Jack's New Power by Jack Gantos

Author:Jack Gantos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2012-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

The next morning I was standing on the street corner. Since I no longer was driven to school by the maniac, I had to take the bus. I squinted up at the sun to try and tell what time it was. I couldn’t. It seemed like I had been waiting for a long time, and I didn’t want to be late. Mr. Cucumber was a force to be reckoned with and I wasn’t feeling very chipper. After dinner it had taken a long time for my stomach to cool down. I had spent half the night tossing and turning in bed.

“I need a watch,” I said. No sooner had I said it than I spotted one lying on the side of the road. It was tilted at just the right angle, so that the sun bounced off the crystal and hit me in the eye. “Seek and ye shall find,” I said. I was definitely becoming more powerful. Nothing could stand in my way. The pepper contest with Dad was just a little setback.

I picked the watch up and put it on. It was even set at the right time. I snapped my fingers. “Bus, arrive!” I shouted. In a second, the bus turned the corner and stopped in front of me. Not a bad beginning to a new day, I thought. I needed a boost.

After about an hour of Mr. Cucumber telling us how useless we were, my attention wandered to my new watch. Since I was sitting near the window, I moved my wrist so that the sun hit the crystal. I followed the angle and spotted a little patch of bright light on the far wall. Mr. Cucumber drifted in my direction, so I gazed up at him as though I were really listening. When he turned away, I adjusted the crystal so that I shot a sharp laser beam of light into the corner of his eye. With each blast I gave him, I concentrated on two words, migraine headache.

I had zapped him a couple good ones when he suddenly whipped around and aimed his pointer at my nose. “Do you think I’m an idiot?” he shouted, and bore down on me. He drove the pointer into my chest like a short, fat, bald, cucumber Musketeer.

I was struck dumb.

“Take the stick,” he commanded. His face was as tough and scuffed up as the toe of an old shoe. “Take it!”

I pulled it away from my chest.

“Give me your wrist!”

I held it out to him.

He unlatched the watch and set it down on my desk. “Stand up!”

I stood.

“Lash it!” he shouted.

“What?” I asked meekly.

“The watch. Lash it!”

Well, easy come, easy go, I thought. I brought the stick down and hit it squarely. Nothing broke.

“Again! Harder!”

I hit it again. And again. And again. I used both hands and brought the stick down with all my might. Crack! The crystal shattered. The hands and face flew off. Then all the little gears exploded apart.

“Enough!” he said, and snatched the pointer in midair.

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