Read Online The Secret of Ferrell Savage by J. Duddy Gill & Sonia Chaghatzbanian - Free Book Online Page A

mural—for almost a year and a half. Then one day the shoes felt tight and squeezey, making all my toes aware of one another. For weeks I tried loosening the laces, wearing the shoes without socks, wearing them in the shower so they’d stretch out when they dried on my feet. But nothing worked. It was beyond my control. My feet had grown, and it was time for a new pair of shoes.
    Mary’s and my friendship had become squeezey, and it was time for something new.
    We sat at the deli counter, drinking root beer; Mr. Spinelli’s treat. “Anything for you, Miracle Survivor Boy,” he had said.
    I sat high on my stool and stretched my arms over my head. “Ah,” I said, “I feel like the weight of last night’s dark hours has been lifted off my shoulders.”
    â€œWay to mix the metaphors,” she said.
    â€œMetaphor, schmetaphor. Who cares?” I leaned forward and put my elbows on the counter.
    â€œNow I see why the little conniver looked right at me when he talked about family trees,” Mary said. “He knows I’m related to Shannon Bell.”
    â€œYep. The kid knows his stuff all right.” I took a long swig of root beer.
    â€œI simply cannot resign myself to the fact that I’m related to such a long line of defeatists.”
    â€œTell me about it. How do you think I felt when I found out I was related to a cannibal? But, you know, I think everything’s going to be okay. I’m glad I don’t have to race Littledood again.” I slid to the edge of my seat, closer to Mary. “And I think it’s cool . . . our little moment back at the house. You know . . . our sort-of hug thing.”
    â€œFerrell Savage, you most certainly are going to race against Bruce Littledood, and you’re going to tell him so first thing Monday morning, because I will not have people standing around, looking at me, just waiting for me to fail the same way my ancestors did. And as for a hug, well, you’re just plain crazy, thinking I’d embrace someone who devours my relatives, because that was no hug. I was looking at an ad on your computer screen, and you got in the way, so I simply moved you, is all.”
    I was speechless. What had just happened?
    â€œI’m impaled,” I finally said.
    â€œYou mean ‘appalled,’ ” she shot back with a snarl.
    No, I meant “impaled.” I felt a sharp pain right in that spot between my heart and my stomach, rightwhere that stupid marble lived. I was pretty sure the kissy face had grown pointy teeth and had just chomped me from the inside out. I hoped to never experience that kind of impalement again for as long as I lived.

Chapter Fourteen
    PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS THE next best thing to Superman, just because I’d survived the fall down the hill. But they were wrong. All I had done was throw together a weak contraption and then be dumb enough to enter a race with it. And dumber than that, I’d done it all for Mary. I was not proud.
    From then on, no more doing anything for Mary. Mary could go fly a kite in an electrical storm during a tornado after eating a dozen donuts and get dropped in an ocean filled with pirate ships and sharks where she’d get a cramp and . . .
    Never mind. I didn’t really want anything bad to happen to Mary.
    Anyway, Bruce Littledood was giving me a chance to redeem myself. And that’s what I was going to do. I’d take my Pollypry and make it stronger than before. I’d fix it so it wouldn’t swallow me up and spit me out its backside, like it did last time. I couldn’t expect to win against the Titanium Blade Runner, but I could prove to myself that I was brave enough to try. When I lost, well, at least the town would have a new hero. I really was never cut out for the job.
    On Sunday I planned to tell Mary that I was going to race, but she didn’t show up. All day I paced around waiting for