44 - Say Cheese and Die—Again Read Online Free Page A

excitedly. “An old camera. It was hidden down in the basement.
Did you see it?”
    “Yeah,” Jon replied. “The men dug it up when they pulled out the basement.”
    “Oh, wow!” I cried. I couldn’t hide my excitement. “Where is it, Jon? I mean—what did they do with it? Do you know where it is?”
    He pointed over my shoulder toward the street. “Probably over there,” he
said. “I don’t think they emptied it yet.”
    I spun around and saw a big Dumpster on the other side of the driveway. “They
threw it in there?” I demanded.
    I didn’t wait for him to answer. I started running full speed through the tall weeds to the street. I stopped in front of
the big steel Dumpster. I could see all kinds of junk piled over the top.
    “Is it okay to look for it?” I called back to Jon.
    He came walking slowly down to me, hands shoved in his pockets. “Sure. Go
ahead. Why do you want a stupid old camera, anyway?”
    I didn’t answer him. No time for answering questions.
    I lifted both hands to the top of the Dumpster. It was pretty high. It took
me three tries to pull myself up and in.
    A street lamp across the street cast a glow of dim yellow light over the
Dumpster. My eyes wandered quickly over the trash. All stuff from the basement,
I realized.
    I saw rusted old tools from the workshop. Part of an ancient vacuum cleaner.
The spin cylinder from a dryer. Old clothes. Torn suitcases.
    Is it here? I asked myself. Is the camera in here?
    I pulled away a broken suitcase and tossed it aside. I grabbed stacks of old
magazines and shoved them out of the way.
    I’m going to search every inch of this Dumpster till I find it, I told
myself.
    I pulled away a torn section of a garden hose. Then I pawed through a pile of
old clothes.
    Where is it? Where?
    I dropped onto my hands and knees and dug deeper into the garbage. The stale odor of dust and decay floated up to me,
swept over me. I held my breath and kept pawing away.
    I had to find it. I had to.
    I didn’t stop until I saw the two eyes staring up at me.
    Two eyes. Yellow in the pale light.
    Staring up at me from the trash. Staring up at me without blinking.
    I’m not alone in here! I realized.
    And then I opened my mouth in a shrill, terrified scream.

 
 
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    The eyes stared up at me without blinking. Yellow and cold.
    A chill tightened the back of my neck.
    I stared down at them, waiting for them to move. Waiting for something to
jump up at me.
    “What’s wrong? Did you find the camera?” Jon called from the sidewalk.
    “No. I—uh—I—”
    I reached my hand down toward the glassy yellow eyes. And felt bristly fur.
    My heart pounding, I pushed some junk aside.
    And without thinking, I picked up the staring creature.
    Felt its body, stiff and hard beneath bristly brown and black fur.
    A dead raccoon.
    Its sour odor reached my nostrils. “Oooooh, yuck!” I let out a groan—and
heaved the smelly creature out of the Dumpster.
    “Hey, Greg—” Jon called up to me.
    “I found a dead raccoon,” I told him, holding my nose. “It smelled so bad, I—”
    I stopped when I saw the camera.
    It had been hidden beneath the raccoon’s body. The glow from the street lamp
spilled over it. The glass of the camera lens reflected the light like a single,
shining eye.
    I grabbed it. Pulled it up from the trash.
    Then I climbed to my feet. Leaning over the Dumpster, I held it up to Jon. “I
found it!” I cried happily. “Here it is. I can’t believe I found it!”
    Jon wrinkled his face up at me. “Great,” he said, without enthusiasm.
    I strapped the camera around my neck. Then, holding on to the top of the
Dumpster, I lowered myself to the ground.
    My shirt and jeans were covered with dust and sticky grease. But I didn’t
care. I had the camera in my hands.
    “What’s so great about it?” Jon demanded. He squinted down at it. Rubbed a
hand over the top. “Does it work?”
    I didn’t want to tell him the story of the camera. I knew he