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thought too far ahead. They had not yet reached summer vacation, a time when Keisha, Aaliyah and their other best friend, Wen, had promised to spend time each day practicing their freestyle double Dutch. Winning the under-ten category last winter was easy, but now they had to compete against eleven-and-a-half-year-olds.
    Keisha looked around her. Baby Paulo had put the yogurt bowl on his head, Zack was twirling Razi like an airplane and Razi was squealing with delight. Zeke was pouring Cheerios from the box into his mouth.
    “Before I can think about alligators, I have to clean up this baby and find something for Razi to do.”
    “Until you catch that alligator, the rest of us can’t go outside to play. I’ll get my binoculars and go up to the third floor. If I see anything long and suspicious, I’ll call you.”

    “Sounds like a plan. And don’t worry, Aaliyah. Mama and Daddy will find the alligator.”
    “Okay, I’ll tell Moms that your mama’s on it. She thinks your mama can do anything.”
    Keisha hung up the phone. First thing done. But what next? Whenever her mind was spinning from all the things that had to be done, Daddy would say to her, “What do you do if you’re lost in the woods?”
    What do you do if you’re lost in the woods?
    Stand still. The birds are not lost. The trees are not lost
.
    So Keisha stood still inside all the shouting and the movement and let the gears in her brain turn slowly. After one full minute, she whistled through her teeth the way Grandpa Wally Pops had taught her. Grandpa Wally Pops had been dead since Keisha was five, but Mama said his whistle was part of his memory line, the line that stretches from generation to generation and can never be broken.
    A Grandpa Wally Pops whistle was short and sharp and shrill and it called everyone to attention.
    “Since they already searched the house, I think it would be all right with Mama,” Keisha said, looking at Zeke and Zack, “if you two take Razi upstairs and set up the train track.”
    “The train? Can I have my conductor’s whistle?”
    For obvious reasons, the Carters kept Razi’s conductor’s whistle in a secret place and only brought it out once in a while.
    “Yes.” Keisha told Zeke and Zack the current hidingplace. “If you boost Razi up, he can reach the top of the bookcase in Mama and Daddy’s room.”
    “I can climb it myself like a monkey,” Razi offered.
    “The Z-Team is on it,” Zeke said, very serious. He took Razi’s top half.
    Zack grabbed Razi’s bottom half. “Chugga, chugga, chugga,” Zack said.
    “Woo-woo,” Zeke answered back as they disappeared up the stairs. Keisha knew that even though Zack and Zeke were big kids now, they still liked to play with the toy train.
    “Better keep the door closed,” she said to their backs. Keisha thought of something else. “If you see any alligators,” she called to them as they climbed the stairs, “no wrestling. Just tell me.”
    Keisha turned around and surveyed the kitchen. A chair was overturned. There were Cheerios on the floor, and baby Paulo had fallen asleep, his little legs dangling. One foot was missing a sock.
    At least it was quiet. Keisha got down on her hands and knees and started to sweep the Cheerios into a pile. She put the cereal from the floor into the animals’ dry-food container.
    Paulo had licked the bowl clean before he put it on his head, so Keisha just got the counter sponge andslicked down his hair. She unlatched the tray, lifted Paulo out of the high chair and put him in his car seat. What was it about sleeping babies that made them three times heavier? Buckling him into his car seat on the counter, Keisha made sure Paulo’s arms and legs were comfy.
    Now that it was quiet, she could finally get down to some serious thinking. Pressing each of Paulo’s toes in turn between her fingers, she whispered, “This little piggy goes to market, this little piggy stays home….”
    Counting baby toes, as everyone knows, is a