It's a Little Haywire Read Online Free PDF

fraidy-cat so I said okay.
    I glance at my watch. Where is she?
    Just then I hear twigs snap. Mikala is
pushing her way through the long grass.
    “Owen True.”
    “Hey.”
    She sits beside me on the log. She sits
close enough to me that I can smell her. A nice fruity scent.
Shampoo? I take a close look. Yup, Mikala washed her hair. And
combed it.
    I can’t stop staring. She looks
different. Nice. It makes weird things happen in my stomach. I look
away quickly before she says anything.
    “Any fog?”
    “Uh, no, not yet.”
    “Oh.”
    We wait there, for, I don’t know how
long. I toe the gravelly sand and sift it through my fingers to
find a pebble large enough to chuck. There are three, and I throw
them into the creek, one at a time. Mikala picks a stalk of long
grass and sticks it in her mouth. I do the same.
    “What’s Mason up to?” I finally say.
    “I dunno. Something dumb with his dumb
friends I suspect. Mom says he’s old enough to be working, but
there’s no jobs, and if there were, the men would get them first. I
know my mom really wishes my dad would get a job. He just lies on
the couch all day working off his hangover.”
    “Oh.” I totally forgot about Mr. Sweet
and their family problems.
    “Mason never sticks around when Dad’s
home.”
    I just nod. I don’t have siblings so I
don’t know how families with more than one kid are supposed to
work.
    “I don’t think the fog’s going to
happen,” I say.
    “Maybe it only happens at dusk. That’s
what time it was before, right?”
    I nod again. “Yeah, probably. We can
come back later. Do you want to go to Don Chan’s for an ice cream?”
It’s getting steaming hot again.
    The corners of Mikala’s lips tug
down.
    “My treat,” I say quickly. “I got money
from my Mom before she left. She’s paying me off for ditching me to
go on her honeymoon.”
    Mikala’s smile returns and we head into
town.
    Just before we get to Don Chan’s General
Store, Mikala points and squeals. “Crickets! The mobile library! I
forgot it was coming today.”
    She jogs towards the trailer on wheels.
It looks to me like it could be a hotdog stand or something. I
never saw a library so small before and definitely not one on
wheels. “This is a library?”
    “Yup, it pulls into Hayward from Edson
once a week.”
    Mikala hops the steps and is greeted by
a middle aged woman with short curly hair and glasses. “Hi Mikala.
I thought I might see you today.”
    “Hi, Mrs. Smythe. I almost forgot. Can
you believe it?”
    Mikala searches the shelves for her next
summer read. I brought books with me, so I’m in good supply, plus I
didn’t think I could borrow from Haywire’s mobile library/hotdog
stand, since I’m not from here.
    I squish through a couple narrow aisles
and start to feel claustrophobic. I decide to wait by the door.
There’s a poster taped to it.
    “Mikala! Come see this.”
    She squeezes up behind me and reads the
words on the poster. “Writing contest for young people. If you are
between the ages of nine and thirteen you could win a trip to
Seattle to meet Joan Hopper.” A little gasp slips from her mouth.
“Joan Hopper! Owen True, she’s one of my favorite authors for kids.
I have one of her books in my arms right now!”
    “You should enter the contest, Mikala. I
bet you’d win.”
    “Really, you think so? Oh, if I won, I’d
get to go to a big city. I’d get to go to Seattle!”
    She looks at me carefully. “I could
visit you, Owen True.”
    “That would be so cool, Mikala. You
definitely have to enter now.”
    Mikala reads the rest of the directions
and asks the librarian for a piece of paper and a pen so she can
write it all down.
    “I’m so excited, Owen True. I’m going to
go straight home and start writing. Is that okay?”
    My day just took a turn for the worse,
but her face is so excited and hopeful, I can’t tell her that. I
force a grin. “Of course. Go write that winning story!”
    Mikala grabs her new books and