Free The Greatest Power by Wendelin Van Draanen Page B

and Dave kept checking the window for signs of the rhesus.
    “He’s gone, Dave,” Mr. Sanchez finally said. “And even if he weren’t, you couldn’t keep him.”
    Mr. Sanchez, of course, had no way of knowing that Dave was far more concerned about the monkey coming back than he was about keeping him.
    After all, what if the monkey led Damien Black to the apartment?
    What if Damien Black appeared at their door wielding his double-bladed axe?
    What if he bwaa-ha-ha’d his way into the apartment and demanded the powerband?
    Dave tried to calm himself with the thought that he could simply click in the Invisibility ingot and disappear, but another terrifying thought kept creeping into his mind.
    What if Damien Black held his family hostage for the powerband?
    He would, Dave feared, be willing to kill them to get it back.
    In the end (as much as he hated to admit it), he decided that Sticky was right: the monkey was trouble.
    Dave had other worries. For starters, he had a backpack crammed full of stolen stolen cash. He had to get it (and the ring) back to the bank (which, because it was Saturday, would be open from ten a.m. to two p.m.).
    But his parents would (if this was anything like all the Saturdays that had come before) insist that he help with chores.
    How would he ever get away?
    As the minutes of the morning ticked away, Dave busied himself around the house. He swept the kitchen; washed, dried, and put away the dishes; cleaned fingerprints off the refrigeratordoor; and wiped down counters (which had, not surprisingly, little monkey handprints on them).

    “My,” Dave’s mother said after a while. “All this without being asked?”
    Dave simply smiled and continued cleaning, keeping a watchful eye on the clock. It was already nine-thirty, and he had yet to come up with an ex-cuse for leaving the apartment.
    Think! he told himself. Think, think, think! (Which, of course, had the exact opposite effect.)
    It was Evie who (unwittingly) came to his rescue.
    “We’re out of milk!” she whined from inside the refrigerator. “Mo-om! Dave drank all the mi-ilk!”
    Dave had, in fact, not drunk the milk. There had been no milk to drink. But the instant Evie began whining, Dave said, “I’ll go get some.”
    “Really,
mo’jo
?” his mother asked from the couch (where she was mending a split in a pair of Evie’s pants). “That would be so nice.”
    So, lickety-split, Dave grabbed his bike, his backpack, and Sticky (who’d been enjoying a sizzly siesta out on the flower box) and escaped the apartment. He knew he’d be in trouble for taking too long to return with milk, but (being thirteen) he figured he’d figure that out later.
    Right now he was focused on only one thing:
    Getting to the bank.
    Unfortunately for Dave, this was also Damien Black’s sole focus. As Dave was speeding into town on his bike, Damien (along with the Bandito Brothers) was cruising to the exact same destination in his Eldorado.
    Damien, you see, was banking on one thing:
    The boy who’d stolen his stolen money was a doggone do-gooder who would return the money to the bank. (The fool!)
    And (because of the magic wristband) the doggone do-gooder would want to stay anonymous.
    And so (because he was a doggone do-gooder with a magic wristband who’d want to stay anonymous) he’d go invisible to return the money to the bank.
    And he’d do it as soon as possible (because that’s what doggone do-gooders with magic wristbands do).
    So yes, there were, in fact,
four
things Damien was banking on, and it just so happens that he was right about all four.
    Now, to Dave’s credit, the thought of keeping the money (or any small portion of it, say one slim, crisp one-hundred-dollar bill that no one would
eeeeeever
miss) never even crossed his mind. He just wanted to get the money (and the ring) back to the rightful owners.
    So as Dave hurried to the bank on his bike, the Blind Bandito Beggars arranged themselves (with, as you might imagine, much