Missing on Superstition Mountain Read Online Free PDF

drawer.”
    He knelt on a chair and leaned over the table, pressing hard with the marker. Henry saw his face scrunch with concentration; his tongue kept slipping out of the side of his mouth while he worked. When he finished, he waved the picture jubilantly under Simon’s nose. “See!”
    Simon snorted. “That doesn’t look at all like Josie. That looks like a big black cow.”
    Jack balled up his fist, and Henry barely had time to duck as he reached out to whack Simon’s arm. “Does not!”
    â€œMoooo,” Simon said.
    â€œBoys,” Mrs. Barker called from her study.
    â€œMom!” Jack yelled. “Simon’s being mean!”
    â€œSimon—” Mrs. Barker began.
    â€œI am not! Jack hit me.”
    â€œJack—” Mrs. Barker said sternly.
    â€œI drew Josie and he said it looks like a cow!”
    â€œIt doesn’t look like a cow,” Henry ventured. “It looks like a goat.”
    â€œAll right, all right.” Mrs. Barker appeared in the doorway. “Stop fighting! What did I just say about not interrupting me?”
    Simon whipped the paper out of Jack’s hand. “Look, Mom. Does this look anything like Josie? If we put this up around the neighborhood, everyone will think we lost a black cow.” He studied Jack’s drawing. “With horns. A bull.”
    â€œHey!” Jack cried. “Give that back!”
    â€œThat is ENOUGH .” Mrs. Barker took the drawing and put it on the counter. “Why don’t you use a photo of Josie instead? We can copy it right onto the paper. Take one off the fridge. When you’re finished, I’ll make photocopies for you in the study. But no more fighting! Understand?”
    â€œYeah, Mom, sorry,” Simon said, but Henry could see him press his foot down on Jack’s beneath the table.
    Henry took a photo of Josie off the fridge—it was one of her lying on the couch at their old house, with a smug expression on her face—and carefully taped it to a blank piece of paper. Below the photo, Simon wrote in neat capital letters
    MISSING
    BLACK CAT*
    VERY FRIENDLY
    REWARD $$$
    LAST SEEN: 6/21 NEAR WEAVER COURT
    CALL 555-4201
    At the bottom, he added in small print *WHITE SPOT ON NECK.
    â€œOkay, how does that look?” Simon held the paper aloft for their review.
    â€œThat’s really good!” Jack said happily, the cow episode already forgotten. “Now let’s make lots and lots of copies and put them up everywhere .”
    Henry scrutinized the flyer. “I don’t think Josie’s VERY friendly. Just friendly.”
    Simon considered. “Okay.” He carefully crossed out very .
    â€œAnd what’s the reward?”
    Simon shrugged. “I don’t know. But we need a reward. Nobody will pay any attention to our signs otherwise.”
    â€œDo we have to use our own money?” Henry asked anxiously. He had twenty-four dollars in his piggybank, but he was saving up for the complete trilogy of The Lord of the Rings .
    â€œCourse not,” Simon scoffed. “Mom will pay it.”
    They carried the poster to her study, where Mrs. Barker was leaning over her drawing table, pencil poised. She looked up. “All set?”
    Simon showed her the paper. “You’ll give a reward if somebody brings back Josie, right?”
    â€œWell, yes, I guess that would be okay,” she said. “You didn’t say an amount, did you?”
    â€œNo,” Simon said. “It’s better not to, because then people might think we’re really rich and the reward is a lot of money.”
    Mrs. Barker smiled. “This looks terrific! You did a nice job, all of you. I’ll copy it right now, and you can ride your bikes around the neighborhood and put it up on telephone poles.”
    Mrs. Barker placed a sheaf of yellow paper in the tray of the copying machine, which produced a stack of flyers in a matter of minutes.