Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street by Peter Abrahams Read Free Book Online

inside. The bills landed with a faint fluttering sound.
    I backed away, glanced around again—out of nowhere, someone was standing on the sidewalk, practically within touching distance! My heart started pounding in my chest so hard I thought I might rise straight up in the air. And then I saw the face of this person, a small person with a face not easy to see, on account of he, too, was wearing a hoodie.
    Tut-Tut.
    “Oh, my God,” I said. “You scared me to death.”
    “S-s-s-s-,” said Tut-Tut. “S-s-s-s—”
    We stood there. I saw that Tut-Tut had very nice eyes: the shape of them, the color, and this impression of depth. Also, he was shivering a bit, his lips ashy from cold. His hoodie was of the thin kind, and he wore flip-flops way past the season for flip-flops; his jeans were torn, but not in a cool way.
    “Do you live near here?” I said. “Did I see you this morning?”
    Tut-Tut didn’t answer. He went to the door, peered through the glass. I looked in, too. Dark inside, but not so dark you couldn’t see the money scattered on the floor. Had Tut-Tut caught me pushing it through the slot?
    “Tut-Tut?” I said. He turned to me. “This is not what…” That feeble try ran out of gas. This is not what it looks like? Such as what? A robbery in reverse? Meanwhile Tut-Tut was staring at me with those eyes of his. “What?” I said. “What?”
    “B-b-,” he said. “B-b-b-b—” He pointed through the glass. “M-m-,” he said. “M-m-m—”
    “I know,” I said. “It’s kind of complicated. I don’t want you to—”
    At that moment came a cry from across the street. “Hey! Is that my man Tut-Tut?”
    I turned, saw three boys on skateboards, all biggerthan me and Tut-Tut. They glided quickly over, clattered up onto the sidewalk.
    “Hey, Tut-Tut, my man, wha’s up?” said the biggest. I recognized him from Joe Louis, a rough kid a year or two ahead of me, the kind of kid who scared the parents of kids like me into forking out all that money for private school. “Tell us a story, little man Tut-Tut.”
    “Yeah,” said another. “Like how come you don’t have no green card.”
    “I-I-,” said Tut-Tut, “I-I-I—”
    “I-I-I-,” the rough kids said. “I-I-I-I-I-ay-ay-sombrero.” Then they circled around us on their boards, laughing and starting up on “G-g-g-g-green c-c-c-c-card,” and stuff like that.
    I said, “Leave him alone.”
    They all turned on me. “Who’s this geek?” said the biggest one.
    “Why don’t you guys just move on?” I said, but don’t make the mistake of thinking I sounded tough: my voice was real shaky.
    “Why don’t you guys just move on?” the big one said, mimicking me and making a limp-wristed move.
    Then one of the others reached out and flicked my hoodie back off my face. “It’s one of those rich kids,” he said.
    And the third one snatched my glasses and held themjust out of reach. No glasses, so of course my vision got blurry.
    “We’ll let you buy ’em back,” said the biggest one. “How much you got on you, rich kid?”
    “I’m not a rich kid,” I said, pretty close to crying. “Give me my glasses.”
    “Four-eyes rich kid wants her glasses,” said the kid who had them, tossing them in the air and almost not catching them.
    “St-st-st-,” said Tut-Tut.
    “St-st-st-st-st-,” went all three guys, spit flying from their mouths.
    This was bad, and I had no idea how to keep it from getting worse, but then came some surprises. First, Tut-Tut stepped up, getting in between me and that biggest guy. Of course the biggest guy had no fear of Tut-Tut, grabbing him by the front of his hoodie.
    “St-st-st-,” said Tut-Tut.
    At that moment the whole electric ball thing sprang to life in my head, the pressure getting real intense, the pain very bad, but no force lines or whatever they were connecting to my eyes, although my vision got better at once. The biggest guy shoved Tut-Tut aside like nothing, and he would have fallen except