Mississippi River Blues by Tony Abbott

“Not to mention that them clothes are out to smother me to death! And shoes—phooey!”
    â€œEverybody does it that way,” said Tom.
    â€œI ain’t everybody,” Huck growled. “I’m me.”
    He went on and on for about an hour, then summed up by saying, “Tom, I wouldn’t be in this mess if it hadn’t been for that money. So you just take my share and give me a nickel sometimes and I’ll be happy. But I ain’t going back. I like the river and the woods and my barrel and that’s where I’m staying. You go and live that way. I can’t.”
    Tom slumped his shoulders as if he were losing his best friend, which I guess he was. Then that twinkly look came into his eye again. “Looky here, Huck. Being rich isn’t going to keep me from turning robber like we said.”
    Huck looked at him warily. “A robber? You sure?”
    â€œNo kidding,” said Tom. “The robber life is the one for me. I’m going to have the greatest gang. But we can’t let you into the gang if you aren’t respectable ….”
    Huck made a noise. “But I was a pirate.”
    â€œThat’s different,” said Tom, nearly scoffing. “A robber is much more high-toned than a pirate is. You need to be high up in the nobility to be a proper robber.”
    Huck was silent for some time, lovingly touching the rim of his barrel house, mulling over what Tom had said.
    â€œWell,” he said finally, “I’ll go back to the widow for a month to see if I can stand it, but you have to let me belong to the gang, Tom.”
    Tom leaped for joy. “We’ll get the boys together and have the initiation tonight—at midnight!”
    â€œYay!” I said, jumping up and down. “The fun continues! I’ll be Devin the Masked One, or Count Devin, the Prince of Thieves, or maybe Devin the …”
    â€œDevin?” said Frankie.
    I turned.
    She was pointing to the woods beyond Tom and Huck.
    And there it was, a blue flickering light shining through the bushes behind Huck’s barrel.
    The zapper gates were calling us.

Chapter 19
    I was totally bummed. “Mrs. Figglehopper’s zapper gates, already? Is it time to go back so soon? We’re just getting started. I want to be a robber. Come to think of it, I’ve always wanted to be one! It’s not fair.”
    â€œHey, it’s not,” said Frankie. “I want to rob and pillage with Tom and Huck, too. But it seems like the end of the story. For us, at least.”
    We turned to the guys for maybe the last time.
    â€œâ€¦ all the pact-making has got to be done at midnight,” Tom was saying. “In the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find—”
    â€œMaybe a haunted house?” suggested Huck.
    â€œThe hauntedest!” Tom said. “And you’ve got to swear on a coffin and sign it with blood—”
    â€œMore blood,” said Frankie. Then she sighed. “Yeah, I guess it’s time to get back to the real world.”
    â€œBack to our busy, overbooked lives,” I said.
    â€œRight,” she said. “Let’s zap ourselves.”
    I nodded. “Bye, Tom Sawyer! Bye, Huck Finn!”
    Just then, a cool breeze fluttered through the hot woods. The sun was blazing overhead and streaming light down through the leafy trees, but it was comfy and nice in Huck’s yard as he and Tom kept making plans.
    I breathed it all in. It felt good and slow and carefree and I liked it. It was summertime for Tom and Huck, and it would always be that way in this book.
    â€œSo long, guys,” Frankie said at last.
    They turned and waved to us as we leaped together into the pulsing blue light of the library zapper gates.
    KKKKKK! The whole world of green leaves went bright blue. Then everything went dark for a split second, and we found ourselves hurtling over each other in a mess of arms and legs and fluttering pages