Read Online Emmy and the Rats in the Belfry by Lynne Jonell - Free Book Online Page A

carrier, Joe led them to the kitchen table to admire it.
    â€œWe had an hour and a half, and a lot of macaroni,” said Joe proudly. “Hideous, isn’t it?”
    â€œ I dumped the glitter on,” said Ratty.
    Ratty and the boys had pasted colored-paper cutouts on the cardboard Emmy had brought. On top of this, they had arranged dry macaroni to make big, clumsy letters that spelled out THANX SQUIPPY!!! Next they had spray-painted the macaroni gold. Then, more construction paper around the edges to make a border. Then, macaroni on top of that, colored with markers. Lastly they had squiggled what looked to be a massive amount of glue over the whole thing and dumped the entire bottle of silver glitter on top.
    Emmy gazed at the monstrosity in awe. “I’ve never seen anything that comes even close.”
    Ana, who had scampered up to the tabletop on her own, grinned toothily. “Squippy will love it. She’ll probably save it for years.”
    Thomas leaned his elbows on the table and smiled up at Emmy happily. “My bird flew away,” he confided. “I told you it was only sleeping.”
    Raston coughed behind his paw, but any further remarks were interrupted by Brian’s thumping feet on the stairs.
    â€œBetter change back and grow, Ana,” the teenager said. “Your guests are here.”
    Raston pricked his ears, suddenly alert. “It’s time for the party already?”
    Emmy fished in her pocket for the two Sissy-patches and handed them over. “Careful. They’re pretty powerful.”
    â€œMaybe not,” said Brian, watching Ana peel off the backing with her paws. “Those are from the batch we made yesterday, remember? The professor tweaked the formula so they wouldn’t be so strong.”
    Ana slapped the patch on one short arm, and her squat, fuzzy shape slowly shifted, thinned, and transformed into a tiny figure wearing a red jumper. She looked at them in surprise. “I hardly felt a thing!” She put on the next patch, and grew in slow motion, like a balloon being inflated with gentle puffs of air.
    â€œYou’re lucky you’re not using patches from the old batch, then,” said Emmy. “When I grew with one, it was like being kicked by a horse. Ow, Ratty! Pull your claws in when you run up my arm, will you?”
    â€œBut Sissy’s not here!” Raston’s worried face peered at her from her shoulder.
    â€œWhere did she go?” asked Brian.
    â€œOne of the postal bats said that she had a special delivery waiting, so she went to get the mail.” The Rat scrubbed at his muzzle with nervous paws. “She should have been back by now.”
    â€œShe probably just stopped at Rodent City,” said Joe. “Come on, we have to go downstairs.”
    â€œBut she’d want to show me the letter! She can’t read, remember?”
    Thomas, perched on a high kitchen chair, swung his legs. “Maybe my bird is out looking for her and will come back and tell us where she is!”
    Raston put his head in his hands. “Listen, feather-brain, your bird is—”
    â€œAt a bird party, probably!” said Emmy brightly. “But we have to go to our own party now, so just wait for her, Ratty, okay?”
    â€œShe’d better hurry,” muttered the Rat, “or all the biscotti will be gone.”
    Â 
    The space between the floors of the Antique Rat was dim. Row upon row of wooden joists supported the apartment above, while squares of ceiling tile rested on a metal grid suspended by wires. Here and there, thin shafts of light pierced upward like bright skewers through gaps in the fiberboard tile.
    Two rats lay side by side on a square, their eyes pressed to one of the small, crumbling holes. From the room below came a muffled babble of conversation and the clink of cups and plates.
    â€œWe need some more holes, Cheswick,” said the piebald rat.
    The black rat sighed. He had already