Brass Monkeys Read Online Free PDF

scalp burner, but it just about set my hair on fire.
    “Are you coming?” Mom called up the stairs.
    “Coming down, Mom,” I yelled.
    “The old salmon on rye is on the move,” cried Alvin.
    “Listen, I’m not on the move,” I said.
    Right then I should have stopped the whole show and cleared it up, but there was something about the excitement, those eyes of Harriet’s, and the fact that I was at the center of it all, that made me do the dumbest thing in the world. I grinned like a silly fool and said, “Okay, maybe I am on the move.”
    We trooped downstairs, with Alvin and Weeser trading ridiculous karate chops. A few minutes later we had the stove and fridge in place, and in that short time I had lost my nerve and was worried sick about what I had said upstairs. Just as we finished plugging everything in, we heard a car horn.
    “It’s my parents,” said Harriet. “I’ve got to run.” She made a little motion with her head, meaning she wanted to talk to me. I nodded quickly, because I desperately needed to put a stop to the whole misunderstanding.
    I followed her into the hallway and started right in while she put her coat on. “Harriet, listen, we need to clear this up.”
    She waved me quiet. “Eugene, please, I know this makes you nervous, but it shouldn’t. See, I think I understand it all now. Someone who really knows you well believes you’re going to make some changes at the school. That person knew you were moving here and alerted us. You don’t know anything about it yet, but it’s your destiny to help us. It’s all mixed up with mystery and magic, but I think that’s the way life works sometimes. You know—fate.”
    I was shaking my head in denial, probably looking like Mr. Potato Head on a spring, when Alvin and Weeser came piling into the hall.
    “Caught you,” said Weeser, “whatever you’re doing.”
    Harriet grabbed them, then drew us into a little circle. “Look, we’re all in this together,” she whispered, “and now we’ve got the help we’ve been hoping for.” She paused dramatically. “Tomorrow Ming is going to meet her match.”
    I opened my mouth to protest one last time, but the car horn sounded again.
    Harriet raised her hand for a high five, and like the biggest dunce of the galaxy, I joined her. In a flash, we were all drawn into the wildness and we began trading fives like a victorious team. Harriet gave me a last, warm look, then turned and ran out the door. Weeser hopped onto Alvin’s back, and yelling like lunatics, they chased after her. It was still snowing lightly, but the wind had died down.
    I waved from the back step as Harriet drifted past in her parents’s car. Then Alvin and Weeser shot by, the Jeep horn blaring loudly.
    Weeser stuck his head up through a hole in the soft top and yelled out “Tomorrow!” Alvin gave me a thumb’s up, then the Jeep swung out onto the road and the taillights slowly disappeared into the winter night.
    When I came back inside, Mom was staring at me in bewilderment. “I never saw you make friends so fast in my life,” she said. “What on earth happened?”
    I knew why she was confused. At Harris I was just another geekeroo, lonely and friendless. Now, miraculously, I had acquired three fabulous friends.
    “Nothing happened,” I said. “We were just having a good time.”
    Mom left the room shaking her head. “Maybe we should move more often.”
    I flopped down in a chair and expelled my breath. The excitement about my new friends was fading fast, and tomorrow was starting to loom like a scary beast.
    I tried to put the entire mess out of my mind by picking up my latest favorite book,
The Day of the Triffids
, and reading a bit. That worked for about five minutes, and then the nagging worry began again.
    Later, when Mom and I were roasting hot dogs in the fireplace, it all swept over me in a nauseous wave. I wanted desperately to tell her about Ming and the awful school situation and how I had let Harriet and