Ryan Ruiz - The Black Cadillac

Cody didn’t really know what to say. He was shocked that his teacher had offered it to him.

“Thank you,” said Cody softly.

“You’re welcome. One time—that’s it, Cody. Now, get to your next class,” replied Mr. Jones and then started shuffling through papers on his desk.

Cody stuffed the work sheet into his book bag and left the classroom.

He continued on to art class. The day lasted forever and never seemed to end.

After school, Cody walked straight home. The day had been long, and Cody wanted to get home as fast as he could to get the extra-credit work sheet Mr. Jones had given to him done.

Like always, he said hi to his sister and went to his room. He flipped on his alarm clock radio on his desk to the AM news station while doing his math work sheet. He wanted to hear an update on the missing girl. It was all the news reporters were talking about in the area. After a bunch of commercials, a reporter came on.

“Mandy Coefield had been missing for eleven days now. Police and authorities continue the search for the missing eight-year-old,” the reporter said in a low tone.

Cody turned off the radio. The butterfly feeling formed in his stomach. Something told him that time was running out.

When Cody woke up the next morning, there was a sense of urgency on his mind. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the phone book that Grady was bringing to school. Would the name of the man be in there?

At lunchtime, Cody circled the cafeteria, looking for Zach. He was nowhere to be found. Cody sat at the table with Frankie and Seth.

“Hey, guys, have either of you seen Zach?” asked Cody.

“Nope,” said Frankie, stuffing a piece of pizza in his mouth.

Seth didn’t even respond because he was occupied by a crossword puzzle.

Cody sat down at the table and pulled out his peanut butter sandwich that was in a small container in his book bag. Just before he could take the first bite, Zach was walking quickly toward the table.

“Dude, the new kid came through!” he exclaimed, making sure that no one really knew what he was talking about.

“You got it?” asked Cody with a wide eye.

“Yep, it’s in my bag. Let’s look at it at your house later,” said Zach.

“That’s probably a good idea,” replied Cody. “Meet me after school by the playground.”

Zach nodded and walked toward the food line. He rarely packed a lunch like his friend. Mrs. Madden always gave him lunch money.

Lunch came and went.

When Cody got to math class, Mr. Jones stopped him before he sat down. He pointed to his desk. Cody quietly placed the completed work sheet on the desk and sat down in his seat. He really appreciated what Mr. Jones had done for him. Mr. Jones acknowledged Cody after he sat down.

None of the other students had any clue what Mr. Jones did for Cody. Mr. Jones started teaching class.

“Okay, guys and gals, pull out your books and open to page 141. Welcome to geometry…” Mr. Jones’s voice trailed off.

Cody drifted off into a deep daydream. It was more like a day nightmare. He was at the man’s house on Braxton Street in Crestwood. It was night, and Cody was by himself. He was dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and was carrying a small flashlight. Cody opened the gate slowly to the front yard and walked up to the porch.

The house was dark, and there were some wooden boards on a couple of the porch windows. The outside floorboards made a creek as he gently tried to peer in a window. There was nothing to see because of how dark it was. Cody put the flashlight up to the window. He quickly turned it off when he heard someone walking toward the front door. The front door swung open…

The bell rang.

Cody snapped out of his daydreamed coma, grabbed his book bag, and headed out the door before Mr. Jones saw him.

Cody tried to stay focused for his last two classes. He was very anxious to meet up with Zach and the phone book. The final bell eventually rang two hours later.

Cody flew out of his last class down the hall, weaving through a plethora of kids to get to the back exit door. He arrived at the playground and sat on one of the benches. Cody could see his friend was about one hundred yards away just walking out of the building. He whistled and waved his hands in the crowded playground as Zach came closer. Zach caught up with his friend.

“Let’s go straight to your house,” instructed Zach.

“Let’s go,” fired back Cody.

The two boys chatted all the way to Cody’s house about the upcoming baseball season. Both of them loved baseball. Cody was actually a better baseball player than Zach though he would never say that to his friend.

When they arrived at Cody’s house, they headed straight to Cody’s room and shut the door. Cody grabbed a blanket off his bed, rolled it up the long way, and stuffed it under the door to prevent it from opening. The lock on Cody’s bedroom door had been broken for years. He needed to make his own lock, and the blanket would be sufficient.

Zach pulled the thick phone book out of his bag and placed it on the floor. Cody went in to his desk and removed his small notebook out of the secret compartment. He opened it to the correct page.

“Okay, Zach, the address is 1291 Braxton Street,” Cody informed his friend.

They sat on the floor and opened the phone book to the beginning.

“We just need to flip page by page, looking for an address that starts with 1291,” said Cody.

Cody reached into his book bag and pulled out a pen.

Page after page, the friends looked. The address never came up. An hour had gone by, and they were over halfway through the book. One of them read one page, and the other followed to double-check. With just twenty pages left to go, Cody suddenly stopped browsing. Zach saw what Cody was looking at.

“I think we found it,” said Cody.

“I think you’re right,” confirmed Zach.

There, on the right page, was the address that matched Cody’s notes.

It read, “WERMER, MELVIN T 1291 BRAXTON ST. (440)555-2448.”

The tired boys looked at each other.

“This is him, Zach. I just know it,” said Cody.

“Wow,” his friend said, that being the only word that would come out.

The boys had now put a name to the man’s face. What they thought of next was something unimaginable.

“I want to go back there,” blurted out Cody. “I need to know.”

“Dude, I go where you go,” his friend confidently said.

“We need another plan, and I’ve got one. How far of a bike ride do you think it is?” asked Cody.

Zach went to the front of the phone book with a map of Crestwood and a few surrounding cities. He looked at the scale that showed how much a mile was.

“Oh man, maybe forty-five minutes,” Zach responded. “It’s at least six miles based off this map.”

“We are going to ride to Crestwood. We will park our bikes at the top of the street and hide them somewhere. We will then walk to the house and try to get a look-in,” explained Cody.

“Okay, when are we going to do this?” asked Zach.

“This weekend but there’s one catch—we are going near dusk,” said Cody with a little pitch to his tone.

“Oh man, how are we going to get out and stay that late?” asked Zach, very unsure.

“We are going to try and pull something off on our parents, and we need to be completely on the same page if we are going to do it,” said Cody, trying to sound convincing.

Cody’s brain was firing on all cylinders.

Zach didn’t have a clue what Cody meant by that.

“We are going to each ask our parents if we can spend the night over each other’s houses. It will work, I promise,” Cody explained.