The Order of Odd-Fish Read Online Free PDF Page A

Aunt Lily, who immediately curled up with it on the floor, poking and shaking it.
    “Wait, wait!” Korsakov rasped, waving at Aunt Lily. “Please, before you fiddle with that box, I must insist—do not touch that crank.”
    Aunt Lily’s hand hovered over the crank. “Why not?”
    “Er…I’m not sure,” admitted Korsakov, mopping his brow. “But my digestive juices swirl most excruciatingly every time anyone’s hand approaches it.”
    “If only for that reason,” muttered Sefino, “turn that crank for all it’s worth.”
    “I remember this box,” said Aunt Lily. “I think…I
built
it.”
    She turned it over and tapped the bottom three times. With a tiny puff of dust it popped open. Aunt Lily jumped a little, and Jo sat up curiously. Something was rattling around inside. Aunt Lily carefully removed a silver ring from the box. Then she took out a gold ring. Jo leaned forward. Both rings had tiny carvings of fish, with jeweled eyes and tiny scales.
    “Let me see!” said Jo, drawing closer.
    Aunt Lily didn’t seem to hear her. She examined the rings, shaking her head, and whispered, “This ring…it has my name engraved on the inside.”
    “No way!” said Jo. “And the other one?”
    Aunt Lily stared at Jo, suddenly clutching the silver ring to her chest. Her eyes clouded over, and she seemed lost, confused; but finally she exhaled and handed Jo the ring.
    The name
Jo Hazelwood
was engraved on the band.
    “Hazelwood? Who’s Hazelwood?” Jo became excited. “Aunt Lily! Is that my real—”
    “I don’t know,” said Aunt Lily in a small voice.
    “Have you ever seen these before?”
    “No, I—yes, I have. No, I haven’t.” Aunt Lily furrowed her brow. “They’re familiar, but…I have no idea where I’ve seen them before.”
    Jo looked hard at Aunt Lily. “What’s wrong?”
    “It’s like…I’m almost remembering something. But I can’t…” Aunt Lily squeezed her eyes shut. “Maybe it’s something I’d rather leave forgotten.”
    Jo slid the ring on, admiring the twisty silver curves and wriggling fish. She didn’t know what the rings meant, either. But something about them felt like a promise.
    “Ahem.” Colonel Korsakov coughed. “Now, as I mentioned…that black box is the property of Ken Kiang, a supremely wicked man. He has been chasing us ever since we stole it. If he finds us here, I shall protect you; and if we must escape, my plane is hidden in the foothills.”
    Jo looked up. “You have a plane?”
    “Oh, yes,” said Korsakov. He had devoured everything on his tray and now peered around with mild disappointment. “Er…I don’t wish to trouble you, but you wouldn’t happen to have three or four more eggs, would you? A half-dozen more sausages? Ham off the bone, if you could manage it? My digestion is a precision instrument, you see, and it requires proper maintenance.”
    “Well…I’m a waitress down in town,” said Jo. “I was just about to go to work. You could come to the café, or—”
    “Capital,” said Korsakov, rising from bed. “The day hasn’t truly started until its second breakfast. Well, Sefino?”
    Sefino glanced up impatiently from a pile of papers on which he had been busily writing. “I doubt Dust Creek is noted for culinary achievement,” he snorted. “I shall remain here and work on my twelve-thousand-line epic poem on how Chatterbox is a contemptible hack and a disgrace to modern journalism.”
    “Of course, of course,” sighed Korsakov. “You always do.”

J O backed out of the ruby palace’s garage, yanked the gearshift, and rolled Aunt Lily’s gold Mustang out onto the bumpy road. She didn’t have a driver’s license, but after Aunt Lily crashed their car through the supermarket’s front window, Jo had taken over driving between the ruby palace and Dust Creek.
    Aunt Lily and Colonel Korsakov were bickering and flirting in the back. Korsakov was so huge that he took up the entire seat; Aunt Lily, to her delight, had to