Penelope March Is Melting by Jeffrey Michael Ruby

Author:Jeffrey Michael Ruby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2017-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

Penelope dropped her backpack by the door and bolted into the kitchen, out of breath.

“Miles, you’re not going to believe—”

She stopped before she was through the doorway. Sitting across the kitchen table from Miles, dressed in black and looking smaller than ever, was Coral Wanamaker.

Coral looked away, almost bored, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be in Penelope’s kitchen. Even more bizarre was what Penelope saw behind Coral.

Limping back and forth across the little room, trying his hardest to look stern, was Mr. Stingleberry. Though all he could muster was an awkward frown, the kind of face one might make after taking a bite of something that has recently gone rotten, his presence alarmed Penelope.

At the other end of the kitchen stood Penelope’s father, thick arms crossed, eyes burning with fury. “Sit down,” he barked. “Now.”

“I tried to stop them,” Miles pleaded to Penelope. “They barged in—”

Russell held up his hand. “Stop talking.” Then he turned to Penelope. “Start talking.”

“Dad, I don’t know what’s going on here.”

“What’s going on? What’s going on! What’s going on…Well, now, let’s see. You’ve been sneaking out of the house, disobeying my orders, lying to my face, and going to an old man’s home to play with chain saws. That’s what’s going on. Then I ground you, make it clear that you’re to walk straight home from school, and, for reasons I can’t begin to understand, you go and do it again! Something like that. Is that accurate?”

“I can explain, Dad.”

“I’ll bet you can. All this nonsense about learning…what…ice sculpture? And floating off in a submarine in the dead of night with a bunch of penguins to search for a monster? Something like that? Is that your explanation?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Penelope said in a shaky voice. “Where did you get that idea?” She tried not to make eye contact with Miles, whose head was in his hands anyway.

“I was concerned,” Coral interjected. “Worried that you were in danger. So I went to Mr. Stingleberry—”

Penelope sprang at Coral. “You little rat!”

Her father stepped between them and held Penelope at bay while she struggled to get loose.

“I went to Mr. Stingleberry,” Coral continued, calm as could be, “and I told him about you and Buzzardstock. Our teacher had some alarming things to say about your friend.”

Stingleberry ran his fingers through his thinning hair, as though he might find the correct words in there somewhere. “Yes, well, as you know, Ore9n Buzzardstock and I have a long—hic!—history. Not all of it’s good. I…was a lonely child, and he took me under his—hic!—under his wing. But I began to see things. Things I could not explain. Just as he did with you, Penelope, he led me beneath his home and showed me a crystal. Said it belonged to a sea monster and that it was the only thing keeping Glacier Cove afloat or some sort of rubbish like that. And when I expressed disbelief, he turned against me.”

“He’s just a harmless old man,” Penelope said.

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