her weight, Ginger
began slowly and clumsily inching her way along.
Molly and Aunt Abby watched in silence as Alan
continued to call out words of encouragement.
“That’s it, girl,” Alan said when Ginger shuffled
past the most unstable section of the floor and reached
a spot only a few feet away. Suddenly, there was the
sound of a crack and Alan cried, “Ginger, jump!”

31
 At the last moment, Ginger leaped toward the
open window and landed in front of the windowsill
just as the remainder of the floor crumbled.
Alan leaned in and pulled Ginger to safety. He
gathered her into his arms and didn’t let go until Aunt
Abby’s friends from animal control showed up.

uuu

“You were amazing today, Alan,” said Molly on

their way back from the vet. They’d taken Ginger
in for a checkup after finding her. “Not only did
you not panic, but you also provided a lot of useful
information about Ginger. We wouldn’t have found
her so fast if it weren’t for you.”
With one hand resting firmly on Ginger’s back,
Alan said plainly, “I learned it from you. You were like
a detective today.”
Aunt Abby chuckled, and Molly couldn’t help
herself. She pulled Alan into a tight hug and teased,
“Is there anything you can’t do, Alan?”
“I’m not very good at chess,” Alan replied, looking
up at his sister.
All Molly could do was smile.

32
Think About It
Use a story sequence graphic organizer to retell Missing!
List the characters and title. Then describe the setting.
Focus on the main events in the story, and tell what
happens first, next, then, and last.

Title

Characters Setting

Events
1. First

2. Next

3. Then

4. Last
 Missing!
Glen Downey • Art by Karen Donnelly

ISBN-13: 978-1-4869-0890-5
ISBN-10: 1-4869-0890-X
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