Great Ball of Light by Evan Kuhlman

Author:Evan Kuhlman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

The Bookworm Zombie

I wish I could tell you that Dad came home a little bit later and hugged and kissed Fenton and me and said that, even though we were rotten kids, he loved us to the end of the galaxy and back. And then he hurried down to the storm cellar, and he and Grandpa Wade spent the rest of the night talking out their issues.

What really happened was that Dad did not return until after eleven, and his glassy eyes and pickling-juice odor told Fenton and me that he had been to one of the bars in Red Lodge.

“Welcome home,” my brother and I said at the same time, but Dad didn’t answer us. Instead he sat us on the couch and announced the punishment for our crimes, including leaving home after dark and grave robbery: an entire month without TV, no computer use except for school work, and until further notice our weekly allowances were going to be donated to charity.

“You two are on short leashes,” he said. “Any further violations of trust will be treated more severely.”

Violations of trust. Those three words stabbed at me, caused a kind of internal bleeding. We accepted our punishment without protest, thankful that it wasn’t worse.

Dad then told me to hand over the light ball—he was going to be in charge of it from now on. I had returned the jar to my closet, so I brought it to him.

“You’re . . . not going to get rid of it, are you?” asked Fenton, kind of sheepishly. “I’m just wondering, because it’s possible that the lightning might come in handy in the future if something bad happens.”

“I haven’t decided what I’m going to do,” Dad said. “But you are in no position to make requests, young man.”

He told us to brush our teeth and get to bed, and to absolutely not tell anyone at school about our experiments. “Some people out there would be willing to do anything to get their hands on the lightning ball if they knew what it can do. We need to keep the secret—and the light—under lock and key. Got it?”

“Got it,” Fenton said, and I nodded and tried to think of just the right words to say to my dad, but nothing was coming together inside my head.

I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, feeling pretty icky inside. Fenton and I had some work to do when it came to restoring Dad’s faith in us. Plus, we had Grandpa Wade in the cellar; how long could he just stay there? And then there was the Ice Queen to deal with—Ice Stepmom? Ugh! The world was squeezing in on all sides.

• • •

As the days passed, Dad showed no interest in talking to Grandpa Wade, or even acknowledging that he was living in the storm cellar. The one thing he did do right away was donate some clothes to his father; they were too big for Grandpa, but he didn’t complain. That was about it.

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