The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester Read Free Page B

Georgia.
    As the sun sank lower and the sky grew darker, the boys agreed to come back to the tracks and look some more, if they could ditch that nosy Viola.
    Then they headed back toward Owen’s house to catch mosquitoes for Tooley.
    “Here you go, Tooley,” Owen said. “These are yummy.” He opened the peanut butter jar and released three mosquitoes into the frog house in the closet. Then he spread a piece of newspaper over the top of the plastic tub to keep the mosquitoes from escaping.
    He waited.
    He listened, hoping to hear Tooley hopping around inside, catching the mosquitoes.
    But it was quiet.
    Owen lifted the corner of the newspaper and peeked inside. Tooley sat on the branch. The mosquitoes flitted around the plastic tub. One of them landed on the branch right beside Tooley, but the big green frog didn’t move.
    Not even one little bit.
    Owen sighed.
    He reached into the tub and lifted the bullfrog out. He examined Tooley’s yellow throat, his webbed feet, his froggy face with the heart-shaped red spot between his eyes.
    Owen got an icky feeling in the pit of his stomach.
    Tooley
did
look a little sad.
    Owen set the frog down on the floor beside his bed.
    He waited.
    Tooley didn’t jump.
    Owen nudged him a little.
    Tooley didn’t jump.
    The first time Owen had set Tooley down on his bedroom floor, the frog had jumped clear across the room in one giant leap.
    Owen sighed again.
    He scooped Tooley up and put him back on thebranch in the frog house. He covered the frog house with the chicken wire and the brick, then went over to look out the window.
    The moon cast a soft glow on the yard and the woods out back. The night was quiet for a few minutes, and then the faint clatter of the train drifted into the silence.
    Louder, louder, louder.
    Clatter, clatter, clatter.
    The train roared by . . .
    . . . and then was gone.
    But this time, there was no thud.
    No crack of wood.
    No tumble, tumble, tumble sound.
    Owen tried to imagine something in the bushes or the gully or the woods somewhere out there beside the tracks.
    Something that had fallen off the train.
    But what?
    What had fallen off the train?
    And where was it?
    Owen was determined to find it.
    But first, he and Travis and Stumpy were going to have to build that cage for Tooley. It would be the bestfrog cage ever. It would be big enough for swimming and jumping. Half of it would be out of the water, with logs and leaves and squishy mud to sit in. The other half would be in the water, with room for Tooley to swim in big, big circles, kicking his froggy legs the livelong day. And a whole parade of water bugs and grasshoppers and crickets and flies would go right through the chicken-wire sides of the cage and Tooley would gobble them up.
    And Tooley would not be sad.

CHAPTER SIX
    Owen tucked the duct tape under his T-shirt, motioned for Pete and Leroy, and tried to open the screen door so it wouldn’t squeak.
    He failed.
    The screen door squeaked and Earlene’s harsh voice thundered from the front hallway.
    “Where are you going?”
    “Out yonder,” Owen called back.
    Earlene stormed into the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron and shaking her ugly ole head. “You’re going nowhere till you sweep up every crumb of dirt and blade of grass you tracked in here last night. I don’t know why on God’s green earth you can’t take your shoes off like I’ve told you a million times and . . .”
    She yammered on and on but all Owen heard was
blah, blah, blah
.
    He let out a big, heaving sigh and trudged to the broom closet.
    “What’s that under your shirt?” Earlene said, squinting over at him.
    “Nothing.”
    The duct tape fell out from under his shirt and rolled across the kitchen floor. Earlene snatched it up and shook it at Owen. “What’re you doing with this?”
    “Nothing.”
    Earlene’s face turned red as fire as she shoved the duct tape back into the junk drawer.
    The whole time he was sweeping up dirt and grass, Earlene stood