It's a Baby, Andy Russell

Author:David A. Adler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Andy hurried home. He went to the kitchen. Tamika was washing dishes and Rachel was drying them. He didn’t see Aunt Janet.

“Tamika,” Andy whispered, “I have to talk to you.”

Tamika put the dish she was washing back in the sink. She followed Andy out of the kitchen. “What’s up?” Tamika asked.

“Where’s Aunt Janet?”

“She’s sitting down,” Tamika said. “She still hurts from her fall.”

“She blames me for that, I bet. She’s always blaming me for something.”

Tamika shook her head. “She didn’t say it was your fault. She just said it hurt.”

Andy told Tamika about his plan to hide Slither and the gerbils. He asked her for the key to the Perlmans’ house.

“I think you’re making a mistake,” Tamika said. “Aunt Janet never said you have to give away your pets. She said she had to give away her dog.”

“Didn’t she say animals aren’t allowed in a hospital?”

Tamika nodded.

“And didn’t she say this house has to be as clean as a hospital?”

Tamika nodded again.

“You see,” Andy said. “I’m one step ahead of her. I’m a whole staircase ahead of her. There’s one thing I know and that is you have to keep ahead of Aunt Janet. Now, will you please help me save my pets?”

“OK.”

Tamika went upstairs. When she came down she gave Andy the key to the Perlmans’ house. She asked him if he needed help carrying the animals next door.

“What I really need is for you to keep Aunt Janet in the kitchen looking the other way, away from the front door.”

“I can do that,” Tamika said.

Tamika went back to the kitchen and Andy went to the basement. He took the second gerbil tank and quietly carried it out of the house.

“You'll be visiting the Perlmans for a while,” he told the gerbils. “They’re not home, but you would like them. They’re nice.”

Andy put this tank next to the other one. He unlocked the front door and went inside. At first he thought he would put the animals on the kitchen table. But then he remembered what Aunt Janet said about gerbils and food and thought Mrs. Perlman might not like having them in the kitchen. She might not like it if he put them in the living or dining rooms, either. He decided to put them in Dr. Perlman’s office. That was Andy’s favorite room. He loved the old brass and wood barber’s chair, the mechanical bank, and the menorah with all the flowers.

Andy put the tanks on Dr. Perlman’s desk.

“I’ll visit you every day,” Andy told the gerbils. “I’ll bring you food and water.”

Then he hurried home. He opened the door...and there was Aunt Janet.

“Did you hang the signs outside?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Andy answered. “I didn’t finish making them. I’ll do that now.”

“Good,” Aunt Janet said. Then she turned and went upstairs.

Andy hurried to the edge of the stairs and watched Aunt Janet go into the bathroom.

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