The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper Read Online Free PDF

said.
    â€œYeah,” Andy answered and left. He closed the door behind him, thinking that he’d find some way to get out of working with her on memory training. What if he decided not to train his memory? Why did he ever agree in the first place? Of course, he hadn’t agreed in the first place. He did it in the second. Maybe the third. He was beginning to talk like her, for God’s sake. To himself.

C HAPTER F IVE
    S hortly after he got home Andy decided to develop laryngitis. That would make him just sick enough to be excused from going to Edie’s tomorrow and just sick enough not to participate in the Valentine’s Day party at school. But not sick enough to miss it. He preferred observing to participating in Emerson C.D.S. parties.
    He decided to practice his laryngitis at the supper table. A cool, tough detective ought to be able to keep up that much of a disguise. He also decided that his laryngitis would be a brown-out, not a black-out; he would allow himself to whisper. He wanted to be able to ask someone to pass the salt if he needed it. He knew he would need it. He used a lot of salt.
    â€œAnd how was your day, dear?” Mrs. Chronister asked her husband. She always asked that. “Just delicious, and how was yours?” he answered. He always answered that. It was their start, and after you’ve been married as long as they have, you have to start someplace, Andy thought. From that point each of them began a recitation of what had happened during the day.
    His mother usually did less during the day and had more to say “Mary Jane had a kitchen gadget party at the Hemmings’ this afternoon.”
    â€œIs that Jan and Ira Hemming?”
    â€œYes, the couple who live next door to the Grants.”
    â€œNot the Grants. The Yakotses,” Andy whispered.
    â€œWhat’s the matter, Andrew? You sound as if you have laryngitis in a foreign language. What are Yakotses?” Mr. Chronister asked.
    Andy opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue and pointed to his throat. “Sore,” he whispered.
    â€œYour tongue or your throat?”
    Andy pointed to his throat.
    â€œThen hold your tongue and save your throat, dear,” Mrs. Chronister said. She turned to her husband and continued. “The Yakotses are the couple who live in the Grants’ house. The Hemmings are still sorry that the Grants had to move. They feel as if they’ve lost their good right hand. The Grants lived to the right of them, remember? That is the right, as you face the house. Of course, everyone says that the new people are only renting. Strange couple. Very strange. He looks old enough to be her father.”
    â€œHe is,” Andy interrupted.
    â€œHe is her father, or he is old enough to be?” Mr. Chronister asked.
    â€œOld enough.”
    â€œVery strange,” Mrs. Chronister continued. “Jan Hemming said that she tried to be friendly with thewoman, but she talks as if she had been born without conjunctions or something.” Andy was annoyed at hearing his mother use the exact description he had used. Coming from his mother, it sounded insulting. “It seems that you can’t have an actual conversation with her,” Mrs. Chronister continued. “And her husband! Why, he’s hardly ever home. He must have some sort of traveling job,” she said, and then smiling at Mr. Chronister, she added, “or another family tucked away somewhere.”
    â€œYes,” Andy whispered.
    â€œHe has a traveling job, or he has another family?” Mr. Chronister asked.
    â€œBoth,” Andy whispered.
    â€œYes, dear,” Mrs. Chronister said. “Save your voice for school tomorrow.” His mother appeared to be more interested in continuing her conversation than in getting the facts. “Jan said that the woman is quite friendly. Jan went over to introduce herself when they first moved in, and she said that they have done the strangest things to