Fudge-A-Mania by Judy Blume Read Free Book Online Page A

busy."
    "Please, Pete! This is important."
    "Oh... all right." I walked him to the checkout desk. The regular librarian wasn't there. Instead, there was a girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen. She wore a pin on her shirt that said
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    Library Assistant. She was reading a book. It must have been really good because she didn't even notice we were standing in front of her until Fudge spoke. "Do you have Tell Me a Fudge?" he asked.
    I almost fell through the floor.
    "Pardon?" the girl said, looking up at us. Her eyes were a deep, dark brown-- like the best chocolate.
    "Tell Me a Fudge," he repeated. "That's the book I want."
    "It doesn't sound familiar," she said.
    "It could be called Tell Me a Farley," Fudge said.
    I coughed twice but she didn't even glance my way. "Did you look it up in the card catalog?" she asked Fudge.
    "No," Fudge said.
    "Well, let's give it a try. Our computer's down today." She marked her place in the book she was reading. When she closed it I tried to read the title upside down. I think it was called Beginner's Love but I'm not sure.
    Fudge followed her to the card catalog and I followed Fudge. "What's your name?" he asked
    "Isobel," she said. "But my friends call me Izzy."
    "Izzy..." he said. "I like that."
    "What's yours?" she asked him.
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    "Farley," he said. "But my friends call me Fudge."
    "Oh..." Isobel said. "What an interesting name." She thumbed through the cards in the T drawer. "We have Tell Me a Mitzi and Tell Me a Trudy. But I don't see Tell Me a Fudge or Tell Me a Farley "
    "It has to be there," Fudge said.
    Isobel went through the cards again. "Nope ... I'm sorry."
    Fudge scrunched up his face and his breath came fast. Oh no! I thought. He wouldn't , not here... not now...
    But I was wrong. "It's not fair!" he cried, throwing himself on the floor. Then he kicked and he banged his fists and he screamed. "It's not fair!!!"
    Isobel looked at me. I wanted to disappear. Lucky for us, there were only a few other people in the library. One woman came over to see what was happening, but she wasn't impressed. She shook her head, then went back to the stacks, where she'd been browsing. A man stuck his head out of a reading room and called, "Quiet, please... this is a library!"
    But Fudge kept on kicking and screaming and banging his fists.
    "Stop!" I hissed. "You're making a scene."
    "I can't help it!" he cried.
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    "You're too old for this."
    "I'm not too old. I'm only five."
    I would have walked out and left him there, except for Isobel. She kneeled beside him. "Fudge..." she said, very softly.
    Fudge looked at her. His face was blotchy red and his nose was runny.
    "Who knows more about a Fudge or a Farley than you?"
    "Nobody..."
    "Exactly," she said. "So maybe you should write this book yourself."
    "I can't write," Fudge said. "My fingers hurt from just printing my name."
    "Maybe you can tell the stories to someone else... like your brother... and he'll write them down for you." Isobel smiled at me as if we were sharing some secret. I think I smiled back but I'm not sure. I felt like I was in a dream and everything was happening in slow motion.
    Fudge sat up. "I'll think about it," he said. Isobel handed him a tissue from her pocket. But he doesn't know how to blow his nose. So he just wiped the whole, mess across his face. Then he stood, took Isobel's hand and walked back to the check-out desk with her.
    "That's a nice-looking baseball glove," she told him.
    "I call it my mitt-sy ," Fudge said. "And I'm going
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    to oil it every day... to keep it nice and soft."
    I wondered if Isobel oiled her skin. I wondered if it felt as soft as it looked. My mind drifted off... I pictured myself on a desert island with Isobel. It doesn't matter that I'm years older than you, Peter, she was saying, because you're so mature for your age...
    Fudge tugged at my hand. "Pete..."
    "What?"
    "I'll go tell Dad we're done okay?"
    I nodded.
    As soon as Fudge was gone Isobel said, "Did you want to check that out?" When I