Read Online Addison Addley and the Trick of the Eye by Melody McMillian - Free Book Online

started thinking about those notes. Eight cents means eight cents to us. But to the French, cent means hundred. That dummy was worth eight hundred dollars. Trent must have been writing the notes to his friends in French so that nobody would figure out what he was planning.”
    I shook my head. That dummy probably had more brains than Trent did. “That note must have fallen out of Trent’s pocket the next week when he tried to sneak into Becky’s garage,” I explained. “He met his friends there, but the dummy was still in Becky’s closet, and the garage was locked. They tried to pry to the lock open but it wouldn’t work. Then Trent wrote down the date of the magic fair and gave it to his friends. He knew the dummy would be there for sure. He was planning on sneaking it out to them.”
    I threw my dishes in the sink. “But Becky’s dog got that note and ripped it apart. Becky found the first part about eight cents. We found the second part about Sam 11 . Becky’s mom found the third part about coin and pin , right before the dog tried to bury it.”
    Sam cut in. “But what do coin and pin have to do with it?”
    Sam almost had it. I tried to be patient, but I knew the creek was waiting. I picked up my fishing pole and headed out the door. Sam followed.
    â€œThink about it, Sam,” I urged as we walked to the creek. I pointed to the street sign as we rounded the corner.
    Suddenly Sam knew. “ Pin ! That’s Pine in French. Our school is on the corner of Pine Street. Coin is corner! Those were the directions to the magic fair!”
    Sam slapped me on the back. “What a way to figure it out! What a way to solve it! What a way to think!” he gushed as we arrived at the creek.
    Yeah, I guess it was a good way to think. Too much thinking for my liking though. Now it was time to fish. Like I said before, fishing and thinking don’t go together. I was sure I could fit in a little gloating though. Gloating doesn’t take up a whole lot of energy. Just as long as I kept the gloating to myself.

Chapter Thirteen
    The next day after school, I found Mom out in the front yard. She hadn’t said much about the open house the day before. I figured she didn’t want to look too excited about it for my sake. She probably felt sorry for me.
    Mom was just finishing throwing the stones from the fallen statue into the old wheelbarrow. I guess she wanted me to take them back to the creek.
    â€œI’ll take those back after supper,” I said as I helped her push the old wheelbarrow to the shed.
    â€œBack would be good,” she said as she wiped her hands on her jeans. “The backyard, that is. I think these stones would make a great rock garden.”
    Why Mom would want to make a rock garden out of these old stones was a mystery to me. She wouldn’t be able to see it from the new townhouse.
    â€œHere,” she said as she tossed me a package.
    I thought it might be gum by the shape of it. I opened it up. It was a bunch of flower seeds. Why would I want some dumb flower seeds? I scratched my head and then my nose. I was beginning to feel like Sam.
    â€œNo use letting all of those perfectly good holes in the backyard go to waste,” she said. “Now these seeds have someplace to go.”
    We headed toward the house. “One more thing,” she added as we went inside. “You didn’t get to do your invisible-ink trick at the magic fair. Here’s your note. I found it upstairs.”
    It was nice of Mom to think about me. She probably thought I had put a lot of work into it when really it had only taken about thirty seconds. Well, maybe forty if you count the time I had to spend cleaning up the lemon juice after I’d accidentally spilled it in the sugar bowl. I’d been mixing up a bit of lemonade while I was writing the note. No sense wasting perfectly good lemon juice on paper alone.
    Mom handed me the note and