Amos Goes Bananas Read Free Page B

to be good?
    Louise will be extra very good
.
    Do you promise not to play games with Amos?
    Louise glanced over at Amos, a sad expression on her face.
    Louise and Amos no play
.
    Dunc started typing in the code.
    164333—
    He heard a door slam down the hall. Amos was nowhere in sight.
    Sorry, Louise. It was probably a bad idea. Maybe Amos and I can come back later
.
    Dunc turned off the computer and ran down the hall after his best friend.

“I said I was sorry, Amos.”
    Amos whistled and leaned back on Dunc’s bed. “That was a close one. For a minute there, I really thought you were gonna do it.”
    Dunc sharpened his pencil. “At the time, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. I figured she’d never get past the guard.”
    “What big plan do you have now?”
    “I don’t have a lot of choices. Tomorrow, I’ll try and talk to the police. Maybe they’llat least be on the lookout during Senator Thurman’s visit.”
    “Too bad Louise wouldn’t tell you what you wanted to know.”
    A loud smacking noise came from outside Dunc’s open window.
    “What was that?” Dunc moved to the window and leaned out. He missed it at first. Then he saw it. A very large, dark shape was slowly climbing the tree under his window.
    Louise.
    Dunc pulled his head back. “Amos, I don’t know how to tell you this, but …”
    “What?”
    “You remember that code I was talking about back at C.U.P.I.D.? The one that opened Louise’s cage?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Before we left tonight, I put part of it on the computer screen.”
    “So?” Amos looked up. “No! Don’t tell me …”
    Louise pulled herself up to the window ledge and squealed with delight. When she saw Amos, she sprang into the room, turneda full somersault, and stood beating on her chest on Dunc’s bed.
    Amos rolled off the side of the bed. “Down, girl! Down!”
    “She must have kept trying numbers until she figured out the code.” Dunc calmly sat down at his computer.
    Louise, how did you find us?
    Louise spat a big wad of something green on the floor and lumbered over to the computer.
    Louise follow Amos anywhere
.
    “Isn’t it incredible how smart she is, Amos?” Amos didn’t answer. He was trying to inch his way to the bedroom door.
    Louise saw him out of the corner of her eye and went for him. Amos lunged through the door, slid down the banister railing, and ran for all he was worth with Louise following right on his heels, squealing at the top of her lungs.
    Dunc stood on the landing and watched them both disappear out the front door into the night.
    His mother walked in from the kitchen wearing an angry frown. “Duncan Culpepper,I want you to tell your friends to be a little less rowdy in the house.”
    “Right, Mom. I’ll be sure and do that.” He muttered under his breath, “That is, if one of them ever speaks to me again.”

Amos looked through the window, double-checked the lock on Dunc’s tree-house door, and then climbed down the ladder.
    Dunc was waiting for him on the ground. “Did she like the bananas?”
    “Who knows? She swallows them so fast, I don’t think she has time to taste them.” He jumped to the grass. “That was a good idea you had last night about luring her up here and then padlocking the door. When are you going to call that Monkey Farm to come pick her up?”
    “I already tried once. Nobody out therewill answer the phone. Maybe they don’t work on weekends.”
    “It’s still early. Somebody’s bound to show up sooner or later.”
    “In the meantime—” Dunc walked toward the house “—we still have to finish your report and get ready for my mom’s tea.”
    Amos sighed. “I was thinking I’d wear a red bow tie with my tux. That way, Melissa will be sure to notice me. I’ll hand her a beautiful red rose that matches my tie and ask her if she’d like to go for a long walk in the moonlight …”
    “I hate to break this to you, Amos, but we’re supposed to wear aprons. And the tea party isn’t at