Читать книгу The Gismo Trilogy MEGAPACK®: The Complete Young Adult Series - Keo Felker Lazarus - Страница 10

CHAPTER 6

Anyone home?

Jerry and Ron stared in amazement. The wand from the spaceship touched the roof of the garage, and the spaceman, no taller than Jerry or Ron, stepped onto the ridgepole. He stood for a moment looking down. The red and white lights revolving above him glinted in his round bubble helmet. Their reflection made him seem faceless. A small square box, with a blue light blinking from it, was strapped to his chest. His metallic one-piece suit fitted him like a skin diver’s wet suit. His shoes were large and awkward looking. Slowly, the spaceman shuffled to the edge of the roof. Hesitating a moment, he bent his knees and jumped. He floated down to the ground like a maple leaf.

He paused and looked about him, then bent his bubble helmet forward as though he were looking at the box on his chest. He turned slowly. When the blue light blinked directly at the pup tent he stopped moving. Jerry and Ron froze. The spaceman hesitated a moment, then swung around and shuffled toward the workshop. The boys could see him fumble with the knob, push on the door, and go inside.

“What does he want in there?” Ron whispered.

“Don’t you remember? That’s where we talked to Monaal this afternoon.”

“Yeah! I bet he thinks we’re still in there,” Ron whispered.

“I bet he wants to talk to us some more,” Jerry said. He began to climb out of his sleeping bag. “I’m going in there.”

“Maybe it isn’t safe,” Ron whispered. “He might shoot you with a ray gun, or he might be radioactive, or something.”

“Are you crazy? He won’t hurt me—he knows I’m his friend. Besides, if it’s Monaal, I want to ask some more questions.”

“Hey, yeah! Me too!” Ron struggled from his sleeping bag. “I’ll go with you.”

Jerry reached for his jeans. They felt clammy as he stuck his feet into them. He stood up. No time for socks and sneakers. Through the workshop windows, he could see the blue light bobbing about. The spaceman must have climbed onto the workbench, he thought.

Suddenly Jerry felt very awkward. How would he greet the spaceman? What would he say? He was glad Ron would be with him. He glanced down. “Come on, Ron, what’s holding you up?”

“These jeans! They’re wrong side out.”

“Put them on anyway.”

Ron snorted. “Ever try to zip a pair wrong side out?” He rose to his knees, and heaved to his feet. “Okay, let’s go.”

Quickly the boys approached the workshop. The wet grass licked at their bare feet. They had just reached the corner of the building when the blue light blinked at them from the workshop doorway.

“Hi,” Jerry’s voice sounded very loud in the quiet night.

The spaceman started, then ran clumsily away from the shop.

“Hey, wait! We won’t hurt you.” Jerry ran after him.

The little man bent forward, touched his boots, and instantly rose into the air. By the time the boys reached the spot where he had been, the spaceman had floated to the garage roof. They could hear his feet patter across the shingles.

Jerry ran backward until he could see the rooftop. “Please, don’t go away, please!” He called up.

“We won’t hurt you, honest!” Ron chimed in. “Look, we only want to ask you some questions.”

By now the spaceman had reached the silver wand. The boys heard him rap sharply on it. Quickly the wand retracted into the ship and carried the spaceman with it. The hatch slid shut. The barely audible whine increased while the red and white lights whirred faster. With a rush of air that swayed the top of the maple tree in Jerry’s yard, the spaceship shot upward into the night.

The boys stood in the wet grass and watched the spaceship diminish to a globe of light high above. It joined the waiting wedge of lights that wheeled like a flock of pigeons and streaked northward out of sight.

A window slid up. “Ron?” It was his mother’s voice, low and concerned. “Are you two all right?”

“S—sure, we’re fine.”

“What were you shouting about?”

“Ah, it was nothing, Mom.”

“Then please quiet down, or you’ll wake the whole neighborhood.”

“Okay, Mom.”

The boys shuffled toward the tent. Jerry hunched his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets. “Should we tell our folks what happened tonight?”

Ron shook his head. “Not yet. They wouldn’t understand.”

The boys sat down on their sleeping bags and climbed out of their jeans again. Ron wiped his wet feet with a leg of his jeans. “I still can’t figure out why Monaal told us the spaceship was coming and then wouldn’t talk with us…just ran away.”

Jerry rubbed his feet against the pup tent. “Maybe that wasn’t Monaal. Maybe it was some other guy he sent.”

“But what did he want in the workshop?”

Jerry inched into his sleeping bag. “I told you—that’s where we were when we talked with Monaal this afternoon. Remember?”

Ron pulled up the zipper on his sleeping bag. “But if he thought we’d be in the shop, he must have wanted to see us about something.”

“Sure, he probably did.”

“Then why did he run away?”

Jerry sank onto his pillow. “I guess I scared him when I ran after him.”

Ron put his hands under the back of his head and looked up at the stars. “Man, it’s weird! What did that spaceship come all the way down here for?”

The boys were silent. The crickets began to chirp again. Jerry could hear the street sweeper droning down Park Lane. Why had the spaceship come down, he wondered. Suddenly he felt a cold chill run through him. He sat up and reached for his jeans. He felt in the pockets. Thank goodness, it was still there. Slowly he drew the tiny metal object out and held it in his hand. He leaned over. “Ron?”

“Yeah?”

“I bet I know why they came down.”

“Why?”

“To get the gismo!”

* * * *

It wasn’t until the next afternoon, following Saturday-morning lawn mowing, that Jerry and Ron stepped into the workshop.

“Hey look!” Ron pointed at the workbench. The telephone lay on its side, the stand and mouthpiece removed. The receiver, too, had been taken apart.

Jerry snapped his fingers. “The spaceman! Remember, we could see his blue light blinking through the window like he was doing something on the workbench?”

“Yeah!” Ron fastened the base back onto the telephone and screwed the mouthpiece in place. “Why would he want to wreck it like this?”

“To get at the gismo, stupid! He thought it was inside the telephone.”

Ron fastened the telephone to the crystal radio and checked the aerial and ground. He rubbed his hands together. “Okay, let’s have the gismo.”

Jerry reached into his pockets. He felt first in one pocket, then in the other, but his fingers touched no slippery metal. He looked at Ron in dismay. “It’s gone! The gismo is gone!”