Free The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar Page A

“Rat got your tongue?”
    Larry laughed.
    “Gee, I’m sorry, Mo, but I can’t talk to you,” said Ginger. “I’m not allowed to talk to
boys.
”
    Mo turned bright red.
    “That shut her up,” said Leslie.
    As soon as Roger and his friends left Larry cracked up laughing.
    “What’s so funny?” said Mo.
    “She said she wasn’t allowed to talk to you, but she had to talk to you to tell you that!”
    “So?” demanded Mo.
    “So she talked to you, when she said she couldn’t.”
    “So?” asked Mo again.
    Larry shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said.
    “I know,” said Mo. “You don’t know anything.” She got up and walked away.

19
    “W HAT DOES a cow say?” asked David.
    Elizabeth concentrated very hard. She pressed her lips together tightly and said, “Mmmmm.”
    “Moooo,” said David.
    “Mmmm,” said Elizabeth.
    David laughed. Then Elizabeth laughed too.
    “Hi, Liz’beth,” said Ricky, entering her room.
    “Hi, Ricky!” said David, exaggerating the words to encourage his sister.
    Elizabeth smiled.
    “Hey, David, can I ask you something?” said Ricky.
    “Sure.”
    “I was just wondering about something. We were talking about famous comedians today at school. Urn, who are The Three Stooges?”
    David felt his stomach tighten. “The Three Stooges,” he said, trying to be as matter-of-fact as Ricky. “They’re some old-time comedians. They were always hitting each other and breaking things and stuff like that.”
    He wondered what Ricky knew. Roger’s brother, Glen Delbrook, was in Ricky’s class.
    “They kind of acted stupid?” asked Ricky. “Goony?”
    “No. Well, maybe. It was more, just kind of, Idon’t know.… They were funny. It’s a kind of humor known as slapstick comedy. They were very funny; very well respected in their field.”
    “Was one of them named Curly?” asked Ricky.
    “Yes.”
    “Did he have real curly hair?”
    “No,” David suddenly realized. “He was bald. I guess that was the joke. They called him Curly even though he was bald. Why do you ask?”
    “No reason,” said Ricky. “We were just talking about comedians at school. Glen said his favorite comedian was Robin Williams, and I said mine was Woody Allen.”
    David knew that Ricky knew that David liked Woody Allen.
    “And then some stupid girl said her favorite comedian was Curly of The Three Stooges.”
    “Oh,” said David. “Well, he was funny, too. Very well respected in his field. I think The Three Stooges are on TV late at night. We could tape it and watch it tomorrow.”
    “No, that’s okay,” said Ricky. “I think I get the idea.”
    “So what do you want to do?” asked David. “Want to play chess or something?”
    “Nah,” said Ricky. “I got a lot of homework.” He walked out of the room.
    D AVID’S MOTHER was making chicken and dumplings for dinner. She asked David to put the sack of flour back on the shelf for her.
    He stood on the counter and put the sack on the top shelf, jumped down, and landed hard on the linoleum floor. The sack of flour tipped over and fell on his head.
    Ricky burst out laughing.
    It took David a few seconds to figure out what had happened. His curly hair had turned white with flour.
    Even his mother laughed.
    “Is that like something Curly of The Three Stooges would have done?” asked Ricky.
    David smiled. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said.
    It wasn’t until later that night, when David was lying in bed, that he realized the curse had struck—if there
was
a curse, and he didn’t believe in curses.
    Roger and Randy had trampled all over Mrs. Bayfield’s flower garden. They had stepped on her flowers. Now the flour had “stepped” on him.
    Oh, come on, now, he thought. That’s really pushing it. Flowers and flour are completely different things. Just because they sound alike—that shouldn’t mean anything.
    All it proved was that if you really want to believe something, you can always find some way to make it seem true. Just like those