Philip and the Angel (9781452416144) by John Paulits Page B

and scratched at
the screen with her make-believe claws.
    “ Stop it.” Weird girl , Philip thought. “You can solve my
problem and get me a dog? You are starting to scare me if you think you can do that .”
    Angel beckoned him closer. Philip moved right
up next to the screen, and Angel whispered, “Your mom and dad won’t
buy you a dog, right?”
    “ Won’t buy me any kind of pet.”
    “ So, the only way for you to get a pet
is to take one home with you.”
    “ I can’t just buy some animal and walk
in the door with it. They’d take it right back. Besides, I only
have seventy-five cents.”
    “ Listen.” Angel made her voice very
low. “A small, tan stray dog comes around in the afternoons. I see
it all the time from my bedroom window.” She pointed toward the
rear of the house and upward. “If you go back there this afternoon,
go every afternoon until it
shows up, you’ll see it. Take some food with you.”
    “ Food?”
    “ Meat. From the refrigerator.
Leftovers.”
    Philip nodded. “Okay.”
    “ Make the dog follow you home. Put on a
sad face and tell your mom this poor stray dog followed you home,
and you’d like to take care of it. Promise to keep the dog in the
garage. Get your mother used to the idea, and little-by-little get
the dog into the house, and little-by-little it becomes your pet.
Ta-da!”
    “ I don’t know,” Philip said
uncertainly. “You sure this dog comes around all the
time?”
    “ I see it a lot.”
    “ Did you just think up that
plan?” Impressive , Philip
thought.
    Angel shrugged. “I’d like a pet, too, but my
parents think I’m too sick to have one. They think a pet will make
me sicker. They have a long list of reasons. It’s a plan I thought
up for myself, but I can’t use it. I’m stuck in the house all the
time. So I give it to you. No charge.”
    “ I’ll try it. I’m going to try it.
Thanks, Angel.” Philip turned and started away.
    “ Good luck,” Angel called after him.
More quietly she said, “You’re going to need it.”
    Philip ran toward home. He had plans to
make.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    Philip went straight to the kitchen. He
didn’t hear a sound in the house, not even a peep from Becky, his
baby sister, so he went to the refrigerator and opened the door.
They hadn’t eaten all of the spaghetti and meatballs his mother
cooked the night before, and he saw six meatballs sitting in a bowl
of tomato sauce. He reached into the tomato sauce and took three
meatballs. He shook the meatballs over the bowl to get off as much
sauce as he could, then he moved to the kitchen sink to rinse the
rest of the sauce off the meatballs. Next, he ripped a paper towel
from the roll which hung alongside the sink. He put the towel on
the kitchen table and put the meatballs on top of it so they could
dry off.
    What else can I use? he wondered. He pulled open the refrigerator door again and
searched. Lunchmeat! Sliced turkey. He took the slices of turkey to the kitchen table and put
them next to the meatballs. He wondered how many he could take
without his mother asking questions.
    “ Are you hungry, Philip?”
    “ Mom! Uh, yeah, I’m making a
sandwich.”
    “ Don’t you think you’ll need some
bread?”
    “ Bread? Yeah, bread. I need bread.” He
went to the bread box on the counter next to the refrigerator and
grabbed a loaf of bread.
    “ A cinnamon twirl turkey sandwich?” His
mother eyed him suspiciously.
    Philip looked at the bread he’d taken.
Cinnamon bread, his father’s favorite breakfast.
    Philip felt his face redden as he
returned the bread to the bread box and took out the white bread
his mother knew he liked.
    “ And what kind of sandwich are you
making?”
    Philip saw his mother looking at the
meatballs and turkey slices. She had a funny look on her face.
Those little lines that appeared above her nose right before she
started in with a million questions were getting deeper by the
second.
    “ It’s a new sandwich. Emery told me
about