Saturday Boy by David Fleming Read Free Book Online Page B

French toast that’s all crunchy on the outside, but something told me that this time there wouldn’t be any. It didn’t seem like it was going to be that kind of visit. She had a bite of her pizza and put the slice back in the box and closed the lid.
    â€œGuess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was,” she said.
    â€œYeah, me too.”
    â€œDerek?”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œYou can pick the peppers off if you want to. It’s okay if you don’t like them.”
    â€œNo, I like them! I just . . . I feel a little bit full.”
    â€œDerek.”
    â€œI don’t like them,” I said. “They made my head sweat so much I thought I was melting.”
    â€œWow. That’s hot.”
    â€œYeah, it was like biting into the
sun
!”
    â€œNo way!”
    â€œYes way,” I said. “Can I be excused?”
    â€œDid you get enough to eat?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWhat about veggies?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDid you get any veggies?”
    â€œJalapeños are veggies,” I said. “And the dipping sauce is made from tomatoes.”
    After I’d cleared my plate and put the pizza box in the fridge I went into the living room and found the remote and turned on the TV.
Zeroman
was going to be on soon. It was the episode where Zeroman is captured by the evil Dr. Mayhem, who has built a mind-switching machine and plans to switch minds with Zeroman so he can get close to the president, capture him, and then switch minds with
him
and take over the world. I’d only seen the episode four times before, though, so I was a little fuzzy on the details.
    It was the end of the commercials and
Zeroman
was supposed to be on next but instead of the opening part with the theme music it showed an American flag being lowered with the White House in the background. I thought maybe I’d switched to a news channel or something by accident but the remote was right where I’d left it on the arm of the couch.
    On TV the American flag was gone and a black one was being raised in its place and when it got to the top of the pole the wind snapped it open, revealing a clenched fist with lightning bolts coming out of it. My jaw dropped. The dreaded Mayhem symbol! The words
coming soon
appeared in the middle of the screen and the sound of Dr. Mayhem’s laughter rang in my head long after they’d returned to the regularly scheduled
Zeroman
episode.
    * * *
    Later that night I lay in bed staring up at the Apache helicopter, too excited to sleep. Had Dr. Mayhem’s nefarious plot finally succeeded? Where was Zeroman? Coming soon? How soon? Suddenly nothing else seemed important. Everything fell away—homework, play rehearsal, Budgie—those things just didn’t matter anymore. There was only the mystery of what had happened. I didn’t think I’d think about anything else ever again.
    I’d thought about it while I brushed my teeth and put my pajamas on and I’d thought about it as I got in bed. I thought about it for hours and hours and the only thing I could say for sure was that it was totally unfair for the TV people to make me wait. In fact, the whole thing seemed downright mean. I stared up at the Apache helicopter and tried not to think about it.
    * * *
    Me and Dad are buzzing over a thick, green jungle toward a line of red smoke coming up out of the trees. My code name is Cochise. I’m wearing a cowboy hat that has an eagle feather in the hatband.
    â€œThere’s the LZ, Cochise,” Dad says, pointing out the landing zone. “Looks like we’ll have those POWs home in time for milk and cookies.”
    We buzz over to where the clearing should be but there isn’t one. The smoke is rising from the tiniest of tiny breaks in the leaves.
    â€œSomething’s not right,” Dad says. “There should be a clearing here! Where’s the clearing, Cochise?”
    â€œI don’t