Read Philip and the Sneaky Trashmen (9781619502185) Online

Authors: John Paulits

Tags: #adventure, #mystery, #children, #humor, #short story, #series, #boys, #gypsy shadow, #brotherhood, #john paulits, #trash, #philip, #emery

Philip and the Sneaky Trashmen (9781619502185) (3 page)

BOOK: Philip and the Sneaky Trashmen (9781619502185)
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The old man looked surprised and
laughed. “You can try. Gordon,” he called. “Come here,
Gordon.”

A short
ruff
came from inside the house, and
a moment later a brown and black dachshund slithered through a
square, hinged panel in the front door of the house. The boys
stared at the dog, who stood out of range of the door as it swung
back into position.

They heard the man laugh and looked his
way. “Go ahead and talk to him. Ask him anything you want. Come
here, Gordon.” The man patted his lap and the long, low dog padded
over and stood up so his front paws were on the man’s leg. The man
lifted Gordon into his lap, and the dog waddled in a clumsy circle
and settled down to face the boys.

Emery spoke first.

That’s
Gordon?”


Sure. Your friend Leon
likes to visit him.”


My friend Leon is a
nut,”
Philip cried. He
grabbed Emery’s arm and pulled him down the walkway and across the
street. They marched up to Leon.


Your friend Gordon is a
dog?” asked Philip. “You sent me and Emery across the street to
talk to a dog?”


I didn’t send you. You
went.”


You told us you had a
friend named Gordon,” said Emery. “How could you give a bag of
Philip’s junk to a dog?”


It’s not junk,” snapped
Philip. “Not all of it.”


I didn’t say I gave it to
a dog.”


You said you gave it to
Gordon!” Philip shouted.


No, I didn’t.”

Philip tried to remember exactly what
Leon had said.


What
did
you say then?” asked
Emery.


I said I had a new friend
Gordon, and I do. He’s better than a people friend. He doesn’t
tease me or yell at me.”


We don’t tease you or . .
.” Philip stopped because he heard himself screaming as he spoke.
“Well, we don’t tease you, anyway.”


Where’s Philip’s white bag
of stuff?” asked Emery.

Leon pointed across the
street.


You gave it to Gordon?”
Philip cried. “You just said you
didn’t
give it to
Gordon.”


I didn’t say I gave it to
Gordon. What would a dog do with it? And
you
call
me
dumb. I said I took the bag to
Gordon’s. I
gave
the bag to Mr. Sorino. The man you talked to.”


What did you give it to
him for?” asked Philip.


Go tell him you want the
white bag back,” Emery ordered.


Sure,” said Leon. “Why
didn’t you ask me to do that before?”

Philip threw his arms up and started
across the street again.

As the three boys walked, Emery asked,
“What’s he want a bag of junk for?”


Stop calling it
junk!”

Leon explained. “He told me he finds
good stuff and gets money.”


Just go ask him for the
white bag,” said Philip, in no mood for explanations. He stopped at
the beginning of the walkway and waved Leon ahead.


Hi, Leon,” said Mr.
Sorino, giving a quick wave of his hand. Gordon still sat on his
lap. “Your friends wanted to talk to Gordon.” He laughed, and Leon
laughed along with him.


Did they go
woof woof woof?”
Leon
asked between laughs.


I’ll woof you, Leon,”
Philip said under his breath. “Get the bag.”


The bag I gave you came
from this boy.” Leon pointed at Philip, who gave Mr. Sorino an
embarrassed smile. “I don’t know why he wants it back. It’s all
junk.”

Philip glared at Leon a moment before
saying, “There’s something in it. My mother lost something, and
it’s probably in the bag.”

Philip’s heart took a happy jump when
Mr. Sorino said, “Well, we don’t want your mother to lose anything.
Let’s go look.”

The boys followed Mr. Sorino and Gordon
around back and through a small door into a building that had once
been a garage but no longer had the big, roll-up door that let the
car go in and out. The two boys stopped and stared. All kinds of
stuff, old and new, broken and not broken, lay on the floor and
atop a handful of tables.


Leon was nice enough to
make a contribution to all of this. I was about to open your bag
when I got hungry,” Mr. Sorino explained. “I just finished a
sandwich when you boys showed up. You can take the whole bag with
you if you want.”


I gotta find a green pin
in it in a hurry,” said Philip.


Yeah, otherwise we won’t
eat,” said Emery.


Won’t eat?” Mr. Sorino
looked puzzled, but merely said, “Let’s look then.”

Mr. Sorino lifted the bag onto the one
empty table in the room. He gently tore open a hole in the side of
the bag and began to dig out Philip’s stuff.


It’s green,” Philip said,
his heart beating harder. “Jewelry.”


Ooop!”
Mr. Sorino exclaimed, his eyes wide. He dug inside and came
out with a green pin that sparkled in the light shining through a
side window. “This must be it. How’d it get in there?”


Yeah, Leon,” said Emery.
“How’d it get in there?”

Leon moved his eyes around the room
without looking at his two friends and didn’t answer.


Well?” asked
Philip.

Leon shrugged. “I guess it got scooped
in. There was a lot of junk, you know.”


Here,” said Mr. Sorino.
“If you want to look through your stuff and take what you want, do
it.”

Philip grabbed the pin and said, “I
gotta get this home. Can I come back tomorrow morning and look
through my stuff?”


Sure. It’ll be right
here.”


Thanks a lot,
mister.”


Are you going, too, Leon?”
asked Mr. Sorino.

Leon looked into the angry eyes of
Philip and Emery. “No, I’ll play with Gordon a while.”

Philip and Emery left the garage and
hurried back to Philip’s house.

Chapter
Five

 


I can’t find it. It’s gone
forever. My sister won’t talk to me. My mother will hate me. I’ve
looked everywhere!”

Philip and Emery exchanged glances.
Philip’s mother walked around the living room waving her arms. Her
husband tried to calm her.


It will turn up, honey.
Don’t worry.”


It
won’t
turn up. I’ve looked up and
down, over and under, and behind.
Everywhere,
I told you!”


Don’t shout. Let’s start
all over. We’ll search again. Systematically. Let’s do it together.
We’ll start in the kitchen.”


I
looked
in the kitchen. I looked
a
hundred times
in the kitchen.”

Philip’s father put his arm around his
wife and led her gently out of the living room.

 


How you gonna do it?”
Emery whispered. “You can’t just walk up to her and say here it is.
She’ll know you lost it in the first place.”


I know. I
know.”


You can blame Leon.
Everybody knows he always messes up. It was his fault
anyway.”

Philip shook his head. “I can’t. Then
I’ll have to tell my mother he cleaned the room and not
me.”

Emery watched as Philip went to the
sofa and sat as close to the left arm as he could. He peeked to be
certain his parents were nowhere in sight, and then he slid the
piece of jewelry down the side of the cushion.

He looked at Emery, took a
deep breath, and screamed “
Ow!”
as loud as he could. He waited a moment and then
screamed again.

Philip’s father rushed into the
room.


What was that?”


Something stuck me.”
Philip reached down the side of the cushion and pulled up the
emerald pin. “Is this what Mom’s looking for?”

Mr. Felton’s eyes bulged. He turned and
hurried out of the room. Two seconds later, he pulled his wife
along and pointed at Philip, who sat on the sofa, his heart beating
wildly, holding up the pin.

Mrs. Felton stopped
abruptly. “
Arggghh!
The pin! Mom’s pin. I don’t believe it. Where did you find
it, Philip?”


Down here.” Philip slid
his hand down alongside the cushion.


Down there? I took the
cushions off the sofa and couldn’t find anything.”

Philip shrugged helplessly.


Maybe it was stuck to the
cushion,” Emery offered.

Philip’s mother walked briskly to
Philip and took the pin. She pulled him to his feet and hugged him.
“You don’t know what a relief this is, Philip.”


Now, can we eat?” said Mr.
Felton. “How about I get a pizza? I’ll call. You two can eat pizza,
I imagine?”


Sure,” said Philip, and
Emery nodded his agreement.

Mr. Felton put his arms around his
wife’s shoulders. “Go put that someplace safe, honey. Right
away.”


Don’t worry. I will. I’m
taking it upstairs right now.”

Mr. Felton watched his wife go up the
steps before turning his eyes on Philip and Emery. “You two
wouldn’t know how that mess appeared in the garage, would
you?”


Mess?” said Philip, not
understanding for a moment.


Yes, mess. Two ripped open
trash bags with the junk inside, all over the floor.”


Oh. No, I don’t
know.”

Philip’s father turned to
Emery.


Beats me,” said Emery.
“Maybe cats got in.”


I don’t think cats did it.
The door was closed.”

The two boys stood silent.


Well, all’s well that ends
well, I guess.”

Philip changed the subject. “Can we get
pepperoni on the pizza?”

Philip’s father glanced at
Emery.


I like pepperoni, too, Mr.
Felton.”


Good. Then we’ll get half
pepperoni and half mushroom. Your mother likes mushrooms. I’ll go
pick it up. It’ll be quicker. Tell your mother that’s where I am
when she comes downstairs.”

Philip’s father called the order in,
and when the boys heard the car drive away, Emery said, “I think
your father’s suspicious.”

Philip slumped back onto the sofa, glad
the missing jewelry episode had come to an end.


What do you think Leon
meant?” Emery continued.


Meant about
what?”


He said something about
Mr. Sorino getting money for your junk.”


Did he say that? I wasn’t
listening. I only wanted that stupid pin-thing back.”


It’s a little after six.
After we eat let’s find Leon again and ask him what he
meant.”


Okay with me. I don’t care
what we do now. And tomorrow morning we’ll go rescue any other good
stuff Leon threw away.”

 

~ * ~

When Philip and Emery approached Leon’s
house after their pizza dinner, they saw him coming toward them
pulling a red metal wagon.


Hi, guys. Like my new
wagon?”


Where’d you get it?” asked
Emery.


Mr. Sorino found it and
gave it to me. It’s in pretty good shape. He said I could use it to
put stuff in that I find and bring it to him. And . . .” Leon dug
into his pocket and pulled out a dollar bill. “He gave me this,
too.”


What’d you do?” asked
Philip. “Walk his dog?”


No. I brought him your
stuff. I told you. He fixes broken things and sells them to the
store in the little mall. He told me to keep my eye out for
things.”


What kind of things?”
asked Philip.


Stuff. Junk. If I see
people throw out anything good, and it won’t fit in my wagon, I
should tell him.”


What store in the mall
sells broken junk?” asked Emery.


You know. The store where
you give them old stuff you don’t want, and they sell it. And they
sell the broken junk, too, after Mr. Sorino fixes it.”


Pete’s Repeat Shop?” asked
Emery.


Yeah, yeah. That’s
it.”


And you got a dollar for
what?” asked Philip.


For giving Mr. Sorino your
stuff.”


What!”


He’ll fix the broken stuff
and sell it to Pete, and Pete will sell it to other people. You can
go there and buy back your stuff if you want, after he fixes
it.”


I wouldn’t have to buy
anything back if you didn’t give it away,” Philip argued, his eye
on Leon’s dollar bill.

BOOK: Philip and the Sneaky Trashmen (9781619502185)
2.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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