Man in the Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

want to accidentally hit her. I decided to take a look at the cut instead.
    “Mama, you can stop now. It worked.” The cut looked like a pink toothless mouth smiling up at me. The only blood left was on the rag.
    “Good,” Mama said. “Now let’s go to the bathroom and doctor it with Mercurochrome. And don’t ever let me catch you trying to hit your brother again.”
    Sigh.
    As soon as Mama finished bandaging my foot, I went out to the back porch and sat down. The clouds were getting thicker and the sky looked like one huge shadow. I could see Ricky out under the shade tree. He was trying to pull the wheels off that junky old baby buggy. He braced his feet against it, jerking on a wheel with the back end of a claw hammer. I kept wondering if it might accidentally slip and hit him in the head, like something out of
The Three Stooges.
It never slipped, but the wheel didn’t come off, either. Ricky pulled his foot back and kicked the buggy hard.
    Then Mr. Lunas appeared right there beside him, bending down and pointing a finger. I guess he was giving Ricky some suggestions on getting those wheels loose. He reached over and spun the buggy wheel. Not hard, though, just about the speed of a record playing on a hi-fi—a scratchy record with a lot of scrapes and squeaks.
    Mr. Lunas held out an oil can.
    The wheel turned and turned, and Ricky stared at it. Mr. Lunas was right up next to Ricky’s ear, whispering something, I think. Ricky just kept staring at that wheel. I wondered what was so fascinating about it. Everybody had seen wheels turning before. I looked at the spinning wheel too. It turned so fast that you couldn’t tell it had spokes—just one solid circle, whirling on its own. Ricky took the oil can and shot a few squirts into the center of the wheel. The scrapes and squeaks mellowed out, but the wheel kept its momentum. We all kept staring at it. Ricky seemed hypnotized, but all that whirling was making me dizzy. Eventually the wheel slowed to a stop, and Mr. Lunas stood up. Then, just like that, Ricky reached over with that hammer and popped that wheel right off the buggy.
    “Wooooooooo!” he shouted, holding the wheel up high. I guess oil was the magic potion Ricky hadn’t thought of. Mr. Lunas had saved the day. Then a clap of thunder rolled across the sky, shaking the rain out of the clouds. Ricky dropped the wheel, covered his head with his arms, and ran for the porch. Mr. Lunas, with his large belly, waddled in behind him.
    “Stop!” I said to Ricky as he shook his hands, flinging water drops at me. Ricky grinned and rubbed his damp hair.
    Mr. Lunas sat down in the chair across from me, looking out toward the field. “This rain is good for the corn,” he said.
    I looked at the towering stalks, which were turning a copper brown. I heard the chickens fluttering in the coop. The cows gave off a low moo, like they were singing praises in a church choir. The wind picked up and the rain blew in through the screen.
    Mr. Lunas nodded. “Yep, this is good for
Earth
.”
    I suddenly felt prickles as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It could have been from the electrical storm, or it could’ve been the way Mr. Lunas had said the word
Earth
. Like it was a foreign country.

Phase Five—Full Moon
    I t rained all the next day, so Ricky and I spent most of the time in the cave under the piano. We tossed M&M’s at each other, our mouths the target. I got three in a row into Ricky’s mouth. When it was his turn he got two into mine, but then he played a trick on me.
    “Ready?” he asked, looking like he was concentrating on his aim.
    “Ready,” I said, stretching my mouth wide open.
    But instead of one M&M, Ricky threw a handful. A dozen candy-coated dots flashed in front of my eyes and bounced off my cheeks and chin. “Hey!”
    Ricky doubled over laughing. “You should have seen the look on your face!” He couldn’t seem to stop laughing. “Your eyes were bigger than drums.”
    “You