Philip and the Superstition Kid (9781452430423) (9 page)

Mr. Wyatt helped her off with the
jacket.

“
But Mom,” Emery whined,
“she’s not much older than me.”

“
It’s nice out,” Mr. Wyatt
said, trying to smile. “You don’t need a jacket.”

“
She’s thirteen. That’s
old enough. Don’t put it back in the closet. You’ll get jelly on
everything. Here, give me.”

Emery and Philip’s mouths dropped open.

“
She’s how old,
Mom?”

“
Thirteen. Thirteen. Now
go have your pizza and behave. And make sure Leon behaves. And
nobody goes out tonight. I gave Amanda explicit orders. Upstairs
and stay there. Let’s have a peaceful night. Please!”

Mr. Wyatt guided his wife to the front door,
and as they passed out of the house, Philip heard Mr. Wyatt saying,
“Yes, honey, I know you love your family. Of course you do.”

The door closed and he and Emery looked at
each other.

“
She’s thirteen,” Emery
said.

“
I heard. I heard. And
Leon—did you watch?—he went up the stairs one-by-one.”

“
You mean . . .
?”

“
Yeah, thirteen steps. He
didn’t think. When he remembers he did
that
. . .” Philip rolled his eyes
and shook his head.

“
This isn’t going to be a
good night,” Emery muttered, looking at the floor.

From the kitchen Amanda shouted, “Get in
here you two and have your pizza.”

Philip and Emery sighed, glanced at the
staircase up which Leon had disappeared, and trudged into the
kitchen, knowing the worst was yet to come.

Chapter Thirteen

Amanda stared at the two boys as they ate
their slices of pizza.

“
You two do what all night
exactly?” she asked.

Emery and Philip looked at one another.

“
Well?” Amanda
insisted.

Emery shrugged.

“
You don’t mind if I watch
the television, do you?” Amanda asked in a commanding voice.
“Oops!”

Philip and Emery watched in amazement as the
fake nose ring Amanda was wearing dropped into her glass of
soda.

“
What the . . . ?” Amanda
grabbed the glass of soda, and as Philip and Emery stared, she
walked to the sink and poured the soda over her hand. The nose ring
plopped into her palm. She rinsed it under the faucet and then,
turning her back to the boys, raised her hands to her
face.

When she turned around the nose ring was
back in place, and she barked, “Well, the TV? What are you two
looking at?”

Philip swallowed what seemed like a one
pound chunk of cheese and said, “No, you go. We’ll take Leon up
some pizza.”

“
Leon the name of the
dress freak?” Amanda asked. “Heh!”

Philip nodded.

“
He’s my cousin,” Emery
added.

Amanda gave Emery such a look of disdain he
was sorry he’d spoken.

“
Come on, Emery,” Philip
said. He took a paper plate from the table and put a slice of pizza
on it. Emery was just as eager to leave the kitchen—leave the
first
floor
—as
his friend, so they rose and hurried up the stairs.

Emery’s room was empty, the window wide open
and the screen raised.

“
Uh oh,” Emery
muttered.

Philip put the paper plate of pizza on
Emery’s desk and walked to the window. Emery followed and poked his
head out of the window next to Philip’s. Both boys looked down.

“
There’s the dress,”
Philip pointed.

Leon’s dress was crumpled in a ball next to
the trunk of a backyard tree.

“
You don’t think he went
out the window, do you?” Emery asked.

“
Let’s check the other
rooms,” Philip advised.

Leon was nowhere on the second floor, so the
boys went back into Emery’s room.

“
He must have walked
across this little roof to the tree,” Philip said, awed by Leon’s
ability to climb.

Emery nodded. “I tried that once and almost
killed myself.”

The tiny roof beneath Emery’s window didn’t
really cover anything, but was just a decoration. It passed close
enough to the big tree in Emery’s yard, though, so that if you
weren’t afraid of walking along the little roof and didn’t fall off
of it, you could get to the tree, climb down to the bottom branch,
and drop to the ground.

“
My mother’s gonna murder
me,” Emery cried.

“
What for? You didn’t run
away,” Philip said.

“
Leon
ran away because he got laughed at for wearing a dress.
And
who
made him
wear that dress?”

“
You.”

“
Me!
Us.
We both did.”

“
We should have put him in
the closet the first day he came and kept him there.”

“
Too late now. I gotta
find him before my parents get home. Ohhh,” Emery moaned. “If he’s
not here when they get back, they’ll call the police and ask us
questions. I
never
knew
any
body that was such bad luck. Tripping, falling, getting in
trouble, getting
me
in trouble. And his stupid triskadiskaphobium. That he
gave
us
! This is
more proof we got it.”

Emery walked to his desk and opened the top
drawer. He took out two rabbits’ feet and tossed one of them to
Philip.

“
Put this in your pocket.
It’s all I got to help us.”

Philip put the rabbit’s foot into his
pocket.

“
I guess we gotta go out
the window, otherwise that vampire girl downstairs will stop us,”
said Emery.

“
If Leon can do it, I
suppose we can too,” Philip said glumly.

“
Leon. Oh, that Leon. Why
do I have to be related to him? Where we gonna look for him?” Emery
wondered.

Philip thought a moment. “Our bush hideout?”
he said.

“
I hope he didn’t go sneak
back into his own house.”

Then the two boys stared at the open
window.

“
Well?” said Philip.
“He’s
your
cousin.”

Emery growled to himself and started out the
window.

Philip watched him walk along the tiny roof
with his arms stretched out like a tightrope walker. Emery made one
little bobble and Philip’s heart jumped, but he made it to the tree
and sat on a long branch to get his breath.

“
Now you,” Emery
called.

Philip stepped out onto the roof, feeling
like he was stepping onto the wing of an airplane hurtling across
the sky. He took careful step after careful step and finally slid
next to Emery on the big branch, sighing with relief.

The boys looked at each
other with only one thought in mind—
Stupid
Leon
.

“
He better be in those
bushes,” Emery muttered as he slid across the branch to the trunk
of the tree where he could get close to the ground using other
branches like a ladder.

When Philip dropped to the ground next to
Emery, he smiled. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“
Never mind that,” said
Emery grimly. “Let’s go and find Leon.”

The boys hurried down the street. The sun
was still shining, and they waited carefully until they were sure
no one would see them enter the bushes.

Emery led the way. “Leon, you in there?
Leon. It’s me and Philip.”

Leon was there, sitting glumly, his knees
drawn up and his head resting on them.

“
Leon,” Emery barked.
“What are you doing here? Now you’ve got us all in trouble. We’re
supposed to be in the house. If that vampire girl finds out we’re
missing, she’s gonna call my mother.”

Leon lifted his head sadly. “You heard,
too?” he asked.

“
Heard what?” Philip
asked.

“
About that girl. She’s
scary. I heard your mother say how old she is,” Leon explained in a
gloomy voice. “She’s
thirteen.
Oh, something bad’s gonna happen because of
her.”

Emery exploded. “Leon, you dope, you’re
making it happen. We gotta get back inside the house. Your
trippydippyphobium’s gonna get us all smooshed.”

Leon turned to Emery and
said sadly, “It’s
not
trippydippyphobium. And we’ve
all
got it now.”

Philip and Emery exchanged uncomfortable
looks.

Philip said,
“That
’s
why we
gotta get back in the house, Leon. It’s the only way we’ll get
protection.” Suddenly, Philip’s face went blank.

Emery stared at his friend and cried, “What,
Philip? What?”

“
Emery, we could hang and
jump down from the tree but we can’t jump up. It’s too high. How
are we going to get back inside the house?”

Slowly, the two boys turned and looked at
Leon.

“
Triskaidekaphobia,” he
whispered and lowered his head onto his knees.

Chapter Fourteen

“
She’s watching TV still,”
Philip whispered as he peered through the screened window into the
living room. Emery and Leon sat below the windowsill, leaning back
against the house. Philip lowered himself and sat with the other
boys.

“
Leon, if vampire girl
calls my mother and I get punished for this . . . it’s summer, you
know. I don’t want to be grounded for a week of summer
vacation.”

“
I know. I know,” Leon
nodded. “Nothing good ever happens to me. I’m always in trouble
anyway; let me get in more trouble. I don’t care.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Philip asked.

“
You guys go to the back
door . . . ” Leon began.

“
Yeah! The back door. How
stupid. Let’s sneak in the back door,” Emery cried.

The boys scuttled around to the kitchen door
and turned the knob. Locked!

“
I knew it would be,” said
Leon. “Triskai . . . ”

“
Never mind trissytrissy,”
said Philip. “You were saying something.”

“
Yeah, what, Leon?” Emery
demanded.

“
It’s not trissytrissy,”
Leon mumbled resentfully. “Stay here. I’ll go get in trouble. I
don’t care.”

Emery rolled his eyes. “You said that
already, Leon. What?”

“
I’ll knock on the front
door and go in. I’ll say I’m going upstairs to be with you guys.
But I’ll really come into the kitchen and open the back
door.”

“
Yeah! Good. That’s good,
Leon,” Emery agreed. “You have the worst triskaphebium anyway.
What’s a little more bad luck to you?”

“
True, true,” Leon moaned.
He slowly rose, and walked around to the front of the
house.

Philip and Emery listened through the
screened window on the kitchen door. They heard the doorbell ring.
They heard vampire girl babbling something angrily at Leon, but
couldn’t make out the words. A few moments later Leon slid out of
the kitchen door and closed it behind him.

“
She hates me,” Leon
moaned.

“
Doesn’t matter,” Emery
said, smiling. “You did the job. Come on, Philip.”

Emery reached for the doorknob. It wouldn’t
move.

“
Leon! What did you do?
Did you unlock the door?” Emery cried.

Leon shrugged. “It opened for me.”

“
Leon,” Philip burst out
angrily, “you gotta do something with that little button. Lots of
doors open from the inside and not from the outside. Oh, Leon, you
boob. We’re right back where we started.”

Leon gave Philip a hurt look.

“
Go do it again,” ordered
Emery. “Go, ring the bell again, and this time do it
right.”

Leon rose and slumped off muttering, “I’m
not a boob. . .”

Philip and Emery waited. They heard the
doorbell. This time they could hear what vampire girl was saying
because she was shouting.

“
Didn’t I just tell you to
get upstairs and stay in this house? Get up there. How’d you get
out there again? You got wings or something? You like being outside
so much, you want me to put a dress on you again and make you stand
on the lawn? Get up there. And don’t let me hear a peep from you
the rest of the night.”

“
I think he went
upstairs,” Philip whispered.

“
That’s okay. Vampire girl
must have been watching him,” Emery whispered back.

Philip and Emery leaned against the house
and waited.

Five minutes passed and then they heard the
rapid clip clop of Leon coming across the kitchen floor. The
kitchen door flew open and bounced back, slamming shut.

“
Okay, I’m back,” Leon
said triumphantly. Then his face exploded in panic. “The button. I
forgot the button. Try it. Try it.”

Philip grabbed for the doorknob and turned
it. Nothing.

“
Leon,” Emery seethed.
“How could anybody be as bad luck as you? It’s impossible. You must
be from Badluck Planet or something.”

“
The thirteen steps,”
Philip reminded Emery.

Then Emery remembered about Leon charging up
the stairs with the dress waving over his head.

“
What thirteen steps?
What? What?” Leon asked.