Philip and the Thief (9781619500648)

Philip and the Thief

by

John Paulits

All rights reserved

Copyright © April 24, 2012, John Paulits

Cover Art Copyright © 2102, Charlotte
Holley

Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC

Lockhart, TX

www.gypsyshadow.com

Names, characters and incidents depicted in
this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

No part of this book may be reproduced or
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limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written
permission from Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.

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ISBN: 978-1-61950-064-8

Published in the United States of America

First eBook Edition: April, 2012

DEDICATION

To My Former Students at P. S. 1 and P. S.
124

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter One

“
Philip the Great,” shouted Philip
Felton as he bounced noisily down the stairs from his bedroom to
the living room, purple Jolly Rancher in hand.

“
Philip, you’re so humble,” said his
father, looking up from the sofa, where he lay reading the Saturday
newspaper.

“
Philip, don’t talk like that,” said
his mother as she passed through the living room, carrying Philip’s
little sister Becky on her way upstairs. “It sounds very impolite.
If anybody heard you . . . and candy again?”

His mother’s voice trailed away as Philip
watched her climb the steps. He walked over to his father. “That’s
not what I meant. I didn’t mean great like better than everybody,
Dad.”

“
Well, you are great, Flipper. Even if
your tongue is purple.” He reached over and messed Philip’s
hair.

“
I meant like Nate the Great,” said
Philip. “He solves the neighborhood’s mysteries. You read me a
couple of the books.”

“
I know Nate the Great well,” said Mr.
Felton. “He’s a fine boy. Since you’re using his name, you better
have solved a mystery or two to back it up.”

“
I did!” exclaimed Philip. “Remember
last night when Emery came over?”

Emery Wyatt was Philip’s best friend, except
for when they argued. He sat across from Philip in Mr. Ware’s
fourth grade class at the Donovan Elementary School.

“
I remember. Take the candy out of your
mouth when you talk.”

Philip removed the Jolly Rancher and said,
“We were upstairs in my room. I gave him a candy bar, a Snickers.
He only ate half of it.”

“
A half of a candy bar went uneaten?”
said Mr. Felton. “That’s a mystery right there. I thought you guys
didn’t stop until you devoured every candy bar in
sight.”

“
He might have been filled up from the
two Milky Ways and the Baby Ruth he already ate.”

“
Ah, I see. Mystery solved.”

“
That’s not the mystery, Dad. I woke up
this morning and remembered the half a candy bar, but I couldn’t
remember what Emery did with it. I knew he didn’t eat
it.”

“
Go on.”

“
He didn’t take it home, either,” said
Philip, “because I remembered his hands were empty when he left.
Then I saw a brown fingerprint on my wall, and it had to be a
chocolate fingerprint of Emery’s.”

“
Why Emery’s fingerprint and not yours?
And clean the wall before your mother sees it.”

“
I will,” said Philip. “Emery’s because
I gave Emery the soft candy bars and he got all chocolaty. I ate
the hard ones.”

“
Very cunning of you. Then you could
tell your mom Emery made the mess, not you.”

“
Dad, stop. I found the fingerprint on
the wall next to my bureau. I looked around, but I didn’t see the
candy bar anywhere. Only my three Nate the Great books were on top
of the bureau. I read them again after Emery went home and left
them there. Threw them there, actually. Since I threw the books on
top of the bureau, I figured maybe the books knocked the candy
bar
behind
the bureau and when
I looked, I saw the candy bar stuck halfway down.”

“
So where is the evidence now?” Mr.
Felton asked.

“
I ate it.”

“
You ate the evidence?”

“
After I washed a little dust off it,”
said Philip.

“
Sounds kind of gross to me,” said Mr.
Felton, making an
ick
face.

“
I couldn’t waste a whole half a candy
bar, Dad. I said I washed it before I ate it.”

Philip’s father smiled. “And you owe your
success to teamwork between you and Nate the Great.”

“
What teamwork?”

“
Nate’s inspiration and your careless
aim.”

The doorbell rang and Philip ran to get it.
When he opened the door, Emery walked in.

“
Emery, hello,” said Philip’s father.
“We were just talking about you.”

“
I lost my Superball,” Emery moaned
dejectedly. “And I had to pester for it, too. My mother said I
pestered her so much she only bought it to keep me quiet. Now I
can’t even find it.”

Philip and his father looked at each
other.
Another mystery!

“
Emery,” said Mr. Felton, “I have good
news for you. Philip the Great will help you find your missing
ball.”

“
Who’s Philip the Great?” Emery
asked.

“
Me, Emery. Me.”

“
What makes you so great?”

“
Explain it to him, Philip,” said Mr.
Felton. “I have to go. Good luck finding your ball, Emery. See you
later.”

“
My dad’s joking. I solved a mystery
the way Nate the Great does, so that makes me Philip the
Great.”

“
Find my Superball,” said Emery sadly,
“and I’ll feel like Emery the Great.”

“
Let’s go over your house,” said
Philip. “Tell me what happened and maybe I’ll be able to find a
clue.”

“
I hope so.” And the boys
left.

Chapter Two

As the two boys crossed the street to Emery’s
house, Emery said, “I only got the Superball yesterday. It bounces
like crazy.” Emery began to get excited. “I threw it down hard as I
could. You should have seen it fly all over the living room almost
faster than the eye can see. It took me awhile to find it a couple
of times after it finally settled down. My mother told me to stop,
though. The babies. I don’t know why they have to sleep so much.”
Emery had two little sisters. “Anyway, I put the ball down and this
morning I couldn’t find it.”

They arrived at Emery’s house and went
inside. Emery went straight to the TV and turned it on. He and
Philip sat on the sofa.

Philip frowned. “You still got this same TV?
The last time we watched cartoons on it, the trees were blue. Look,
the picture’s all jiggly. I thought you were getting a new one; the
flat kind.”

“
My father keeps promising, but he
never does. I told him a million times. Forget about the TV and
think about my ball.”

“
Where’d you put it down?” Philip
asked.

“
In the kitchen.”

“
Did you ask your mother about
it?”

“
No,” said Emery. “I’m afraid she’ll
say she threw it away.”

“
I’ll go ask,” said Philip. “Fix the
TV.”

Emery got up as Philip left and went to the
TV where the picture rolled and flickered.

Philip found Emery’s mother in the kitchen
and greeted her. “Hello, Mrs. Wyatt.”

“
Good morning, Philip. How are
you?”

“
Fine,” said Philip. “I’m helping Emery
find his Superball. Did you see it?”

Mrs. Wyatt bent down to put some dishes into
the dishwasher. “Yes, I saw it last night. He left it in the
kitchen.”

“
That’s what he said,” said Philip.
“Now he can’t find it. Do you know what happened to it?” If Emery’s
mother threw the ball away, Philip hoped he wouldn’t have to be the
one to break the news to his friend.

“
Over there on the counter,” said Mrs.
Wyatt.

“
It isn’t here,” he said.

Mrs. Wyatt turned to Philip. “No? Oh, I
remember picking it up from there.”

“
What did you do with it after you
picked it up?” Philip spoke calmly, like he thought a good
detective should.

“
What did I do with it?” Mrs. Wyatt
asked herself softly. “I went into the living room . . . I don’t
remember. Tell Emery when he finds it not to be bouncing it all
over the house. He’ll break something and wake up his sisters.” She
turned back to the dishwasher.

Philip returned to the living room to report
back to Emery. “Your mother said she picked it up and brought it
into the living room.”

“
I looked all over the living room,”
Emery said in exasperation. “It’s not in the living room. Oh, it’s
probably lost forever,” he said glumly. “I’ll look again.” He got
down on his hands and knees and began searching under things.
Philip helped him, but neither one could find the ball. They sat
back on the sofa to think.

“
Why didn’t you fix the TV?” asked
Philip. “We could watch while we think.”

“
I tried fixing it,” Emery snapped. “It
won’t fix.”

Philip walked over to the TV. He pushed every
button he could find, but the picture continued to dance and
twist.

Philip wiggled his nose and bent over the TV.
“Come here, Emery.”

Emery joined him.

“
Take a sniff,” said Philip.

Emery sniffed. “Something smells funny.”

The two boys circled the TV sniffing like two
dogs searching for a lost bone. Finally, Philip bent over the back
of the TV and gave a long sniff.

“
Yuck! It’s in here, the smell. Go on,
smell.”

Emery checked. “
Eesshh
. Smells like something’s burning. Now
we’ll really need to get a new TV.”

Philip looked at Emery. “No, I don’t think
so. I know where your Superball is.” He pointed at the back of the
TV.

“
In the TV?” said Emery. “It’s in the
TV? How could it get inside the TV?”

“
I’ll bet your mother put it down on
top of the TV and it rolled into this hole.”

A space gaped where the top of the TV met the
back; a space large enough for a Superball to drop through.

“
I better tell my mother,” said Emery
and he ran into the kitchen.

Fifteen minutes later Emery’s father had
taken the back off the TV and extracted the Superball.

Emery rubbed at a black mark on it. “It got
burned a little,” he said as his mother and father engaged in a
lively discussion over which one of them had put the ball on the TV
in the first place.

“
Let’s go outside,” said Philip as
Emery’s parents talked louder and louder.

“
Let me see the ball,” Philip said when
he and Emery sat down on the front step. He rubbed at the black
spot. “It should still bounce all right.” He threw the ball down
and sure enough, it flew into the air at a crazy angle.

“
Watch it,” called Emery, and he and
Philip jumped up to follow the ball.

Emery picked it up from the grass and smiled.
“It works great. Hey, you are a good detective.”

Philip had a sudden thought. “Emery, why
don’t we start a detective agency?”

Emery stopped smiling. “A detective agency?
What do I have to do?”

“
You help me solve crimes. What
else?”