Hunter Moran Digs Deep by Patricia Reilly Giff

Author:Patricia Reilly Giff
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2014-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The bell rings and we head downstairs to the Music Room. “Wait,” Yulefski says. “Don’t move.” She darts away and out the door.

Moments later, she’s back, dragging a pair of shovels. “I figured I’d bring my father’s. I couldn’t count on you guys.”

They’re as rusty and dirty as Pop’s.

She taps our shoulders with both hands. “That reminds me. We’re getting close to the money. I have to discuss something with you.”

I brace myself. What next?

“Half is for me,” she says. “Half for you guys.”

“Wait a minute,” I say. “Thirds. T-h-i-r-d-s.”

“Well . . .” She thinks about it, dislodging a Rice Krispie from her braces with one blue-painted fingernail. “It’s almost all in the family.”

If I had drumsticks I might bop her over the head. But now we’ve arrived at the Music Room and step over a pile of junk. We lean the shovels against the wall, out of sight, and move forward, our ears to the door.

Boom. Crash. Boom.

Is someone being killed in there?

“YOUDY YO!” a voice screams.

Yulefski has no fear. She pounds on the door with both fists.

The boom, crash, boom stops.

The screaming stops.

We hear the sounds of locks opening. Four or five of them. Sister Ramona pokes her head out the door. She looks like a turtle coming out of its shell. A scared turtle.

“Whew,” she says when she sees it’s only us, and not Fred, the killer. She grabs Yulefski’s arm, and my shoulder. She jerks her head at Zack. “Come right in,” she says, and locks the door behind us. “I was just getting myself into a music mood.”

Yulefski speaks right up. “Hunter wants to take drum lessons.”

Sure.

But Sister Ramona looks thrilled.

“I’ll have to owe you,” I say.

She thinks about it for half a second, then nods. She unlocks the door again and motions for the other two to leave.

Something comes to me. I can see that it comes to Zack and Yulefski as well.

A glitch in our plans.

A fatal flaw.

How are they going to get past Sister in the Music Room, down that old hall in back, and into the coal cellar?

Zack’s a fast thinker. “Wait a minute,” he tells Sister Ramona.

“We can’t wait,” Sister says. “Hunter and I are dying to begin.”

“I thought I heard Sister Appolonia calling you.” Zack crosses his fingers behind his back.

“Didn’t Sister Appolonia say it was urgent?” Yulefski chimes in.

Sister Ramona’s shoulders slump. “All right. I’ll be back in no time.”

She hesitates in the hall, staring at the rusty shovels covered with mud. “Hard to believe,” she mutters to herself.

We wait as she patters up the stairs. Then Zack grabs the shovel. The two of them dive through the Music Room and disappear into the darkness.

I slide into a chair behind a set of drums and smash the cymbals with a drumstick a couple of times. I add some music from inside my head.

Very satisfying, I have to say.

And Sister Ramona is back. “You’re a born musician,” she says.

Amazing.

And then I hear it. The shovel. Zack’s voice: “Ow, Yulefski.

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