The Colossus of Roads by Christina Uss

The Colossus of Roads by Christina Uss

Author:Christina Uss [Uss, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00


NOT YOUR ONLY TALENT

BACK OUT ON the sidewalk, Rick collected the sabotaged sign and tucked it under his arm, impatient to restore it again. In fact, once he’d cleaned it up, maybe he’d design a work order to fix this section of Balboa permanently. It’d be much harder for hee-haws and jerks to rip down road signs fastened with solid Department of Transportation nuts and bolts.

After walking with him and Mila to Miss Diamond’s house, Abuelita decided to go for a stroll and drop in on one of her friends. At Ms. Diamond’s, fewer Girl Scouts than normal had made it, but the ones who were there were painting like mad. Rick and Mila headed toward the double helix where they’d been working last time. “Maybe we can work together to help fix that poor thing,” Mila said as Rick put down the vandalized sign.

“Thanks, but I’ve got it,” he responded.

“Oh. Okay,” she said, her voice tinged with disappointment.

“A nice surprise arrived today!” Ms. Diamond announced to the group. “An extra delivery of freeway signs!” She waved to a stack. None of them approached the dimensions of the grizzly sign, but a few were sizable. Rick knew what would make Mila smile. He hurried over and said, “I’ll take two of the biggest ones you’ve got.”

“All yours, chickadee,” she said.

Rick dragged the signs back to Mila and said, “All yours, mythical-creature painter.” He’d imagined she would clap her hands with quiet delight. Instead, she was searching around on the floor with a stricken expression.

“Where are the signs I did last time? And the ones we did together?” A dragon and the two SPEED LIMIT UNICORNS were still there, but the rest of them weren’t.

Rick scratched his head. He knew he hadn’t listed those signs on any work orders. “Ms. Diamond?” he called. “Did you write up plans for more signs to be hung since last week?”

She looked sheepish. “No, I was waiting for you.”

Mila’s looking so distressed made Rick feel less so. This would be an easy problem to solve. “They’re around here somewhere,” he assured her. “I’ll help you find them.”

They walked around the room together, until Mila stopped. Rick looked where she was looking. The older girls who’d taken over the Chompy McChompface sign had finished it with bold white letters at the top: THE SKY’S THE LIMIT. Now they’d turned their attention to some smaller signs. One girl was starting to spread blue paint across NO PARKING EXCEPT MERMAIDS.

Mila didn’t look like she could speak, so Rick did it for her. “Stop that!” he said. “What’s wrong with you?” No more vandalizing of signs was happening today if he had anything to say about it.

The girls looked up at him in surprise. “What’s the problem?” one asked.

“You can’t take my friend’s signs and paint over them. Give those back!” He stomped toward them, and the girls scuttled away from him.

“We didn’t know these weren’t up for grabs,” one girl said sulkily.

“Yeah, they looked like mistakes,” another said. “Sorry.



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