Holes by Louis Sachar Read Free Book Online

no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.”
    The other boys howled with laughter.
    Even Zero smiled.
    It was the first time Stanley had ever seen Zero smile. He usually had such an angry expression on his face. Now hehad such a huge smile it almost seemed too big for his face, like the smile on a jack-o’-lantern.
    “No,” said Mr. Pendanski. “That person is you, Stanley. You’re the reason you are here. You’re responsible for yourself. You messed up your life, and it’s up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you—for any of you.”
    Mr. Pendanski looked from one boy to another. “You’re all special in your own way,” he said. “You’ve all got something to offer. You have to think about what you want to do, then do it. Even you, Zero. You’re not completely worthless.”
    The smile was now gone from Zero’s face.
    “What do you want to do with your life?” Mr. Pendanski asked him.
    Zero’s mouth was shut tight. As he glared at Mr. Pendanski, his dark eyes seemed to expand.
    “What about it, Zero?” asked Mr. Pendanski. “What do you like to do?”
    “I like to dig holes.”

13
    All too soon Stanley was back out on the lake, sticking his shovel into the dirt. X-Ray was right: the third hole was the hardest. So was the fourth hole. And the fifth hole. And the sixth, and the …
    He dug his shovel into the dirt.
    After a while he’d lost track of the day of the week, and how many holes he’d dug. It all seemed like one big hole, and it would take a year and a half to dig it. He guessed he’d lost at least five pounds. He figured that in a year and a half he’d be either in great physical condition, or else dead.
    He dug his shovel into the dirt.
    It couldn’t always be this hot, he thought. Surely it got cooler in December. Maybe then they froze.
    He dug his shovel into the dirt.
    His skin had gotten tougher. It didn’t hurt so much to hold the shovel.
    As he drank from his canteen he looked up at the sky. A cloud had appeared earlier in the day. It was the first cloud he could remember seeing since coming to Camp Green Lake.
    He and the other boys had been watching it all day, hoping it would move in front of the sun. Occasionally it got close, but it was just teasing them.
    His hole was waist deep. He dug his shovel into the dirt. As he dumped it out, he thought he saw something glisten as it fell onto the dirt pile. Whatever it was, it was quickly buried.
    Stanley stared at the pile a moment, unsure if he’d even seen it. Even if it was something, what good would it do him? He’d promised to give anything he found to X-Ray. It didn’t seem worth the effort to climb out of his hole to check it out.
    He glanced up at the cloud, which was close enough to the sun that he had to squint to look at it.
    He dug his shovel back into the earth, scooped out some dirt, and lifted it over his dirt pile. But instead of dumping it there, he tossed it off to the side. His curiosity had gotten the better of him.
    He climbed up out of his hole and sifted his fingers through the pile. He felt something hard and metallic.
    He pulled it out. It was a gold tube, about as long and as wide as the second finger on his right hand. The tube was open at one end and closed at the other.
    He used a few drops of his precious water to clean it.
    There seemed to be some kind of design on the flat, closed end. He poured a few more drops of water on it and rubbed it on the inside of his pants pocket.
    He looked again at the design engraved into the flat bottomof the tube. He could see an outline of a heart, with the letters
K B
etched inside it.

    He tried to figure out some way that he wouldn’t have to give it to X-Ray. He could just keep it, but that wouldn’t do him any good. He wanted a day off.
    He looked at the large piles of dirt near where X-Ray was digging. X-Ray was probably almost finished for the day. Getting the rest of the day off would hardly do him much good. X-Ray would