Alphabet Allie's Arc

Chapter 16 of 20

Allie left the Queen's porch with the quartz warm in her pocket. The path led her past low fences and out into open country. Grass stretched wide on both sides. A tall silver silo rose ahead beside a weathered wooden sign that read RANCH. Allie opened her notebook. R. She wrote it down and kept walking. Two voices carried across the grass. A gray rhino in a green vest and cargo shorts stood with his hooves on his hips. A white rabbit in a blue dress stood across from him, ears straight up, arms crossed. They were arguing about something that had already gone by. "It was a roadrunner," the rhino said. His voice was low and sure. "Long tail. Stripes. Ran past the silo." "It was a racer," the rabbit said. "A running bird. That's what it was." Allie stopped at the fence. "Excuse me. I'm Allie. What are your names?" "Rin," the rhino said. "Reesa," the rabbit said. She did not uncross her arms. Allie's eyes went wide. Rin. Reesa. Rhino. Rabbit. Ranch. She wrote each one fast. "You both start with R," she said. "And so does the sign. And so does the bird you saw, I think." Rin frowned. "We saw the same bird. She won't call it what it is." "A roadrunner is just a fancy name," Reesa said. "I called it what it was doing." Allie stepped up onto the low rail. "Can I try something?" Rin shrugged. Reesa flicked one ear. "You're both right about the letter," Allie said. "Roadrunner. Racer. Both start with R. So does everything here." She pointed at the sign, then at Rin, then at Reesa. "That's why you saw the same bird. This is an R place. Only R things come through." Reesa's arms dropped a little. "Only R things?" "Look around," Allie said. "Rhino. Rabbit. Ranch. The bird had to be an R too. That's the rule." Rin scratched behind one ear with a thick finger. "So we're both right." "You're arguing about the same letter," Allie said. "Just different words for it." Reesa looked at Rin. Rin looked at Reesa. Then, from behind the silo, a streak of brown and white shot across the grass. Long tail. Striped feathers. Crest up. It ran past them in a blur and was gone into the tall grass. "Roadrunner," Rin said. "Racer," Reesa said. But she was smiling now. Allie laughed and wrote the bird down twice, under both names. Rin held out one gray hand. "Thanks, kid. She and I have been at it since breakfast." Allie shook his hand. It swallowed hers. Reesa nodded at her, ears relaxed at last. Allie hopped off the fence. Two grown-ups. One argument. She had walked in and it had stopped. She looked down the path where the bird had gone and started after it.