One Fat Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

honked. Dr. Kahn stuck his head out the window, yelled something at me, then drove down to the county road and out of sight.
    I could leave now.
    You’ve got to do it, Captain Marks. You’re theonly one who can make it through the renegades to Fort Desolation and bring back the Regiment. We’re counting on you.
    And then suddenly I didn’t hurt anymore, and I couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to. All I could do was go back and forth, back and forth, and sometimes I ran into the bushes along the side of the lawn, the sharp thorns snagging on my sleeves and whipping at my chest and scratching the back of my hands until blood bubbled up in the thin red lines, and twice I stepped into holes and fell down and stones clattered against the whirling blade and bounced off my legs, and when the mower ran out of gas again I filled it and yanked it back to life and pushed on, and on, and I stumbled along like I was drunk.
    â€œYou call this mowing a lawn?”
    I was halfway between the porch and the county road. I had cut half the front lawn, what was he talking about? I followed his long, quivering finger up the hill. The lawn was a mess. I had missed hundreds of tufts of grass. Most of the rows were squiggly light green snakes lyingamong darker green patches of uncut grass. The work of a crazy drunken lawn mower.
    â€œI call this a disgrace.” He lifted the mower and examined the blade.
    â€œYou must have gone out of your way to find every stone on the lawn. Look at the chips on the blade. I’ll have to get another one. Cost at least four fifty.” He shook his head. “That’ll be subtracted from your wages, of course.”
    He looked at his watch. “Well, it’s after three o’clock. Tomorrow you’ll do it all over again. What did you say?”
    I hadn’t said a word. I turned away so he couldn’t see me cry, and I stumbled down to the county road.

5
    I don’t remember walking around the lake. Car horns kept warning me off the road back to the sandy shoulder. The road shimmered and heaved in the heat. Twice I stopped to throw up, but nothing came out. I saw the sign, Marino’s Beach Club and Snack Bar, and staggered right up to the serving counter.
    â€œWa’er? Pleath?”
    Connie said, “You got to be kidding. You want water, go jump in the lake.”
    â€œHey, wait a minute.” A big bronze chest with a St. Christopher medal hanging between huge muscles loomed up. “You Michelle’s brother?”
    â€œYek.”
    â€œConnie, get him some water.” Big hard armsgrabbed me around the chest and dragged me to a picnic table under the shade of a beach umbrella. “Your sister’s been looking for you, she drove past here twice. Connie!”
    â€œI only got two hands, Peter.”
    â€œSince when? C’mon, this boy needs water.”
    â€œM’okay,” I said.
    â€œYou’ll be all right, just a little heatstroke. You’ve been running or something? Heavy fella like you shouldn’t run in this weather.” He held a cup to my mouth while I drank. “What happened to your hands? Cat scratch you up?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œCome with me.” He helped me around the back of the snack bar shack to a small room. “Here you go.” He lowered me on a cot and opened a first-aid cabinet.
    Connie came in with more water and some big white pills. “Salt tablets,” she said. “Make you feel better.”
    â€œThanks.”
    Pete poured alcohol on the back of my hands.
    â€œIt stings.”
    â€œA man can take it. So you’re the famous kidbrother. Just lie down now. That’s it. You know who I am?”
    â€œPete Marino.”
    â€œThe one and only.” He grinned. “So. What really happened to you? The Rummies work you over?”
    â€œNo…I…I was running. I fell down.”
    â€œHey, you can tell Peter the Great. Look, it happens to every