The Pigman & Me
Page 10
I opened my eyes and told Nonno Frankie about the pen.
“There.” Nonno Frankie smiled. “Your perfect ragazzo has told you what you are going to be.”
“What?”
“You will be a writer.”
“A writer!” I said, surprised. “I don’t think so. I think I’m going to be maybe a chemist or a math teacher or…”
“No. This boy on Mount Vesuvio knows everything about you. He knows about your spook shows and your stuffed gloves with cold cream on them. He knows about your ‘Geometric Nightmare’ and your flesh-eating llamas. Your cycloramas and your fish ponds. He knows more than you know, which is why you must go to this ragazzo whenever you are in trouble. You must close your eyes and climb the volcano whenever you need him. That is the secret of life,” Nonno Frankie said.
My mother went screaming through the backyard. “PAUL! WHERE ARE YOU! WE’RE LEAVING, PAUL! WE’RE LEAVING! PAUL, WHERE ARE YOU?”
Nonno Frankie and I stood up. We shook hands. I felt a chill. I opened the door and left him and a piece of my heart by the winepress. I carried a few last suitcases to the car. Mom was still yelling orders. Betty squished shopping bags and loose items into every empty cranny in the trunk and between the car seats. Soon the three of us were driving away from the tiny yellow porch, the untrimmed hedges and rickety fence. Jennifer could only wave good-bye from her porch. We drove past Mrs. Lillah, fanning herself. At the end of Glen Street Mom turned left and drove up Victory Boulevard past Cemetery Hill. Her hair flapped in the breeze from the open car windows. Betty sat silent on a suitcase.
“Our new apartment’s really going to work out,” Mom said, “without all those crazy, noisy Vivonas running about downstairs. I won’t have to drag you kids around all over the place.”
“Great,” Betty and I mumbled.
“Casey would waltz with the strawberry blonde,” Mom started to sing, “and the band played on. He’d glide ‘cross the floor with the girl he adored, and the band played on.…”
Also by Paul Zindel:
PARDON ME, YOU’RE STEPPING ON MY EYEBALL!
Outstanding Children’s Book of the Year, The New York Times
Best Book for Young Adults, American Library Association
“Marsh” Mellow was fifteen years old and hated almost everything about Curtis Lee High School. Sometimes, when he was in class, he’d just lounge at his desk making lists of the ten things he hated most on that particular day.
His list for today ran like this: (1) I hate the school cafeteria because the daily special smells like steamed sneakers smothered in sautéed fleas. (2) I hate Mrs. Zucker who’s teaching this class because she wears crooked eyebrows and talks like she’s using reality as a crutch. (3) I hate the boy sitting in front of me because he looks like a duck and has RING-AROUND-THE-COLLAR. (4) I hate the sky because I don’t know where it ends, and I hate people who call me Louis instead of Marsh. (5) I hate my mother because she’s schizo and drinks diet beer while she chews cashew nuts. (6) I hate the principal of Curtis Lee High School because he caught me dropping a bag of Maxwell House coffee grinds mixed with Limburger cheese on the cheerleader squad. (7) I hate Marmaduke Jones because he was just elected Junior Class President, and sucks Tic Tacs. (8) I hate that my father is 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, and I know he’s in trouble. (9) I hate Mr. Meizner, the school psychologist, because he looks like the Goodyear Blimp and keeps giving me tests to see how nuts I am. (10) I hate hating.
Marsh really hated the fact that it usually took him only five minutes of a period to make up ten new things he hated, so he’d try to kill the rest of the class making up a list of ten things he loved.
His list for this period went like this: (1) I love red ants. (2) I love octopi and Turkish Taffy. (3) I love the ballpoint pen in my hand because when I press the thingamajig on top it makes a clicking sound that’s driving Mrs. Zucker off her bean. (4)…
Also by Paul Zindel:
An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
“Fast, Furious, and Masterful.”
—Kirkus Reviews (pointered review)
Loch saw the deep motion of the water. By now, Sarah, too, knew what that meant.
Before Sarah could get into the raft, the monstrous head of the beast erupted between them, throwing Loch and the raft into the air as Sarah fell forward to the camera mount. The neck of the creature continued to erupt upward, a tremendous, glistening shaft. High above, its head poised for a moment, the two great wedges that were its eyes stared down at the catamaran. The mouth of the beast opened and plunged down like a tremendous shredder. CRACK. CRACK. Its teeth tore into the back of the catamaran as Sarah began to slide down toward the gaping mouth.
“Help us!” Sarah screamed at the closest skiff. “Help …”
The jaws of the beast opened wider now. It roared a blast of stinking breath and shredded human intestines at Sarah as her right ankle got caught between the crushed engines. Only when the creature’s teeth crashed into the outboards did it halt, then sink back again beneath the surface.
Published by Graymalkin Media
The Graymalkin logo is a trademark of Graymalkin Media
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews. For information contact the publisher via:
www.graymalkinmedia.com
Copyright © Paul Zindel, 1991
All rights reserved
Edited by Charlotte Zolotow
* * *
Fans can visit Paul Zindel on the Web:
www.paulzindel.com
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools visit:
www.paulzindel.com/teachers
* * *
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS:
Zindel, Paul.
The pigman & me / Paul Zindel.
p. cm.
“A Charlotte Zolotow book.”
Summary: An account of Paul Zindel’s teenage years on Staten Island, when his
life was enriched by finding his own personal pigman, or mentor.
1. Zindel, Paul—Biography—Youth—Juvenile literature.
2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography—Juvenile literature.
3. Staten Island (New York, N.Y.)—Social life and customs—Juvenile literature.
[1. Zindel, Paul—Childhood and youth. 2.Authors, American.]
I. Title. II. Title: Pigman and me.
PS3576.I518 Z47 1992 91–35790
812’.54—dc20 CIP
[B] AC
Graymalkin Media edition, 2010
ISBN 13: 978-1-935169-03-1