Read Online Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish by Betsy Byars - Free Book Online Page B

“You’re stupid, you know that! And anyway, nobody in the whole world is going to tell me what to do with my thoughts. My head’s mine, and—”
    “Kids!” Aunt Pepper came over. “Be quiet. Honestly, you’re disturbing people. You’ve got to keep your voices down.”
    “I wasn’t the one who was yelling,” Weezie said, adjusting a pleat in her skirt.
    “You were the one who wasn’t minding her own business!” Warren yelled.
    “Kids!”
    Aunt Pepper watched the two of them for a moment. She looked from Weezie’s calm face to Warren’s scarlet one. When she apparently was satisfied that the argument was over, she turned and crossed the room to the door.
    “Anyway,” Warren said through lips that barely moved, “did it ever occur to you that my thinking may turn out to be valuable? Did it ever occur to you that I might really make movies when I get big?” He swallowed. His eyes stung with tears of injustice. He had been creating a movie—he had been going to call it Pipe Snakes! —it was going to be a blockbuster. And his stupid sister had labeled that “daydreaming.”
    “Nobody does anything by daydreaming about it,” she said. “You don’t see successful men sitting around looking like this.” She gazed down the hall with a blank look on her face. “There are people who like to do things and there are people who like to daydream about doing things. It’s—”
    “Mind your own business, hear? Just shut up.”
    “Kids!”
    As Aunt Pepper moved toward them, the door behind her opened. “Mrs. Walker?” It was the doctor.
    “I’m Mrs. Walker,” Aunt Pepper said, spinning around. Weezie got to her feet.
    “Well, apparently your mother has had a stroke. We won’t know for a few days how much damage has been done. She’s awake now, if you want to see her.”
    “I do.”
    “Your mother’s a little confused, keeps calling for someone named Saffron—Saffee?” It was a question. He looked from one to the other.
    It was Warren who answered. “Saffron’s my mother.”
    “Well, perhaps she should come if she possibly can.”
    “That’s what I was thinking,” Warren said.

“Something is wrong.”
    “There generally is when the cattle are found with two holes in the sides of their necks.”
    “I DON’T KNOW HOW you stand it without a telephone,” Aunt Pepper said. She was pacing up and down the living room like an athlete ready for a race. “It just drives me crazy to think that someone might be trying to call me and because there’s no phone—Aiiiiiiiii!” She shook her head in mock craziness. “Who in their right mind would be without a phone?”
    For the two weeks that Warren’s grandmother had been in the hospital, Aunt Pepper had been staying with Warren and Weezie.
    Warren said, “You can use the Oglesbys’ phone in an emergency.”
    “I have used the Oglesbys’ phone so much that she has put up a sign—‘Local Calls, Ten Cents’—with a little ashtray for me to put coins in. Anyway, I want my own phone. It’s probably ringing right this minute.” She broke off and said, “Doesn’t Weezie have boyfriends? How does she get dates?”
    “I don’t think she has any.”
    “Of course she has boyfriends. Weezie’s very pretty.”
    “She’s too big. Some kids call her Hercules.”
    “She is very pretty. Doesn’t she ever go out and you don’t know where she’s going?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, that is dating. ‘Where have you been?’ ‘Nowhere.’ ‘Who are you going with?’ ‘Why do you want to know?’ That person,” Aunt Pepper said with a smile, “is dating!”
    “When Weezie goes out like that—I mean secretly—well, I always think it has something to do with Mom.”
    Aunt Pepper turned and regarded him seriously. Warren was tired of being looked at like that.
    He said, “I know what you’re getting ready to say. I know!” He slumped. He began kicking his heels against the sofa.
    “How do you know what I’m going to say when I don’t