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

back.
    “Okay, stand up slow now,” Emery ordered.
    Philip staggered to his feet with Emery
telling him to go right and left and stand up and bend over.
    “Stop telling me what to do,” Philip puffed,
out of breath from moving Emery around.
    “Be still. I can reach now.”
    “Tell me what you’re doing.”
    “There’s a tag on the string. I’m trying to
pull it . . . I got it. 6482! It’s the box.”
    “Can you get it out?”
    “Let me get . . . wait . . . here hold
this.”
    Emery reached a box down to Philip. Philip
could only move his eyes since Emery’s ankles were clamped tightly
against his ears.
    “What am I supposed to do with this?” Philip
asked, impatient with Emery’s giving him so many orders.
    “It was in the way. Here, hold this one,
too.”
    “Another one?”
    “Here, one more.”
    “I can’t hold so many!”
    “Take it,” Emery ordered.
    Philip balanced the two boxes Emery had
already passed him against his chest and took the third one.
    “I got it!” Emery cried. “I got it. Kneel
down again.”
    “It’s hard to kneel down without my
hands.”
    “Don’t use your hands, just use your
knees.”
    “I gotta balance. You’re making me
wobble.”
    “Hey, come on. Easy. Now you’re making me wobble.”
    Philip managed to get one knee on the floor,
and when he did, Emery hopped off. He stood in front of Philip and
held out the tag. It said Riley’s Pawnshop and had the
number 6482 clearly printed on it.
    “We got it,” said Emery triumphantly. “Let’s
get out of here.”
    Philip indicated the three boxes he still
held. “What about these?”
    Emery frowned. “I guess we better put them
back where they were so the old lady doesn’t get suspicious.” Emery
put the box he held on the ground. “Kneel down again.”
    “How about you kneel down this time?” Philip
said hotly.
    “I know where the boxes go. You don’t. Kneel
down. Don’t always be arguing.”
    Philip had a hundred reasons why Emery should
do the kneeling down this time, but it would take forever, he knew,
to convince his friend, and he didn’t want to take the time.
    Finally, Philip grumbled, “Do it fast.”
    “Fast as you can kneel down.”
    Emery replaced the boxes the boys didn’t want
and climbed down. Philip picked up the box they did want.
    “Let’s look inside,” he said.
    Emery nodded, and Philip lifted the lid.
    “Wow!” Philip said softly. All kinds of
jewelry filled the box. Lots of colored stones, red, blue, yellow,
green, white, decorated the jewelry.
    “Where’s the magic scarab? See it?” Emery
asked.
    “How do I know which one’s a scarab? Anyway,
we have no time for looking. Open the door.”
    Emery opened the door and reset the little
knob before he closed it again.
    “Uh oh,” Emery said and pointed. “Get back.”
The old woman sat on her porch rocking.
    “Here, you take it,” said Philip, handing
Emery the box.
    “You keep it.”
    “We can’t walk out there carrying the box.
She’ll see and do her pointing thing, and we’ll both end up down
the sewer. Look, let’s hide the box in the bushes. If we take it
now, one of her neighbors may see us with the box and tell her
about it. We were going to come back here tonight anyway after we
broke the window. We’ll come back when it’s dark and get the box.
We’ll have time. Then we can hide it someplace closer to the
circus, and tomorrow we can deliver it to the gypsy.”
    “Okay. Shove it in there.”
    Philip got on his knees.
    “Shove it in as far as it can go. We don’t
want anybody to find it before we come back.”
    Philip got to his feet.
    “Let’s go through the bushes and come out
further down,” Philip suggested. “And look out for nosy
neighbors.”
    Emery peeked around the garage. “She’s still
there. Let’s climb through.”
    The boys pushed their way through the bushes
and came back onto the sidewalk well down the block. A man dragging
his trash can to the curb waved to them, and they returned