Jump the Gun Read Online Free Page B

was.
    â€œMickey?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou really are a very nice guy.”
    â€œAnnabelle?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAre you related to Ringo?”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œDo you have any other ideas why someone might want to kidnap you, or worse?
    I laughed. “You mean besides being related to Ringo?”
    â€œJust a thought.”
    â€œNo, no ideas. But I did like Ringo the best of the Beatles. I’ve always been attracted to a nose you can count on.”
    Mickey felt his nose and we both laughed.
    â€œOkay,” he said.
    â€œMickey?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWhatever I might have done to get you into this, I am sorry.”
    He nodded. “I wonder how come I still think you are so beautiful?”
    Probably because you haven’t noticed my ears yet . Instead I said, “Because I am telling you the truth. And the truth is always beautiful.” He smiled at that. I wanted to ask him what gift he had bought me, but at that moment Jake walked in.

Chapter Four
    When I was five, I went to the circus with my best friend, Ethan, and his parents. The featured attraction was the “tallest giraffe in the world,” and when Ethan’s dad told me this, I said, “Oh, really!” It was the first time I had ever said such a grown-up thing, and I felt old and wise beyond my years. Take me anywhere, I thought, a circus, a cocktail party, you name it, I can talk to grown-ups. Actually, I couldn’t wait to see this giraffe, but either Ethan’s dad got it wrong or the giraffe had another engagement, because he didn’t show.
    When I got home from the circus, I was so tired I went right upstairs to lie down on my bed. As I drifted off to sleep, my mother called me to dinner. I knew I should go downstairs to eat, or I’d be in trouble. But my eyelids got heavier and heavier. Her voice got softer and softer. When I woke up, it was morning.
    It had been quite a day. I had started using grown-up talk, and I had defied my mother: my first steps toward independence.
    When Jake said, “Hey, lovebirds, we’ll be leavin’ here in a coupla minutes. There’s a car waitin’ outside,” the first words out of my mouth were “Oh, really!” and I suddenly flashed on that day. I concentrated on Mickey’s eyes when I said this, and he stayed fixed on mine.
    Then he said, “Just where are we going, Jake?”
    â€œThat’s somethin’ for me to know and you to find out, huh!”
    I said, “Huh.…Why don’t you take us to see the world’s tallest giraffe?” Now, this didn’t make sense, but I was stalling and, once again, talking was all I could come up with.
    Apparently Mickey was doing the same thing. “Yeah, Jake, why don’t you take us to see the world’s tallest giraffe?”
    â€œYou two are somethin’ else. You talkin’ crazy cuz you’re afraid? Is that it? I don’t know nuthin’ about no giraffes, and even if I did, I wouldn’t take yous to see ’em. Now get up and come with me. We’re leavin’.”
    â€œI can’t leave—” I was still transfixed by Mickey’s peepers—“without knowing where I’m going.”
    Jake sniggered, a nasty, phlegmy sound. “Right. Like you’re makin’ the rules here. Like I care what you want here. Now stop talkin’ and makin’ goo-goo eyes at each other. Let’s go.”
    I didn’t move. Neither did Mickey. And we kept staring at each other. “Jake, if you shoot us here, because we won’t go with you, I bet whoever you work for will not be too happy. I bet whoever you work for doesn’t want us dead, because if whoever you work for did want us dead, you would have already killed us. So we know you’re not going to shoot us. Tell us where we’re going. Maybe we’ll cooperate.” This was Mickey talking, cool and collected, like he