Philip and the Thief (9781619500648) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and still
have one left over.
    Philip heard his mother coming up the stairs
and quickly put his shoebox away. His mother didn’t like him eating
too much candy. Especially before dinner. His bedroom door opened
and Philip looked at his mother, who seemed much more serious than
usual.
    “ Philip,” she said. “I can’t tell you
how surprised I am at you.”
    Philip frowned in confusion. What had he
done? He quickly scanned his behavior of the past few days and
couldn’t find anything to cause such surprise in his mother. He’d
done his homework. His clothes weren’t all over the floor. His
mother hadn’t scolded him for anything in particular. What could it
be?
    “ Did you find the money I told you I
lost?” his mother asked.
    “ Your change? The five dollars? No. I
didn’t even look yet.”
    “ Then why, when I did the laundry
today, did I find this in your pants pocket?” His mother showed him
the five dollars Mrs. Moriarty had given him for solving her
mystery.
    “ Five dollars.” Philip couldn’t believe
he forgot he had so much money.
    “ Yes, five dollars. Is this my
change?”
    “ Your change? No. It’s . . . you think
I took it? Stole it?” asked Philip. His stomach started to hurt.
Not in his whole life had his mother ever accused him of
stealing.
    “ I don’t know what else to think,
Philip. I lose five dollars and find five dollars in your
pocket.”
    “ I didn’t steal it,” said Philip. Now
his throat started to hurt.
    “ What is this money doing in your
pocket then?”
    “ It’s not your money,” said Philip. Now
his eyes began to burn.
    “ Whose is it then?”
    “ Mine,” said Philip.
    “ Yours!”
    “ Mrs. Moriarty gave it to me for
finding her stamps. You can ask her. She gave it to me as a
reward.”
    Philip saw a funny look flash into his
mother’s eyes. “Mrs. Moriarty gave it to you?”
    “ Yes. I didn’t take your money. I
didn’t.”
    “ Why didn’t you tell me she gave you
money?”
    Philip could tell from his mother’s tone she
felt embarrassed.
    “ I don’t know. I didn’t want her to
give me any money, but she made me take it. I put it I my pocket
and forgot about it. I don’t know.”
    “ Well. I’m sorry, Philip. I . . . I
guess I made a mistake. Well, never mind. Here, put this in your
piggy bank.”
    Philip’s mother handed him the five-dollar
bill.
    “ Mine is still missing, then,” she
said.
    “ I’ll look for it,” said Philip. “I’ll
find it for you.”
    His mother nodded as she left the room, and
Philip waited for his eyes and throat and stomach to stop hurting.
Suddenly, he felt tears pile up in his eyes and start to trickle
down his cheeks. When he wiped the tears away, his eyes felt
better. After he swallowed hard a few times, his throat felt
better. He took three deep breaths and finally his stomach felt
better. The strange feeling in his heart that came from his mother
thinking he was a thief, though, didn’t feel any better.
    Philip took another deep breath, then
swallowed hard and wiped his eyes again. The terrible feeling in
his heart started to go away a little, but he knew he’d never
forget an awful feeling like that.
     
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    “ Susan said she didn’t tell on Jason,”
Emery reported to Philip as both boys waited in line for Mr. Ware
to show up the next morning.
    “ Are you sure?” asked
Philip.
    “ I heard her tell some other girls. She
said she wouldn’t tell on anybody unless she actually saw them do
it, and she didn’t see Jason take the money. Nobody
did.”
    “ But it had to be him,” said Philip.
“Who else could it be?”
    “ Uh-oh,” said Emery. “Here comes
Jason.”
    All alone, Jason walked slowly toward the
line. When he noticed Philip and Emery, he stopped near them.
Another boy joined Jason and the four boys stood together.
    “ What happened when you went home?”
asked Roy, the fourth boy.
    “ My father and mother both think I
stole the money, but I didn’t. My father