It's Up to Charlie Hardin – eARC Read Online Free PDF Page B

right,” said Sue Ann, forgetting that taking sides against her little brother absolutely guaranteed tears. Roy flung the hated egg away into distant shadows and folded his arms over his face with a barrage of boohoos while Sue Ann sought ways to comfort him. Meanwhile: “Somebody find that egg,” she said to no one in particular. “If it starts to stink my mom will skin us alive.”
    Jackie took no notice of this mission, content to enjoy Roy’s troubles, but Charlie and Aaron began searching hidden crannies of the place. Charlie wasn’t surprised to see that his pal had managed to carry a cup into the shadows with him.
    “You said yellow,” Aaron muttered, and set the cup down.
    “Yeah, but—” Charlie began, but stopped when he saw Aaron carefully draw a pair of undyed eggs from a jacket pocket. “Oh boy,” he finished with a grin, and turned away to resume hunting Roy’s errant egg. It seemed that Aaron had, by prior agreement, brought a couple of eggs with him after all.
    Presently Charlie discovered the lost egg, now severely cracked and flattened, and by now Sue Ann had persuaded Roy to glorify one of the cracked eggs she had set aside. Charlie showed his trophy to Aaron, who was blowing two bright yellow eggs dry. He pocketed one and gave the other to Charlie. “And guess what I found,” Charlie said, holding up his other hand. Dangling from his forefinger was a fat one-gallon glass jug, roughly a third full of some dark pulpy mass. “Our jam. We forgot all about it last summer.”
    Aaron frowned, remembering. Several boys had spent an entire afternoon collecting dewberries along the creek, mixing them with stolen sugar and tap water, shaking them into an awful mush in that jug, then finding it was easier to get a berry into that narrow neck than to get it out again. Aaron made an upchuck face. “Wow, don’t drop it. Talk about stink,” he said, and made a worse face. In Aaron’s experience, anything forgotten in a cellar for six months was not going to smell of incense.
    “Let’s see if it does,” said Charlie, and began to unscrew the metal cap. The first hiss that emerged was so loud Charlie nearly dropped the jug, but when he inhaled, Aaron’s fearful grimace quickly turned inside out. The two boys gazed at each other in delight, then looked into the jug again. A mass of foam now nearly filled the container, and an odd sweet tang filled the air.
    “What’re you guys doing?” called the girl.
    “Nothing,” Charlie called, tightening the cap again, pushing the jug behind a box. “But I found that ol’ egg.” And he made his way back to surrender his find.
    Sue Ann promised to refrigerate the eggs until Easter and, before leaving them, told the boys to put everything back as they found it. This did not fit any plans of Jackie, who claimed his gram expected him at home. Moments later, with Jackie and Sue Ann gone, the other three boys sat listening to a screen door slam upstairs.
    Roy began to smile because he saw the others doing it, then reconsidered. “Why are we smiling?”
    “’Cause Jackie didn’t wanta help,” said Aaron.
    “So he scooted,” Charlie added, “so he won’t get any jam.”
    Roy’s eyebrows shot up. His lips formed a silent “jam.” His smile was instantly reborn. “You brung some?”
    “We all did,” said Aaron, climbing back over storage boxes, grunting as he snagged something from the shadows. “Last summer, remember?” Aaron could not know how near he—all of them, in fact—had been to an explosion, thanks to the six-month buildup of pressure inside the glass jug. Charlie’s accidental release of some pressure had spared the boys some serious grief.
    “Gol-leee, dog,” said Roy. He studied the foamy half-liquid gunk through the glass. “I got dibs,” he announced.
    “Oh, I just bet you do,” said Charlie, dripping scorn. “I found it, and Aaron’s next.” And he unscrewed the cap again. The hiss was not so fierce this time, but it