The Kneebone Boy Read Online Free PDF

the back of her neck thesize of a grape. Every so often she liked it to be squeezed and drained, and Max’s fingers, she said, were exactly small and soft enough for the job.
    Otto reached up and gently patted Max’s leg. As he did, though, his pyjama top lifted and Lucia saw the top of a folded piece of light blue paper sticking out his pyjama bottom’s waistband.
    “What’s that?” she asked.
    Otto quickly pulled his top down.
    “Nothing,” he said.
    Lucia studied her brother for a moment. Her heavy black eyebrows lowered and she sucked back her breath in a long hiss. Otto was keeping a secret from her! Never, ever in their entire lives had Otto kept a secret from Lucia! He told her everything, and she him, even the dumbest things. Like when Otto put a dried bean up his nose one morning, just to see, and it came out of his mouth later that afternoon, Lucia was the only one he had told. And just two weeks ago, she had confessed to Otto that she was quite possibly in love with her English teacher, Mr. Dupuis, because he sort of looked like the Sultan of Juwi. Around the chin and eyes.
    But now it seemed that Otto had a new secret and he didn’t trust Lucia with it. It was intolerable!
    She reached out and yanked his pyjama top back up to make a grab for the paper but Otto scooted backwards in his bed before she could get it.
    “Show me!” she cried.
    “Shh,” Otto warned, nodding toward the upper bunk.
    “I don’t care. I won’t have you keeping secrets from me,” Lucia said without lowering her voice.
    “I’m not,” Otto said. “I was just waiting to tell you. Just until I was sure.”
    “About what?” Lucia said.
    “Shh.”
    Above them, Max groaned and turned.
    “Oh, fine,” Otto said. From under his pillow he pulled out a torch, and switched it on. Then he pulled the blue paper from his waistband but before he handed it to Lucia, he stared hard at her with a strange expression on his face. It was a look that is commonly used by members of certain tribes in the Amazon, who are about to cross deep gorges via fragile rope bridges. It’s a look that says, “Step lightly here, my friend, I beg of you.”
    Lucia understood the look perfectly, and was thrilled. It meant that something really interesting was about to happen.
    “It might be nothing at all, Lucia,” Otto said, seeing how his sister’s eyes flashed. That always made him nervous. It meant she was getting ideas.
    “Yes, yes,” Lucia said impatiently, holding her hand out for the paper. “Just show me.”
    He handed it to her, shining the torch beam on it as she unfolded it.
    It was a letter, dated the month before. Here is what it said:
     
Dear Casper,
     
Well, I warned you that I was coming to visit one of these days and now I’ve gone and done it. I even spent my morning “snoring by the sea” until a gull dropped a damn clam on my forehead. I hate the sea. Smells like salty horse manure.
    I’ll see you when I see you.
Your loving aunt-in-law,
Haddie Piggit
P.S. How much do the kids know about their mother?
P.P.S. If the answer is “Nothing,” don’t you think it’s time you told them?
P.P.P.S. Because if you don’t, and they find out, they’ll never forgive you. I won’t say a word, of course . . . these lips are zipped. This teakettle don’t whistle.
     
    Lucia read it over another time, then looked up at Otto.
    “Haddie Piggit?” Lucia said. “Who is she? I’ve never heard of her.”
    “Well, she signed the letter ‘aunt-in-law,’ so she must be Mum’s aunt,” said Otto.
    “I know
that
!” Lucia said (she didn’t, really). “The point is . . . what do you think the letter
means
?”
    “It means that Mum is still alive.” This came fromMax, who was now leaning over the edge of the top bunk, looking down at the letter in Lucia’s hands.
    “Nonsense,” Lucia said. “It doesn’t say that anywhere. And anyway, I thought you were sleeping.”
    “At the very least, it means that Dad knows more about