Revealed Read Online Free Page B

pointed to Mom. “And I’m married to her. Don’t you think she’s hot?”
    Oh, no , Jonah thought, his worst suspicions confirmed. No, no, no, no, no.
    This was the kid version of Dad.

SIX
    â€œ. . . Michael?” kid Mom finished.
    Kid Dad flashed her a cheesy, slightly panicked grin and leaned back toward Jonah.
    â€œCan you help me out here, buddy?” Dad whispered. “Can you make sure she doesn’t see I’ve got this humongo zit on my humongo nose? Maybe you should stand in front of me. . . .”
    He pushed Jonah over to the right, so Jonah blocked Mom’s view of Dad’s face.
    â€œI’m not blind,” Mom said sarcastically. “I already saw it. And I’m not deaf. I heard everything you said. Could you stop acting like such a fool?”
    Dad cowered behind Jonah.
    What am I supposed to do now? Jonah wondered. Arrange marriage counseling for my thirteen-year-old parents?
    How could he keep them out of trouble while he figured out how to rescue Katherine?
    Then he had another problem: The kitchen phone started ringing.
    â€œMichael!” kid Mom called out. “Did you already have that conference call? Before we, uh . . . before whatever happened to us happened?”
    Kid Dad was practically trembling behind Jonah.
    â€œI’m supposed to call in on my cell phone at seven fifteen,” Dad said. His voice squeaked. “I’m supposed to talk to China. I can’t talk to China like this! What am I going to do?”
    Dad’s voice sounded even more unreliable and squawky than Jonah’s ever had. Jonah glanced at the clock on the wall. It was twenty after seven.
    The answering machine clicked on, Dad’s normal adult voice asking callers to leave a message. After the click, a frantic male voice came on, begging, “Michael? Are you there? Did you oversleep? Did you forget the call with the Chinese? I’m not getting through on your cell phone. This is so not like you—”
    Jonah walked over and picked up the phone.
    â€œMr. Wilson?” he said, because he was pretty sure this was Dad’s boss. “This is Jonah Skidmore, Michael’s son. My dad’s been trying to call you, but something was messed up—it wouldn’t even go to voice mail.”
    â€œPut him on now,” Mr. Wilson ordered.
    Jonah looked over at kid Dad, who was shaking his head, panic spread across his face.
    â€œThat’s the problem,” Jonah said. “He woke up this morning with a really bad case of laryngitis. He’s been gargling with salt water, but he still can’t even whisper.”
    â€œTell him to try,” Mr. Wilson growled.
    Jonah held out the phone to Dad and mouthed, Fake having laryngitis , but Dad just backed away, shaking his head even more violently.
    Jonah whispered into the phone instead, “I’m sorry, Mr. Wilson. This is a disaster . . .”
    â€œI can’t hear you,” Mr. Wilson said. He sighed. “I’ll let the Chinese know we have to reschedule. Stay home and try habanero peppers. That always works for me. You’ve got to get over this soon!”
    Jonah hung up the phone. Both his parents were staring at him in astonishment.
    â€œEveryone should be the hero of his own dreams,” kid Dad complained. “But I just acted like a scaredy-cat and my own kid had to take over. This dream is really starting to suck.”
    Then he clapped his hand over his mouth and glanced guiltily at kid Mom.
    â€œOops,” he said. “We aren’t supposed to say words like‘suck’ in front of the kids. Speaking of the kids . . . where’s Katherine?”
    No way was Jonah going to try to explain that one.
    â€œMaybe your dream will get better if you go back to bed,” Jonah said.
    â€œOh,” Dad said, wrinkling his brow. “I didn’t think of that.”
    â€œI’m going upstairs too, for a