Is Anybody There? by Eve Bunting Read Free Book Online Page A

like him that much.”
    “I’m sorry you don’t like him, Marcus,” Mom said in a way that made my heart beat fast with worry. “He likes you.”
    “I’m sure.” My horrible surly voice wasback, and I tried to make things better by saying: “Get him some of the cookies if you want. I don’t care.” That didn’t make it any better. I sounded surlier and meaner than ever, and Mom’s mouth tightened.
    “I think I will,” she said.
    The Grandma’s Bake Shop lady asked which kind we wanted, peanut butter or butterscotch.
    “Butterscotch,” Mom said. “He doesn’t like peanut butter.”
    “He doesn’t?” I asked, and Mom gave me a sideways glance as if to say: “See? And you were accusing him. Did you think he ate our peanut butter?” Well, maybe she’d gotten it wrong. Or maybe he just didn’t like it in cookies. I knew what I knew.
    The lady put the two big cookies in a bag, and I offered to carry them, but Mom said, no, they weren’t heavy. I hated Nick even more for spoiling our night. It’s weird how that guy’s always around, even when he’s not invited.
    We drove home through lighted streets, bright with bells and prancing plastic reindeer. A group of Hare Krishnas in long whiterobes rang silver bells on the corner. They looked like Christmas angels except they had no wings or hair. There were carolers out still, but they weren’t the ones from Pacific High School. Would Anjelica have liked that message from Fred Garcia, the one I’d thrown in the trash? She hadn’t been so mature tonight. Fred wouldn’t have liked her tonight. I wondered how much Mom liked Nick. I wondered why he was doing the things he was doing.
    The light was on in his apartment. Mom parked our car behind his and leaned into the backseat for the cookie bag. “I guess I’ll give him these tomorrow,” she said.
    “Why not now?” I asked. “Then you could see him. And an evening without Nick is such a waste of time.”
    Mom pushed back her hair. “Did you know you’re getting to be rude, Marcus?”
    “You mean because I don’t like Nick?”
    “No. Because you never miss a chance to be horrible about him. And he doesn’t deserve it.”
    She opened her car door. “Since you suggested it, I think I will run up and give him these now. They’ll be fresher.” She hesitated.“I don’t suppose you want to come?”
    I stepped out of the car before I answered. The night was cool and the sky bright with stars. From the direction of the Clarks’ house came the smell of something sweet and spicy. I glanced up at Nick’s apartment. Actually, I didn’t want Mom going up there by herself, the two of them maybe talking about me. Mom: “He’s getting so rude and impossible, I don’t know what I’m going to do with him.” Nick: “It’s hard for the boy, Caroline. He’ll get over it.” Why did I know Nick would be reasonable and, in a way, on my side? Why couldn’t he be rotten about me so Mom would start not liking him?
    Our house looked dark and somehow mysterious. I didn’t really want to go into it by myself. “I guess I’ll come with you,” I said.
    “Good!” I saw the glimmer of Mom’s smile in the half dark, heard the pleasure in her voice. She put her arms around my shoulders. “Let’s go.”
    I tagged behind her as she climbed the wooden steps to Nick’s, her heels tapping out a happy little rhythm. I sneaked a couple of glances at our house below. Why hadn’t I lefta lamp on in the porch or living room? A car passed on the street, and its headlights gleamed on the blankness of a window. For a second I thought I saw movement behind there. But it was only the tree branches or the top of the oleander hedge reflected in the trail of light. It was nothing at all. I hurried to catch up with Mom.

CHAPTER
8
    I guess Nick had heard us coming, because he had his door open and his outside light on before we got there. “Hi,” he said. Boy, did he look happy to see us! A great, big, happy, old