Philip and the Superstition Kid (9781452430423) (5 page)

Leon nodded vigorously. “Fair chance. Fair
chance.”

“
Okay, Leon. Here’s what
you gotta do.”

“
I’ll do it. I’ll do it.
Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

Emery explained. “You have to take off the
rabbits’ feet and hang one over each ear.”

Leon scurried to detach the other two
rabbits’ feet. He connected the chains again and slipped a rabbit’s
foot over each ear.

“
Now what?” Leon asked,
looking around warily. “Hurry, before the bad luck gets
here.”

Philip saw Emery was about to burst out
laughing so he took over.

“
You gotta wear your jeans
inside out and pull your shirt up over your ears and let it hang
backward off your head like an Egyptian headdress.”

Leon tore off his pants and turned them
inside out. He jumped back into them and lifted his shirt over his
head.

“
A little more,” said
Emery. “The rabbits’ feet have to hang out.”

Leon obeyed.

“
One last thing,” said
Emery. “You have to take off your sneakers and wear them on your
hands.”

Leon sat on the floor, took off his
sneakers, changed them into gloves.

“
Now if you stay like that
all day,” Emery said, “you’ll be safe from any bad
luck.”

“
You forgot the last
thing,” said Philip.

“
Ohhhhh. You’re right,”
Emery nodded.

“
What is it?
Hurry.”

“
You have to sit on a rug
until it gets dark.”

“
A rug? A rug? What kind
of rug?”

Emery pointed to the living room.

“
You sit there,” said
Emery, “and Philip and I will stop back once in a while to see how
you’re doing.”

“
Not,” Philip whispered to
himself.

“
I can’t go out with you
guys?” Leon said sadly.

“
You wouldn’t want people
seeing you like that, would you?” Philip asked sympathetically.
“And where would you get a rug to sit on outside?”

The boys turned at the sound of babies
crying, and Mrs. Wyatt appeared, a baby in each arm. She took two
steps and stopped.

When Leon saw his aunt staring at him, he
gave a shy wave of one sneaker and stood up.

“
I gotta stay in all day,
Aunt Shirley.”

“
What are you doing,
Leon?” Mrs. Wyatt asked wearily. “Why do you look like that? Why
are your pants inside out?”

“
It’s to keep bad luck
away. That’s why I fell down the stairs because of odd rabbits’
feet. I’m gonna sit on the rug in the living room all
day.”

Philip thought he saw tears rise into Mrs.
Wyatt’s eyes.

“
No, no,” she said softly.
“No, you can’t . . . you
have
to go out with the other boys. Be still,
Amy.”

“
I can’t, Aunt Shirley!”
Leon said in a panic. “I
got
to stay in. Bad luck will get me. It’ll be an
awful day. I’ll fall down all the stairs in the world. I’ll . .
.”

“
Leon!” Mrs. Wyatt
shouted.

Both Leon and the two babies were stunned
into silence.

“
Emery, hold Amy. Philip,
hold Tina.”

She gave each of the boys a baby. She went
into the kitchen and came back with her purse.

“
Leon, I was shopping
yesterday and guess what?”

“
What?” Leon asked
doubtfully.

“
I found a brand new
penny.
Heads up
!”
she said in voice filled with momentary joy and excitement. “Take
it. I give it to you. It’s guaranteed to bring good luck no matter
what. Isn’t that good news? Now you can go
out
,” and she pointed at the
door.

“
Is it true?” Leon asked,
taking the shiny penny and looking hopefully at Philip and Emery,
both of whom declined to answer.

“
Oh, thank you, thank you,
Aunt Shirley,” Leon cried gratefully. He shook his hands and his
sneakers dropped to the floor. Then he pulled his shirt off his
head.

“
Close your eyes, Aunt
Shirley. I gotta take my pants off.”

Mrs. Wyatt rolled her eyes, took back her
babies, and started toward the kitchen.

Leon pulled his pants off.

“
Thanks, Aunt Shirley.
Thanks a lot!” he called after her. Then as Leon dressed himself,
he began to sing. “I’m goin’ out with yo-u. I’m goin’ out with
yo-u.”

Philip and Emery stomped to the front door
and left the house, Leon hopping behind with one shoe on and one
shoe off shouting, “Hey, wait for me, guys.”

Chapter Seven

“
Boy, you guys were great
yesterday,” Leon said with a smile next morning. “You really tried
to keep my bad luck away. And see, only two rabbits’ feet today.
Even.” Then he sang, “You guys were so-great. You guys were
so-great.”

Philip and Emery stared at Leon as he walked
past the kitchen where they were sitting. They heard him go
carefully up the stairs, counting out loud to be certain he didn’t
take thirteen steps. Then they looked into each other’s eyes as his
singing continued from upstairs.

“
We gotta do something,”
said Philip.

“
I know. I know. He
spoiled
everything
yesterday.”

Philip nodded agreement. When they reached
the playground the day before, anyone who knew Leon headed the
other way. That left no one for Philip and Emery to play with but
each other . . . and Leon. Philip tried to get their friends to let
them into the baseball game they started, but the friends had seen
Leon play baseball too often in the schoolyard. They knew he
couldn’t hit. He couldn’t catch. And when he threw, somebody had to
go and chase the ball and the runner always scored. So Philip and
Emery had to sit morosely on the swings while Leon ran all over,
laughing and screaming about booga woogas chasing him as he
gleefully used the sliding board, the swings, and every other
contraption the playground offered to escape the booga woogas.

“
So what are we gonna do?”
Emery asked.

“
We
gotta
convince him of bad luck. If I
hear him screaming again about the booga woogas, I may stay in the
house all day
myself
. We gotta get
him
to stay inside.”

“
We tried that,” Emery
reminded his friend.

“
Yeah, and it would have
worked except for your mother. But she’s not here now so we gotta
try again.”

Philip had heard Emery’s mother muttering,
“I’ve got to get out of here,” under her breath repeatedly when
he’d arrived at Emery’s that morning. A short while later she’d
taken the babies out in the double stroller for some air.

Emery moaned when he heard Leon singing his
way down the stairs. “Let’s play again to-day. Let’s play again
to-day. Here come the booga-woogas. Here come the
booga-woogas.”

Suddenly, Philip’s eyes widened and he
quickly whispered to Emery, “Do what I do.”

“
Hi guys,” Leon said
cheerfully entering the kitchen. “I really had fun yesterday. It
was . . .”

“
Oh, no!” Philip cried and
pointed at the wall clock. He turned to Emery.

“
Huh? Oh yeah. I mean no,
no, oh no!” And Emery pointed. Philip grabbed his arm and
redirected it at the clock.

“
What?” Leon barked in
alarm.

“
Look at the clock and
look at what you did,” Philip said, lowering his arm.

“
Yeah, look at it . . .
and what you did,” Emery echoed, dropping his arm, too.

Leon turned to look at the clock, and Philip
punched Emery and whispered, “Don’t do it so stupid.”

“
What did I do? What did I
do?” Leon cried. “It’s ten o’clock. So what?”

“
That’s just it,” said
Philip with a knowing nod. “It’s
not
ten o’clock.”

“
What do you mean?” Leon
asked.

“
Do you know how many
times you sang when you went upstairs and down?” Philip
asked.

“
Times?”

“
Thirteen
!” Philip said, knocking
Emery’s knee with his own.

“
Yeah, thirteen. You
shouldn’t have, Leon. Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen.” Emery said
each thirteen louder than the one before.

“
I didn’t. No, I
didn’t.”

“
You did,” Philip assured
him. “You did. We counted. And you did it before ten o’clock. We
thought you stopped at eleven upstairs, but you sang twice more
just now. You know you did.”

“
Did I?” Leon paused
thoughtfully and then burst out, “I didn’t mean to.”

“
You did and now,” said
Emery, getting into the spirit, “your trissa blah blah is going to
get you.”

“
Arggh! Not that. Oh, I
have triskaidekaphobia real bad. My doctor said.”

“
How can we help him,
Emery?” Philip cried. “His bad luck could start any
minute.”

“
Yeah, and a shiny penny
doesn’t stand a chance of beating trissa blah blah.”

“
No,” Philip agreed. “And
the penny probably used up all its luck yesterday.”

“
Wait, I know,” Leon
cried. He pulled his shirt over his head so that he looked Egyptian
again. He started removing his rabbits’ feet to put over his ears.
“I didn’t use this good luck yesterday, remember?” He took off his
pants and put them on inside out.

“
Your sneakers,” Philip
reminded him.

“
Oh, yeah.” Leon sat on
the floor and removed his sneakers. “If I sit here all day, will
that take care of my triskaidekaphobia?”

“
Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said
Emery. “That should . . .”

“
No!” Philip shouted.
“This needs more. It better be the kitchen table.”

“
Huh?” said
Emery.

Philip ignored Emery and looked at Leon.
“Quick, before it’s ten o’clock. Get on the kitchen table and sit
there. Hurry. You only have fifteen seconds.”

Leon clambered onto the kitchen table.

“
Did I make it? Did I make
it?” he cried and stared at the clock.

“
Just in time,” said
Philip in relief. “That was lucky.”

Leon’s eyes brightened. “Then it’s
working.”

“
But you have to stay
there all day, Leon,” Emery warned. “Trissa blah blah is very
powerful.”

“
I know. I know,” Leon
nodded. “And it’s not trissa blah blah. Oh, I can’t play with you
guys today, and yesterday was so much fun. I’m sorry this is gonna
spoil your day.”

“
Don’t worry,” said Philip
generously, pulling Emery by the arm. “There’s always tomorrow.”
Then softly to Emery he said, “Come on. Before your mother gets
home.”

And out the front door they went.

“
That was a great day,”
Philip crowed as they approached Emery’s house, weary, dirty, but
pleased.

“
And I’m starving. Except
for the ice cream, we skipped lunch.”

The boys had chosen to be hungry rather than
go home and see what was happening with Leon.

“
It was worth it. We gotta
find a way to keep Leon home tomorrow, too,” Emery said with a
smile, even though he was limping. “I have to go to the dentist
first thing so you think all morning without me.”

“
I will,” said Philip.
“How’s your leg?” Emery hadn’t been watching where he was running
in the playground and smashed his knee into one of the poles that
held up the swings.

“
Hurts a
little.”

“
Emery Wyatt. Philip
Felton. Get in here now
.”

Philip and Emery jumped. Emery’s mother was
standing at her front door, her arms crossed and looking very
upset. When the boys walked past her, she said, “Go into the
kitchen and tell me what you see.”

Philip and Emery went into
the kitchen
knowing
what they would see. There was Leon, sitting happily atop the
kitchen table, looking like an Egyptian king who wore his pants
inside out. Leon waggled the sneakers on his hands in
greeting.

“
Nothing bad happened,”
Leon grinned. “Yuk yuk.”

“
He won’t get off the
table,” Mrs. Wyatt said in distress. “And now he says he can’t eat
his meals in the kitchen anymore. What is wrong with him? Why is he
dressed like that? I have to make dinner. Why did my sister have to
go away? I can’t make dinner with him sitting on my table. Get him
off my table. Get him off.”

Philip looked up at the kitchen clock. “Oh,
look at that, Emery.”

“
What?”

Philip hit Emery with his elbow.

“
Oh, yeah, wow. Look at
that.” Emery wondered what was coming next.

“
You just passed the time
you needed, Leon. You defeated the bad luck of singing. You can get
down now.”

Leon looked doubtful. “You sure?”

“
Very sure,” Philip said,
nodding.

Acting as if he were stepping on very thin
ice, Leon stood on one of the kitchen chairs. Mrs. Wyatt gave a
brief scream of dismay. Then Leon jumped as far as he could toward
the entrance to the kitchen and then leaped twice to the doorway.
He gave Philip and Emery a wide smile. “Let’s go and play,
guys.”