Amos Gets Famous Read Online Free Page A

reached at the same time.
    “I grabbed it first, Dunc. Let go.”
    “No, you didn’t. I did. You can see it after I’m done. I—”
    Dunc stopped in midsentence. His hands dropped to his sides. A policeman had just stepped into the aisle behind Amos and was staring at them.

.8
    “I knew you’d see it my way,” Amos said.
    Dunc didn’t say anything.
    “I just want to see if there are any pictures. After that you can have it.”
    Dunc still didn’t say anything.
    “Rats, no pictures. What kind of a book is this? Do you think we have time to read some before the burglar gets here?”
    “Burglar?” A deep voice came from behind Amos’s shoulder, and he turned and dropped the book. “Did you say something about a burglar?” The policeman picked the book up and handed it to Amos. He didn’t look at the cover.
    “Thank you,” Amos answered. His voicesqueaked. He looked at the policeman’s name tag. OFFICER CLARK .
    “Your voice changed,” said the policeman.
    “Did it? I mean, it did.”
    “He has a cold,” Dunc said.
    “Yes, that’s it,” Amos said. “I have a cold. The school is so drafty.” He coughed and held the book behind his back.
    “What’s this about a burglar?”
    “Oh, nothing. We’re just talking about all the burglaries that have been going on.” Dunc shrugged. “You know, just talking. Kind of just—talking. About the burglaries. Talking.”
    “What’s the book you’re reading?” The policeman asked.
    “What book?”
    “The one behind your back.”
    Amos took the book out. “This? Uh … uh—”
    Officer Clark glanced at the cover. He eyed Amos suspiciously. “What are two young boys doing reading a book like this?”
    Amos said nothing. He suddenly realized that he was wearing a pair of pink sunglasses with flowers on them and holding a dirty book and looking up at a policeman and that he was afugitive from justice, except that he thought of it as a FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE, all in capitals, and his tongue had stuck to the roof of his mouth as if it were covered with Superglue.
    “It’s research,” Dunc interrupted. “We have to do a paper on the evils of the world.”
    “Yes. All the evil, so much evil.” Amos found his voice. “Lots of it out there, evil. Just about waist deep, evil. I never saw so much evil.”
    Dunc pinched him, and he shut up. The policeman eyed them both suspiciously, but after what seemed like hours to the boys, he handed the book back to Amos. “You’d better put the book back and move on to another aisle, don’t you think?”
    Amos and Dunc both nodded. They were still nodding while Officer Clark turned and left them standing there.
    “That was close,” Dunc said. He took the book down, opened it, took out a piece of paper, and put his own piece of paper inside.
    “What’s that?” Amos asked.
    “Instructions telling the burglar to go to Melissa’s house and steal a toilet. Let’s go.”
    “Already?”
    “The burglar could be here any minute.”
    “We have a few minutes, don’t we? I’d kind of like to look at that book.”
    “There’s no time. Let’s go.”
    On their way out, they passed the same short, roundly built man with long arms and coat and hat they had seen the first time. Dunc had his face behind Amos, and Amos had turned to say something, so they didn’t see him. The short man didn’t see their faces clearly, but he heard their voices, and he turned and watched their backs as they moved down the library steps and onto the sidewalk.
    Then he made his way into the library and to the shelf with the book about early French erotica.

.9
    “So tell me the plan again,” Amos whispered. They were in the bushes near Melissa’s house. It was dark, and they had been waiting for over two hours—long enough for Amos to lose his patience.
    “You already know it.”
    “I just want to be sure.”
    “This is the last time,” Dunc said. “We hide here until the burglar goes inside. I run and call the police. The