Read Online You Will Call Me Drog by Sue Cowing - Free Book Online Page B

bandage.”
    Sensei laughed. “True, but that’s not the answer. Do you think Parker suddenly developed his muscles and became super-strong? Could he do that in a few minutes?”
    Everyone shook their heads.
    “No. In aikido our strength doesn’t come from size or muscles. It comes from our energy, our
ki
. I showed Parker how to focus his energy.
    “By the way, Parker has learned something else important on his first day.” He held up my bandaged Drog hand. “In aikido, we protect our opponent.”
    Kelly, the girl with the orange belt, helped us to get started with our rolls. After class she came over to congratulate me and say she was sorry. She even thanked me, which I couldn’t figure out.
    The other students wanted to know how I had managed to use the
ki
and how it felt. And what was under the bandage. When I showed them, they looked confused, but at least they didn’t laugh.
    “Do you have any idea how hot your hand got when you did that long-arm number?” Drog said as we stepped out into the street. “Most uncomfortable.”
    I smiled. “So why didn’t you just imagine you were back in the desert with the emir?”
    “Don’t get smart with me,” he said.

chapter eleven
    Late one night, Mrs. Belcher got one of her Great Ideas. She decided our class should make a puppet theater and put on a puppet play. Everyone could tell she was doing this to keep me from becoming the class weirdo, but I appreciated it.
    As soon as she brought up the puppet play idea in class, Big Boy boomed from the back of the room, “We could put it on for the kindergartners.”
    Kids stared at each other. It was easy to forget about Big Boy for days at a time because he didn’t say much. Not in a loud voice, anyway. And when he did talk, he mostly said “man” and “cool.” Nobody knew how old Big Boy was exactly. They say he had to repeat first grade, and then he spent two years in fifth. He barely fit his desk.
    “That’s a wonderful suggestion, Norbert,” Mrs. Belcher said. She never called him Big Boy.
    Everyone knew Big Boy picked kindergarten because his little sister was in that class, and he was crazy about her.
    “As a matter of fact, the kindergarten is having its parents’ night in just two weeks,” Mrs. Belcher said. “Do you think we could be ready that soon?”
    “Sure,” we answered in a chorus.
    “Since it’s your idea, Norbert, maybe you’d like to pick the play?”
    Way to go, Mrs. B. Take care of two oddballs at once.
    “Um, how about The Three Little Pigs?” Big Boy said. “Lisa loves—I mean, I think that would be a good one for them.”
    “Excellent. The story and the lines are already familiar, and we don’t have much time.”
    Mrs. Belcher was humming now. Her favorite part of any project is writing lists on the blackboard.
    “Let’s see, we’ll need a stage and scenery and a script, and of course we’ll need a mother pig, the three little pigs, and the wolf—that’s five puppets. Hand puppets will be the simplest, I think. Parker you already have one ...”
Very smooth, Mrs. Belcher
. “... so maybe you could just make a costume for it. Wren, will you help him?”
    “Mmmmm,” Wren said. I guessed that was supposed to be a yes.
    Drog started muttering, so I put him up to my ear. “I am the big bad wolf, or I’m nobody,” he said.
    I raised my hand. “Can Drog be the wolf?”
    “You have to try out, Parker,” Big Boy said. “Let’s hear you say the huff-and-puff part.”
    “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll PUFF, and I’ll BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW your house down!” Drog said, adding a wicked cackle at the end. Everybody thought it was me.
    Big Boy practically knocked over his seat laughing. Even Wren giggled. We were in.

    Mrs. Belcher turns every project into an “Educational Opportunity.” The kids making the theater had to go on the Internet and print out pictures of real puppet theaters from around the world. Most stood high off the ground, like towers, so that all the