The TV Kid Read Free

Godzilla’s instep, and plunge straight into Mothra’s wings.
    After narrowly escaping being fluttered to death, he would have a long, panic-stricken dash to Scorpo, the scorpion as big as a Boeing 747. Lennie would cringe there, too scared to move, awaiting the fatal sting.
    At that moment a voice would come on the loudspeaker concealed in the trees. “Lennie, Lennie, can you hear me?”
    He would be too frightened to recognize his own name. “No, no, not Scorpo!” he would be sobbing. “Anyone but Scorpo! I’m allergic to stings.”
    “Lennie, can you hear me? This is Dink McLeod, and I’m here with our Give It a Spin audience, and, Lennie, we have had hidden cameras on you ever since you got to the Haunted House.”
    “You’ve had cameras on me? ”
    “That’s right, Lennie.”
    “The whole time?”
    “Lennie, we got the whooooooole thing.”
    He would realize then what a pitiful sight he must be. Here he was cringing on the ground, sobbing at Scorpo’s feet like an infant. He would raise his head. He would give a shaky laugh. He would dry his eyes on his shirt.
    “Did you have hidden cameras in the house too?” he would ask.
    “That’s right, Lennie.”
    “In the—er—sewing room too?” He would remember how he had come into the sewing room and tried to hide behind the mummy, which in the dark had looked like a ragged sewing form.
    “The sewing room too. We’re just sorry you didn’t go upstairs, Lennie, because upstairs we had the Son of Frankenstein, and the Blob, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
    “Gee, I’m sorry I didn’t get up there too.”
    “And now, Lennie—”
     
    “Lennie!” It was his mom. “Bring the book out on the porch. These two schoolteachers from Wilmington checked in, and they say they’ll help you.”
    “In a minute.”
    “They haven’t got all night, Lennie.” She sounded impatient.
    “I’m on my way.”
    He sat with his eyes closed, speeding up his dream even more.
     
    “And now, Lennie, we have a car waiting to bring you back to our studio to collect over three thousand dollars in cash and merchandise. How does that sound to you?”
    “Real good, sir.”
    “And, more important, you get another spin of the Vacation Wheel.”
    “Oh, well, never mind about that, sir. I’ll just take my cash and—”
    “We’ll leave it up to the audience. How many want to see Lennie come in and take his cash and merchandise?”
    Silence.
    “How many want to see him spin the Vacation Wheel?”
    Wild applause.
    “See, the audience is all with you, so come on in, Lennie, and give it a spin! ”
     
    “Lennie! These schoolteachers are leaving for Nashville at seven o’clock in the morning!”
    “Yes’m.”
    Lennie rose. He picked up his book. As he carried it through the motel office to the porch, he went over the strange words for the first time ... petiole ... stipule....

Chapter Four
    L ennie leaned over his desk, pencil in hand, waiting for the Science tests to be passed out. He always got a worried feeling when he was waiting to take a test. Even if he knew everything there was to know about a subject—something that had never happened—he knew he would still be worried.
    He erased a mark on his desk and then penciled it back. He beat out a rhythm from The Addams Family, snapping his fingers when he got to the two clicks. He jiggled his leg. He turned to the boy sitting next to him and said, “Hey, Frankie, is the petiole the stem or is the stipule the stem? I’m mixed up.”
    Frankie shrugged.
    He turned around. “Letty Bond, is—”
    “The petiole is the stem,” she said in a bored voice, “the stipules are extra leaves.” She clicked open her ballpoint pen.
    Lennie turned back to the front of the room and raised his hand. “Miss Markham?”
    “Yes, Lennie.”
    “Can we take our tests in pencil or do we have to have a ballpoint pen?”
    “Pencil’s fine.”
    “But can we use pen if we want to?” He asked this on behalf of Letty