Snow Globes and Hand Grenades Read Online Free Page A

degrees—”
    Beep-beep.
    Mimi’s heart leapt. She drew in a joyful breath and pressed the button to click over to her boyfriend.
    â€œHello?” she whispered.
    â€œMimi? Is this Mimi Maloney?”
    â€œYeah, who’s this?”
    â€œThis is Patrick Cantwell, from school.”
    â€œPatrick Cantwell? Look, I’m expecting a call. What’s up?”
    â€œOh, I’m sorry. It’s just that I have this friend … and well, he likes you.”
    There was a hundred-year silence on the line. Mimi stuffed her fake letter under her pillow and pointed her finger at the phone the way her dad had pointed at her. “That’s nice of you to call. But you’ve got to understand, somebody else already likes me. I can’t go with anybody else, ever.”
    Patrick looked for some crack of light, for Tony’s sake. “Ever? You mean, forever, ever?”
    Mimi hesitated, but then whispered out sharply, “That’s right. Look, I gotta go.”
    â€œOK, well, first, though, don’t you at least want to know who the guy is who likes you? He really cares about you all around, as a person. Don’t you want to know who?”
    There was another hundred-year silence on the line.
    â€œHello?” Patrick said.
    â€œOK, who?”
    He told her it was Tony Vivamano and she burst out laughing, and then all Patrick heard was a dial tone.

CHAPTER 5
    A POLICE CAR AND A BLACK VW BEETLE arrived outside the school. It was early the next morning. Detective Sergeant Kirk Kurtz, a man with neatly trimmed nostril hairs, was behind the wheel of the police car. Kurtz had a list of unsolved juvenile crimes in the area, similar in style to the snow globe incident. The VW was driven by Father Clive Ernst, a devout member of the Archdiocese special investigations committee who had just last Christmas cracked the case of the three wise men stolen from St. James parish. This was a powerful alliance of church and state. Together they were determined to not only catch the snow globe perpetrator, but to also extract confessions and put an end to the wave of juvenile anarchy around Mary Queen of Our Hearts. Patrick and Tony walked whistling across the church lawn, not yet noticing the two cars parked by the school flagpole.
    â€œI don’t know about Mimi,” Patrick said, “Maybe she’s holding us back from our own future.”
    â€œWomen take time, believe me. Anyway, thanks for calling her for me,” Tony said. “You’re my best friend at this rock pile.”
    â€œYou’re welcome,” Patrick said, his voice skipping like a record with guilt he hoped Tony didn’t notice. He hoped Tony didn’t realize that he too was also attracted to her. And how could he not be? After seeing Mimi in her underwear and watching her sneak into a high school and run out during a fire alarm? She had a lot of good qualities. Before yesterday Mimi wasjust an average girl, but now she stood apart from all the other girls in vivid Technicolor. Only for Patrick, she was even more vivid. He was the one who had called her on the phone and heard her voice—even heard her laugh.
    Patrick looked at Tony and thought about their friendship, all the good they’d accomplished together since they met in fifth grade. They had been fired together as altar boys, rolled the dumpster down the playground hill into the fence, made a UFO out of two pie tins with a string attached and hovered it from a tree branch by Father Maligan’s window, captured a rabbit and let it go inside the cafeteria, set off fire hydrants near the homes of girls they liked, and even done some homework together.
    â€œMaybe you should call her next, not me,” Patrick said.
    â€œNo, I trust you. You’ll know what to say. Hey, look!”
    They both spotted the police car with the officer standing by it and the priest in a long black trench coat slamming his door. They knew right away what