Philip and the Fortune Teller (9781619501317) by John Paulits

Chapter One
     
    Philip cowered in the bushes that jutted out
near the old woman’s garage and gently moved some twigs aside to
peek out. There she stood, dressed in a long, ragged black dress,
her scraggly gray hair blowing about her shoulders, holding onto
her porch railing and looking out over her yard for him.
    All he had done was to toss his ball against
her garage door as he walked past her house. Bang went the ball and
bang went the old lady, bolting out of her rocking chair, pointing
at him, and cackling at him to get away; stay away; don’t come
back. The old woman took him by such surprise that his ball bounced
off his knee and into the street and rolled down the sewer. A
perfectly good ball only two weeks old, wasted.
    This old lady had already phoned his house
twice before with stupid complaints about him. Once, she said he
stuck his tongue out at her. Ridiculous, Philip thought, as he kept
his eye on her. Emery had given him a piece of the sourest candy
he’d ever tasted. He’d spit it out and waggled his tongue around,
trying to get the sourness to go away.
    The other time the old woman told his mother
he’d made a nasty gesture at her. Ridiculous again, Philip
thought. He and Emery had walked by, and Philip saw a mangy cat
sitting on the roof of the porch where the old woman rocked on a
chair directly under the cat. The cat’s tail seemed to wag in time
with the old lady’s rocking. Philip pointed to show Emery. Who
wouldn’t point at such a funny sight?
    The old woman jumped up, cackling as always,
and a moment later, she bustled inside to her telephone. Philip’s
father told him to use another street to get where he was going and
stay off Van Kirk Street, where she lived. Philip didn’t want a
third phone call, so he dived into the bushes before the old woman
could get a good look at him. He hoped.
    A whistling noise caught his attention, and
he turned and saw Emery walking down the sidewalk. Philip waited
for Emery to get nearer.
    “Emery! Emery!”
    Emery stopped and looked around.
    “Philip?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Where are you?”
    “Here.”
    “Here, where?”
    “Here, here.”
    “You can’t be here. I’m here. You must be
there.”
    Philip clenched his jaw. Emery was starting
up already.
    “Cut it out, Emery. In the bushes.”
    Emery stepped closer to the bushes and saw
Philip.
    “What are you doing in there?”
    Philip shushed him and pointed.
    “Oh, her again. Let me in.”
    Philip shuffled over, and Emery scrouched in
next to him.
    “Why are you hiding?”
    Philip explained.
    “You sure she didn’t recognize you?” Emery
asked.
    “I don’t think she did. I pulled my hat down
real fast. That’s why I missed the ball, and it rolled down the
sewer.” Philip wore a red Phillies cap.
    “Hide your cap, and let’s go out that way.
She won’t see us.”
    Philip followed Emery’s suggestion, and a few
minutes later the two boys walked calmly down a different street.
It was Wednesday morning, the fifth day of summer vacation, and
both boys were in a good mood.
    “Wait’ll you hear,” said Emery.
    “Wait’ll I hear what?”
    “I got a wish.”
    “Everybody’s got wishes. I wish that old lady
would move to New Jersey.”
    “No, no. I made a wish come true.”
    Philip sighed. He couldn’t wait to
hear Emery explain this .
    “Go ahead,” Philip muttered. “Let’s
hear.”
    “I just came from where they’re setting up
the circus. You seen all the posters, right?”
    “I guess I have. They’re hanging on every
street in the neighborhood. There’s one there. It says it starts
today.”
    The boys examined a brightly-colored poster
attached to a telephone pole. Cole Brothers Circus and
Carnival. It had a picture of a tiger jumping through a fiery
hoop; a lady riding a bicycle on a high wire; a pharaoh in a tall
headdress; and a gypsy who wore a dangling hoop earring and whose
head looked like it was wrapped in a towel.
    “Why’d you go there? It’s not open in