Philip and the Fortune Teller (9781619501317) (7 page)

“Yeah,” Emery rapidly agreed. “Do you?”

“Three is all you get,” said the pharaoh.

“Yeah, that’s all,” the gypsy chimed in. “Now
get.”

Philip and Emery obeyed gladly. They hurried
out of the midway and across the street.

“Where’s the box?” Emery asked. “You didn’t
get it?”

“I did. I pushed it out of the tent . . .
look can you see . . . there. See the gigantic pile of straw?”

Emery looked and saw an elephant picking up
batches of straw with its trunk and munching on it.

“Where the elephant is?”

“Yeah, I think the box is in the elephant
straw.”

“We can’t get it there. We’ll get stepped on
by an elephant.”

Philip shot Emery a don’t-be-stupid look.

“
We
don’t get it. We call the police
again and tell them exactly where it is.”

“We used up our money.”

Philip pulled the gypsy’s two quarters from
his pocket.

“I took these from the gypsy’s tent.”

“Wow! You committed a robbery so we can
report a robbery.”

“Never mind that. Let’s get to the
phone.”

The boys hurried back to the corner
store.

“Stop here. Stop here,” Philip ordered. “We
gotta make sure nobody’s watching the phone.”

“Who would watch it?”

“The police, because of the stupid phone call
you made.”

Emery scrooched his face, but didn’t argue.
He joined Philip in scanning the area.

“See anybody?” Philip asked.

“Nobody,” Emery answered in a sulking
voice.

Philip ignored Emery’s discontent and crossed
the street.

“Keep watch again,” he ordered as he dropped
the two quarters into the slot. He knew it would be useless to try
to disguise his voice the way Emery did. He would sound like a kid,
no matter what he tried. So in his own voice he answered the
operator’s greeting.

“I can tell you where to find the box of
jewelry that got stolen from Mrs. Healy on Van Kirk Street.” He
thought quickly and decided not to mention that an elephant stood
guard over the box. It sounded way too crazy. “It’s hidden at the
circus right behind the tent of the gypsy in some straw. The gypsy
and the pharaoh at the circus stole the box. Go arrest them. That’s
all I can tell you.”

The operator started to ask a question, but
Philip hung up the phone.

“Let’s get away from here, Emery.”

Philip walked quickly, Emery at his side.
They turned at the first three corners they came to. Philip made
the last turn in the direction of the circus.

“Where you taking us? I thought we were going
to Mrs. Logan’s bushes.”

“Back to the circus the long way. We have to
see what happens.”

“You think they believed you?”

“They better. If they didn’t, we’re
sunk.”

“Even if the police show up, they may not
find the box.”

“Why not?” Philip asked perplexed.

“Maybe the elephant will eat it.”

Philip stopped and stared at his friend.

“You really think an elephant is going to eat
a big box of jewelry?”

“Well, he could pick it up and throw it
somewhere when he finds out it isn’t food. My sisters throw food on
the floor if they don’t like it. He may throw it someplace the
police don’t look.”

“Your sisters aren’t elephants. I don’t know
what the elephant’s going to do. Let’s just go watch.”

A few moments later they had entered the
midway at the opposite end from the tents of the gypsy and the
pharaoh. They stepped lively until they reached a booth where you
threw balls and tried to knock down puffy, cloth-covered wooden
cats to win a prize. They could hear circus music playing in the
big tent off to their left. They stepped behind the cat booth, but
could still see the main entrance. They didn’t have to wait
long.

“Look, look, look,” Philip cried.

Emery was still in a bad mood, a result of
Philip’s description of his phone call, but his attention rose
quickly when he saw two police officers entering the midway.

“They’re going to the gypsy’s tent,” Philip
said softly.

“One’s going behind the tent.”

“He’s talking to the gypsy. Look, the pharaoh
is watching from his tent.”

“Boy!” Emery exclaimed. “I wish we could hear
what they’re saying.”

“He’s coming back. Look! He’s got the box!
He’s got it! He’s putting it in a bag,” Philip squealed. “Look at
the gypsy!”

The police officer had showed the box, now
safe in the clear plastic bag, to the gypsy. The gypsy’s arms
bounced up and down, and his mouth didn’t stop as he tried to
explain about the box to the police officer.

One of the officers turned and walked toward
the pharaoh’s tent. The pharaoh saw him and ducked back inside, but
it didn’t matter. The police officer went in and brought him
out.

“They’re taking them both away,” said Philip,
nearly jumping up and down.

“We did it!”

“
I
did it,” Philip pointed out.
“
You
made the dumbest phone call ever.”

“It was
my
idea to make the phone
call, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, but
I
made the phone call.”

Emery could see he wasn’t going to get the
credit he thought he deserved. He gave up and said, “Let’s go watch
the police take them away.”

The boys hurried down the midway and paused
at the entrance. The gypsy and the pharaoh were already seated in
the back seat of the police car behind the two policemen. The car
started up and drove away.

Philip and Emery turned to one another, wide
grins on their faces.

“We’re safe,” Emery declared.

“I hope so,” Philip echoed.

Philip and Emery spent the rest of Saturday
as nervous wrecks. Twice the telephone rang in Philip’s house, and
he was sure the police were calling to ask for him. He watched his
mother’s face each time she answered the phone, hoping his stomach
wouldn’t explode from the tension he felt. But no calls came from
the police. When he went to bed that night, Philip hoped tomorrow
would go by fast so the circus could get out of town. There was one
last show at two o’clock.

Around ten the next morning Philip looked up
from reading the newspaper comics as his mother answered the phone
again. His stomach took a roller coaster ride at his mother’s
words.

“How wonderful,” Philip’s mother said. She
covered the mouthpiece of the phone and called to her husband, who
lay on the sofa looking at other parts of the newspaper. “It’s Mrs.
Faraday. She says they found Mrs. Healy’s missing jewels. At the
circus, no less.”

“I know,” Philip’s father answered. “I’m just
reading about it.”

Philip nearly gagged. The newspaper had the
story! He bent his head over the comics so his eyes wouldn’t meet
his parents’ gaze. They could usually tell when something bothered
him. He kept listening to his mother’s conversation, but all she
kept saying was, “Really” and “Oh my” and “I see.” He knew she’d
report the conversation to his father as soon as she hung up, so he
waited, staring at the comics page, but reading nothing.

“Mrs. Faraday seems to have the whole story,”
his mother said after she’d hung up the phone. “You’ll never
guess.”

“I bet I can,” Mr. Felton said. “It’s all
here in the paper. Gypsies and pharaohs and mysterious phone calls.
Mrs. Healy must be happy.”

“I’m sure she is, but she won’t be back in
her house for a while.”

“Why not?”

“Mrs. Faraday says she has two sons, and
she’s going to live with one of them while the other tries to do
something about her house. Clean it out so she can go back there
and live. It must really be filled with junk.”

“Junk to you; valuables to her.”

“I guess, but still . . . Oh, well. Another
neighborhood adventure comes to a successful end.”

Philip’s father raised the newspaper in front
of his face, and the house grew quiet.

Philip knew he had to read the newspaper
article, but his father didn’t look like he’d be done with the
paper anytime soon. Emery’s two baby sisters always kept Emery’s
house disorganized. Maybe he and Emery could get the newspaper
section they needed from his newspaper.

Philip rose and announced, “I’m going over
Emery’s awhile. Okay?”

“Sure,” came his father’s voice from behind
the newspaper.

Philip headed out the door.

Fifteen minutes later Philip lay on his
stomach in Mrs. Logan’s bushes trying to get the speckles of light
coming though the leaves to fall properly on his newspaper so he
could read.

“Lemme see, too,” Emery insisted.

“Oww! Watch your elbow. Stop pushing. Go over
there. I’ll read it to you, if you let me get the light on it.”

Emery scuttled out of the way. “I saw the
headline.
Jewel Robbery Thwarted.
What’s thwarted? Somebody
had warts?”

“Your brain has warts. Quiet and listen.

“
Police have thwarted a daring jewel
robbery—
thwarted has to mean they caught the bad
guys
—thwarted a daring jewel robbery yesterday afternoon. Aided
by two mysterious phone calls—
that’s us, Emery
—uh, phone
calls, the police arrested two circus performers, Frankie Fried who
posed as a gypsy . . .”

“Posed!” Emery cried.

“That’s what it says.

“But he made wishes come true. No way he was
posing.”

Philip frowned at Emery and continued “. . .
posed as a gypsy and Karim Tugash, who posed as an Egyptian.”

“Why’d you stop?” Emery asked.

Philip thought of the initials K-T he’d seen
on the jewelry box. Not King Tut after all. He continued with the
newspaper story.

“
Both men operated booths in the circus
sideshow on the midway. According to Police Captain Tim Auld, the
two circus employees enlisted the help of two unwary young
boys—
that’s us again, Emery
—to steal a box of jewels, which
they had pawned the year before when the circus came to town.
They’d meant to reclaim the jewels themselves, but found out that
someone else, Mrs. Healy from Van Kirk Street, had gotten them
first.

“
The two men, accomplished pickpockets,
had managed to steal the jewelry from women who visited their
sideshow acts. The police received their first clue when a
mysterious phone call mentioned that a gypsy and a pharaoh had
stolen the jewels, but no details were given by the caller, and the
police considered the call a prank.”

“You see, Emery. Your call was stupid. A
prank. You didn’t tell them anything.”

“I said the gypsy and the pharaoh had the
jewels, didn’t I? How many gypsies and pharaohs we have in town,
you think?”

Philip read on.

“
A second phone call received later
provided the necessary information for the police to locate the
jewels and arrest the perpetrators.
Perpetrators must mean the
bad guys.
The jewels have been returned to Mrs. Healy, and the
circus will have to do without its gypsy and pharaoh for a long
time to come. The police believe the mysterious phone calls may
have come from the two misguided children, who believed they would
receive three wishes from the gypsy for helping them retrieve a
magical, sacred scarab in the jewel box, a tale straight from
The Monkey’s Paw.”

“Why do they keep talking about monkeys?”
Emery wondered. “The computer said something about monkeys, too.
The circus doesn’t have any monkeys. And I’m
not
misguided.”

“Maybe they mean you were as dumb as a monkey
for believing you’d get three wishes, and being dumb as a monkey
makes you misguided.”

“Monkeys aren’t dumb, and you believed it,
too, didn’t you? So you must be a misguided monkey, same as
me.”

Philip finished reading the article.

“
The children may have finally caught on
and were trying to correct their mistake. Captain Auld said the
police were not seeking the children. On a final note, the box of
jewelry did not contain a magical, sacred scarab.”

“They’re not looking for us?” Emery
cried.

“That’s what it says.”

“Whew! Thank goodness. Hey, the magical
scarab wasn’t in the box. You think maybe it fell out in the lady’s
garage and is still there. Philip, if we had a magical scarab . .
.”

“Right, we’d both be able to become
witches.”

Emery frowned. “I don’t want to be a
witch.”

“Forget the scarab. I think the newspaper was
making fun of us. There probably never was a scarab to begin with.”
Philip refolded the paper and said, “We better take this back to
your house so your father doesn’t wonder why we needed it.”

The boys wriggled their way out of their bush
hideout. They’d gone no more than a few steps before Emery stopped
short and grabbed Philip by the arm.

“What?” Philip said, puzzling by the strange
look on Emery’s face.

“Our wishes.”

Philip rolled his eyes.

“What wishes? There were no wishes.”

Emery turned to his friend and shook his head
slowly. “I don’t know, Philip. I wished the old lady would get her
jewels back and the gypsy and pharaoh would get arrested. Remember?
Remember? And it came true. Both wishes came true. No, I think the
gypsy is really a gypsy and has powers. You see both wishes came
true, Philip. We still have a wish left. We can’t waste it. We
gotta try it.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Yes, we
do
gotta try it.”

“I mean we don’t have a wish left. You wished
for hamburgers and baked beans.”

“What?
Argghh
! I wished for dinner at
your house. I wasted our wish on chopped meat!”

“I don’t think there really were any wishes,
Emery.”