Moving to Naomi Avenue - Frank Murphy (ereader iphone txt) 📗

out to the car. He opened the door and jumped into the backseat. He saw Kathleen’s face. It was red and it looked like she’d been crying.
“Hi,” Frank said.
“Hey,” she said back.
“Mom, did something happen?” Frank said.
“We’ll talk about it later, if Kathleen wants to. Just leave her alone for right now,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“I’ll talk about it now!” Kathleen said. “Some dorky mean kid kept pinching and poking and kicking me in class. So I scared him until he started crying like a little baby seal.”
“Who was it?”
“Alec!”
“Ohhhh. That kid is mean. His little brother is in third grade and he trips people at recess.” Frank said.
“Third grade? How can his LITTLE brother be in third grade?” Kathleen asked.
“Oh…sorry, I mean kindergarten – with me,” Frank said.
Kathleen started laughing. Mrs. Murphy started laughing. And Frank did too. Then they kept laughing more. Frank thought about how sometimes when one person laughs it’s like a cold and everyone catches it and they just keep laughing. Frank felt proud that he made Kathleen laugh. It looked like she needed to laugh.
Later that day Kathleen told Frank parts of the story. But Frank was most interested in what happened in the principal’s office. The principal’s office is a place where he never imagined he’d see.

Chapter 4
Kathleen Tells All

“So I had to walk down to the principal’s office. It wasn’t so bad inside. Mom was there in like a few minutes. We sat with Mr. Sonnevik. He told mom that first graders don’t usually end up in the office,” Kathleen explained.
“Were you scared?” Frank asked.
“Not really. I don’t think I was wrong. That kid is weird and mean. And everyone is sick of him doing all the things he does. I never smacked him or anything. I wanted to,” Kathleen said.
“What did Mom say?”
“She sorta giggled once or twice,” Kathleen said.
“Really? Wow!” Frank said. “Did Mr. Sonnevik get mad at mom?”
“I dunno.”
“Well, why were you crying?”
“Because I thought I let Mom down.”
“Did you?” Frank asked.
“No. She made me feel better,” Kathleen said. “But I learned one thing.”
“What?”
“I’m never going to let anyone bully me or you, ever again. Especially now that I know Mom thinks I sorta did the right thing.”
“Well, what did you actually do to Alec?”
“Well after he told me that the Easter Bunny was going to eat me next year – ”
“WHAT?” Frank asked. He started to turn pale in his face.
“What? Yes…he is weird,” Kathleen said. “Oh no. Frankie, it’s not really gonna happen.”
“How do you know?”
“Because…I just know. Don’t worry”
“Eventually I told him that – ” she stopped herself. Kathleen quickly realized she couldn’t tell Frankie about the needle-fanged Tooth Fairy part of the story. She knew he’d be way too scared. “Um…I told him he just better stop. And I gave him a really mean look.”
“I’ve seen that look. It looks like you have horns, a tail and a pitchfork!”
“Exactly!” Kathleen said. “But you know I don’t – for real. Right?”
“Yes, what do you think I’m gumball?” Frank said.
Kathleen knew that Frank was trying to say “gullible” because she knew that Frank heard their mom and dad say it before.
“No, I know you’re not,” she said.
“Let’s ride,” Kathleen said.
“Okay!” Frank said. But Frank’s mind wasn’t thinking about wheelies and skidding. His mind was thinking about Easter next year. And he was glad it was a year away.


Chapter 5
Nightmare

Frank climbed into to bed that Friday night. He laid there thinking about his sister and Alec and the Easter Bunny. He was proud of his sister. He thought about how lucky he was to have her. Sometimes she was like a bodyguard. He was glad that Alec got scared about his sister - especially if it made him and his brother stop bullying. But he was scared of the Easter Bunny. Thoughts were floating in his mind:
Could the Easter Bunny really eat his sister?
Or would it maybe eat him?
Wouldn’t the Easter Bunny have to be bigger than him to eat him?
Snakes can eat things bigger than themselves – can a bunny?
Does the Easter Bunny only come around during Easter?
Eventually Frank fell asleep. Sometimes the last thing someone thinks about becomes what they dream about. Frank started dreaming about the Easter Bunny. In his dream Frank was running. He was running and running. There wasn’t anything around him to see. It was mostly just white. He kept running. He was holding his Easter basket. It was filled with jelly beans and chocolates and peeps. He didn’t know why he was running. Then he turned and looked behind him. A gigantic, man-sized bunny was chasing him. And it was running on its back legs, like a person runs. It wasn’t that close at first. But then it got closer and closer. Frank kept run, run, running. The more he looked back, the closer the bunny got. The bunny was white in the middle with brown fur around the edges. Frank thought it just wanted the Easter basket. But when it got closer it showed its teeth. They were big and white. Then…they turned into carrots. Frank felt himself sweating. His face was wet. Then he woke up.
Frank sat up in bed. He was sweating. He knew he was sweating because his pillow was wet. He sat there for a few minutes. He looked over at the little clock on his nightstand. The glowing little hand was sort of on the 4 and the glowing longer hand was on the 3. He knew it was after 4 o’clock. He tried to fall back to sleep. He did. Then he woke up when the sun rose and shined into his room.

Chapter 6
Laughing at Breakfast

Frank did his normal morning routine: brush teeth, get dressed and eat Rice Krispies. When he was eating his Rice Krispies Kathleen walked into the kitchen.
“Hey. You look sleepy,” Kathleen said.
“Why?”
“Because you eyes are puffy. And you have milk dripping down your chin,” she said.
“You always say I have milk dripping down my chin when I eat cereal,” Frank said.
“I know, but you have a lot of milk dripping down your chin. It’s on your shirt too,” Kathleen said.
Frank looked down at his t-shirt. It was wet. It was so wet that it looked like he had been sucking on it. But he hadn’t. It was really connected to the stream of milk that was still dripping down his chin and neck. It kept getting more and more soaked.
“I woke up last night. I had a bad dream,” Frank said.
“About what?” Kathleen asked.
“About the Easter Bunny chasing me,” Frank explained.
“Ohhh, I’m sorry. It’s my fault, Frankie,” she said. “I shouldn’t have told you about stupid Alec.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not. It makes me wish I whacked his head,” she said.
“It’s okay.”
“The Easter Bunny isn’t going to eat me or you,” she said. “The only person he’s gonna eat is Alec. Or maybe Leon. Or maybe even that Jimmy Choo kid.”
Frank laughed. Then he really started laughing.
“What? What’s so funny?”
“I was thinking that if the Easter Bunny ate Jimmy Choo he’d taste a lot of boogies,” Frank said.
Kathleen started laughing too. “You’re right about that, bro!” she said.
“I wonder if mom will take us to the beach. Do ya’ think?” Frank said.
“Let’s ask her!” she said.
“Mommmmm?” they both shouted.

Chapter 7
Huntington Beach


Frank and Kathleen convinced their mom to take them to the beach. It wasn’t hard, Mrs. Murphy loved the beach too. Mr. Murphy didn’t. He stayed home and spent time with his dad – Grandpa Murphy.
Frank and Kathleen carried the buckets and shovels. Mrs. Murphy carried the towels and the Styrofoam cooler. It was filled with sandwiches and drinks. Frank loved the feel of the sand on his feet as they walked out toward the Pacific Ocean. He so wanted to run, but his mom always made him walk onto the beach. She said it was rude to kick sand onto the people who were already sitting on the beach. He had to wait to run along the water.
Kathleen and Frank built sandcastles. They made drippy castles too. They tried to play Wiffle Ball, but it was too hard in the wind. They raced along the wet part of the beach, in between the dry sand and the water. Frank almost always won. Sometimes he lost. But Kathleen didn’t know he slowed down so she could win sometimes. At least that’s what he thought. But Kathleen knew. She knew he liked silver medals.
They sat and ate cheese sandwiches with their mom. They drank soda from cans. And they even ate these delicious cupcakes called Tastykakes. They came in little plastic wrappers. Tastykakes were a special treat that came from Philadelphia. Frank was the only one in his family who wasn’t born in Philadelphia. He was born in California. The Murphy’s sometimes walked to a grocery store called Alpha Beta. It was the only store in California that sold the little cakes from Philadelphia.
Sometimes Frank thought it would be great to move to Philadelphia just because of Tastykakes. Then he could have them everyday. His dad told him they were sold almost everywhere in Philadelphia. But he knew Philadelphia was 3,000 miles away. He knew that because his dad told him that too. 3,000 miles seemed too far away just to eat Tastykakes.
The thought of moving to Philadelphia made him think of moving to Naomi Avenue. It was about a month away. He was a little worried.
“Mom, when are we moving to Nay-Oh-Me Avenue,” he asked.
“Why do you always say it like that? NAY---OH---ME?” Kathleen asked.
“Because that’s how Leon told me to say it,” Frank said.
“Leon? He’s a nincompoop!” Kathleen said. “Just say Naomi!”
“Kathleen! Don’t call people names. Leon isn’t a nincompoop. He’s very intelligent,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Yeah, about bugs,” Kathleen said.
“KATHLEEN!” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Okay. Sorry,” she said. “Then he’s at least nincompoopish.”
Mrs. Murphy gave up about the nincompoop thing.
“Naomi.” Frank said. He said it faster than he ever had and it sounded perfect. Kathleen started clapping. Mrs. Murphy shot Kathleen a look.
“Now, what were you asking me, Frankie?” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Oh yeah. When are we moving to Philadelphia?”
“Philadelphia? What makes you think that? We are moving just a few blocks away,” Mrs. Murphy said.
Frank still had Philadelphia on his mind and Tastykake crumbs on the corners of his mouth. “That’s what I meant. To Naomi Avenue,” Frank said.
“On