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Authors: John Paulits

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Philip and the Case of Mistaken Identity and Philip and the Baby (9781597051095)

BOOK: Philip and the Case of Mistaken Identity and Philip and the Baby (9781597051095)
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Philip And The Case Of Mistaken Identity

We’ll investigate that.”

“Right. Monday morning then?”

“Yeah. We’ll get into our disguises and track
her down. What time?”

“I’ll come to your house at nine.”

“My mother says not until ten.”

“All right then. Ten. See you Monday.”

“See you.”

Philip hung up.
Janie? Joanie? A girl and
a grandmother who could fly?
And the girl thought Emery was him
and he was Emery. Philip ran upstairs. He couldn’t
wait
for
Monday.

 

 

Philip And The Baby

Philip ran and got a hug.

“We have a surprise for you.”

“Can I see it, Daddy?”

His father laughed. “You’ll have to wait
until September to see it, Flipper.”

Hmmm
, thought Philip. It sounded like
a riddle. This was May. September was when school started again.
That was a long way off.

“You tell him,” his mother said to his
father.

“Flip Flip. Good news. In early September we
are going to get another member in our family.”

Philip thought a moment, then asked slowly.
“Are you getting me a dog?”

His parents laughed. Philip didn’t laugh. He
was beginning to get the picture.

“It will be even better than a dog,” his
father said. “Mommy is going to have a baby. You’re going to have a
baby brother or sister. Isn’t that great?”

Philip screamed, turned, and ran upstairs to
his room.

 

 

Other Works From The Pen Of
John Paulits

Philip Gets Even

By accident Philip Felton and Emery Wyatt
destroy the art exhibit of the toughest boy in sixth grade and he
promises to get even. How can Philip and Emery get out from under
this threat and set things right?

 

 

 

Wings

 

 

Philip And The Case Of
Mistaken Identity
And
Philip And The Baby

 

 

by

 

 

John Paulits

 

 

A Wings ePress, Inc.

 

Young Adult Novel

 

Wings ePress, Inc.

 

 

Edited by: Robbin Major

Copy Edited by: Leslie Hodges

Senior Editor: Robbin Major

Executive Editor: Lorraine Stephens

Cover Artist: Vin Tartamella

 

 

All rights reserved

 

Names, characters and incidents depicted in
this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

 

No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.

 

 

Wings ePress Books

http://www.wings-press.com

 

Copyright © 2007 by John Paulits

ISBN 978-1-59705-109-5

 

Published by Wings ePress, Inc. at Smashwords

 

Published In the United States Of America

 

July 2007

 

Wings ePress Inc.

403 Wallace Court

Richmond, KY 40475

 

Dedication

For Becky, Bud and Lou

 

 

 

 

 

 

One

“Wait, wait, wait a minute,” said Emery.
Philip Felton stopped and waited. They had just stepped out of the
schoolyard on their way home. Emery slung his school bag off his
shoulder and put it on the ground. He squatted and opened it
up.

“Hurry up, Emery,” said Philip. The last day
of school before the spring break was over. “We have nine whole
days to play. No homework. No worrying about fourth grade tests.
What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for my library books. You have
to take them back for me.”

“Me? Why me? Why don’t you take them
back?”

“I have to go with my mother after school.
You said you might go to the library, right?”

Philip felt a touch of gloom. Now who was he
going to play with?

“When’ll you be home?”

“I don’t know.” Emery’s voice sounded
impatient. “I don’t want to go. She said, though. With my two
sisters, too.”

Emery had two baby sisters born about a year
apart. He considered himself the unluckiest boy in the world.

“Here they are.” He pulled two books from his
bag, closed it up, stood, and handed the books to Philip.

Philip looked at them.
Stowaway to the
Mushroom Planet
and
The Golden Mushroom.

“What do you have—mushrooms on the brain?”
Philip asked.

“No, no. They were good. You should read
them. One’s in outer space. The other’s a secret land inside the
earth.”

Philip nodded half-heartedly. “What do you
want to do tomorrow?” he asked.

“Something good. Let’s not waste this
vacation. You think tonight and I’ll think tonight. Tomorrow we’ll
make a good plan.”

Philip nodded.

They chatted about previous vacations for the
ten minutes it took to reach their street. They said good-bye in
front of Emery’s house and Philip kept on to his own, five houses
down on the opposite side of the street. He opened the front door
and tossed his book bag inside. “I’m going to the library,
Mom.”

“Philip?”

Philip made a face. Who was she expecting?
“Yeah, me, Mom.”

“All right.” His mother appeared from the
kitchen, brushing her hands off. She smiled. “Spaghetti and
pepperoni tonight to celebrate no school.”

“And garlic bread?”

“And garlic bread.”

Philip smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. “I
won’t be late.” With Emery’s books cradled in his left arm, he
pulled the front door closed behind him.

The library was three blocks away. There was
a traffic light on each corner so his mother didn’t fuss too much
about being safe when he said he was going there.

It was mid-April and the weather had started
turning nice—not really warm, but at least not cold. The past
winter had been freezing. He and Emery had spent more time than
ever indoors. That was one reason they were so looking forward to
this week’s vacation. Philip had even been tuning to the Weather
Channel on his TV, and he knew that the weather was supposed to be
nice all week.

The library was a small, square, two-story
building at the corner of the block. Downstairs was the adult room.
The children’s room was on the second floor. Philip went inside and
pushed apart the swinging doors that led to the stairway. The
children’s room had the librarian’s station, a square of two long
desks and two bookcases, in the middle of the floor. Books lined
all four walls except where there were two big windows on one side.
There were some tables and chairs and more bookcases that made
aisles on the floor. There were also two bathrooms, a water
fountain, and lots of small windows high above the top of the
bookcases, as well as a skylight above the librarian’s station.

Philip got behind the only person returning a
book, a girl about his size. She looked over her shoulder and
smiled at him. The girl had long, blonde hair and blue eyes.

Philip’s forehead wrinkled. Why was she
smiling at him? He didn’t like it when girls his own age smiled at
him. He ignored her and stared over the library desk at the
librarian.

The girl was having some sort of
problem—Philip thought he heard one of the librarians mention a
lost library card—so the girl stepped aside while the first
librarian, an older woman, did something on the computer and a
second librarian, a shorter, younger woman with a nice smile, came
to take care of him.

He handed her Emery’s library books. She
opened one and scanned it into her computer. Then she scanned the
other one.

She looked at Philip and smiled. “Well,
Emery, you’re two days late. Do you have twenty cents for us?”

“Late?” Philip burst out. Emery never
mentioned that. “But...”

“You search your pockets and I’ll fill out
your contest entry,” the librarian said, smiling. She walked across
to the other side of the square workstation and took a piece of
paper from a short pile.

“But, I’m not...”

The librarian was bent over writing and
didn’t look like she was listening to him. When Philip tried to get
her attention, the girl waiting for her new library card looked at
him and smiled again. Philip didn’t want to put up with that, so he
dug into his pocket and found two dimes—his
only
two
dimes—and held them in his fist.

The librarian returned. “Just put this into
the box,” she smiled and pointed.

Philip handed over his two dimes, and made a
mental note to yell at Emery for sticking him with his late bill.
He also promised himself to tell Emery that they weren’t going to
play
anything
over the vacation until he got his twenty
cents back. Philip stuffed the piece of paper the librarian had
given him into a square cardboard box she’d pointed at and headed
for the door.

He took one last look over his shoulder at
that girl and immediately hated himself for doing it. The girl was
still looking his way, and when she saw him look back, she smiled
at him again.

Philip snapped his head around, pushed the
swinging doors apart harder than necessary, and ran down the
stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two

Philip woke up early Saturday morning. The
first thing he thought of was that Emery owed him twenty cents. He
scurried into his clothes and went downstairs. His parents were
still sleeping, so he got himself a bowl of cereal and went into
the living room.

If his mother were awake, she’d chase him
back to the kitchen to eat, but he’d be careful, he told himself.
Besides, he’d be finished before she woke up and came
downstairs.

He turned on the TV, found the Cartoon
Channel, sat on the sofa, put his bowl of cereal on the coffee
table, and began to eat.

It was only eight-fifteen, and he knew he
wasn’t allowed out of the house until nine-thirty. So after he
finished his cereal, he put the bowl into the kitchen sink and
watched cartoons. As soon as the cartoon that was showing at
nine-thirty finished, he was out the door. He’d checked out the
Weather Channel during a commercial, and they promised him a nice
day. He crossed the street and hurried to Emery’s house.

Philip noticed that the Wyatt family car was
not in the driveway. He knocked on the front door and waited. Then
he knocked again, but no one answered.
Probably out spending my
twenty cents
, Philip grumbled. He turned around and went
home.

Philip sat on the sofa and turned on the
Cartoon Channel again. Half an hour later his father came
downstairs.

“Good morning, Flipper. How come you’re still
here? I thought you and Emery would be celebrating your week
off.”

“He’s not home. I just went there.”

“His car drove by two minutes ago. I think
he’s home... now.”

Philip clicked off the television and was on
his way to the front door before his father finished his
sentence.

This time Philip could see the car in Emery’s
driveway. He knocked and Emery opened the front door.

“You owe me twenty cents,” Philip said,
walking past Emery.

“What?”

“You owe me twenty cents. Those books you
gave me yesterday were overdue at the library. I had to pay twenty
cents.”

“Oh,” said Emery.

The phone rang and the boys heard Emery’s
mother pick it up.

“I didn’t look when they were due.”

“Twenty cents,” said Philip, putting his hand
out.

“All right. All right.”

Emery’s mother called, “It’s for you, Emery.
The library.”

Philip and Emery looked at one another.

“You sure you paid the money?” said Emery
suspiciously.

“Yes, I’m sure I paid the money. Twenty
cents. Two dimes.”

Emery went into the kitchen where his mother
had answered the phone. Philip followed him. Emery took the phone
from his mother.

“Yes, this is Emery Wyatt.”

As Philip watched, Emery’s eyes stretched
into big circles.

“I did? Now? I’ll be right there.” He hung up
the phone.

“What was that about?” Emery’s mother asked.
Just then a baby began to cry. Emery’s mother grabbed the two baby
bottles full of milk she had just fixed and called, “I’m coming.
I’m coming.”

“They don’t talk yet, Mom,” said Emery,
knowingly.

His mother gave him an impatient look. “What
did the library want?”

BOOK: Philip and the Case of Mistaken Identity and Philip and the Baby (9781597051095)
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