Читать книгу Stay Out Of The Woods - Ruth-Anne Mullan - Страница 4

The next morning, Tommy came downstairs to the kitchen. Every weekday morning everyone was in a hurry to get out. Every Sunday morning they got ready for church. Tommy loved Sunday School, but they had to hurry that day too. Saturday was Tommy’s favourite day. His mother had made a big breakfast. Every Saturday Tommy, his mother, and his father ate together. There was a steaming bowl of porridge at each place. There was butter to dab in the middle of it, and dark brown sugar to sprinkle on top. He took the pitcher of milk and carefully poured just the right amount on.

There would be bacon and eggs, toast, and fried potatoes to eat after.

His mom and dad would stay at the table for a long time, in their pajamas. They would talk, drink lots of coffee, laugh, and read things to each other out of the paper. The radio would be on, with news and music. No-one was in a hurry. Tommy loved Saturdays.

After breakfast his mom and dad would go shopping. Today he would be allowed to stay home by himself as long as he cleaned up his room and took Sparky for a long walk.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us?” Dad asked.

“No way, answered Tommy. He imagined trailing after mom while she was looking at goopy things, or sitting in the car with dad, waiting for her to come out of a store. Sometimes they went to the diner. When they did he was allowed to have a butterscotch sundae with whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top. He liked to do that, but today he’d rather hang out with the guys.

Tommy went upstairs to go to his room. When he was almost at the top landing he held on to the rail. He knew what was coming. The big white dog would have sat at the screen door whining as he watched his mom and dad drive away. Then he would come bounding up after Tommy. He did it every time. Sure enough, here he was, like a freight train. He bumped into Tommy and almost knocked him down.

“Darn silly dog! He thought.

Even though he probably would get a big bruise on his leg, he hugged his dog around the neck, and gave him a good rub. The dog lifted his thick neck so that he could get a scratch on his chest. Sparky especially liked his chest scratched. Sometimes he took his paw and put it over your hand so that you would do it longer.

Tommy went out to meet his friends. Sparky was sad, but Tommy couldn’t take him to the show, and the dog had already been out for a walk.

Tommy could hardly wait for the time to come to go to the movies with his pals. They stuffed their pockets full of treats because the man at the theatre made them show him what was in their backpacks. He didn’t look in their pockets if they didn’t look too lumpy. The rules were no popcorn, or soft drinks, or anything that they sold inside. It wasn’t fair. After a while they quit trying to sneak stuff in because that guy took everything away from them and didn’t give it back until the movie was over.

There were rules everywhere; at school, at the pool, in the park. Tommy wondered who made all these rules up. It was probably a crabby old man like Mr. Hutchings.

Mr. Hutchings lived on a street that everyone had to pass to get to school. He had signs all over. One in his driveway said. NO PARKING!” in great big chalk letters. He had one on his lawn that read “KEEP OFF THE GRASS!” and another one near his mailbox. It read “NO JUNK MAIL!”“NO PEDDLERS!”“NO TRESPASSING!”“NO DOGS!” Tommy had a lot of trouble sometimes when Sparky tried to pull him onto Mr. Hutchings

lawn. That dog was pretty strong, and it was all that Tommy could do to hold him back. He knew that Mr. Hutchings would be standing in his front window, hiding right behind a big plant. He was watching for someone to break a rule. He always ran out real fast to yell at people. He sure could run, for an old guy.

Usually Tommy tried to walk some other way. Today he didn’t have Sparky with him, so he walked by Mr. Hutchings house. He went straight to the school yard to wait for the other guys. He shuffled in the dirt, and wrote things with the toe of his running shoe to pass the time. He hadn’t found out much. He wondered if anybody else had found out anything.

Sammy showed up first.

The boys met at the park and messed around for a while until James looked at his watch.

“Hey guys, look what time it is! We’d better go to the show, or we’ll be late.” he said.

Yeah, agreed Gary. “We don’t want to miss the Blue Phantom.”

Yeah, said Eddy. “Remember, last week he was all tied up and the Hawk was going to drop him in the vat of oil.”

“I’ll race all of you.” yelled Tommy, as he sprinted away to get a head start.

The movie was so exciting that Tommy forgot about the woods. Sure enough, the Blue Phantom escaped! He reached up high over his head and grabbed a chain that was just hanging there. With his hands still tied up he swung his body back and forth so that he just missed going into the vat of hot oil. Instead, he flew right into the Hawk. The Hawk lay there stunned. Then the Phantom kicked one of the bad guys and knocked him over too. Quickly he put his hands into the fire under the vat, and burned off his ropes. He didn’t even burn his arms! Before the other guys could get him he had escaped, right out of the warehouse doors. He did the Phantom scream that he did when he won a fight. It sent shivers down Tommy’s back, and he was glad that the Blue Phantom was a good guy.

After the cartoons and the double feature, they were on their way home, contented to know the Blue Phantom was okay and that they’d see another episode of the serial the next week.

They started to talk about the woods again, and the meteor.

“How are we ever going to find out?” asked Eddy.

“I don’t know.” Tommy commanded. “Keep asking your uncle questions, James. Try to get him to tell you about any weird things he’s heard about.”

“Gary. When you talk to Mrs. Reed again ask her if she knows where the sheriff is now. Maybe he’s dead already, he sure must be old.

If he’s not dead, then it should be easy to get him to talk, old people love to talk.”

“I can hang around Mr. Graham’s store a little bit. He won’t mind. He lets me dust his shelves sometimes after school, so he won’t think anything’s funny,” said Sammy.

“Good, said Tommy. Tomorrow’s Sunday. We’ll have to go to Sunday School and have our Sunday dinner. Let’s see what else we can find out today.