We raced into the elevator and headed for my apartment. “Thanks for showing up,” I said to him as we watched the floor numbers change above the elevator doors. “I owed it to you,” said Frankie. “Why?” “I realized you got yourself into this mess for me. That’s why you took that cable box apart-because you felt bad about screwing up the movie, and you never wanted that to happen again. Am I right?” “Yeah,” I said. “And now look. I’ve screwed up again. Hank Zipzer, world’s greatest screw-up.” “But we love you anyway,” Ashley said. “Speak for yourself, Ashweena,” Frankie said with a laugh. When we walked into my apartment, my dad and Emily were crawling around the floor on their hands and knees. They were looking under all the furniture and in back of the book-cases. “We have a problem,” Emily said. “Katherine is missing again.” “So what’s the problem?” I asked. “That is so not funny, Hank,” said Emily. “I’m worried.” “Maybe you just nuzzled her one time too many,”
