You Will Call Me Drog by Sue Cowing Read Free Book Online Page A

lots of rocks along the way. We were really going to do it. We’d even saved some money.
    I made a baloney sandwich and got mustard on my shirt. I don’t especially like baloney, but the only way I was ever going to be able to eat peanut butter again was if somebody spread it for me. Pathetic.
    Now what? If Wren wasn’t home, maybe I could at least go over and hang around her dad’s shop, even if I all I could do was watch. I missed the smell of fresh sawdust and turpentine and hot chocolate in the shop, the easy quiet while we worked or figured something out, and the feel of fresh-cut wood.
    I wasn’t sure I could face Mr. Rivera, though. He always called Wren “
Mi Corazon
,” his heart. What if he thought I was doing something on purpose to upset her? He’d be mad at me too, and I couldn’t take that.
    “So what am I going to do all afternoon?” I said out loud.
    “Well, something, I hope,” Drog said, “or I shall scream with boredom.”
    “You? Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? Whose fault do you think it is that I can’t do anything, anyway?”
    “You want me to answer that?”
    It was still dripping out, but I couldn’t stand to stay home another minute. I hauled myself upstairs to my room and fished out three dollars from the money jar in my dresser. Then I took out another two.
    I wormed into my jacket, tugged the left sleeve down over Drog, and headed for Cheapers downtown. They advertised paperbacks, comics, games, and “1,000 used videos—Great Selection!” Maybe I could at least get something to keep Drog busy so I could feel sorry for myself in peace.
    The musty smell of old comics hit my nose the minute I walked into the store.
    I glanced around. I was the only one in there except for an old man I didn’t know who was browsing through the comics. Near that section was a roped-off corner lit up with a string of white Christmas-tree lights and a sign saying “Adult Videos.” I glanced at the old man and at the guy behind the counter with the silver rings in his ears. Neither one was paying attention to me, so I made my way over there.
    “Oh, looky, looky!” Drog said, checking out the cover pictures.
    Plenty of dancers in that section, all right.
    “Get me
The Exciting Art of Exotic Dance
,” he said, “Or maybe
Strip Tease to Please
.”
    Probably just the thing to make him happy for a while. Darn!
    “Drog, they’d never let me buy these. I don’t think I’m even supposed to be looking at them.”
    “Ridiculous. Just slip one or two into your pocket No one will know. Good experience for you.”
    I watched my hand reach out and actually had to remind myself,
That would be stealing
.
    “Hey, dude,” the counter guy said. “Looking for something in particular?”
    I pulled my hand back and put Drog away. “Um. A video. On belly dancing.”
    The guy laughed. “Belly dancing? Hmmm. I think we’ve got a how-to over here in Exercise.”
    I looked it over a minute and shook my head.
    “Oh. You don’t want to do it, you want to watch it?”
    “I just need a video with dancing girls in it.”
    He laughed again. “I bet you do. You crack me up, kid. Now, let me think. Should be plenty of red-hot dancing girls in
Road to Morocco
. Best I can do.” He handed me the tape.
    “How much you got?”
    “Five dollars.”
    “Tell you what,” the guy said. “You can have both videos for five dollars even.”
    “Okay, thanks.”
    “And come back when you get a little older. I’m sure I can find something interesting for you.”
    “It’s not for me, it’s for ... somebody else.”
    “Rrrrright.” He wrote out the sales slip and handed me the package. “There you go. Enjoy!”
    The Cheapers bag was see-through, so as soon as I got outside, I stuffed it inside my jacket. The last thing I needed was to have to explain to anybody what I was doing downtown with a puppet on my hand, buying belly-dance videos.
    I zipped the zipper up to my chin and looked up just in time to see a