"Phil, what's going on? On the phone you sounded like there was an emergency."

Phil looked at his best friend. "Curtis ran away. I was taking him out for his walk, but he got away from me. I saw him go into Mr. Hackett's flower garden, and I need you to help me get him out."

"Sure," Keely responded, "but why do you need help? Why don't you go get him yourself?"

"Mr. Hackett's garden is right by his kitchen. If he's in the kitchen, I don't want him to see me in his backyard anymore than I want him to see Curtis. Mr. Hackett already thinks my family is strange; he doesn't need to know how different we really are. I'll distract; you take care of Curtis."

"How?"

Phil shrugged as he began walking towards the front of his neighbor's house. "I don't know, Keel, just get him out of there."

She stood scratching her head for a moment, then smiled as an idea popped into her head. Keely quickly went into the Diffys' house and headed for the kitchen.

xxxxx

He'd heard noises in his backyard before, and every so often he would wait in his kitchen for sounds of a late-night visitor. As he watched from his kitchen window, Mr. Hackett had his suspicions that the intruder was coming from next door. He didn't trust the Diffys, always felt they were trying to hide something. And being of a nosy disposition, the vice principal intended to find out what.

Mr. Hackett glanced at the clock; it was a quarter past eleven. He turned from the window to head to his bedroom,and as he did so, so he thought he saw movement in the bushes. Heading for his backdoor, he was reaching for the handle when the front doorbell rang.

He gave a frustrated sigh. "Who could be that at this time of night?"

Mr. Hackett walked through his house to the front door, and gazing through the peephole, he saw Phil standing there. He opened the door and asked, "You're up awfully late, aren't you?"

The boy appeared nervous. "I know it's late, Mr. Hackett. But I'm having some trouble...sleeping,and I was wondering if I could...borrow a book."

Mr. Hackett eyed his young neighbor suspiciously. "Come in. I need to check on something, but I'll get a book for you momentarily."

"Mr. Hackett, my parents don't know I'm gone," Phil said quickly. "I'd hate for them to wake up, check on me, and find my bed empty."

The vice principal supressed a groan. "Oh, all right; come along. Would you prefer fiction or non-fiction?"

"Do you have any poetry?" Phil's cell phone buzzed, and pulling it out of his pocket, he saw that Keely had texted him. GOT HIM, the message read. "Uh, never mind, Mr. Hackett. Thank you!"

With that, Phil rushed out of the house, leaving Mr. Hackett confused and more suspicious than before.

xxxxx

Walking into his backyard, Phil saw Curtis sitting cross-legged on the ground, gnawing on a bone.

"Where did he get that?" Phil wanted to know.

"I found some porkchops marinating in your refrigerator. I took one next door and he came right to me." Keely smiled at her accomplishment.

Her friend smiled back as he joined Curtis on the ground. Patting the caveman on the back, Phil said, "Curtis, you look like you're really enjoying that."

Curtis grunted and burped his approval. "'Scuse me."

Phil and Keely laughed quietly. He mouthed a "thank you" to her and watched her leave. Then he looked back at Curtis. "What happened tonight? You know better than to run away from me."

Curtis gave the boy a sorrowful look. "Sorry, Phil. But flowers so tasty."

Phil was confused for a moment. "Tasty flowers?" Then it dawned on him. "Curtis, you didn't..."

The cave man sheepishly looked away before turning his gaze to the fence that separated the Diffys' property from Mr. Hackett's.

Phil quickly ran to the fence and looked into his neighbor's backyard. "Oh no..."

xxxxx

After Phil left the house, Mr. Hackett returned to the kitchen and opened his back door. Going into the yard, he cautiously looked around for any sign of an intruder. It was then that he saw his flower garden-it had been dstroyed! Full plants had been pulled up, and several were missing flowers looked as though they had been chewed up and spit backout.

Mr. Hackett glanced around his garden again. He wanted to somehow blame the Diffys for the destruction of his flowers, but he knew that he would need proof before throwing accusations at people. He decided that he would pay the Diffys a visit the next day after school.