The Stranger Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page B

Alex’s bedroom and hopped on the sill of the window that faced the new neighbors’ house. Benjie’s bedroom faced that direction, too, but Pete was too smart to take a chance of getting trapped in Benjie’s room.
    He peered through the window at an unhappy-looking boy who was carrying a suitcase up the front steps. Pete saw no cat or dog or any other animal.
    *   *   *
    Alex waited until Sunday afternoon before going next door to meet the new boy. He would have preferred to go by himself, but Benjie insisted on going, too.
    Alex carried a warm cinnamon-walnut coffee cake that his mother had baked as a welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift.
    “Tell them to come over if they need anything,” she said as she gave the coffee cake to Alex. “I’ll give them a couple of days to get settled before I go over to introduce myself.”
    The woman answered the door. She was about the same age as Alex’s mom, but there were dark circles under her eyes, as if she had not slept well or was recovering from a serious illness.
    “We’re your neighbors,” Benjie blurted, the minute the door opened. “Mom made you a coffee cake.”
    “I’m Alex Kendrill,” Alex said, “and this is my brother, Benjie.”
    The woman smiled. “I’m Ginny Morris,” she said. “It’s nice of you boys to come over.”
    “We want to meet your kids,” Benjie said.
    “Rocky and his dad went to the hardware store,” Mrs. Morris said.
    “What about the quintuplets?” Benjie said. “Where are they?”
    “Quintuplets?”
    “Benjie hoped you would have five boys, all his age,” Alex explained.
    Mrs. Morris looked both astonished and amused. “Good heavens, no,” she said. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
    “No quintuplets?” Benjie said.
    “I’m afraid not. We have just one son, Rocky, who’s twelve.”
    “I’m twelve and a half,” Alex said. “When he gets home, tell him if he wants to come over I can show him where the school bus stops. Maybe he’d like to shoot baskets or something.”
    “That’s kind of you,” Mrs. Morris said. “Please thank your mother for the coffee cake and tell her I’ll invite her over as soon as we’re settled.”
    Half an hour later, Alex saw a car turn into the Morrises’ driveway. A man and a boy, presumably Mr. Morrisand Rocky, went into the house. Alex waited, expecting the doorbell to ring any minute, but it never did.
    The next morning Alex went to the bus stop early, hoping for a chance to talk to Rocky for a few minutes before the bus came.
    Just as the bus appeared in the distance, the Morrises’ car went past with Rocky in the backseat. Alex wondered if Rocky’s parents planned to drive him to school every day or if they just had to go with him this first time, to get him registered.
    Class had already started when Rocky entered and handed the sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Bolen, a piece of paper. She smiled, spoke to him quietly a moment, and then said, “Class, this is Gerald Morris. He’s just moved here from . . .”
    She looked expectantly at the new boy, but he did not tell her where he was from. Instead he said, “Call me Rocky.”
    “Where did you live before you came here?” Mrs. Bolen asked.
    “Down south.”
    Duke snickered.
    Alex looked curiously at Rocky. When you live near Seattle, the entire rest of the United States except Alaska and Hawaii is either “back east” or “down south.” It was almost as if the new boy didn’t want anyone to know where he was from.
    Mrs. Bolen directed Rocky to sit in the third row, in the empty seat beside Alex.
    Alex whispered, “Hi. I live next door to you.”
    Rocky nodded but said nothing.
    I’ll talk to him at lunch, Alex thought. I’ll invite him to sit with me while we eat. Maybe he won’t be so shy when he finds out that I’m new here, too.
    Lunch was a disaster. Alex saw Rocky in line ahead of him and watched as Rocky selected an unoccupied table. Alex carried his tray there and sat down across from Rocky, but