Frek and the Elixir Read Free Page A

when he and his sisters were in the middle of a great pillow fight.
    The pillow had a picture of a rabbit embroidered on it. Grandma Huggins had made it by hand when Geneva was born. Frek had hidden the rabbit pillow so that Geneva couldn’t hit him with it, and so that he himself would have extra artillery for the next pillow war. Geneva had asked him about her rabbit pillow a few times since then, but so far she hadn’t gotten around to pitching a big enough fit to make Frek find it and give it back. Geneva had other things on her mind these days.
    Frek lay down flat on his stomach and worked the pillow out from under the middle of the bed, trying not pull along the junk squeezed in around it. Just as the pillow came loose he glimpsed something odd in the farthest, darkest corner of the space under his bed. Something rounded and shiny. A dark, glossy purple, almost black. The size of a squashed bowling ball, with a dimple on the side facing him. He couldn’t think what it might be. A toy he’d forgotten about?
    Downstairs Mom had just told the house tree to take the toons off the walls. Ida was yelling about it, but there was no stopping Lora Huggins. “Good-bye, Ida, good-bye Geneva,” sang the sweet, chuckling voices of the Goob Dolls. “I wish Frek would listen to me,” called Goob Doll Judy just before Mom closed her down. “I have more to tell him.” Right.
    Ida’s footsteps came pounding up the steps. Instead of starting to clean her room, Ida dashed into Frek’s room. She was a cheerful little girl with golden skin and sparkling black eyes. She was wearing yellow turmite-silk pajamas that had black fuzzy stripes to make her look like a bumblebee.
    â€œYou found Geneva’s rabbit pillow,” said Ida in her deep little voice.
    â€œI had it under my bed,” said Frek. “My stockpile for the next pillow fight.”
    â€œPillow fight!” exclaimed Ida. She snatched Frek’s pillow from his unmade bed and smacked him with it.
    â€œIda!” called Mom from the foot of the stairs. “If you don’t clean your room, you’re not getting any allowance!”
    â€œAll right, ” shouted Ida. She always got rebellious when she had to clean her room. Ida was rebellious a lot. Being the youngest of three kids, she had to be. She gave Frek another good whack with his pillow and took off down the hall.
    Frek decided to leave the mysterious shiny purplish thing under his bed for later. It was time to get going. Stoo would already be deep into the land of Skull Farmers. Frek pushed everything a little farther under the bed, finally making enough room for the Solar Trader set. To finish things off, he made his bed.
    On his way down the hall, he tossed the rabbit pillow onto the floor of Geneva’s room, making an exploding sound with his mouth as he did it. Geneva was in there, sitting on her bed, her eyes blank as she focused on the signal from the pulsing uvvy kritter on the back of her neck.
    â€œBrat,” said Geneva to Frek, snatching up the pillow and setting it beside her on the bed. She made her mouth a thin straight line and shook her fist. And then she went back to talking to her friend. Even though you didn’t really have to, most people talked out loud when they were on the uvvy, and usually they even gestured with their hands. As if the other person were right there in front of them. “Oh that was just my brother,” said Geneva. “Yon upstart barbarian. So what should we wear to the store, Amparo?”
    Outside, Wow greeted Frek with enthusiasm, bowing and wagging his tail and squeaking, “Frek,” from the back of his throat. In principle Wow wasn’t allowed in the house as he still chewed things and he went to the bathroom on the floor sometimes. But Ida loved to smuggle Wow in. He was only outside today because he truly couldn’t stand to be around when Snaffle was active. Snaffle and Wow