Read Online Philip Gets Even (9781597050807) by John Paulits - Free Book Online Page B

hurts. I hurt. I
almost got hurt.”
    “Never mind that. You think he’s mad
enough?”
    “ Mad enough? Is he mad enough?
What else you want to do? Dump a can of garbage on his head?”
    “Well, we have to be sure,” Philip answered
impatiently. “Asking him whether he had a nice newspaper isn’t
going to make him mad.”
    “Well, I got nervous. But he’s mad
enough.”
    “I guess. Come on, let’s get in line.”
    ~ * ~
    When Philip called Mr. Conway at three
o’clock, there was no answer.
    “He’s asleep,” said Emery. “I know it. The
alarm clocks are ringing. People are waking up all over the
neighborhood. Dogs are barking. But he’s asleep.”
    “He probably left for school. Maybe he’s here
already.”
    “Let’s go see.”
    “No, no. We don’t want to give it away. But
we can go to his house and make sure he isn’t there.”
    “Yeah, let’s do that at least.”
    So the boys went to Mr. Conway’s house and
rang the bell and hammered on the door. No answer. They had no
choice but to go home.
    The next morning they stopped at Mr. Conway’s
house on the way to school.
    “I called him twice last night but nobody
answered,” said Philip.
    Emery just moaned.
    They rang Mr. Conway’s bell and pounded on
his door but in vain. They had no choice but to go on to
school.
    A few moments after the morning
announcements, Mr. Greif appeared at their classroom door and
summoned the two boys.
    “I have some bad news for you,” he said and
led them to the auditorium where Ms. Trinetti and a few other
teachers were standing on the stage. Everyday Things was not
on its easel. Then Philip noticed a painting lying on the floor of
the stage.
    “What happened?” Philip asked, looking at Ms.
Trinetti.
    “I don’t know. I don’t know. Somehow your
painting fell off the easel and got ripped.”
    Philip and Emery exchanged a glance.
    “Looks like mice chewed on it,” said
Emery.
    “Our school does not have mice, Emery,” said
Mr. Greif.
    “Hmm,” said Ms. Trinetti. “It does look like
mice chewed on the canvas.”
    “Our school does not have mice, Ms.
Trinetti,” said Mr Greif a bit more insistently.
    Philip heard the word “mice” pass among the
teachers who were standing on the stage.
    “People,” said Mr. Greif, “no mice. The
school does not have mice!”
    “So what happened to our painting then?”
asked Emery.
    “I don’t know,” said Mr. Greif. “But it
wasn’t mice. Accidents happen. A gust of wind. Somehow it fell off
the easel.”
    “And got chewed on by mice,” said Emery. He
knelt and felt one of the holes in the canvas.
    “ There are no mice in my school !” said
Mr. Greif in a voice so loud it made everyone as quiet as mice.
“Now, Ms. Trinetti, please take the painting up to your classroom,
and I’ll ask the maintenance people how this could have happened.
Are you certain everything was all right at three o’clock?”
    “I was here until three-thirty, Mr. Greif,”
Ms. Trinetti answered. “Everything was fine when I left.”
    “Okay, you two boys go back to class. We’ll
discuss this further when I find out what happened.”
    “You think Mr. Conway did it?” Philip
whispered as he and Emery left the auditorium.
    “I hope so,” Emery whispered back, “I hope he
wasn’t sitting in his chair snoring. Let’s call him again at
lunchtime. I brought a quarter.”
    Philip nodded and the two boys went back to
class, knowing that what Mr. Conway did that afternoon would either
save them or sink them.
     
     

 
     
     
     
Twelve
    When Ms. Louis marched the class into the
auditorium shortly before two o’clock that afternoon, the first
thing Philip and Emery did was to look everywhere for Mr. Conway.
He hadn’t answered his phone at lunch, and everything depended on
his being in school right now.
    “I don’t see him,” Emery whispered.
    Ms. Louis shushed Emery. “No talking.”
    While the other classes filed into their
seats, Philip and Emery kept looking back