Free Alice At The Home Front by Mardiyah A. Tarantino Page A

heavy book, leafed through, and found some interesting words: scab , what you pick when you’ve skinned your knee; scaffold , what you hang murderers from; scalpel , what the doctor uses to cut you up; scandal , what you create when you do bad things (like write in chalk on the pavement). There it was: scarab , with a photo that looked just like the ones promenading around her wrist.
    She began reading and taking notes on the back of her binder paper where she’d drawn the nine pen and ink chi symbols.
    It was five o’clock by the time she had finished and packed up her things. She was nearing home when she heard a terrific racket. It was coming from in front of her house! Amid the screeching and barking, she saw Bagheera confronting a hefty German shepherd who must have escaped his owner. The huge dog was bouncing around wagging his tail, clearly wanting to play. Bagheera, on the other hand, was stretched up on his hind legs and boxing the dog’s snout with both paws, sharp claws extended, and spitting at the mutt like a garden sprinkler. With each scratch, the dog would whine and back away.
    “Call off your cat!” boomed the owner who came stomping up. “You should get a leash for that crazy wildcat. He’s dangerous!”
    “Where’s your dog’s leash?” replied Alice.
    “Here, Aloysius, poor little doggy-woggy,” the man called to the panting eighty-pounder.
    Bagheera, meanwhile, had hopped up on a parked car and was calmly licking himself, lamb-chop style.
    Alice gathered him up and carried him inside. “I told you not to go out. You might hurt somebody,” she giggled.
     

Chapter Ten  
    At the Corner Drugstore  
    Was that wing curved or squared at the tip? Alice squinted as she peered through her grandmother’s mother-of-pearl binoculars and then looked down at the cards. It didn’t mean that she could always see clearly to identify the plane, if the cloud cover was too low and blotted it out or if wispy mares’ tails got in the way. But she could tell for sure it wasn’t an enemy plane, with the big, black insignia on the wings. Alice checked her watch, sighted the plane again, and wrote in her logbook: “Thurs 12 1700 Lockheed P40 heading SSW Alt 200.”
    Alice heard the phone ringing downstairs and then footsteps approaching the stairwell.
    “It’s for you, Alice,” Mother called.
    Alice’s heart did a little dance as she went down to answer. She picked up the receiver. Hearing Jimmy’s voice on the other end and seeing that Mother was still in the entry room, she pulled the neck of her sweater over the mouthpiece.
    “Hi, Alice. How yer doing? It’s Jimmy.”
    “Aie, soyrbaak? Owdiiigo?”
    “What? I can’t hear you.”
    Alice tried again, tucking the mouthpiece into her sleeve. “Owloongyer baakfr?”
    Mother smiled and left the room.
    “Jeez. You got a cold, or what?”
    “No, Everything fine,” she said, uncovering the phone. “How’d it go?”
    “Hah! That’s a long story. You wanted me to call you?”
    Alice rolled her eyes. “Of course I wanted you to call. I want to hear all about it.”
    “Well, gosh, I’m kinda busy, you know. The gang’s giving me a party tonight … Alice? But if you want, we could meet at the drugstore like last time?”
    “When?”
    “Say, tomorrow after your school? I don’t have many free days.”
    Alice put a curse right then and there on the “gang” and the “your school.” She wanted to say how about right now? But didn’t.
    “So you’ll come there tomorrow? Promise?”
    “Yeah, okay, Alice. I promise. Boy, you drive a hard one.”
    She had no idea what “drive a hard one” meant, probably boys’ talk for making things difficult.
    In spite of finally talking with Jimmy and his calling her and promising to meet, Alice felt a little nudge of sadness inside. She was pretty good at getting what she wanted, but what if the other person didn’t feel the same way she did?
    Downtown the next day, the warm sun had managed to sneak