The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

Author:Shelley Pearsall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2015-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-ONE

Officer Billie showed up at the hospital wearing a pair of white pajamas. At least, that’s what Arthur thought at first.

He was in the waiting room with the old lady and all of the other permanent-looking hospital visitors when Officer Billie barreled through the door about an hour after he’d called her. Her dark hair was sticking up in spiky tufts, and a brown purse dangled loosely over her arm.

Arthur was so used to seeing Officer Billie in her precisely creased uniform that he might not have recognized her if it hadn’t been for the voice.

“Mr. Owens, there you are,” she belted out. “I’ve been trying to locate you all over the hospital.”

Arthur wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone—they would have had a field day with it at juvie—but he was sort of glad to see his probation officer.

“Karate,” Officer Billie said, explaining her odd outfit as she came over to Arthur. “Saturday classes.”

Arthur added this to his very short list of surprising things he’d learned about Officer Billie. She made caramel corn and she did karate.

“Are you all right?” The probation officer studied him with her stern cop gaze. It was like sitting under a lamp. It made Arthur sweat.

“Yeah, kind of.”

“What happened?”

As Arthur started to answer, Officer Billie glanced around at the other people in the waiting room, who were desperately trying to seem as if they weren’t hanging on every word. “Wait,” she said, holding up her hand. “We’ll talk outside.”

—

Arthur was surprised to see it was still light out. He felt like it should be way past suppertime, but there were some streaks of pinkish yellow left in the sky. The rain seemed to have stopped. Big puddles filled the parking lot.

“Car’s over here.” Officer Billie pointed at an old blue Pontiac. “Nothing fancy. No sirens on this one,” she said with a joking grin as she opened the door for him.

The car smelled like fast food. Officer Billie had to brush some wrappers and leftover fries off the passenger seat before Arthur sat down. “Let me get the door,” she said automatically, closing it with a firm thump.

As they waited in a line of traffic, the officer finally turned to Arthur and said, “Now, let’s hear the details.”

Arthur kept his eyes focused on the scene outside the car window. “I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “Mr. Hampton was on the floor of his garage when I got there this morning. I couldn’t tell what happened or how long he’d been there.”

He didn’t mention what Mr. Hampton had been working on. If Officer Billie didn’t already know what the guy was doing, he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her. Plus, he wasn’t even sure he could explain it.

“So you got help and went to the hospital with him?”

Arthur nodded.

“Well, I’m extremely proud of you for being in the right place at the right time,” Officer Billie said.

In his mind, Arthur added, Instead of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like you usually are.

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