Boys Rock! Read Online Free PDF Page B

you and a thousand others were willing to send them two dollars and ninety-five cents,” said Eddie.
    But Caroline wanted to believe she had an aura, and when Eddie went back downstairs, Caroline went right on humming.
    She took a break for lunch, then seated herself on the living room rug, this time using the short plastic “psychic stick” that had come with the booklet. While she hummed, she traced a line all the way up one side of her body, from her ankle to her armpit. First the right side, then the left, just as the booklet instructed.
    “Will you stop?” Beth cried out as she stumbled over Caroline again. “Take your aura and your Oreos or whatever, and go someplace else, Caroline!”
    All right, Caroline thought. She knew when she wasn’t wanted. She put the booklet away till after dinner, and then, because she knew she might be asked to wash the dishes if she stuck around, she took her booklet, her psychic stick, and her curtain down to the big rock on the Malloys’ side of the river so that she could practice undisturbed. If her father did move the family back to Ohio, wouldn’t it be great to return to school with an aura? To have everyone notice her and wonder how she got to be so special?
    Caroline climbed up on the rock. Lights were beginningto come on in houses across the river, and fireflies flickered in the dark trees. Caroline sat perfectly straight on the rock, her fingertips touching. She had slipped off her sandals and tried to sit so that the soles of her feet were touching. Then, with the curtain draped over her head, she closed her eyes and hummed a long, low note. Whenever she ran out of breath, she took a quick gulp of air and went on humming, helping her psychic energy to escape her scalp but trapping it under the curtain until she could go back to the house, remove the curtain, and see whether her family turned around to look before they even heard her coming.
    A twig snapped.
    Caroline opened her eyes and tried to see through the curtain, but she did not move her head.
    There was rustling in the bushes.
    Silence.
    And then, a few moments later, the sound of feet pounding down the path to the river and the bouncing and creaking of the swinging bridge.

Seven

Gone
    W ally was making himself a milk shake. A super-thick chocolate milk shake, one so thick that a straw would stand straight up in it. A
spoon
could stand up in it, in fact. A milk shake so chocolatey that it was as dark as the brown shoes he wore on Sundays.
    He poured one-fourth cup of milk into the blender. He added one-fourth cup of cream. Three scoops of chocolate ice cream. Two tablespoons of chocolate syrup.
    What else? Wally wandered around the kitchen. He found two packages of cocoa mix and dumped those in the blender.
    What else? A banana. A teaspoon of vanilla. A teaspoon of honey. His eye fell on the peanut butter jar, and he scooped up a huge spoonful and held it over the blender.
    The phone rang, and Wally picked it up with his other hand.
    “Wally,” said his mother, who worked at the hardware store. “This is my night to work late, so I’m going to dash home around five-thirty and make a quick supper before I go back. I want you boys to stick to fruit for snacks this afternoon so you’ll be hungry for an early dinner, okay?”
    Plop
!The glob of peanut butter left the spoon and landed in the blender, splattering the countertop.
    “Okay,” said Wally.
    After he hung up, he put the lid back on the blender and turned the appliance on. The blades got stuck in the peanut butter. He took the lid off, poked around to mix it up, then turned the blender on again. One minute … two minutes … three minutes. When he was done, his straw stuck straight up in the mixture, and a spoon leaned only a little to one side.
    Wally poured the milk shake into a glass and sat down at the kitchen table. This was paradise. This was what summer was all about. This milk shake was so good, thought Wally, it could be sold for five