bang,â Sami said, nodding her head.
âThe kid was in on it. She was all goldfish starey and she was out to get me too,â Mark said, backing away from Sami.
Sami giggled. âSwishy little fishy.â
âArgh!â Mark yelled, and ran and hid behind Mom.
âOK, we need to go to the hospital to get them to look at your head. I think youâve got a concussion.â She led Mark over to the edge of the sandbox to sit him down. âIâm going to go speak to your mom, Pradeep. Iâm sure she wonât mind looking after you all until Mark and I get back from the hospital.â She took Samiâs hand. âYou come with me, Samina, to see Mommy.â She turned to me and Pradeep. âIâll be back in a second. You boys please look after him, OK? Keep him talking.â
Pradeep and I looked at each other nervously. It was like we were being left with a tiger that was just waking up and we knew he was going to wake up pretty mad.
âHow you feeling, Mark?â I said quietly.
Mark growled in that EVIL SCIENTIST big-brother way. Then he jumped up and leaned over Pradeep and me.
âYou morons and the stupid goldfish wonât win,â he said. âBut it doesnât matter, because as soon as I get home that fish is flushed and Iâll stick your moron heads down theââ
But he didnât get to finish his threat. Frankie leaped out of the watering can, his eyes glowing a shining green. He started flapping his tail back and forth, whacking Mark across the face.
âOw, ow, get it off! Get it off!â Mark said, and fell backward into the sandbox.
I scooped up Frankie in my hands and plopped him back into the watering can.
âI donât think youâll be flushing anything, Mark,â I heard myself saying in a really strong voice, like I was on some TV cop show or something. âI think you are gonna leave me and Pradeep and Sami and Frankie alone,â I said.
âWhoâs Frankie?â Mark said.
âMy goldfish,â I said, looking down at Frankie swimming around in the can. âAnd I wouldnât mess with him, because he can kick your butt.â
Pradeep stepped forward. âUm, yeah, right. Like Tom said,â he mumbled, and smiled at me.
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Mom raced back over from Pradeepâs house. âOK, boys, thanks for looking after Mark.â She winked at me and ruffled my hair. âYou can act very grown-up sometimes, canât you? When you put your mind to it.â
Frankie splashed in his watering can.
âI think we should get Frankie back into his bowl for the night,â I said. âHeâs had enough air.â
âPradeepâs mom said you can have your dinner there and then sleep over. It might be best. You never know how long the hospital will take. Remember when you had a concussion from running into that door? Why is it always my boys?â She shook her head. âCome on, Mark.â
She helped him up from the sandbox and took him to the car. He was still talking about the fish being out to get him. Mom just nodded.
âOh, and Mark,â I yelled to him as Mom was pulling out of the drive, âdonât worry about the pictures for your experiment. Weâll take some good ones for you.â
The last thing I saw as Mom rounded the corner toward the hospital was Mark banging on the back window mouthing the words, âMoron ⦠No!â
Pradeep and I went in and got Frankieâs goldfish bowl from upstairs, washed it out, and then headed over to Pradeepâs house for the night. We decided that Frankie deserved a sleepover too. And Sami wanted to play with him again. After dinner, we got into our pajamas and had the marshmallow-popcorn earths with the white chocolate melting ice caps. And we took lots of cool pictures of Frankie.
Mom phoned Pradeepâs house to say that she was staying with Mark because the doctors wanted to keep him