Philip and the Superstition Kid (9781452430423) by John Paulits Page A

corner and, with a
quick look around to assure themselves that no one was watching,
ducked alongside Mrs. Logan’s house and crawled into their
hideaway.
    “ It was weird,” Emery said
reluctantly, looking at Philip. The boys sprawled on the sparse
grass in the deep shade.
    Philip pressed his lips together as if he
was going to burst. When Emery saw Philip’s eyes widening, he said,
“Okay, I’ll tell you. I dreamed that me and you . . .”
    “ I was in the
dream?”
    Emery nodded. “I told you it was awful.”
    Philip frowned. “What
does that mean?”
    “ Me and you were somehow
on a bouncing boat. I don’t know how we got there. But we were
going up and down and up and down.” Emery moved his hand in time
with his description.
    Philip grabbed Emery’s hand and lowered it.
“Up and down, yeah?”
    “ Suddenly we were crashed
up onto an island and it got dark. We were alone in the dark. We
didn’t like it because we knew we would never get off of that
island forever. And it was dark.”
    “ Dark, yeah, you already
said it was dark. What happened then?”
    “ Then the worst thing
happened. We weren’t alone anymore.”
    Philip felt something give a tiny jump in
his stomach. “What was it?” Philip asked. He gave Emery all of his
attention.
    “ This . . . this thing
started making a loud noisy clomp, clomp, clomp, like big footsteps
coming at us. We both turned and looked and I said to you that we
would be stuck on that island with whatever was coming at us
forever. You started crying . . .”
    “ Wait a minute. You sure
it was me that
started crying? Are you sure it was me at all?”
    “ It was you.”
    “ You didn’t start
crying?
    “ No,” Emery answered, as
if astonished at the possibility.
    Philip made a disgusted face. “What was the
thing?”
    “ Well, it was . . . you
won’t believe this . . .”
    “ Emery, what was it?”
Philip cried.
    “ Hey guys,” came a voice
close to the two boys.
    “ Ahhhhh!” both boys
cried.
    “ Don’t worry,” replied a
voice followed by a goofy laugh. “Yuk yuk. It’s just
me.”
    The bushes shook and rattled and into the
empty space crawled Leon Jakoosawitz, Emery’s unlucky cousin, a boy
who brought bad luck and disaster with him like a black cloud
wherever he went.
    “ Leon,” Emery cried
angrily, “what are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here.
How’d you know we were here?”
    Philip gave Emery a look that said he’d
better take care of this and get rid of Leon quickly.
    “ I saw you now, and I saw
you come here before.”
    “ Well, go away,” Emery
ordered. “We didn’t invite you here.” The only time Emery was
polite to his cousin was when the grown-ups were nearby and
listening.
    “ Yuk yuk yuk,” Leon
laughed in his deep and slow laugh. “Don’t kid me. I know I can
stay.” Leon jangled three rabbits’ feet hanging from the belt of
his jeans.
    “ What’s that supposed to
mean?” Emery asked.
    “ Means I’m lucky. No more
bad luck for me. ’Member how I used to have bad luck?”
    Philip and Emery glanced at one another and
Emery said, “We remember, Leon.” He and Philip had seen Leon trip,
fall, get hurt, knock things over, break things, step in things,
lose things, forget things . . . the list of Leon’s bad luck was
endless.
    “ It just means you’re
superstitious,” Philip chimed in. “How can the foot of a dead
rabbit bring luck? It didn’t bring the rabbit much luck and he had
four of them.”
    “ Yuk yuk yuk,” Leon
laughed. “That’s funny. Bring the rabbit much luck.”
    Philip rolled his eyes and looked
threateningly at Emery.
    “ You gotta go, Leon,”
Emery repeated.
    “ This is my lucky day.
Wanna know why?”
    Neither Philip nor Emery answered.
    “ Okay, I’ll tell you. My
parents are going on vacation tomorrow and didn’t want to take
me.”
    Philip went “Ha.”
    “ I’m not surprised,” Emery
mumbled loud enough for Leon to hear.
    Leon gave the two boys a hurt look and