The Magic Spectacles Read Free Page B

It’s like a treasure or something,” John said.
    Kimberly nodded. “My aunt says it’s a goblin treasure.”
    “There’s goblins under your house?” asked Danny. “I never heard anything about goblins leaving treasures under houses.
    “I never heard about them being under houses at all,” John said.
    “They live under houses when they have too,” Kimberly said. “That’s what my aunt says. I mean, where else? They can’t just go down to the motel. They’d rather live in the woods, but there aren’t any woods around here, so they get under your house through secret tunnels.”
    “That’s a lie!” someone said in a loud voice.
    It was Harvey Chickel. No one had heard him come up. He had an unhappy face, as if someone had tricked him into eating brussels sprouts. Usually he looked that way when other people were having fun. Kimberly closed the lid of the box.
    “There’s nothing under houses but dirt,” Harvey said, and he spit on the ground, nearly hitting his own foot.
    Kimberly looked straight at him and said, “Some people think that everything is just dirt. But they’re wrong.”
    “They’re not as wrong as
you
are,” Harvey said, and he looked for a moment like he was going to hit her.
    John’s stomach felt suddenly empty. He wondered what he was going to do. He hated this kind of thing. Harvey was famous for it. In a second he would start pushing people. He had hit Kimberly at school once. Harvey had hit nearly everyone at school at least once. That was all he could think of to do when he got mad. Kimberly had hit him back, right in the stomach, and she looked like she was ready to hit him again.
    “Miss perfect,”
Harvey said. “What are you all dressed up for, a tea party?”
    “My aunt’s taking me to lunch,” Kimberly said. “So what?”
    “Your uncle going?” Harvey asked. Kimberly didn’t say anything. She just looked at him.
    “I heard he was in the hatch,” Harvey said. The men in white suits came to get him with big nets. That’s what my dad said. That’s where he is right now, I bet –in the hatch. My dad said that your uncle didn’t change out of his pajamas for five years. He used to stick a fishing pole out the window and fish in the bushes with junk tied to the end of the line for bait. One time my dad tied this rubber fish to the line and yanked on it.” Harvey snorted through his nose. Probably it was meant to be laughter. “Why don’t you shut up?” Danny said.
    “You shut up,” Harvey said. “He used to live in
your
house. That’s who owned this place, a nut case. I heard he went crazy when his wife corked off.”
    Kimberly didn’t say anything. She stood there looking at the lid of the treasure box.
    “Where is he then if he’s not in the hatch?” Harvey said.
    “What do you care?” Kimberly said. Maybe he took a bus to the moon.
    “What I think…” Harvey started to say.
    “What we think,” Danny said, “is that nobody cares what you think.”
    “You want to make something out of it?” Harvey asked. Here it comes, John thought. He got ready to grab Harvey’s arm. He couldn’t think of anything else. This was just what Harvey wanted. All of a sudden he would get going with his fake karate and would start making grunting noises and kicking the air. Danny didn’t say anything, but just stood there looking into Harvey’s face.
    Harvey spit again and shook his head. I’ll tell you so what,” he said to Kimberly. “I bet you
stole
all this junk.”
    “Who asked you?” Danny said. “We don’t care what you think, remember?”
    “Nobody has to ask me
nothing,”
Harvey said, giving Danny another hard look. What he said didn’t make any sense, and John hoped that Danny wouldn’t point that out. Maybe if no one said anything he would just leave. Instead of leaving, he spit again, but some of the spit ran down his chin, and he made a slobbering noise with his mouth when he tried to suck it back in. His face got red.