Philip and the Superstition Kid (9781452430423) Read Online Free PDF Page A

work
to begin.
    “ Leon,” she cautioned,
“don’t make the slightest bit of noise. I don’t want the babies up
before I’m ready for them.”
    “ I won’t,” Leon whispered.
“I’ll go upstairs real easy.”
    Leon tiptoed to the staircase.
    “ Remember, quiet, Leon.
And be careful,” Mrs. Wyatt warned. She had dealt with Leon many
times before.
    Leon circled his thumb and index finger into
an okay sign and, remembering there were thirteen steps counted his
way to the tenth. Then he tried to leap to the twelfth step so he
could reach the top in twelve strides rather than thirteen. He was
still carrying his wide cloth bag filled with his clothes, though,
and it got in the way. His foot sank into the bag and his ankle
turned, sending him smacking into the railing and grunting loudly.
Then his other foot missed the step, and he careened sideways into
the opposite wall and started thumping backwards toward the
floor.
    “ Yow!” he shrieked,
turning as best he could onto his stomach and stretching out his
arms to halt his slide down the stairs. When he reached the fourth
step, he grabbed the railing and stopped himself. At the sudden
explosion of noise, Emery shot upright in his bed and a chorus of
wails arose from Amy and Tina.
    Leon sat on the fifth step and stared in
befuddlement at his aunt. Then he grinned.
    “ Yuk Yuk. I
fell.”
    “ What was that?” Emery
shouted from his bedroom. “Oh, I know. I’ll bet Leon’s
here.”
    “ Mommy’s coming. Mommy’s
coming,” Mrs. Wyatt shouted, moving past Leon on the stairway and
mumbling, “I love my family. I love my family.”
    “ What’d you say, Aunt
Shirley?” Leon asked.
    “ Leon, it’s you. I knew
it,” said Emery, standing at the top of the stairs in his pajamas.
“It’s not even eight o’clock yet. What did you say,
Mom?”
    His mother walked past him without
answering.
    “ I’m here,” Leon
announced, standing and smiling. “I’ll come up to your
room.”
    “ Wait,” Emery cried,
holding out his hand. “Uh, uh, the steps. You already used up most
of your steps. If you get to thirteen you’ll have bad luck. More bad luck.” He
wanted to keep Leon away as long as he could. “How many’d you
already do?”
    A worried look came over Leon’s face. He
pointed a finger at each step and counted.
    “ I better not come up,” he
said. “I’ll just go back down.”
    “ Good idea. Go down and
sit someplace ’til Philip gets here. Sit someplace and don’t
move.”
    “ How long?” Leon asked,
carefully descending one step at a time.
    “’ Til nine-thirty. Go. Go
sit.”
    Leon disappeared into the living room, and
Emery went back to bed.
     
     
    “ Oh, you’re here already,”
Philip said as a greeting when Leon opened the front door for
him.
    “ Yep. Already fell down
the stairs. Yuk yuk.”
    “ In the kitchen,” came
Emery’s voice.
    Philip went into the kitchen as Emery was
putting his empty cereal bowl into the sink.
    “ He fell down the stairs
one minute after he got here and woke up the babies.”
    Philip looked at Leon’s belt.
    “ Where are your rabbits’
feet?”
    “ Packed them in my clothes
bag. Pretty dumb, eh? If I had them on, I probably wouldn’t have
fallen down the stairs. Yuk yuk.”
    “ Well, go put them on,”
Emery ordered.
    Philip and Emery had said good-bye the day
before only after agreeing on a plan to use against Leon. They cast
a glance at one another and waited for Leon to go through his bag
and attach the rabbits’ feet to his belt.
    Philip and Emery followed him and
watched.
    “ See, I told you,” Philip
whispered to Emery as loud as he could and pointed at the rabbits’
feet.
    Emery shushed him dramatically.
    “ What?” Leon asked in
alarm, glancing down at his lucky charms.
    “ Don’t,” Philip warned
Emery, shaking his head.
    “ Don’t what?” Leon
demanded.
    “ Well,” Emery began, “I
think Philip is right. I don’t think we should tell
you.”
    “ Tell me. Tell me,”