Boys Rock! by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Read Free Book Online

him.
    “The problem,” Beth said, thinking it over, “is thatyour name is on it as editor in chief, Eddie. If the paper doesn’t come out…”
    “It’ll come out if we have to do it all ourselves!” Eddie said hotly. “Besides, who said I’m bossy? Who said I’m not fair? I can be the unbossiest, most fair person in the world when I want to be.”
    “That’s good,” said Peter, swinging his legs some more.
    “Hello, Peter,” Mrs. Malloy said, coming into the kitchen with a pan full of peas she had been shelling in front of the TV. “How are things at your house?”
    “Sort of boring,” said Peter. “I’m supposed to have a job on the newspaper and nobody lets me do any work.”
    “Poor thing,” said Beth.
    “Are you going to miss us if we move back to Ohio?” Mrs. Malloy teased.
    Peter nodded.
    “What will you miss the most?” asked Beth.
    Peter looked down at the cookies in front of him and everyone laughed.
    “I thought so,” said Eddie.
    The phone rang just then and Caroline answered. It was Wally
    “Is … is Peter there?” he asked.
    “Peter … ?” Caroline paused, smiling at her sisters. “Why? Is he missing?”
    “Caroline!” her mother said sternly.
    “Yes, he’s here,” said Caroline.
    Now it was Jake on the phone. “Let me speak to Peter,” he said.
    “He’s got a mouthful of cookies, sorry,” said Caroline.
    “Well, tell him to swallow,” said Jake.
    Caroline turned to Peter. “Swallow,” she said.
    Peter did. Then he drank some milk and took another bite.
    “Okay, he’s listening,” Caroline said, and held the phone up to Peter’s ear, but far enough away that she and her sisters could hear too.
    “Peter!” said Jake. “Don’t tell the girls anything. Do you hear me?”
    Peter nodded.
    “Are you listening, Peter?”
    “Uh-huh,” said Peter, and went on chewing.
    “
Any
thing!” Jake repeated. “Josh will take his cartoon over there tomorrow and you come on home. Now! And keep your mouth shut.”
    “Okay,” said Peter.
    Mrs. Malloy put the peas in the refrigerator for the next day’s dinner. “Caroline, when Peter finishes eating, walk him home, will you? He shouldn’t be crossing that bridge in the dark by himself. Take a flashlight.”
    Peter finished the last cookie and rubbed his stomach contentedly.
    “Come on,” said Caroline, and he followed her outside.
    They went back down the path to the river, the beam from the flashlight leading the way. Caroline took the opportunity to ask, “If we move back to Ohio, Peter, what will you remember most about me?”
    “I don’t know,” said Peter.
    “Well, think. Does anything in particular come to mind? My face? My voice? My hair? My eyes?”
    “Your elbows,” said Peter.
    Caroline stopped and stared at him. “My
elbows
?”
    “Yeah,” said Peter. “They’re sort of dirty. I think you lean your arms on the paper when you read the comics or something. Wally does the same thing and he gets dirty elbows too.”
    Caroline did not care to walk Peter across the bridge. She shone the flashlight on the wooden planks till he was safely on the other side, and waited until she heard the door slam in the house across the river. Then she turned and went back home.
    Her elbows! All this time she’d been going around with ink smudges on her elbows! The embarrassment! The humiliation! Now she’d have to do something really spectacular so that people would forget all about her elbows!

Nine

The
Old Times Tribune
    W ally was ashamed of himself. He had not meant to leave Peter behind. He had not even meant to run. He was enormously relieved when he called the Malloys and found out that Peter was there—eating cookies, as usual—but he was embarrassed to tell his brothers how it had happened. About all the ghosts that had taken a room in his brain.
    “Don’t ever leave Peter alone with those girls, not even for a second!” Jake said. “You can never trust him to keep his mouth shut.”
    “So what’s