Read Online Whales on Stilts! by M.T. Anderson - Free Book Online Page B

or twice.” Sadly, she added, “You know how, when you’re remembering, you put beautiful things everywhere? You spread them out, and they fill the whole memory. Even if there weren’t fireflies every night we played there, those were firefly times, Lily.”
    Lily just sat on the wicker and listened to her grandmother. She had curled up so that her knees were under her chin. Even just the sound of her grandmother’s voice made her feel quiet and safe.
    â€œEveryone wants to get back to the place they know best,” said Lily’s grandmother. “When you are old, though, sometimes that place is not just far away on the map but far away in time. How do you get to home, then, when home is in another era?”
    Lily said, “I don’t know, Grandma.”
    But something was clicking in Lily’s brain.
Everyone wants to get back to the place they know best.
    â€œGrandma ...,” she said. “Grandma, I think you might have given me an idea.”
    â€œThat’s sweet, darling,” said her grandmother. “I was a little worried that you had fallen asleep or were calling from the john. Your cousin Sid does that, you know. He goes to thebathroom with the phone. I’m his granny; I can tell. Sometimes he grunts while he’s talking.”
    â€œYou’ve really helped me, Grandma.”
    â€œCan I say the other thing about Sid? He can’t figure out how my front door works. Whenever he visits he goes around to the side, so he won’t have to admit it.”
    They talked for a little while about Sid-talking like two girls about a boy—and Lily, curled in the wicker love seat, smiled for the first time in a while.
    Finally she had a plan.

The next day—the day before the whales invaded North America—Lily, Jasper, and Katie had a powwow over breakfast at the Aero-Bistro.
    â€œIt’s deuced difficult to do anything,” said Jasper, “when we can’t convince any adults to help us.”
    Katie groaned, “No one will believe us.”
    Lily looked around carefully at the other diners and the android waiters. She whispered, “I think ... Okay... I think I have a plan. Something we can try, anyway.”
    â€œTop-notch, Lily!” said Jasper. “But there’s no need to whisper.”
    â€œWell—” started Lily.

    â€œNo need to whisper,” declared Jasper, “because I just invented
these.”
He lifted up three metal masks with no eyeholes and what looked like bicycle horns coming out of where the mouth and ears would be. “They’re Secret Planning masks. You slip them over your head,” he said, demonstrating, “and then when you talk about a secret plan, only other wearers of a mask can hear.”
    Katie lifted one off the table and looked at it uncomfortably. “Wow, Jasper,” she said. “These sure do have... a lot of rivets.”
    â€œJust a little something I cooked up,” said Jasper proudly.
    â€œWouldn’t it be easier for Lily just to keep her voice down?” Katie suggested.
    â€œCome along! Give it a try!” said Jasper.
    They all put on the masks. Their faces now were gray, with bicycle horns coming out of their mouths and ears.
    â€œHokay,” said Katie. “Let’s roll.”
    â€œNow, Lily, you just tell us the plan like you would normally,” said Jasper. “We’ll be able to hear perfectly, but no one else will be able to.”
    â€œI just...talk?”
    â€œRight-o.”
    â€œAnd the masks will just block out what we say when we’re planning?”
    â€œCheck.”
    â€œOkay.” Lily took a deep breath. “What I’m thinking is [
    ].”
    â€œHmm, yes,” said Jasper. “Devilishly clever.”
    â€œ[
    ]”
    â€œAnd you really think that’s the best way to get them to [                      ]?” asked Katie.
    â€œ[