Zooman Sam by Lois Lowry Read Free Book Online

take a walk over to the Harveys" house, Sam?" Anastasia asked. It was late afternoon, and his sister had come home from school and dropped her books on the hall table.
    "Why?" Sam asked.
    "Well, you could say thank you to Mr. Harvey for the hats."
    "Didn't you say thank you when you went and got them?" Sam asked.
    "Of course I did. But you should, too. And I
know he's home now. He's flying to San Francisco tomorrow, but today he was going to rake the leaves in their yard. He told me that last night when I picked up the hats. And I saw him out there when I came in from school."

    Sam went to the living room window and peered out. Down the street, on the other side, in the front yard of a large brick house, he could see the sportscaster raking leaves. Working beside him was his teenage son.
    "Steve is helping him," Sam told his sister.
    "Oh?" Anastasia said. "I didn't notice."
    "Steve's wearing a dumb yellow sweater," Sam said. He turned his Gators hat around on his head so that he could press his nose against the window glass.
    "He is not," Anastasia said defensively. "It's cashmere. I think he got it for his birthday. And it really looks nice with his eyes. His eyes have kind of yellow flecks in them."
    Sam wondered what flecks were. It sounded painful, having yellow ones in your eyes. He breathed lightly on the glass. Then he made a mark with his finger on the fogged place. "G," Sam wrote, for Gators. He moved slightly to the left, breathed on the glass again, and wrote, "A."
    "Come on, Sam," Anastasia said. "Let's walk over there while they're still outside."

    "You just want to see Steve," Sam said. "What are flecks, anyway?"
    "I do not. Steve is completely irrelevant to me. I just want you to exhibit some manners. It's very important to learn to say thank you for things."
    Sam knew that. Sam had learned to say thank you when he was one year old. He fogged another section of window glass and wrote "T" with his finger.
    "Mr. Harvey ought to see how great that hat looks on you, Sam," Anastasia suggested.
    "Oh, all right." Sam smeared the places on the window, to erase the letters. He turned his hat back around, tilted his head so that he could see, and followed his sister through the front door.
    "Don't say anything stupid," Anastasia whispered to him as she took his hand and led him across the street. Sam liked the feel of the dead leaves whooshing around his feet in the gutter.
    "I won't." Sam didn't know what she was talking about. Why would he say something stupid?
    They approached the large brick house, and
Sam could hear the scraping sound of the rakes in the yard.

    "Say hello," Anastasia whispered. She poked him in the back. His sister was acting very weird, Sam thought. He tilted his head back as far as he could, so that he could look up and see Mr. Harvey's face.
    "Hello," Sam said loudly. "I came to say thank you for the hats."
    The sportscaster squatted in front of him. "You look great, Sam. It's a little big, but it looks good on you." He straightened the hat a bit on Sam's head. "I'm glad we could find a good use for all those hats."
    "What does it say on your suit, Sam?" Steve asked. He knelt beside his dad and looked at Sam's coverall. "Zooman Sam," he read. "
Cool.
"
    "Tomorrow at school I tell about gators," Sam explained. "Today I did cubs and tigers."
    "The Gators are two and one," Mr. Harvey said. He sounded just the way he did when he talked on TV about teams. He was using his "Harv" voice. "Their best running back is out with an injury, though."
    Sam smiled politely. He didn't know what Mr. Harvey was talking about.
    Anastasia poked him in the back again. He couldn't figure out why she kept doing that. He tried to think of something to say to the Harvey's.

    "I like your sweater," he said, finally, tilting his head back to look at Steve. "It looks really nice with your flecks."
    Before he knew what had happened, Sam found himself heading home. Anastasia was practically dragging him by one arm. "I'm