Blue Like Friday Read Online Free PDF Page B

point of view. This was the weirdest thing that weird-boy Hal had come up with in living memory.
    â€œClem Callaghan,” I said. “What a name! Did you make it up, Hal?”
    â€œNo,” said Hal, “I got it in the phone book.”
    â€œHal, if you’ve stolen someone’s name out of the phone book, that means they are real, and they might sue you or something.”
    â€œNo, it’s not a real name.”
    â€œYou just said you got it in the phone book. They only have real names in the phone book, Hal.”
    Hal threw his eyes up. “You use a pin,” he said.
    â€œYes?” I said.
    â€œYou close your eyes and stick the pin in.”

    â€œAnd you get a real name, ” I said.
    â€œNo,” said Hal, “you get a real surname. Then you do it again, on a different page, and you get a first name. Then you put them together and you have a new name. It doesn’t belong to anyone.”
    â€œOh!” I said.
    â€œCool, isn’t it?” he said.
    â€œYeah, brilliant,” I said sarcastically.
    Hal ignored me. He turned to Larry.
    â€œLarry, please,” he said. “You have to do it. Please.”
    â€œI don’t have to,” said Larry. “You can’t make me, and it’s a stupid idea.”
    â€œBut, Larry, you’re the only one with a grown-up voice.”
    Larry smirked.
    â€œAnd you’re such a good actor,” Hal said.
    Which is total rubbish. Larry smirked some more.
    â€œLook, Hal,” Larry said, and there was a swagger in his voice, as if he was a very wise old person talking to a very silly young person, “there’s a flaw in this plan of yours.”
    Hal made his eyes go wide, as if he was ever so grateful to Larry for taking the trouble to point this out to him.
    â€œWhat’s that, Larry?” he asked humbly.
    â€œWell, in the first place, how do you know Alec won’t just answer the phone ? Then I wouldn’t get to leave the message. I’d have to talk to him, and he’d be sure to ask an awkward question that I couldn’t answer, and then the whole thing would just collapse.”

    â€œI can see that you might be concerned, Larry,” said Hal. “But you see, the thing is, he always turns off his mobile when he comes home. My mother doesn’t want people ringing Him in the evenings. It’ll switch to voice mail when you phone Him. And he does check his voice mails, he has a business to run.”
    â€œHmm,” said Larry. “But he’ll try to ring this Clegg person back, won’t he?”
    â€œClem,” said Hal. “But here’s the thing. We’re going to make the phone call from a public phone box. There’s one in the Market Square, opposite the post office. It’s working, I checked. So it won’t matter if he does try to phone back. Nobody will answer it. He won’t be able to get hold of Clem. He’s probably gone out anyway. It’s Friday night, remember.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œClem!”
    â€œClem doesn’t exist, Hal.”
    â€œWell, then!” said Hal, as if he’d just proved a point.
    I didn’t think it was much of a plan, and I could see that Larry wasn’t impressed either. Even if we could make it work, what was the point? So what if we got Alec to paint a long, low building with a green door? That was hardly going to change the world, was it? It certainly wasn’t going to have any effect on Hal’s mum’s and Alec’s wedding plans.
    Can you just imagine it? “Oh, you painted that building
on Saturday, the long, low one. I don’t think we can be married after all. Sorry.”
    â€œHal,” I said, “what exactly is the point here?”
    â€œThe point is,” said Hal, “that if Alec is out painting this … this place on Saturday morning, then he can’t take my mother down the country to her golf tournament, can