Read Online The Boy with 17 Senses by Sheila Grau - Free Book Online Page B

delicious-smelling food.”
    â€œIt means my troubles are over,” said Jaq, who was pulled out of his daydream of riches by smells so delicious, soenticing, so real that his mouth started to water. They drifted out of the store’s doorway and tiptoed right up his nose. “Okay—I’m heading for that table. We can hide behind that silver pole holding it up.”
    He ran, and when he got there, he gasped again. “Look up, Bonip! It’s a glug mine. Look at all that glug!”
    Stuck to the underside of the table were at least ten huge globs of glug.
    â€œIf every table has this much glug, imagine . . .”
    Bonip didn’t say anything. In fact, Jaq realized that his shoulder felt lighter. He turned around and saw Bonip out in the open, eating a pale yellow stick he’d found on the floor. Jaq ran over and grabbed him by the tail, pulling him back under the table, where he wouldn’t be seen. Bonip tried to cling to his food, but it was too big for him.
    â€œIt’s delicious,” Bonip said, his face covered in crumbs.
    Jaq’s growling stomach overruled his cautious brain, and he sprinted out to grab the food stick. Back under the table, he pulled off a part of the edge and sniffed it. It was a little warm, and it smelled salty. He licked it with his tongue. It tasted round. Symmetrical curves of flavor floated into each other and caressed his mouth. He took a bite, and then another. He sighed loudly. Eating was such a delightful sensation.
    Together they finished off the fluffy-crunchy-salty log. They looked around for more.
    â€œGreat Smolders, I was hungry,” Jaq said.
    Bonip found another log and moaned with pleasure as he ate.
    But then the floor shook with tiny trembles, and a voice boomed above them. “Fiona!”
    Jaq and Bonip hid behind the circular beam that held up the table. Jaq watched giant legs stride over to the entrance. He edged around the beam to keep his body out of sight. The giant pulled the glass door closed and locked it with a click.
    Jaq looked at Bonip. “How are we going to get out?” he whispered.
    Bonip, busy chewing, just shrugged.
    â€œFiona!” the giant bellowed again.
    â€œI’m over here,” a gentler, higher voice said from the back of the restaurant.
    â€œFiona, it’s closing time. Quit reading and clean the tables,” the giant said. “Then mop the floor and take out the garbage.”
    â€œChild labor laws, Uncle Gunther,” Jaq heard the giant named Fiona mutter under her breath. “I’m only twelve.”
    â€œWhat did you say?” the bigger giant asked.
    â€œNothing.” She walked over to the counter, where the bigger giant stood. Jaq, peeking around the table support, could see both giants now.
    â€œListen, if your mother is going to dump you on me after school, then you’re gonna work—get it? I don’t run a day-care center here.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œYou should be more grateful. Without me, you and your mom would be living on the street.”
    â€œThank you, Uncle Gunther,” Fiona said as the other giant handed her a spray bottle and a sponge. She walked right by Jaq and Bonip and muttered, “We’re
so
grateful that you make us do all your chores,
and
charge us rent,
and
insult us every day.”
    Jaq watched as she squirted and cleaned table after table, starting at the far end and working her way toward the long counter in front of the cooking area. She wore an apron that held some salty sticks, and every now and then she’d reach in and eat one. Two white cords dangled from her ears, and she hummed along to some music playing very faintly.
    â€œHow are we going to get out of here, Bonip?” Jaq asked.
    Bonip lay in a heap. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Feel sick.”
    Jaq felt panic rising inside him again. He looked from onegiant to the other, trying to figure out what to do. The girl giant