The Wild Culpepper Cruise by Gary Paulsen Read Free Book Online

Amos was out of breath. He had forgotten his bicycle and had run all the way to Dunc’s—Duncan Culpepper’s house.
    He pounded on the front door.
    Mrs. Culpepper opened the door. “Hello, A—”
    He raced past her and up the stairs to Dunc’s room.
    “Amos.” She shook her head. “Strange boy.”
    He burst through the bedroom door.
    Dunc was reading the
Stock Market
journal. For once Amos didn’t notice Dunc’s overly neatroom. He usually hated neat. Neat bothered him. But not today.
    “You’ll … never … guess!”
    Dunc sat up. “Calm down, Amos. Catch your breath.”
    Amos Binder was Dunc’s lifetime best friend. Dunc was used to his strange behavior.
    Amos took a deep breath. “You’ll never guess what happened. Go on—try. Take a guess. Any guess. You won’t guess in a trillion years. Well, go on—guess!”
    Dunc thought about it. “From the way you’re acting, I’d say … you won something.”
    Amos’s face fell. “You guessed. How did you do that? I come over here with the best news of the century. The most exciting thing that will probably ever happen to me in my entire life, and instead of waiting for me to tell you—you guess.”
    “I’m sorry, Amos. You told me to guess.”
    “Okay. So you know I won a contest. But you don’t know what prize I won, do you? Just try and guess that! Go ahead!”
    “You got me. I don’t know.”
    “Aha! I knew you couldn’t guess. Get ready. Here it comes. Are you ready?”
    “I’m ready already. What?”
    Amos danced around in a little circle. “A cruise. I won a cruise—in the Caribbean. Can you believe it?”
    “That’s really great, Amos. When do you go?”
    Amos stopped dancing and put his hands on Dunc’s shoulders. “That’s the other great news. The cruise is in two weeks. It’s a seven-day cruise for four people. My sister Amy can’t go because she has cheerleading camp.”
    Dunc looked puzzled. “I don’t understand. Why is that great news?”
    “Get with the program, Dunc. Count: My dad. My mom. Me—and you. Four people.”
    A smile touched the corner of Dunc’s mouth. “Me?”
    “Of course you, dummy. Who else?”
    Dunc beamed. “A trip to the Caribbean. Who’d ever have thought we’d wind up there?”
    Amos took a travel brochure out of his pocket and spread it out on the bed.
    “Here’s a picture of the ship. It’s
The Lady Anne
, with Duchess Cruise Lines. We go to a lot of islands, and to part of Mexico. Everything is paid for, except souvenirs and junk.”
    “Amos, how did you do it?”
    “What?”
    “Win. What did you do to win? You never even told me you were entering a contest.”
    Amos folded up the brochure. “I don’t always tell you everything. Almost everything. Not everything.”
    “Tell me how you won the cruise.”
    Amos looked down at the floor. “I wrote an essay for a dog food ad.”
    “And?”
    “And it won.”
    Dunc cleared his throat. “Let me get this straight. You wrote an essay about dog food and won a cruise. That’s it?”
    Amos nodded. “Actually, I was trying for the bicycle. But the cruise will do.”
    “What did you write about?”
    “You had to ask, didn’t you?” Amos sat on the edge of the bed. “The title was the same for everybody who entered—‘My Dog, Why I Love Him.’ ”
    Dunc stared at him. “Amos, you
hate
your dog! You and your dog have never gotten along. You try to give him away every chance you get. And Scruff hates you too. He bites you every time he sees you.”
    “Details. The rules never said what youwrote had to be true. If they assume that—well, that’s their problem. I won fair and square because of my ability to write believable fiction. Anyway, it’s about time that dog was good for something.”
    “If you say so, Amos.”
    “I say so. That dog doesn’t know it yet, but because of him I’m going to overwhelm Melissa.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “When she sees my island tan and finds out I’m a world traveler,