Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman

Author:Gordon Korman [Korman, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443119795
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Published: 1985-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Eight

The first frost of the year had come the very night Mr. Delancey had installed his Stead-E-Rain sprinkler system, but the technological marvel didn’t seem to notice. According to Stead-E-Rain, the temperature was hovering in and around one hundred fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, and the town of DeWitt was experiencing a Sahara desert drought.

For this reason, all sprinkler valves had been going full blast for almost a week now. The lawn had been converted to semi-swamp, and the bushes were wilting. One thing Mr. Delancey had neglected to ask the people from Stead-E-Rain was how the system could be deactivated. There was no on/off switch, and when Sean tried to yank the control system out of the wall, he received a jarring electric shock. Strangely, there had been no answer at the Stead-E-Rain offices for several days now.

“Don’t blame me,” was Mr. Delancey’s statement.

A seepage problem was beginning in several parts of the house. In the TV room, the sound of water dripping into buckets formed the background for exclusive Weather Channel footage of National Guard troops vainly trying to dig Denver out of a mountain of snow. Gramp watched smugly, loving every minute of it, drinking a glass of prune juice and smoking a Scrulnick’s. With effort, he pulled his eyes from the set and regarded Raymond and Sean.

“It sounds to me like you kids have been pulling some stuff here.”

Raymond had just recounted a reasonably accurate summary of the Gavin Gunhold affair, leading up to the need for a bogus poet on Friday night. At Sean’s request, Raymond had left out any mention of Steve Semenski, and described Ashley merely as a doubter who needed convincing.

Sean flushed. “We promised up and down that Gavin Gunhold had tons of poetry, Gramp, and it turned out that he had only the one. So we had to write the poems.”

“Now this Ashley girl is getting on our case to meet you — uh — him,” Raymond added. “So if we can’t produce our poet, it’ll look like something’s not kosher, and there’s a chance we’ll get found out. Then Kerr’ll flunk us for sure.”

Gramp leaned back and took a long puff of his Scrulnick’s. “Well, I want you to know that I think this is just great.”

“You do?” Sean asked in amazement.

“Of course!” The old man put an arm around each boy. “This is what getting an education is really about. Being alive! Feeling the blood pumping through those arteries! Having your back up against the wall every now and then!”

“So you’ll do it?” Sean prompted.

“Well, I’ll have to check my social calendar,” said Gramp sarcastically. “After all, I am in Long Island, the excitement capital of the world.”

Raymond grinned. “This is fantastic! Thanks a lot, Gramp!” From his pocket he produced a crumpled dollar bill and held it out to the old man. “You were right. Denver was first. I could have sworn it was going to be Cincinnati.”

Gramp motioned for him to put his money away. “Double or nothing northern Texas is next.

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