Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls by Wendelin Van Draanen Read Free Book Online Page B

we all start scooping our candy back into our pillowcases, and that’s when we hear Hudson’s footsteps coming. Real quick Billy puts Grim and Reaper back into the El Zarape sack.
    “Did Michael trick-or-treat tonight?” Hudson asksMarissa because Marissa and her little brother, Mikey, have been living with Hudson on and off for months while their parents try to get out of crisis mode—something that’s apparently hard to do when there’s a gambling problem involved.
    Marissa says, “Yeah. He went with a couple of friends from school.”
    “Really?” I ask, because until recently Mikey McKenze had no friends.
    Marissa grins at me. “He went as Spy Guy.”
    The rest of us have our candy all put away, but since Billy had to tuck away Grim and Reaper he’s still working on packing up. So I lean forward and fling the bandannas toward him. “That one feels
wet,
” I tell him after I toss the second one.
    Billy doesn’t care. He just shoves them both in his sack while Hudson says, “I was really hoping Michael would come by.”
    Well, just like a wish being granted, Mikey comes busting through the front door, wearing a yellow cape, a black mask, and a black shirt with a big yellow SG on the chest.
    “No bad guy too big, no crime too small!” he announces as he punches his fists onto his sides. “Spy Guy can do it all!”
    I just bust up, because really, if you knew Mikey, you’d know how unbelievable his recent transformation from whiner to imaginary superhero has been.
    Mikey sees Hudson and drops the act long enough to run up and give him a hug, but when Billy says, “Dude! I want that cape!” Mikey’s instantly back in character. Heflicks the cape back off his shoulder and takes on a deep voice. “Sorry, sir. It’s mine.” Then he looks at Billy sternly and says, “And if you steal it, I
will
catch you!”
    I bust up again, only the fun’s cut short because Mrs. McKenze hits the horn again. Marissa grumbles, “If I ever go out with a guy who honks from the curb, my parents had better not gripe about it.”
    So she and Mikey take off, and pretty soon the rest of us are leaving, too, telling Hudson thanks a million and promising to come by soon.
    The four of us had about three blocks to walk together before we had to split up, and we pretty much just goofed around and ate candy. And at one point Billy’s going on about Grim and Reaper being alien skulls from Planet Dirt when I interrupt him with, “I saw how fast you put them away when you heard Hudson coming.”
    “Yeah? Well, that’s because I’m the Wise Keeper of Skulls.”
    “The Wise
Keeper
or Wise
Cracker
?”
    “Ha-ha, Sammy-keyesta.” Then he adds, “Would
you
want to explain how we got them?”
    I think about this a minute. “Uh, no.”
    “See?”
    “So it’s not because you think that maybe they
are
real skulls?”
    “Would I be naming skulls if I thought they were real? They would already have names!” He pouts a little. “I have great sensitivity for the dead, you know.”
    I punch him in the arm. “Shut up.”
    “Well, I do!”
    I just shake my head and laugh like, Whatever, and drop it.
    Now, Casey and I may be “an item,” but since nobody else in our group is and we don’t want our friends to feel weird around us, we try to act, you know, normal. So when the four of us get to the intersection where the guys have to go one way and we’re going another, Casey and I just give each other a hug and a ghoulish smile and say, “See ya!” and off we go.
    Well, okay, we throw in a few more waves and stuff as we’re crossing the streets, but nothing, you know,
revolting
.
    And I guess I’m still in a little bit of a Casey daze, because when Holly says, “You know where Danny lives, right?” I’m like, “Uh-huh,” not really paying attention.
    “How far off Broadway is it?”
    “Five blocks? Maybe more ’cause you have to go—” I stop and look at her. “Why are you asking?”
    “I think we ought to go