Penny from Heaven Read Online Free

him in the ribs and just say, “He sure is.”
    Everyone knows that Mrs. Wiederhorn’s been a little forgetful since her husband died. Well, a lot forgetful, I’d say, seeing as my father’s been dead for years now.
    She pays us and then offers us more cookies, but we say we have to go.
    “We got more deliveries,” Frankie tells her.
    We wait until we’re out of eyeshot of her house, and then we both throw our cookies into a bush.
    Frankie says, “She’s
pazza.” Pazza
is Italian for “crazy.”
    “Yeah, but she’s nice, right? I mean, the cookies and all?”
    “I guess,” he says.
    “You ever been to Mrs. Morelli’s house?” I ask as he pedals down the street.
    “Nah, but I know Johnny Ferrara. He lives next to her.”
    The Morelli house looks sort of strange, like someone started to paint it and then gave up halfway through. There’s a fence around the backyard with a sign that says B EWAR OF D OG . Looks like the Morellis can’t spell in addition to not being able to paint.
    “You got the brains?” Frankie asks as we walk to the front door.
    “Do I ever!” I say, and grin.
    The geraniums on the front porch are dead, and a chair with a broken seat leans against a post. Frankie rings the doorbell, and a dog starts barking from behind the fence. A big dog, judging from the barking.
    “What do they need a guard dog for?” Frankie asks, looking around. “Nothing here worth stealing.”
    “Maybe we should come back later,” I say nervously.
    “Is she home or what?” Frankie says, standing on tiptoe and peering in through the window of the door. “I can’t see a thing.”
    The gate to the fence is shaking like the dog is throwing his whole weight against it. I don’t want to meet this dog.
    “Frankie,” I say, tugging his shirt, but he just ignores me and rings the bell again.
    “Hey, Mrs. Morelli! Delivery from Falucci’s!” he shouts.
    There’s a cracking sound. We turn and see the most enormous dog standing on what used to be the gate to the fence. It’s a monster of a dog—Doberman–German shepherd, maybe a little rottweiler around the face. Whatever it is, it’s mean and it starts growling when it sees Frankie and me standing there on the porch.
    “Good dog,” Frankie says as we slowly back away from the door. “See, we’re leaving.”
    For a minute, it seems like the dog is going to back down, but then his whole body goes still, the way the principal, Mr. Shoup, gets before he whacks you with the ruler.
    “Run, Frankie!” I shout.
    We run for the bicycle like our lives depend on it, which they do. Frankie jumps on, and I grab on after him, and he starts pedaling. The dog doesn’t seem to care that we’re off his property, because he takes off after us, drool frothing at his mouth. This dog’s out for blood!
    “Faster, Frankie! Faster!” I shout as the dog lunges at my feet.
    The dog is a bite away from me, and I’m thinking that the lucky bean that Uncle Dominic gave me is more of an unlucky bean when Frankie shouts, “Throw him the brains! Throw him the brains!”
    I’m still holding the bag of calf brains.
    “Here ya go, boy!” I shout, flinging the bag.
    The last thing I see before we round the corner is the dog standing in the middle of the street gobbling up Mrs. Morelli’s brains.

CHAPTER FOUR
    A Man Who Can Fix a Toilet
    I’m standing on the beach, my toes squishing in the sand.
    The sky is blue, and the sun shining down is hot and bright. In front of me is the ocean, the waves rolling in, one after the other, and behind me is the boardwalk, with its rides and caramel corn and hot dogs. Overhead, gulls squawk down at me like the old Italian ladies Nonny plays cards with. All around me kids are running in and out of the shallows, dodging the waves. They shout and squeal, their cries mixing with the gulls and the crashing waves. But one voice stands out from all the others, calling to me.
    “Penny!”
    Out in the ocean, just past the next big wave, I see a