Cherry and Atticus Save the Neighborhood

chapter 5

"But, Mr. Bailey, this is important!" Arnold urged.

"I'm sure it is, but so is my job," Mr. Bailey explained. "Look at all this work I got piled up. I have no time to run a check on some tomato document that was probably lost 50 years ago. Now please, leave me alone. I don't know how you got in here anyway."

"But, hey, if we don't get this document, then everything in the neighborhood is going to be torn down." Atticus told him.

"Mr. Green's butcher shop, Mrs. Vitello's flower shop..." Arnold listed.

"The video store, the arcade..." Gerald added.

"How many ways can I say it?" Mr. Bailey replied apologetically. "I can't help you."

Patch whined as he saw something that got his attention.

Cherry looked to him and looked in his direction. "Dolly's Donuts?"

Mr. Bailey overheard that. "What did you say?"

Atticus, Arnold, and Gerald saw what she was doing and decided to join in.

"Oh, we were just saying that it's a shame that the bulldozers are going to tear down Dolly's Donuts." Atticus said.

"Yeah," Gerald frowned to show sadness about that. "Dolly's Donuts. Two days from now, they're history. No more Dolly's Donuts, Mr. Bailey..."

"But I love those donuts!" Mr. Bailey grew hysterical. "Nobody makes a cruller like Dolly. I've been going to Dolly's every day for 30 years. I don't think I can through a morning without 'em. How can they tear down an institution like Dolly's? That's just savage!"

"I know, but hey, what can you do?" Arnold shrugged.

"It's a shame you couldn't help us..." Cherry acted melodramatic, putting her hands under her face as she batted her eyelashes. "Well, we better get out of your way... And they look sooo good!"

They then turned around and began to walk away.

"Three... Two... One." Patch whispered.

"Wait a minute," Mr. Bailey stopped them as Patch predicted. "Where you think are you going? You want to save your neighborhood, don't you? Come on, then. We've got a document to find."

The others smirked that that worked. They had to stay a while for Mr. Bailey now had work to do, hopefully this would all be worth it.

"This is going to work, I just know it." Patch smiled.

Cherry was working at her laptop while Mr. Bailey worked.

"Are you helping?" Gerald asked her.

"Actually, I'm checking my fan mail..." Cherry replied simply. "And I got my first hate comment~... I'm super excited, because it's so lame... These people either need to look critique up... Or... Be a writer... Being a writer will teach you a LOT about what critique is... Look, another contest submission..."

"Wow." Atticus said.

"This is it," Mr. Bailey smiled once he finally finished. "When the computer stops, it'll spit out a card telling us everything the system knows about where your tomato document is."

The computer then printed out a paper which Arnold took very excitedly.

"So, what's it say, Arnold?" Patch asked, excitedly.

"'The location of your document is... Unknown'..." Arnold frowned once he read it aloud.

"Oh, come on!" Patch groaned.

"I'm sorry, kids..." Mr. Bailey replied apologetically.

"Thanks for at least being on our side..." Cherry muttered.