Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club by Sara Nickerson

Author:Sara Nickerson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2019-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

Josh paused. Did she want him to read the whole thing? When he looked up for clarification, her pale watery eyes were way too close to his own. He stepped back until the hard edge of a bookshelf pressed against his shoulder blades.

“It’s for my Jackie,” the old lady whispered, her wandering eye landing on the ten-dollar bill clutched in Josh’s hand. “He never knew it was in there. He left the book here, in the library. He didn’t know about the money inside.”

“Oh no,” Josh moaned when he realized. She was not the old librarian. She was not a teacher. It was the invisible crack again.

Josh felt his chest squeeze even tighter. He dropped to his knees and fumbled with the zipper on his backpack. He needed his inhaler. He told himself, “I will close my eyes and when I open them, she will be gone. Because she was never here in the first place. She is not a real person in the real world. She does not belong here.”

He took a breath. Opened his eyes.

Great-Aunt Evelyn’s feet, marching in place.

He looked up.

Great-Aunt Evelyn in her red tracksuit.

She was doing arm exercises, first little circles and then big ones. And she was laughing. Her mouth was wide-open, but no sound was coming out.

He dropped the book, and the money, too, grabbed the strap of his backpack and bolted for the door.

But she was right there, blocking.

Each way Josh tried to go, the old lady was blocking. And she was no longer laughing. “I’m sorry,” she whispered firmly. “But I won’t leave you alone until you take the money. I will follow you forever. Just put it in your pocket, so you’ll have it if you ever run into my Jackie. He goes by Jack now, and he’s all grown up. But I call him Jackie. I always will.”

Josh shook his head, side to side, and stood there with Great-Aunt Evelyn, toe to toe. He sucked in a tight, wheezy breath. “You are not really here,” he said firmly, straight into the one eye that managed to meet his own. “And if you come around again, I will have to bury you. In my backyard. I’ve done it before.”

She nodded wildly, like a half-broken bobblehead doll. “You can bury us all. But until you do what you need to do, we’ll come back. Each and every one of us.” She started to hum.

“What do I need to do?” Josh was practically crying. “What is it?”

“My Jackie would have liked that ten dollars. He never even knew about it. He thought I just gave him a book of poems. He was my favorite nephew. I’d like him to know that.”

Josh went to slide the bill back into the book, but her raspy voice stopped him. “You can fold it. Put it in your pocket and keep it there. You never know when you might run into him. When you do, give him the money. From me. Keep the book for yourself. Because you are a good boy.

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