Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Author:Louise Fitzhugh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307420961
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2002-06-16T07:00:00+00:00

OLE GOLLY IS RIGHT. THERE’S AS MANY WAYS TO LIVE AS PEOPLE, SHE SAYS. BUT WAIT’LL SHE HEARS ABOUT THIS THOUSAND-POUND BABY. OH, I FORGOT.

She paused and looked into space.

WHEN SOMEBODY GOES AWAY THERE’S THINGS YOU WANT TO TELL THEM. WHEN SOMEBODY DIES MAYBE THAT’S THE WORST THING. YOU WANT TO TELL THEM THINGS THAT HAPPEN AFTER. OLE GOLLY ISN’T DEAD.

She slammed the book shut, feeling something akin to rage. Then she got up and headed over to the Dei Santi family. Nothing much was happening in the front of the store, so she crept around to the back to watch Little Joe Curry.

He was in full command of an array of food that would have fed the Marines for a week. He munched happily. Harriet was wondering if the kids had been there yet, when suddenly the phone rang inside the store. Little Joe looked guilty and started to hide things, just in case, when there was a blood curdling scream from the front of the store. Little Joe was so startled a piece of bread fell right out of his mouth. Harriet dashed around to the front.

Mrs. Dei Santi was being held by Bruno in a half faint through which she managed to scream as loud as a dying opera singer, “Ecco, ecco, he is killed—all is lost… Dio… Dio.”

“No, Mama, just an accident…” Bruno began, looking helplessly to Papa Dei Santi, who was hanging up the phone.

“Dead, killed, truck smashed to bits, eccolà… Dio… Dio… mio figlio…” And she swooned.

Bruno looked as though he might drop the considerable weight, so Papa Dei Santi rushed to help him. As he did so he said, “Mama, Mama, the truck is not smashed, Fabio is not smashed, nothing is smashed but his head when he gets here.… A fender, that’s all it was—a fender.”

Signora Dei Santi revived immediately and started to run up and down the store waving her arms wildly and screaming in Italian. The customers stood around like frozen food. She ran up and down, up and down, finally gathering so much momentum that she crashed on into the storeroom, there discovering Little Joe with a whole cucumber in his mouth.

“Ecco… not bad enough, stealing us blind…” and gathering up all the food in one arm and Little Joe by the ear, she came catapulting back into the store. The family stared open-mouthed. The customers came alive and started to edge toward the door, feeling that this was perhaps too much.

“Mama, Mama, ti calma.…” Papa Dei Santi, seeing the evidence of Little Joe’s treachery, began to scream himself a long string of frightening-sounding words.

“But, Papa”—Bruno screamed to be heard— “where IS Fabio? Is he hurt? Is he in the hospital?”

“Him? Him? HE is fine. Evidentemente. What would happen to him? It’s the TRUCK! The TRUCK is smashed.” Papa Dei Santi managed to get this out, then went back to screaming at Little Joe. “Fired. You’re fired. We not running a restaurant!”

Suddenly the front door tinkled, then slammed, and there was utter silence as they all turned to see Fabio standing there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.