Read Online Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar - Free Book Online Page A

porpoises and dolphins, sea lions and seals, all playing together. She pressed her face up against the glass, squashing her nose. It would have looked funny to the dolphins, had they noticed, which they didn’t. None of the fish ever noticed her.
    The scissors-tail fish cleanly cut their way through the water. The sea horses galloped around the bend. The turkey fish gobbled up their fish food. And beneath the silvery moonfish, the convict fish silently escaped to the other end of the tank.
    She was on the outside here too, just like at school. Even in the circular room, with all the fishswimming around her, she was on the outside. She was in the middle, but on the outside.
    At school, Gary stood under a tree, near where he and Angeline first met.
    It used to be, before Angeline, Gary didn’t have any friends but he got along fine, telling jokes. Nobody laughed, but so what? The world spun around and he spun around too. But now he missed Angeline. Without her, his jokes, oddly enough, didn’t seem funny anymore.
    He kicked the tree. He had told it a joke and it didn’t laugh. “What did the acorn say when it grew up? Geometry. Gee, I’m a tree.” It was even a tree joke.
    “It’s not the tree’s fault,” said Miss Turbone.
    Gary shrugged.
    “I’m sure Angeline will be back soon,” said Miss Turbone. “Did you go see her, like I suggested?”
    “She’s never coming back,” said Gary.
    “Oh?”
    He sighed, then told Mr. Bone all about it. He hoped Angeline wouldn’t be mad at him, but he told her everything, all about the note from Mrs.Hardlick, and how she’d been going to the aquarium every day. “And since she destroyed the note,” he concluded, “she can’t ever come back.” He looked sadly at Mr. Bone.
    Miss Turbone didn’t say a word. She just winked at him.
    The garbage truck pulled into the garbage truck garage. Abel brushed the top of his head and checked in the rearview mirror one last time for banana peels. “Mr. Bone, socks, smalayoo—I tell you, Gus, it just keeps getting stranger. I’m almost afraid to go home.”
    “What’s smalayoo?” asked Gus.
    “I haven’t a clue,” said Abel.
    They walked to their cars. “Oh, sorry,” said Gus, as he purposely stepped on Abel’s foot while he secretly placed a banana peel on top of his head.
    Angeline made herself a glass of salt water and brought it into the living room. The one-eyed pirate brought his prisoners to a secret cove, where he tried to think of the best way to kill them. He and his crew laughed and sang ribaldsongs as they drank rum and brandy. The sailor didn’t let on that he had managed to untie the rope around his hands.
    Abel came home. “Don’t hug me until I take a shower,” he said.
    Angeline laughed when she saw him. “Make sure you wash the banana peel out of your hair,” she said.
    Abel was amazed—more amazed than when she played the piano or beat a computer at chess. She knew about the banana peels! How did she? How could she? It made him feel extraordinarily close to her. He hadn’t felt that way for a long time.
    But then he felt the top of his head. There really was one! He threw it away, in the trash in the kitchen, underneath the sink. The phone rang. Angeline watched as he answered it. “Hello,” he said.
    “Hello, Mr. Persopolis?” It was a woman’s voice.
    “Yes.”
    “I’m Miss Turbone. I’m a teacher at Angeline’s school.”
    He dropped the phone and stared at Angeline.“She says she’s Mr. Bone,” he whispered. It was as if everything imaginary were suddenly turning real—first the banana peel, now Mr. Bone. He retrieved the phone.
    “Uh-oh,” mouthed Angeline.
    “Hello, are you there? Hello?” said Miss Turbone.
    “Hello,” said Abel. “Sorry, we were temporarily cut off. So, what can I do for you…” He paused. “…Mr. Bone?”
    “I would like to talk to you about Angeline,” she said.
    Abel looked around the room in disbelief. “I would like to talk to you, too,