The Manny Files book1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

pineapple. Sarah wanted to trade for the coconut, even though she couldn’t eat it. She settled for the Gummy Bears.
    On the bus ride home Lulu documented more “misdeeds” into “The Manny Files.” He had sent a bottle of fish food in her lunch bag with a note that said, “Have fun in your
school.
” She turned to me and said, “I know you like him, but don’t you think that he might be a little mentally unbalanced?”
    “I think he’s interesting,” I said, holding the coconut in my lap.
    Just as I uttered those words, I glanced out the bus window and saw the manny and Belly wearing chauffeur hats and holding three poster board signs. Across each sign in big black capital letters were our names: LULU DALINGER. INDIA DALINGER. KEATS DALINGER. He was like a limousine driver picking up businessmen that he didn’t know from the airport. Lulu started a new page in “The Manny Files.”
    I Scotch-taped the sign with my name on it to my bedroom door.
    I put the coconut on my dresser.

5
All We Are Saying … Is Give Peas a Chance
     
    On one of the nights that the manny was staying with us, we had to take Belly to the emergency room. We have taken Belly to the emergency room once before, when she was a year and a half old, or eighteen months in baby age. It was before she could talk, or at least before we could understand her, and she wouldn’t stop crying. Mom tried rocking her, singing to her, giving her warm milk, and even putting her on top of the dryer. She said that Belly liked the noise and gentle shaking. I thought about suggesting inside the dryer but knew that it would be inappropriate with Mom so upset. I learned the word
inappropriate
when I stood up at school and told a knock-knock joke that I heard my uncle Max tell my dad. I didn’t understand the joke, but it had the word
brassiere
in it. I guess that my teacher understood it.
    When the dryer trick didn’t work, my dad called the hospital. We rushed Belly to the emergency room. Lulu and India were sobbing but stopped when they saw that the waiting room had old
Highlights
magazines. I had always dreamed of returning Belly to the hospital, but now that we were actually doing it, I was a little scared.
    I held her hand.
    The emergency-room doctor came into the room and said, “First let’s strip her down to her diaper.” He untied one shoe and then the other and took them off of her fat raisin feet. She immediately stopped crying.
    My mom and dad both looked at each other.
    “She stopped,” Mom said, relieved.
    “Why did she stop?” Dad asked the doctor.
    The doctor gave Mom and Dad an annoyed look and said, “I think her shoes were tied too tightly and were hurting her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have lives to save.”
    I don’t remember if the doctor really said the last part, but that’s the way Lulu tells the story.
    That was the night we took Belly to the hospital for emergency shoe removal.
    This time was different. We had all finished our homework and were having dinner. The manny made India’s favorite: macaroni and cheese (spaghetti noodles for Belly), biscuits with honey, and peas. I was just finishing my macaroni and cheese. I eat the food I like worstfirst and the food I like best last. This way the last taste you have in your mouth is the best. Who wants to taste peas all night long? Tonight I started with peas, then biscuits, and finally macaroni and cheese. I was just about to get the decrumber so that I could clean the table for dessert, when the manny said, “Do you hear that whistling?”
    We all stopped talking. At first we could hear only Housman’s dog snores underneath the table. Then we heard a quiet whistle. We looked around and all at once figured out that the whistling was coming from Belly’s nose. She had shoved a pea up it and now it was stuck. We weren’t surprised that it took us so long to notice. Belly always has something green hanging out of her nose.
    Belly wasn’t upset at all. She didn’t even