Read Online Pickle Puss by Patricia Reilly Giff - Free Book Online Page B

yelled.
    She turned the corner.
    Emily made her neck fat. She jerked her head forward. “Right in the eye,” she said.
    She went back to the yard.
    Jill was floating in the water. Her bows were floating too.
    Stacy was pouring water on a pile of dirt. “Mud-mud-muddies,” she sang.
    “Don't talk to me,” Emily said. “I'm going to read.”
    She sat down on the grass. She picked up her book.
    She read the last five pages.
    Snakes were pretty good, she thought. They had to watch out for mongooses though.
    Emily looked at a picture of a mongoose.
    It was a long, skinny thing with fur.
    It looked a little like Dawn Bosco.
    Emily closed her book. “I saw Dawn,” she told Jill.
    Jill gave a tiny kick. “Dawn's going to have a hundred fish.”
    “Dawn's a pickle puss,” Emily said.
    Stacy stuck her lip out. “Mommy said don't call people pickle pusses.”
    “Get lost, Stacy,” Emily said.
    “Mommy,” Stacy screamed.
    “Besides,” Jill said. “Dawn called Emily a pickle puss too. Remember?”
    “Snaggle doodles on Dawn,” Emily said. “She's not going to beat me.”
    “Good,” said Jill.
    “Get out of the pool,” Emily told her. “Let's go to the library.”
    Jill squeezed out her braids. Water drippedoff the ends. “I'll go home and get dressed.” She climbed out of the pool.
    “I'm going to get a fish” Emily said. “I finished my snake book. And I'm going to get more books too. The skinniest minniest—”
    “Can I come?” Stacy asked. Emily frowned at her.
    “All right,” said Stacy. “Dawn's a pickle puss. Dawn's a double pickle puss.”
    “Well …” Emily said.
    Stacy slammed her pail on her dirt pile.
    “Pan-pan-pancake,” she sang. She stood up.
    “I'm ready.”
    Emily rushed up to her bedroom.
    She threw her bathing suit behind the bed.
    She put on her shorts and her blue freckle-dot shirt.
    She could hear Stacy singing, “Going to the li-li-li-berry.”
    Emily went downstairs again. She'd show Dawn Bosco.
    If anybody had a hundred fish, it wouldn't be Dawn.
    It would be Emily. Emily Arrow.

Emily crossed the street.
    Jill and Stacy walked right behind her.
    Beast was kneeling under his tree.
    Emily went closer. “What are you doing?”
    Beast turned around. He had a cat in his arms. “Look what I found.”
    The cat was black. It had one white ear. It had a white tip on its tail.
    “I saw him last week,” Emily said.
    The cat wiggled to get out of Beast's arms.
    Beast put it down. “I found him in my tree.”
    Emily reached out to pet the cat.
    The cat put its back up in the air. It took a dancing step.
    “He's a brave one,” Emily said. “That's the best kind.”
    Stacy began to sing. “Tough-tough-toughie.”
    The cat grabbed one of Emily's sneaker laces. It began to pull.
    “What's his name?” Jill asked.
    “Cat,” said Beast. “I want to keep him.” He raised his shoulders in the air. “But my mother said no.”
    “I'll take him.” Emily crossed her fingers. “If my mother says.”
    “I'm feeding him,” Beast said. “Milk and potato chips.”
    Jill tossed her braids in the air. “You can't give a cat potato chips.”

    “This cat likes them.” Beast poured some out of the bag.
    He licked his fingers. “I like them too.”
    “Let me hold him,” Emily said. She picked up the cat.
    It began to chew on her collar.
    “He should have a nice name,” Emily said.
    “A name like—”
    “Blacky,” Jill said.
    “Tippy,” said Beast.
    Emily shook her head. “Maybe—”
    “My turn,” said Stacy. “Let me hold him now.”
    “Wait,” Emily said.
    “Come on, Emily.” Stacy pulled on her arm.
    “I'd take him,” Jill said. “But I have a dog.”
    “Em-i-ly,” Stacy said. “I want the cat right now.”
    “Don't squish him,” Beast said.
    “I won't,” Stacy said. “What do you think— I'm a baby?”
    Emily tickled the cat's chin.
    She gave it to Stacy. “Just for a minute.”
    The cat licked Stacy's cheek. Then it pulled on her