Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica

Author:Mike Lupica
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2006-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Molly looked at Sam. Sam looked at her. Then they both looked at Josh.

“Forget about that,” Josh said to Adam Burke. “Where you been at, man? Have I seen you since opening night?”

Adam said he had never gotten to take any time off after the World Series, so after the Celtics’ opener he’d gone to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks to stare at movie stars drinking cappuccino and try to pitch movie ideas.

“Got any good ones?” Josh said.

“Not according to any of the producers I talked to,” he said. “All of whom looked to be about Sam and Molly’s age.” He nodded at them. “So what are they doing at practice?”

“Not for print?” Josh said.

It was interesting, Molly noticed. He wasn’t talking to Adam like he was Sam’s uncle. He was talking to him like he was a sportswriter. And maybe a snoopy one at that.

“Aw, don’t do that to me on a day when I got here late,” Adam said, almost whining. “‘Not for print’ always means it’s something good.”

“Not for print?” Josh said again.

“Fine.”

Josh said, “Sam must’ve told you about Molly’s mom. Did he mention that we went to college together? Her mom and me?”

“He might have.”

“After a few minutes with me,” Sam said, “what he mostly hears is blah blah blah.” Sam tried to raise his eyebrows but failed miserably, as usual. “Even when I’m telling him an interesting story.”

“Shut up, junior,” Adam said.

“Shutting up,” Sam said.

“Anyway,” Josh said, “now that I’ve gotten to know Molly a little, I decided that maybe she could use another friend.”

Molly watched him as he said that and noticed something she’d noticed before: When he was playing the part of Good-Guy Josh, when he wanted somebody to like him, he had this way of putting his hand in his hair and mussing it all up, the way a kid would.

Totally phony.

“Pretty cool,” Adam Burke said.

“I’m just doing what anybody would do.”

Now Josh tried to put his arm around Molly. She knew it was just for show. She pulled away, bent down, untied her shoelaces so she could make herself real busy tying them back up.

One of these days, he was going to put his arm around her—hug her, even—and mean it.

“Aw, man, this is a perfect column for me,” Adam Burke said.

“Not happening.”

“And did I mention that it’s a slow news day?”

“Write about what a long season it is,” Josh said, grinning. “Your readers need to know stuff like that.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m not doing this because I want publicity,” Josh said.

Sam had moved behind Josh and Adam. Molly saw him stick a finger in his throat. Gag me.

“I’m doing it,” Josh continued, “because this girl has gone through a lot and came through it as a greater kid than ever.”

Sam must have put his finger too far into his throat, because he actually started coughing now. Josh and Adam turned around. Sam put up a hand, as if indicating that nobody was going to have to do the Heimlich maneuver on him.

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.