Noble Warrior by Alan Lawrence Sitomer Read Free Book Online Page A

of his wandering thoughts from his head. “Desert is spelled with one S. Dessert has two. That’s because everybody loves dessert so
the word is longer ’cause there’s more of it and I think my lion is really cool, don’t you? Are you taking me to school today?”
    “I am,” McCutcheon answered, trying to keep up with Gemma’s constant stream of words.
    “Well, we need to be on time because Mrs. Regali is a stickler for being on time, and she’s a stickler for capital letters, too, but in math it’s okay to make mistakes as long
as you learn from them. I’m gonna go brush my teeth. You didn’t say you liked my habitat.”
    “I do.”
    “And my lion?” Gemma asked.
    “King of the jungle, right?”
    “Reminds me of you.”
    McCutcheon wrinkled his brow.
    “Strong, handsome, wants good things in the world for other creatures, and always tries to be polite,” Gem responded. “Other than to zebras. Lions eat zebras but even though
you don’t eat any zebras, you still try to be polite like a lion, Doc.”
    “No, I do not eat zebras,” M.D. said with a smile. His six-year-old sister always saw the best in him. But if she only knew the truth, he thought.
    “You don’t even eat pizza,” she added.
    “I am gonna eat you if you don’t hurry up,” M.D. said.
    Gemma rushed back into the arms of her big brother. “One more hug,” she said, squeezing M.D. tight. “I missed you, Doc.”
    “I wasn’t gone that long.”
    “A day without my brother is like a day without the sky. I wrote that in my journal. Are you staying a long, long, long, long time before your next trip?”
    “I’m not sure if there are going to be any more trips, Gem.”
    “Yay!” she exclaimed as the doorbell rang.
    “Now hustle up and go get dressed before the mighty lion has to use his CLAWS!”
    McCutcheon picked Gem up and spun her around with a
whoosh
. Her smiled beamed a thousand watts as M.D. whirled her like a toy. Nowhere did Gem feel more safe than in the arms of her
brother. Many kids had siblings; Gemma had her own private wolf.
    Gemma bounced off to the bathroom to get washed and brushed for school as M.D. crossed to answer the front door. In Detroit, M.D. always looked through the peephole before answering. In
Bellevue, without dope fiends or thugs to worry about, he didn’t see the point.
    “’Morning.”
    McCutcheon exhaled a sigh. “That was quick.”
    “You’re the one who takes the bus. I fly.”
    “You’ve come to convince me?”
    Stanzer stepped through the doorway.
    “Actually,” he replied, “just the opposite.”

M cCutcheon left Stanzer back at the town house and walked Gemma to school. Cruising to class hand-in-hand had always been their special time
together. The colonel had already stolen enough of their hours this month. He could wait.
    As Gemma blabbed away about motorized scooters, cats, and pancakes, M.D. tried to still his mind and stay in the present moment. He knew the right answer about what to do would come to him. If
he trusted himself.
    Easier said than done.
    “And of course a squirrel is going to choose a peanut over a taco. Really, how obvious is that?”
    McCutcheon grinned. “You’re not too old to still give your brother a kiss good-bye, are you?”
    “You can have ten of them,” Gemma answered as they arrived at the front gate of Crested Ridge Elementary. She began counting; between each number his sister smacked her lips against
M.D.’s cheek. “One,
peck,
two,
peck,
three,
peck,
four,
peck,
five,
peck,
six,
peck,
seven,
peck,
eight,
peck,
nine,
peck,
ten,
peck.
”
    Gemma’s smile shined like a second sun in the morning air. And so did McCutcheon’s, although his was accompanied by a brief sadness as he realized it was the first ear-to-ear beam
he’d felt on his face in far too many days.
    “Okay, go fill up your brain. See ya at three.”
    “WAIT!” Gemma exclaimed. “I forgot to tell you, I got my first wiggly.” Gemma opened her mouth and proudly