"Try the pocket on my brown suitcase," Mr. Taylor suggested weakly.

Katani quickly unzipped it. Lots of socks-no cell phone.

"Did I forget it?" he wondered. "That would have been a HUGE mistake."

The girls warily looked at each other. "Never mind, Dad," Maeve said. She tucked her dad's jacket under his head so he could lie more comfortably on the ground. It was not likely that's he'd be moving anytime soon. Every time he tried to get up he winced and had to lie back down.

Katani whipped out her business notebook and made a quick note: Ask Mom and Dad to buy me a cell phone for emergency situations. She wondered how long they'd have to wait there before Mr. Taylor would feel well enough to sit up. And what if he didn't feel well enough to drive? They could spend the whole weekend stuck out here in the middle of Nowheresville!

Sam seemed to be reading her mind. "Hey, no problem. I can change that tire in nothing flat," he boasted. "The first thing I need is an a.s.sistant." He looked at the girls and stuck out his hand. "WRENCH!" he called. Sam began to pry at the hubcap until his father noticed what was going on.

"Sam," Mr. Taylor said sharply. "Sam, step away from the hubcap. Just give me a few minutes kids. I'll be fine," he said after seeing the worried looks on everyone's faces.

Maeve and Katani looked at each other helplessly. "What do we know?" Maeve asked in a low voice.

Katani shook her head. "I don't have a clue. We've only gotten a flat tire once, and when we did, my dad was there to fix it."

"I can't believe this!" Maeve said quietly to Katani. "I'm sorry this trip is taking so long. If I were you, I'd be really b.u.mmed out," she added, looking genuinely miserable.

"Hey, it's okay," Katani said, trying to convince Maeve AND herself that it was. "These things happen, right?" She couldn't help but wonder how they were going to get out of this mess. They had no phone, no idea where they were, no chance that another car would pa.s.s by, and the only adult in their group was lying on the ground in agony while his eight-year-old son tried to figure out how to change a tire.

Perfect.

"Wait a minute!" Mr. Taylor said suddenly. He tried to raise himself up, but that brought another groan. Still, he looked optimistic as he smacked his forehead. "Of course! I just remembered-I put the cell phone in the console underneath the arm rest!"

"Great!" Maeve clapped. She crawled into the front seat and popped open the middle arm rest to find everything-maps, a little flashlight, car registration, insurance information, and underneath the ma.s.s of paper-a small silver cell phone.

"Yes!" she breathed excitedly. She turned it on and handed it to her father. "Here you go!"

"Thanks, sweetheart." Fortunately, he had programmed his auto club emergency number into the phone. In under a minute he was in touch with someone from the AAA hotline. When he hung up, he announced that they were sending out a truck with someone to change the tire in about twenty minutes.

Maeve and Katani smiled at each other. Things were definitely looking up.

After fifteen minutes, Katani shivered and noticed that she could not longer see the exit sign in the distance. On the horizon, the sun was casting its last glimmer of gold. And through the magenta clouds, the pale moon was beginning to peek out.

"Look!" Katani said, pointing at the beautiful country sunset. She couldn't believe the day had ended so soon. They'd left Brookline in the early afternoon, and here it was already getting dark! "Where is daylight savings time when you really need it?" Katani whispered to Maeve.

Maeve cupped her ear. "Listen!" she said. There was a soft hooting that sounded like it came from the trees just behind them.

"Owls!" Sam said excitedly.

"Oh, no," Katani moaned. She liked some things about the nighttime, but creepy noises were not among them. Looking at the stars was pleasant; imagining big birds of prey that hovered all around in the darkness was not!

Behind them, Mr. Taylor talked softly on his cell phone. "That's right, Larry," he said. "It's been a rough day, and we're temporarily stranded...Well, no...Thanks for the offer, but we can't stay with you...I've got to get my daughter and her friend to New York City, and hopefully tonight...Yup, I'm sure we'll do it another time soon...Sure thing, Larry...Thanks for being so understanding."

He clicked off the phone and smiled cheerfully at Katani. "Well, this is quite an adventure!"

Katani tried to smile at him. She also knew lots of people who thought outdoor adventures were great, who liked dealing with challenges and problems. Katani Summers was not a nature lover, and furthermore, she'd already overcome a ton of problems just last week. And for what? To end up stranded in the middle of nowhere in the dark with a hooting owl, an injured man, and a crippled vehicle? Adventure, Katani thought dismally, is definitely overrated. Give me fashion any day!

CHAPTER.

8.

Sally to the Rescue

Ten minutes crawled by, though to the stranded travelers it felt like an hour. The night sounds grew louder, as Mr. Taylor managed to lower himself into a comfortable position without groaning. Maeve and Katani looked nervously at each other. This was not fun. Would Mr. Taylor ever be able to drive?

Then suddenly, they heard a sound that made them all hopeful. It was the low rumble of a car.

Even better-it was a state trooper's car!

"Look!" Katani cried. She threw up her arms and shouted, "Stop. Please stop!"

The car slowed down and pulled to a stop behind them.

"Oh, sweet!" Sam exclaimed. "Whoa, a state trooper! Awesome! This is almost as cool as meeting an army dude!"

"Sam, stop trying to sound like you're a teenager," an annoyed Maeve snapped at her brother.

Ignoring his sister, Sam dropped his jack on the ground and dashed over to meet the trooper. The trooper was a tall young man who drove a beige cruiser with flashing lights.

The trooper got out of his car and sauntered over to Mr. Taylor, who was on the gra.s.s. He was clad in full uniform with a brimmed black hat, shiny black boots, and a black leather belt. "Wait 'til I tell Harry!" Sam murmured under his breath when he saw the shiny gleam of the trooper's pistol resting safely in the holster.

"What seems to be the trouble here?" the trooper asked. No one answered for a minute. Mr. Taylor strained to sit up and actually made it this time.

Sam straightened to his fullest height, which at eight years old wasn't all that impressive, and whipped his hand sharply to his brow. "We have the situation under control, sir," he barked. Sam gave him a fierce salute and added, "You can go back to your duties now."

The trooper raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" he remarked, looking at the flat tire and the stricken Mr. Taylor. "Well, maybe I can still be of some help."

He started toward Mr. Taylor. "He's so handsome!" Maeve whispered to Katani. Katani hadn't even noticed. She was just thrilled that ever since they had been discovered, the creepy night sounds seemed to have vanished.

The trooper squatted by Mr. Taylor. "What happened here, sir?" he asked. Mr. Taylor explained how he'd tried to lift out the spare tire and had thrown his back out. The trooper nodded. "I have some Advil and some ice in the cruiser. Would that help?"

Mr. Taylor looked relieved. "Yes, a lot!"

"You're our hero!" Maeve blurted out. Katani gave her a look as the trooper turned. "What?" Maeve asked Katani, who rolled her eyes.

The trooper pa.s.sed Sam, who was still standing stiffly at attention. "At ease," the trooper said with a wink after he snapped off a smart-looking counter salute. Sam sighed and brought his hand to his side.

"Here you go," the trooper said. He handed Mr. Taylor a first-aid sample packet of two Advil pills along with an ice pack. "I've pulled my back before," he said. "The ice and Advil really does the trick. Give it about ten minutes."

Just then, they all heard the screech of tires. "Gee, it's getting a lot busier on this road," Maeve said to Katani.

"Yeah! Two more cars...we're very popular," Katani said. Her heart lifted when she saw that it was a tow truck. The words "Sally's Service Station" were painted on the side in blue letters. That's pretty cool, she thought, a service station with a girl's name!

The young woman who jumped down from the truck looked like a Hollywood movie version of a garage mechanic. She was slender and blue-eyed, and her light blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Katani noticed that she was wearing some kind of jumpsuit, though it was hard to make out much as the darkness was thickening around them. "Hi, I'm Sally," she said. "Triple-A sent me to fix your flat."

There was something quite impressive about this Sally woman, Maeve thought. She couldn't be more than five foot three, and yet here she was, striding confidently over to the front of the car, a.s.sessing the situation in a couple of swift glances. She looked at Mr. Taylor recovering on the ground, the state trooper, and Sam, who was inspecting the flat. "You girls must have had a very, um, exciting day..." Sally said, giving the girls a sympathetic smile as she went back to her truck.

Sam offered her the jack he had been playing with, but she declined, saying kindly, "You've got good tools there, but I do better with my own." She brought back an a.s.sortment of objects, including an industrial-size flashlight, and placed them within easy reach by the flat tire, clicking on the flashlight so it illuminated the entire area. The girls drew closer to her like moths to a flame. "So do you guys know much about car maintenance?" Sally asked. From the baffled looks on Maeve's and Katani's faces she concluded, "I guess that's a no!"

"I don't know the first thing about changing a tire!" Maeve admitted, and Katani nodded in agreement.

"I'll let you in on a little secret: it's not as hard as it looks. Watch, I'll show you," Sally declared. She looked at the tire. "I see someone tried to get the hubcap off."

"That was Sam," Maeve said proudly.

"The hubcap is the cover on the wheel, and sometimes it's got kind of a sporty design. You've heard people talking about stolen hubcaps?" asked Sally.

"Well, in movies," Maeve said, exchanging glances with Katani. Katani nodded. The amount of stuff Maeve learned from movies was incredible.

"Well, hubcaps sometimes do get stolen in real life," Sally said. "People steal them because they can sell them to someone else with a totally different car and the hubcap will still fit. Also people with sporty cars like to have sporty covers on their wheels to match, so there's a big market for them."

"Is it sort of like the different covers you put on cell phones?" Maeve asked, thinking of her own pink, sparkly cover on the phone she'd mistakenly left at home.

Sally nodded vigorously. "Exactly!"

"Oh, I get it," Katani said, surprised that she really did understand. Sally explained things so simply, and at the same time she treated the girls as if they were her equals. It made it easy to learn from her.

Sally carefully laid the hubcap down a few feet away and said, "First, the lug nuts." She showed them some small, shiny, nutlike objects around the edge of the tire. "They keep the tire securely attached to the car," she said. "We'll loosen these bad boys, but we won't take them all the way off yet. Now, the jack."

She swiftly stuck the jack in back of the flat tire and began to pump it up.

When she saw the girls' puzzled looks, she explained, "We have to lift the car up in order to change the tire. That's what the jack does. You just put it in the same area as the flat but far enough away so it doesn't interfere with your changing the tire. Then pump it up!"

She pumped vigorously, and in a few minutes the jack was holding the car aloft. She whipped off the lug nuts and placed them inside the hubcap for safekeeping. "Hey dude." Sally nodded to Sam. "Keep an eye on these, pal. We don't want them rolling away." Sam was thrilled to be given a job.

Katani was fascinated as she watched Sally work. Maeve was captivated as well. The way that Sally demonstrated how to change the tire really made it seem possible! Okay, Katani thought. I think I could do that!

Maeve broke away from Sally to see how her father was doing. The trooper had helped Mr. Taylor sit up. His face had a lot more color now, and he hadn't made a single groan since he'd put the ice pack on his back. "Hey, Dad, you look better!" she called. Things were improving.

"I feel better, honey," her father called back. "The Advil and ice really did the trick! I think I can drive again as soon as the tire is ready."

"I'm glad to hear it," the trooper declared. "You think you could stand up and stretch a little? Might help even more."

Mr. Taylor seemed agreeable, so the trooper helped him up. With one last mighty, "Uuuuuughhhh!" Mr. Taylor struggled to his feet.

"Yay, Dad!" Sam cheered.

Maeve turned back, smiling, to Sally. "Dad was in bad shape there until the trooper showed up." She stole a glance at the handsome trooper, who reminded her of Brad Pitt, then turned her attention back to the tire.

Sally agreed, "Well, that's one of the reasons we have state troopers. To help travelers in need, right? Okay, we're almost done." She quickly shifted the flat tire off the wheel and replaced it with the spare. "Who put the spare over here?" she said with a smile.

"That was me," Sam said, coming over to watch her. There was a hint of pride in his face.

"Well done," Sally told him. "You put the spare right where a mechanic could easily reach it. Nice going."

Maeve and Katani looked at each other. They decided not to embarra.s.s Sam by pointing out that putting the spare on the ground was about as far as he could get in figuring out how to change the tire!

Sally was right...there really was nothing to it. The new tire was ready to go in no time. Sally placed the lug nuts in their proper position, but she didn't tighten them all the way. "Just remember to put them on in a star pattern. And don't tighten them all the way until you've let down the jack."

Once Sally had gently let down the jack and removed it, she used a small hand drill to tighten the lug nuts all the way. She replaced the wheel cover and wiped her hands on her denim jumpsuit.

"Finished!" she announced.

"That's it?" Maeve couldn't believe it. "I always thought cars were so complicated-my mother complains about them all the time!"

"It's really not that bad once you get the hang of it," Sally rea.s.sured her. "In fact, you can take cla.s.ses that'll teach you stuff like this. You can learn how to change tires and change oil, and how to do simple maintenance on your car...that kind of thing. Let me tell you, girls, the secret to a happy life is to to do what you are most interested in and to learn about the practical things too, like car maintenance. You'll feel very independent. I took a cla.s.s like that in high school and ended up rebuilding an old Volkswagen Bug I found in a junkyard. Drove it for three years, too. Boy, oh, boy, was the rest of my cla.s.s jealous!"

"That's a great idea," Katani said to her. "I'd like to run my own business someday, and I hate the idea of being dependent on other people to do things I should know how to do myself."

Sally picked up her tools and looked appraisingly at Katani. "Good att.i.tude! Being empowered-that's the ticket."

"I can't believe how far we still have to go tonight!" Maeve said with a laugh, looking a lot more cheerful now that her father was feeling better and the car was fixed.

"Well, it looks like my work here is done!" Sally declared with a big smile. Maeve almost burst out laughing. Sam was dreamily staring at Sally!

The trooper was ready to leave too. "Take this extra packet of Advil with you, just in case," he told Mr. Taylor.

Sally organized her paperwork while the trooper made sure that Mr. Taylor was comfortable walking around by himself. "Thanks so much, Officer. And you too, Sally. You two were real lifesavers today!" Mr. Taylor said gratefully.

"You can say that again!" Katani mumbled softly.

Sally took a clipboard over to Mr. Taylor. "All you need to do is sign here, and I'll be on my way," she said, handing Mr. Taylor the AAA form.

The trooper gave Sam a final salute and then turned to the girls. "You two, watch out for this guy," he instructed, tilting his head at Maeve's dad. "Make sure he doesn't do any more heavy lifting!"

"Don't worry," Sally called as she got into her truck. "If they ever get another flat, I think these ladies will be able to handle it!"

The girls laughed and waved good-bye to Sally and to the trooper.

Mr. Taylor restarted the car, and Maeve and Katani felt a wave of relief as they finally pulled onto the road again. "That trooper was soooo dreamy!" Maeve whispered to Katani.