Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury Read Free Book Online Page A

shut.
    “Holy bazooks,” Tito said. “Who was
that
?”
    I didn't answer. I was busy wondering: How mean could Stella get? And who's going to kill me first? Tito or Stella?
    “Hey!” Tito snapped. “I asked you a question. Who was that? Your sister?”
    “No, uh … she—”
    “She just moved in with them,” Julio said. “Her name is Stella.”
    Tito grinned. “Stel-la,” he said, slow. “I like that name.”
    Frankie Diamond dropped out of sight behind the fence.
    Tito said, “Ten minutes, Coco-dork. Then Icome your front yard and we can finish our business. And tell Stel-la come out … after I mess you up I might ask her for go beach. Least you could do for me, ah?”
    Tito let go and vanished.
    Julio shook his head. “Hoo, glad I'm not you.”
    “I'm dead.”
    “Yeah, and you're dead again when you go in the house. Either way, you're history.”
    I paced. “You think the army takes nine-year-olds?”
    “No, but the undertaker does.” Julio laughed.
    While Julio was enjoying his own bad joke, I ran to Stella's window and dropped over the sill into my old room. My pocketknife was on the floor by the door. I grabbed it and worked the blade into the slot on the knob. The lock popped. Jeese. That was easy. I opened the door and ran back to the window before I got caught in there.
    Stella burst out the patio door seconds afterI tumbled from the window. She had a towel around her waist now and was looking for revenge.
    Me and Julio took off to the front yard like spooked mice.

W e found Willy pounding on the front door. “Hide,” he gasped. “Look who's coming!”
    Tito and Frankie Diamond were swaggering down the street. My scalp tingled with fear. “The fort!”
    We ran into the jungle across the street.
    In the summer Julio and I had dug a pit inthe sand. We'd covered it with boards and jungle trash, so it looked like a pile of rubbish. Inside, a cardboard box made a table, with a candle for light. Hiding in the fort was as good as being invisible.
    I lifted a corner of the trash pile. We slipped in and disappeared.
    Julio fumbled around in the dark for the matches. He lit the candle. Light wobbled on his face.
    “Wow,” Willy said. “This is nice!”
    “Sinbad will never find us in here.”
    I cocked my ear, listening. I put a finger over my lips. Nobody moved. We sat, silent.
    Above, voices mumbled in the jungle.
    Thin rays of light streaked through the cracks.
    “They're close,” Tito said.
    He was nearly on top of us. I blew out the candle.
    “I think they went out on the golf course,” Frankie Diamond said.
    I heard the crunching of dry leaves andjungle trash as Tito and Frankie Diamond moved around overhead. I imagined them hunched over, like soldiers on patrol.
    The crunching stopped.
    I held my breath.
    “You smell wax?” Frankie Diamond said.
    “Wax?”
    “Like a candle.”

    I squeezed my eyes shut. Why did I blow it out? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
    “I don't smell no wax,” Tito said.
    “I do,” Frankie Diamond said.
    I looked up through the peepholes in the boards and thought I could see a piece of Tito's back.
    “They gone,” Tito said. “We go.”
    “Fine, but I'm telling you, I smell …”
    Their voices faded away.
    I let out my breath. I wanted to say, Man, that was
close!
But I was way too scared.
    “Ho,” Julio finally said. “My heart is pounding.”
    “What would he do if he caught you?” Willy asked.
    “You ever see a cat eat a bird?” I said.
    “Yeah.”
    “Like that.”
    Julio elbowed me. “Let's go on your boat. You're safe on the river, unless Tito swims after you … if he knows how.”
    “Yeah,” I said, seeing a small glint of hope. “He can't get us there.”
    “Not us,” Julio said. “You.”
    I poked my head out of the sand pit. The coast was clear. We crawled out. Willy and Julio followed me through the jungle.
    I kept my red skiff in the long swamp grass at the bottom of our yard. Two oars were tucked under the middle seat.
    We dragged the