Who Ordered This Baby? Definitely Not Me!

Author:Henry Winkler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2007-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

“Hey, Zip,” Frankie said after school that day. “Can you meet in my apartment at four o’clock?”

“Why?” I asked him. “What are you going to do, throw me a party?”

“Have you forgotten, dude? I love chopped liver,” Frankie said.

“No, you don’t. As a matter of fact, last time we had it, you said it looks like the stuff that collects between your toes.”

“No, Zip. It’s your grandfather’s bowling team celebration on Monday. Remember? February 8. And we’re…”

“Oh right, doing magic. I forgot. What trick are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the biting the quarter in half trick. Or possibly pulling Cheerio out of my top hat. But I haven’t done that in a really long time, which is why we need to rehearse this afternoon.”

“Well, Frankie, I’m afraid you’re going to have to start without me. I’m going to be a little late. But you can pick up Cheerio. I don’t think he has a playdate.”

“Where are you going to be?”

“I got stuff to do.”

“Stuff, as in?”

“Balloons and hats. Cool party favors. That kind of stuff. I’d get you some, but oh right, you’re going to be in New Jersey.”

We had reached the corner of 78th and Amsterdam Avenue. To get to our apartment, Frankie was going to continue straight down 78th for another half a block. Me, I was planning to take a right up Amsterdam. I was heading for the 99-cent store. Now that I’m in the fifth grade, I’m allowed to walk home by myself because our apartment is only two blocks away. Technically, walking home doesn’t really include the 99-cent store, but the store is within the two-block limit, even though it’s in another direction. So I made the decision that I wasn’t really breaking the rules, I was just bending them a little. Well, I really wasn’t bending them, I was twisting them. Maybe not even a twist. Maybe a tweak. Yeah, I was tweaking the rules. Surely my parents couldn’t be angry about that. A bend I understand, but a tweak? Come on.

“So I’ll see you in a little while, then?” Frankie said.

“Whenever.”

“Not whenever, Zip. Get there as soon as you can. Or did you forget that you are my all-important assistant? If you don’t hand me the quarter, I can’t bite it in half.”

“Ashley can do it.”

“She’s our business manager, Hank. Between you and me, she doesn’t have your dramatic flare. You’re the best assistant a magician could ask for, dude.”

He must’ve felt really bad for flaking out on my party, because now he was really buttering me up. He used so much butter that I felt like I was sliding down the sidewalk.

Frankie headed home and I turned right up Amsterdam Avenue. I passed the Silver Star Café, where people were sitting sipping coffee in the window. I saw Mrs. Fink. She must have been stirring her coffee, because she waved to me with her spoon still in her hand. I wondered if she’d like to come to my party.

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