Special Delivery! Read Online Free PDF

complained. “OL” meant “Old Lady.” Grandma didn’t like anything that made her seem old.
    “Not the pink one,” Wen said. Wen loved pink.
    There are beach umbrellas and there are beach umbrellas. Some make only enough shade to cover your towel for an hour before you have to move it to keep off the sun. But others, like Grandma Alice’s, are big enough to shade a family of six at Millennium Park for most of the day. Daddy said that Razi should never hold on to that umbrella in a breeze or it would lift him right up into the clouds.
    Keisha jumped into the back of the truck. Puttingher hands around the big folds of fabric, she hoisted the umbrella over the lip of the truck bed. Wen took it by the handle and stood it up. Together, the girls unfastened the umbrella and cranked it open.
    “Whoa!” Keisha grabbed it as high up as she could reach; Wen held on to the middle by the crank. But still, the umbrella teetered.
    Daddy rushed over. “Okay, ladies, ready for Operation Baby Crow Rescue?”
    “Ready,” the girls said together.
    “On the count of three, I’ll grab up here and we’ll all walk together.” Daddy only had one hand free because he had to hold the box with the nest in his other hand.
    Already the big crows were bouncing on the branches above and cawing like crazy, even though the rescuers weren’t close to the mailbox yet.
    “This is worse than the Langston Hughes auditorium during a free-throw shoot in overtime.” Aaliyah had rolled down the window and stuck her head out.
    “Once we get close in, they’re going to dive-bomb us, ladies, so be prepared.”
    “What does that mean?” Wen asked. She was ducking already.
    “Like what happened a minute ago,” Keisha said, “only they’ll hit the umbrella and not the top of your head. Just hold tight.”
    “One, two … three!”
    They set off. At first, the bottom of the umbrella got going faster than the top, and that made it tip to the left. Then the girls pulled it in the other direction and it went too far to the right.
    “Maybe if we do a chant, we can find our rhythm,” Keisha shouted over the sound of unhappy crows.

    “Good idea.” Wen began: “I like coffee, I like tea. I want Keisha to jump with me.”
    “I like coffee, I like tea. I want Wen to jump with me,” Aaliyah shouted from the truck.
    It worked! They were moving.
    Just when Daddy was saying, “Almost there, girls …”
    Boom! Poom!
    It felt like Marcus, the star basketball player at their school, had landed a double pump right on top of the umbrella.
    “Watch out!” Aaliyah screamed.
    “Whoa!” Wen stumbled.
    “Hold on, girls,” Daddy said, leaning down toward the mailbox. “We’ve got an incoming crow mama and daddy!”

Chapter 4
    “Don’t be afraid, Wen. The crows are just trying to protect their baby,” Keisha said, struggling to keep the umbrella straight up. “Don’t pull us over, Daddy!”
    Daddy had bent over to open the mailbox and taken his end of the umbrella with him. He let go now so he could use his free hand to pull the little crow out by its feet.
    Poom! Poom!
    “Hold tight, Wen, we’re almost there.” Keisha could see how weak and frightened the little bird was because it kept its head turned away and its feet up and didn’t even try to defend itself.
    “Okay, girls, let’s beat a retreat.”
    As they moved away from the mailbox, the diving crows stopped just as suddenly as they had started. Keisha wondered if they thought their baby was still in the mailbox. If so, Carters’ Urban Rescue hadn’t solved Mr. Sanders’s problem.
    “On the count of three,” Daddy said when they reached the front walk, “drop the umbrella and run. One, two, three …”
    The girls dropped the umbrella and ran. Grandmaheld the door open until they got through it and into the dark hallway. They were panting by the time they reached Mrs. Sampson’s dining room table. Sometime during the rescue operation, Aaliyah had scooted from the truck