Excerpt from The Missing Silver Dollar

Reporter Lindy Blues here, Your Nose For News. I sniff out the news. I bring you the news. If there is no news, I make it up.

Just kidding.

Lindy Blues brings you the story behind the story. The story in front of the story. The story beside the story. Well, you get the picture – the whole story.
Here’s the scoop on my latest case.

1.
A Call from the White House

It’s Saturday and the telephone at LBN, the Lindy Blues Network, wakes me up early. It’s a news tip. A voice at the other end tells me there’s been a robbery at the World Bank. If I want the story I have to be at the White House in thirty minutes. That’s the White House on 14th and Flamingo, the home of Joshua Becker.

Fortunately, the LBN office is also my bedroom. I quickly change from my pajamas to my Lindy Blues Fourth Grade Investigative Reporter suit. The pink one with the dark brown shirt that matches my hair. Looking good on camera is a must for any reporter these days.

Besides, when LBN airs tonight at six on the old VCR in the garage, who knows what famous people might be there among my usual neighborhood audience?
I race to find my photographer, Alex, who happens to be my little brother. Since his office is also his bedroom, I find him sleeping. “Wake up,” I say. “We’ve got a story to cover.”

Alex rubs his eyes and starts to get ready. Slowly. Alex is a good photographer but he doesn’t seem to get that deadlines are important. He changes his clothes, brushes his teeth, but forgets to comb his hair, which is okay because Alex works behind the camera, not in front of it. Like me.

I grab a granola bar and a glass of milk. I wait for Alex to pack up his camera. It’s one of those old camcorders that still uses big videotapes for recording and playing, a hand-me-down after Dad went digital and got one that hooks up to the computer.

When Alex is done zipping his camera bag, he stuffs Billy the Beaver and an extra tape into a side compartment. He never leaves home without an extra tape – or Billy the Beaver. Alex acts very old about some things – like math and spelling and being a photographer. But other times he acts like the eight-year-old kid that he really is.
Finally, Alex begins to eat his breakfast. He is a very slow eater. Mainly because he eats his food in alphabetical order – one food at a time. Banana, cereal, milk, orange juice. Today it’s apple juice, butter, jelly, toast. Yuck.

I tell him his food would be better mixed together.

He jumps up and down. “There,” he says. “Now it’s mixed.” Normally Alex is very quiet. I think I like him better that way.

When he’s through jumping, Alex slings his camera bag over his shoulder. I grab a pen, my reporter’s notebook, and my portable microphone. It’s not a real mic, but I like my Saturday night broadcasts to look professional.

Finally, we head to the White House.

On the way, Mrs. Carlucci drives by. I wave to her. She does not wave back. Mrs. Carlucci used to be a big fan of the Lindy Blues Network – until a few weeks ago. That’s when she heard I did a story about how her cabbage soup diet didn’t appear to be working because her dress looked a little bit tighter than usual.

At the same time, I reported there was a funny smell coming from the Carlucci household. Like smells, sometimes news travels very fast. When Mrs. Carlucci got a whiff of the story from some of my usual Saturday night audience of friends and fans, she was not happy. Since then, she does not wave to me or the LBN crew.

That’s when I learned not everyone is a fan of the truth in news reporting.

When we get to the White House, Joshua, a fellow fourth grader, and his seven-year-old sister, Amy, are waiting outside.

Alex rolls the tape. I put my face between the freckled faces of Joshua and Amy and look straight at the camera. I tap the mic twice and yell, “Is this thing on? Testing one, two, three,” because people with real microphones do that all the time.

“This is the LBN news team reporting to you live from the White House. Mr. Becker, tell us about the robbery at the world ... What?!?! Wait a minute. Stop the tape! Stop the tape! What is going on here?”

I’ve noticed that Amy is holding a small bank in the shape of, you guessed it – a globe. “Is this the World Bank you were talking about? You call Reporter Lindy Blues away from the rest of the world news to cover a robbery from a plastic bank, a piggy bank – as in oink oink? This is an outrage!”

“Calm down,” Joshua says. “We’re talking about silver dollars here. Amy has been collecting them since she was born. Yesterday she had eleven dollars in her bank. But this morning, when she woke up, she only had ten dollars.”

“So, Mr. Becker,” I say, “what we are talking about here is the theft of one dollar?”

“Yes,” Joshua says. “But silver dollars can be very valuable, especially the older ones.”

“Is Ms. Becker’s missing silver dollar an older one?”

“Well ... no,” Joshua answers. “But someday it will be.”

At this point I cannot believe that I, Lindy Blues, am covering the theft of one, as in solo, single, uno silver dollar. But then again it has been a slow news week and I do need a good story for tonight’s show.

“Okay,” I say. “Alex, roll the tape.