The Word Eater by Mary Amato Read Free Book Online Page A

paper with quite a bit of food on it. Lerner’s attention was calm and focused toward him, which made him feel calm, too. He liked the vibrations he felt when she paid attention to him. He skinched closer to her hand, and she smiled.
    Fip had grown plumper now, about the size of a large buttonhole, and was looking more like a caterpillar than a worm to Lerner. He had the cutest way of scrunching up the middle part of his body when he crawled. He was really quite remarkable, with delicate lines around his body, and when he chewed, his whole body trembled. Fascinated, Lerner watched him, and then realized with horror that he was eating the letter
M
in “Marie.” She screamed and grabbed him. Just then, the sound of barking came through the window.
    Ripper! She had forgotten about her plan to delete Attackaterriers.
    Lerner looked out her window just in time to see Ripper killing a bird. She opened her journal. Attackaterriers. All she had to do was set Fip down on the word, and she could make Attackaterriers history.
    â€œWhat do you think, Fip? Should we do it?”
    Martha meowed at the door.
    â€œNot now, Martha!”
    Lerner thought about her cat and started losing her nerve. Ripper wasn’t a pet to the Nitzes, but what if someone somewhere loved an Attackaterrier the way she loved Martha?
    Outside the window Ripper growled. An idea came to her. She wouldn’t delete all Attackaterriers. She’d just delete Ripper! She wrote out a new experiment and set Fip down near the
R
.

    Fip looked at her, trying to figure things out. Just a moment ago her alarm chemicals filledthe air when she saw him eat. Now she wanted him to eat. It was confusing!
    â€œCome on, Fip,” Lerner said.
    Fip sniffed the
R
. It was hard to resist such an ummy snack.
    Lerner grabbed the binoculars hanging in her closet. As soon as Fip finished eating the last little curl of the last letter, she put him into his ink bottle and looked out the window. In the Nitzes’ backyard, Ripper’s body began to shimmer. He opened his mouth and a yelp wobbled out. One, two, three seconds . . . then the dog pen was empty.
    Completely empty.
    So empty that it gave Lerner a little chill. What had she just done? An uneasy feeling crept into her stomach.
    The Nitzes’ car pulled up with Mr. and Mrs. Nitz in it. Lerner froze. Oh great! The one time they come home from work early has to be today.
    They got out, hoisting fat briefcases. According to Lerner’s dad, Mr. Robert Nitz, Sr., was a very important prosecutor who put countless criminals in jail, and Mrs. Nitz was a very important flower arranger who arranged flowers for dinner parties at the White House. They always looked very important, Lerner supposed. But she didn’t like them. Mrs. Nitz was too quiet, and Mr. Nitz was too loud.
    â€œWhere the devil is that dog?” Mr. Nitz was asking as they headed inside.
    Lerner held her breath. A moment later he came out with Bobby.
    â€œAll right,” Mr. Nitz said. “You show me where he is.”
    Bobby looked at the empty pen. “He’s . . . he was—”
    â€œYou’re an imbecile! Do you know how much that dog cost?”
    â€œBut I didn’t let him out—”
    â€œI suppose the dog let himself out?”
    â€œI don’t know how—”
    â€œYou know what’s going to happen? That dog is going to kill somebody, and I’ll get sued.” Mr. Nitz slammed the gate. “Robert Nitz getting sued! Imagine that one! You’re going to pay for this, Bobby!”
    â€œBut I didn’t let him—”
    Mr. Nitz wheeled around to face his son. “You can’t do anything right, you know that?”

At 8:00 A.M ., Lerner got on the school bus with Fip in her backpack and a hat pulled over her head.
    About fifteen kids were already on the bus, a few MPOOEs, a few SLUGs, and some kids fromother grades. Randy stood up from his usual