Gator on the Loose! Read Online Free PDF Page B

the place where Grandma was standing.
    “Actually, we don’t have an official motto at the post office.” Mr. Sanders was now leaning out the door, looking around the side of the house to see whatGrandma and Daddy were talking about. Keisha leaned outside for a look, too. “It was the Greek historian Herodotus who said: ‘Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.’ He said that about twenty-five hundred years ago. It’s on the New York City General Post Office, which was built in—”
    “You have to admit it’s the same color.” Grandma was talking in her my-hearing-aid-isn’t-quite-working voice.
    “But alligators don’t have spray nozzles on their tails.”
    “Very funny. I wasn’t looking at that part. I was looking at the twisty part.”
    Mama gave Mr. Sanders a serious look before she said, “Good day, Mr. Sanders. We don’t want to keep you from your appointed rounds, do we?”
    With a little wave, Mr. Sanders was out the door, and Mama pushed it closed. Tight.
    “Keisha, please give the baby his yogurt! And do not let anyone leave this room until we find that alligator!” Mama touched the tips of her long fingers to the place where her hair met her forehead. She always did this when she was thinking.
    “We can’t find it inside. Your father thinks the littlealligator will sniff for water, so we are going to look across the street where water collects by the drain. Muddy places. That is where the little alligator would go. I’m leaving Grandma in charge. Oh goodness …”
    Mama got a wide-eyed look that Keisha had never seen before. She didn’t say anything more before rushing back into the hall.
    If Mama had given her just a minute, Keisha would have suggested taking Razi along. He was excellent at finding mud—messes of all kinds, really. But it was hard to think straight when the baby looked so unhappy. His bottom lip pushed out, Paulo was also tugging at his ear. If he started to rub his eyes, it would be too late. Paulo would have a meltdown. When Paulo had a meltdown, he cried for hours. Grandma said he could filibuster better than Senator Strom Thurmond. It had only happened three times in the history of the Carter family, but every baby had his limits. Keisha opened the refrigerator door again.
    “Razi, can you please distract the baby while I get his yogurt?”
    Razi jumped up. If there was one thing he was good at—besides finding mud—it was distracting. “Here, baby Paulo, listen to this.” Razi dangled the music player over the tray.
    But baby Paulo had had enough. He made a little howl, and before you could say “Mexican yam bean,” he grabbed the music player and sidearmed it up and out the open window. It fell into the garden, still singing about sprinkling stardust sent from above over not one but two possums in love.

Chapter Five
    Mr. Sanders did like to share information, so Keisha wasn’t surprised at all when his twin boys, Zack and Zeke, appeared at the back door. Daddy had called them the Z-Team ever since they’d helped her out in first grade when her classmate Marcus knocked her down trying to steal the basketball at recess.
    Zack and Zeke had rushed over. “We’re big,” Zeke said as he gave Keisha a hand up. “But we’re sensitive, too.”
    Zack turned around and shook his fist at Marcus. “Try some of this if you can’t stop pushing.”
    When Keisha told Daddy about what happened, he marched right over to the Sanderses’ house to compliment the boys on their fine behavior, which included
not
punching Marcus. It was right about this time that Mr. Sanders started dropping off little packages for Razi.
    It was like Mama said: “The bird who remembers his flock mates never misses the way.”
    Zeke and Zack looked exactly alike except that Zack had a chip in his front tooth from riding down Second Street shouting, “Ladies and gentlemen—no hands!”
    Keisha opened the