As I stepped out the back door of Peter Blank’s house, I was immediately hit by the vibrancy of the colors. Inside of Peter’s house, everything was dull and gray. Outside in the present day, trees swayed in the wind beneath the bright sun, and the red paint from the house on the next street contrasted brilliantly with a blue car in its driveway… and who am I kidding? Dempster Duggins is not supposed to care about the beauty of nature. Annoyed, I climbed out of Peter’s back yard and across the driveway to my own back door. The door was ajar, and there were two clean boot prints on the welcome mat.
Before I went inside, I took a detour to the flowerbed in our back yard. I picked up the shovel my father had been using, and carried it as I entered the house. I examined each and every corner of the downstairs in a similar fashion to two days previously. Again I found nothing on the main level. I went upstairs, already fearing what I would find. The thumping noise, which I had half-expected, could be heard. I was still armed with a shovel.
When I arrived outside of my room, I found my dog Knarly barking madly at the wall. I could not see him barking at anything in particular, however. Hoping that Knarly was the source of the thumping noise, I ventured past him into my room. I poked my head around the corner, in conjunction with my shovel, and saw that the room was ransacked again.

The police would arrive in about ten minutes, so I took the chance to go and sit outside in the garden and try to analyze the whole situation with Peter Blank. I didn’t get very far, however. About a minute after I sat down, Angela came bounding out of her house, smiling even more broadly than usual. I should have seen that coming.
Angela floated across the driveway and into our garden. She joined me on the doublewide bench.
“How was your day, Dempster?” she asked pleasantly.
“Fine,” I said.
She raised her eyebrows. “I just saw you entering your house with a shovel? Care to tell me what you were doing?”
I cringed. Angela was watching my every move now. She probably had binoculars or something. Things would be more difficult to do without attracting attention now.