Philip and the Fortune Teller (9781619501317) Read Online Free Page A

herself.
    “Where did I put . . . did I drop it?”
    They saw the woman’s legs go back the way
they came. Emery poked his head out of the bush.
    “Philip, the door’s open. She left it open.
Come on, quick.”
    Philip crawled forward.
    “You mean go into the garage now?”
    “Yeah, before she comes back. Why are you
always talking so much?”
    Emery scampered into the garage, and Philip
followed him. They were brought up short and stared in amazement.
The garage was packed so full of stuff they had only the smallest
space to stand in. There were cardboard boxes full of magazines and
books; wooden boxes filled with smaller boxes; shelves full of
glasses and vases and little statues and old clothes.
    “I hear her voice,” said Philip. “She’s
coming back. There’s no room to hide in here.”
    “Climb up on the boxes and get behind the
rocking chair.”
    The boys scrambled awkwardly over boxes and
chairs and tables and crammed themselves behind an old wooden
rocking chair. The old woman entered the garage, and the boys
stared down at her, hoping she wouldn’t turn their way. They
watched as the old woman unloaded a brown shopping bag. She pulled
out two small statues which she unwrapped from the paper protecting
them and squeezed them onto a shelf she could barely reach. She
pulled out two big piles of magazines and tossed them over some
boxes onto a pile of other magazines that peeked out over the
boxes.
    “Ahhh,” the old woman began in her creaky
voice, “there you are my little pretty.”
    Philip stomach danced. He hoped he wasn’t the little pretty she had discovered. He watched her take a
small round mirror, very decorated and with a short handle, and lay
it gently inside an open box at her right shoulder. The old woman
looked over her stash, and Philip scrooched down. The woman gave a
satisfied chuckle and left the garage, closing the door behind
her.
    “She’s gone,” Philip whispered. “Let’s get
down before we start knocking things over.”
    The boys made their careful way back to the
floor.
    “At least we didn’t have to break any
windows,” Emery whispered.
    “We better be able to get out of here,”
Philip said nervously.
    “Go try the door.”
    Philip slid between boxes and things to the
door. Terror shot through him when the doorknob refused to turn.
“We’re locked in!” he cried.
    Emery peeked over his shoulder.
    “Try the little button. Turn the button.”
    Philip gave the button in the center of the
doorknob a small turn. When he tried the doorknob this time, it
worked.
    “There, see. We can get out.”
    Philip breathed a long sigh of relief, eager
for this part of the plan to be over with. “Let’s look for the box.
I don’t like being in here.”
    “In all this junk? Where will we look?”
    Philip thought a moment.
    “It probably won’t be with all the magazines
and newspapers. It’s not on the tables or chairs or shelves we can
see. Look in those boxes where she put the mirror. Maybe that’s
where she puts her fancy stuff.”
    Emery slid around Philip and started looking
through the box where the woman had put the mirror.
    “There’s a big box over there,” said Philip.
“I’ll climb up on these magazines . . .”
    “I see a couple boxes on the bottom,” Emery
interrupted over his shoulder.
    “You see any numbers on them?”
    “I see a tag, but it’s tucked in between
other boxes. Come help me.”
    Philip jumped down from the stack of
magazines. The pile wobbled as he jumped, and Philip held his
breath until the magazine pile steadied.
    “What do you want me to do?” Philip
asked.
    “I can’t reach down far enough. Let me on
your shoulders.”
    Philip didn’t much like the idea of Emery
stepping on him. “Why don’t you get one of those chairs?”
    “We pull out a chair, and everything’ll fall
down. Come on. You want to see the circus or what? We’re wasting
time.”
    Philip did want to see the circus, so he bent
down, and Emery stood on his