Read Amos and the Alien Online
Authors: Gary Paulsen
Amos and the Alien (5 page)
The ball wouldn’t let go. It was stuck to his hand. No matter how hard he shook, it stayed on his fingers.
There was no choice, he could stay where he was and die—or run.
He ran.
Amos put up one arm to cover his face and barreled down the middle of the field.
Dunc watched the whole thing with his mouth open. The Bruisers were falling
around Amos like flies. Number fifty-five was still hot on his trail. He dived for Amos’s legs but was stopped cold in midair. He slithered to the ground like a wet noodle.
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“Hurry, Dunc! He must still be here somewhere!”
The two boys rode across the bridge and up the hill. Amos swerved around a tree and headed into the brush. He jumped off his bike and raced to the spot where the spaceship had been.
“Girrk! Are you there?” Amos felt in front of him. This time he didn’t run into anything. His shoulders slumped. “He’s really gone this time.”
Dunc leaned his bike against a tree. “I guess he couldn’t wait around anymore.”
“I just wanted to thank him for saving me at the game today. He zapped so many of the
Bruisers, they didn’t have enough players left to make a team. They had to forfeit.”
“I know. I heard number fifty-five has decided to give up football and join the Chess Club.”
“Speaking of giving up football, Coach wasn’t too happy with me when I told him he’d have to find another quarterback.”
“It was for the best, Amos. Without Girrk you’d never last through another game.”
“One good thing came out of it, though. Melissa finally noticed me.”
“Did she ask you to the dance?”
“No, turns out she already promised to go with Biff.”
“Then how do you know she noticed you?”
“I overheard her talking about me.”
“What did she say?”
“She said, and I quote, ‘What’s-his-name sure showed ’em today.’ ”
“ ‘What’s-his-name’?”
Amos grinned. “Isn’t that cute? She gave me a pet name.”
“Adorable.” Dunc grabbed his bike and was starting to climb on it when a strong
gust of wind hit. “Looks like a storm. We better head for home.”
A blinding light filled the sky, and sparks shot toward them. Amos looked up. Hovering right above them was a strange silver craft.
“It’s Girrk!”
The door opened. Girrk stepped out and stood in the air. He pointed his finger at Amos and slowly lifted him off the ground. The alien grabbed him and rocked him like a baby. Then he set him gently back on the earth.
“Girrk and Amos—friends.”
Girrk stepped inside. The door slid shut, and the ship disappeared.
Amos waved at the spot until he was sure nothing was there.
Dunc nudged his arm. “Come on, Amos. You can help me with my latest experiment.”
Amos made a face. “Another experiment?”
“You’ll like this one. It has to do with sending messages through space.”
“To faraway places like, say—Turko?”
Dunc nodded. “Maybe.”
Amos jumped on his bike and headed for the waterfront bridge. “Great. Melissa loves baseball. Maybe we can get Girrk back in time to help me play with the Badgers.”
Dunc shook his head and started pedaling. “I’m right behind you, Amos.…”
Be sure to join Dunc and Amos in these other Culpepper Adventures:
When Dunc Culpepper and his best friend, Amos, first see the parrot in a pet store, they’re not impressed—it’s smelly, scruffy, and missing half its feathers. They’re only slightly impressed when they learn that the parrot speaks four languages, has outlived ten of its owners, and is probably 150 years old. But when the bird starts mouthing off about buried treasure, Dunc and Amos get pretty excited—let the amateur sleuthing begin!
Dunc and his accident-prone friend Amos are up to their old sleuthing habits once again. This time they’re after a band of doll thieves! When a doll that once belonged to Charles Dickens’s daughter is stolen from an exhibition at the local mall, the two boys put on their detective gear and do some serious snooping. Will a vicious watch dog keep them from retrieving the valuable missing doll?
Dunc and Amos are researching the Civil War cannon that stands in the town square when they find a note inside telling them about a time portal. Entering it through the dressing room of La Petite, a women’s clothing store, the boys find themselves in downtown Chatham on March 8, 1862—the day before the historic clash between the
Monitor
and the
Merrimac
. But the Confederate soldiers they meet mistake them for Yankee spies. Will they make it back to the future in one piece?
Best friends Dunc and Amos meet up with a new buddy named Lash when they enter the radical world of skateboard competition. When somebody “cops”—steals—Lash’s prototype skateboard, the boys are determined to get it back. After all, Lash is about to shoot for a totally rad world’s record! Along the way they learn a major lesson:
Never
kiss a monkey!
Dunc and his best friend, Amos, are planning the best route to get the most candy on Halloween. But their plans change when Amos is slightly bitten by a werewolf. He begins scratching
himself and chasing UPS trucks: He’s become a werepuppy!
Dunc and Amos have a small problem when they try hang gliding—they crash in the wilderness. Luckily, Amos has read a book about a boy who survived in the wilderness for fifty-four days. Too bad Amos doesn’t have a hatchet. Things go from bad to worse when a wild man holds the boys captive. Can anything save them now?
Dunc’s not afraid of ghosts, although Amos is sure that the old Rambridge house is haunted by the ghost of Blackbeard the Pirate. Then the best friends meet Eddie, a meek man who claims to be impersonating Blackbeard’s ghost in order to live in the house in peace. But if that’s true, why are flames shooting from his mouth?
Deciphering a code they find in a library book, Amos and Dunc stumble onto a burglary ring. The burglars’ next target is the home of Melissa,
the girl of Amos’s dreams (who doesn’t even know that he’s alive). Amos longs to be a hero to Melissa, so nothing will stop him from solving this case—not even a mind-boggling collision with a jock, a chimpanzee, and a toilet.
In order to impress Melissa, the girl of his dreams, Amos Binder decides to perform on the trapeze at the visiting circus. Look out below! But before his best friend for life Dunc Culpepper can talk him out of his plan, the two stumble across a mystery behind the scenes at the circus. Now Amos is in double trouble. What’s really going on under the big top?
Camouflaged as piles of rotting trash, Dunc Culpepper and his best friend for life, Amos Binder, are sneaking around the town dump. Dunc wants to find out who is polluting the garbage at the dump with hazardous and toxic waste. Amos just wants to impress Melissa. Can either of them succeed?
Best friends for life Dunc Culpepper and Amos Binder are at it again. Some older residents of their town have been bilked by con artists, and the two boys want to look into these crimes. They meet elderly Betsy Dell, whose nasty nephew Frank gives the boys the creeps. Then they notice some soft dirt in Ms. Dell’s shed, and a shovel. Does Frank have something horrible in store for Dunc and Amos?
Dunc and Amos head for camp, and face two weeks of fresh air—along with regulations, demerits, K.P., and inedible food. But where these two best friends go, trouble follows. They overhear a threat against the camp director, and discover that camp funds have been stolen. Do these crimes have anything to do with the tattoo of the exotic red flower that some of the camp staff have on their arms?
It’s Christmastime, and Dunc, Amos, and Amos’s cousin T.J. hit the mall for some serious shopping. But when the seasonal magic is threatened by some disappearing presents and Santa Claus himself is a prime suspect, the boys
put their celebration on hold and go undercover in the perfect Christmas disguises! Can the sleuthing trio protect Santa’s threatened reputation and catch the impostor before he strikes again?
When Amos wins a “Why I Love My Dog” contest, he and Dunc are off on the Caribbean cruise of their dreams! But there’s something downright fishy about Amos’s suitcase, and before they know it, the two best friends wind up with more high seas adventure than they bargained for. Can Dunc and Amos figure out who’s out to get them and salvage what’s left of their vacation?
When Dunc and Amos are invited to spend a week in Scotland, Dunc can already hear the bagpipes a-blowin’. But when the boys spend their first night in an ancient castle, it isn’t bagpipes they hear. It’s moans! Dunc hears groaning coming from inside his bedroom walls. Amos notices the eyes of a painting follow him across the room! Could the castle really be haunted? Local legend has it that the castle’s former lord
wanders the ramparts at night in search of his head!
Team up with Dunc and Amos as they go ghostbusting in the Scottish highlands!
Git along, little dogies! Dunc and Amos are bound for Uncle Woody Culpepper’s Santa Fe cattle ranch for a week of fun. But when they overhear a couple of cowpokes plotting to do Uncle Woody in, the two sleuths are back on the trail of some serious action! Who’s been making off with all the prize bulls? Can Dunc and Amos stop the rustlers in time to save the ranch?
When their fifth-grade class spends a weekend interning at the state capital, Dunc and Amos find themselves face-to-face with Amos’s walking double—Prince Gustav, crown prince of Moldavia! His royal highness is desperate to uncover a traitor in his ranks. And when he asks Amos to switch places with him, Dunc holds his breath to see what happens next. Can Amos pull off the impersonation of a lifetime?
Amos and Dunc have their hands full when their school principal asks
them
to coach a local T-ball team. For one thing, nobody on the team even knows first base from left field, and the season opener is coming right up. And then there’s that sinister-looking gangster driving by in his long black limo and making threats. Can Dunc and Amos fend off screaming tots, nervous mothers, and the mob and be there when the ump yells, “Play ball”?
