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

June 22nd – it’s a Thursday,” she said.
“When are we done school?” he asked.
“June 16th, I think. I’m pretty sure that’s a Friday,” she said.
“And what’s today?”
“Saturday,” Kathleen said. She knew Frank wanted to know the date.
“I know. Grrrrr!” he growled at Kathleen.
“Today is May 27th,” Mrs. Murphy said. “It’s Memorial Day weekend.”

Chapter 8
Is That Jimmy Choo?

Frank and Kathleen said thanks to their mom for lunch. They hurried to the water for the last hour or two of fun. Their goal – riding waves. They went out into the Pacific Ocean. It was blue and wonderful and warm. They stood and waited to body surf the best waves. Frank loved crashing against the sand at the end of the ride. Kathleen loved trying to float as long as she could and then glide onto the beach.
After twenty minutes of riding they both stood at the edge of the water and took a break. Kathleen was watching some kites flying. One was shaped like a butterfly. Frank was staring at a boy running around in circles. His mom was chasing him. She was calling out, “Jimmy! Stop right now. Give me that now!” Then Frank heard her screaming in a different language. “Jimmy! Koh-mahn-heh! Ee-rhee-joeh!” she screamed. Frank didn’t recognize the language.
“Kathleen! Look! I think that kid’s name is Jimmy. Maybe it’s Jimmy Choo,” he said.
“Where?”
“Right there,” Frank said. He pointed at the boy running away from his mom. He was holding a red ball. “His mom called him Jimmy.”
The boy’s mom called out again to him, “Jimmy Choo. You will stop right now or no hot dog for lunch!” He immediately stopped running. He walked to a little girl and handed her the ball.
“That must be his sister,” Frank said.
Kathleen nudged Frank. “Didn’t you hear her? She said Jimmy CHOO!” Kathleen said. “It IS him! And she talked about hot dogs. It’s gotta be him. How many Jimmy Choos can there be in the world?”
“You’re right!” he said. “He looks like our cousin Jackie. Cool!”
Frank and Kathleen had two cousins named Jack and Patsy. Frank’s and Kathleen’s Uncle Jack was Jack’s and Patsy’s dad. He married a lady from Japan named Chieko. So Jackie and Patsy were part Japanese. Jimmy Choo did look a little bit like Jackie, but not exactly.
“Maybe he’s Japanese too,” Kathleen said.
“I heard his mom yelling at him in a different language,” Frank said. “It sorta sounded like the way Aunt Chieko talks sometimes.”
They watched Jimmy Choo sit down on a blanket with his mom and little sister. His mom reached into a Styrofoam cooler. She took out what looked like a hot dog wrapped in aluminum foil. She handed it to Jimmy. He unwrapped it. Frank and Kathleen stood there, staring. It was a hot dog. They both looked at each other and giggled. They knew they were about to witness something so gross. They couldn’t stop watching. Then Jimmy Choo simply bit into the hot dog on a bun. He didn’t do anything gross. Kathleen and Frank looked at each other again with baffled faces. They were wrong. Jimmy Choo just ate the whole hot dog without adding any extra stuff.
The Murphy’s packed up all of their stuff. They loved their first day at the beach. Now that Frank and Kathleen got a little bit of summer and the beach they couldn’t wait for school to end and summer to come. But they were both thinking about Jimmy Choo. And his hot dog eating.

Chapter 9
Field Day

June 9th. It was a Friday. Frank and Kathleen had only one week left of school. But that wasn’t the best thing about this day. The best thing was that it was Field Day. Frank had been practicing almost his whole life for this day. He couldn’t wait to race.
Frank woke up early. He went through his usual routine: get dressed, brush teeth and eat Rice Krispies. (But he ate an extra bowl for more energy!) He put his bowl and spoon into the dishwasher. Then he double-checked his sneaker laces. They weren’t tight enough. But he couldn’t untie and tie them to tighten them more. Frank hadn’t totally learned how to tie his shoelaces yet. He was a little bit embarrassed about it too. Luckily, his mom always double-knotted them. Frank started worrying. He never worried before about his laces coming untied. But today was Field Day. He needed them to be tight, extra tight.
Kathleen was still getting ready for school. So Frank went out to the driveway and started practicing. He ran from the front porch to the fence. He touched the fence. He ran back to the front porch. Then he looked down at his pretend stopwatch.
“World record,” Frank whispered to himself. Then he imagined winning a silver medal.
“Frankie! You ready?” Kathleen came out to the front yard.
“Yes! But I’m worried about my laces,” he said.
“Why? They looked tied to me,” she said.
“They’re a little loose, I think.”
“Okay. I’ll check ‘em,” Kathleen said. She kneeled down and untied the laces. She tied them, tightly. Then she double knotted them.
“Perfectly perfect!” Frank said. “Thank you, sis.”
Kathleen looked up at him. She smiled. “Good luck today, bro,” she said.
They walked to edge of their driveway. They looked both ways. Then they looked both ways again. No cars. No speeding trucks. All clear. They crossed Lemon Avenue. After today they would only had five days left to cross Lemon Avenue. Five days left of school.

Chapter 10
Field Day and a Special Guest

The whole day was filled with super fun events. The tug-o-war. Relay races. Potato sack races. Obstacle courses with cones and tires and poles that looked like they were for a limbo dance. Dodge ball. Stations with water and Hawaiian Punch and lemonade. So much fun all in one day.
At Field Day the gym teacher grouped each class onto a team. Baldwin Stocker Elementary School’s two teams were Team Red and Team Gold. Frank was glad to be on Team Red. But he didn’t really care which team won.
The only thing Frank was looking forward to was the 50 yard dash. It would be him versus four other runners. They could be girls or boys. He didn’t care who he was racing against. He just wanted to make sure he won a silver medal. He had to make sure he ran fast enough to be winning almost up until the end. Then he had to time it so he could let one runner catch up and pass him. But he needed to make sure that another runner didn’t pass him too. If that happened he’d get a bronze medal. Frank didn’t want a bronze medal. He just didn’t like the color of bronze. He thought it looked like gold.
The 50 yard dash finally came. Frank was standing in line. There were five total lines. Some kids chose their places and traded places trying to run against kids they knew they could beat. Some kids tried to choose places to compete against friends. Frank didn’t care. He knew he could beat anyone. He had practiced enough to win. All he wanted was a silver medal. Frank’s line got shorter and shorter. He was almost to the front. He watched kids run and win and run and lose. He felt bad for all the kids who lost.
Frank was up. He bent down like was ready to race. He looked down at the laces on his sneakers. He whispered to himself, “Perfectly perfect.” Frank’s line was in the middle. He looked over at the two lines to his left. He only looked at the sneakers of the two kids lining up against him. He saw a pair of blue sneakers and a pair of white sneakers. Then he looked to his right. He saw another pair of blue sneakers and then he couldn’t believe his eyes. He saw a pair of flip-flops! One of them had a big white daisy on it. He looked up. It was Leon! Frank thought: Leon doesn’t go to school here! What’s he doing? How’d he get here? Then Frank heard the gym teacher say: “On your mark. Get Set. Go!”
All five kids started. Frank took the lead right away. After ten yards Frank was winning by two yards. After twenty yards Frank was winning by about five yards. He was zooming. After thirty yards Frank looked to his right. He was looking for Leon. He saw him out of the corner of his eye. Leon was catching up. After 40 yards Frank slowed down a tiny bit. He could almost see Leon right at his side. Frank made his last racing step a half step. Leon passed Frank at the line. Leon won! Frank came in second. A girl named Wilma came in third.
Leon started jumping up and down. He was jumping with his arms in the air. He twirled around in the air when he jumped. He was screaming, “WOOOHOOOOOO!” And he kept jumping up and down, down and up, up and down. He kept yelling, “WOOOHOOOOO!” People started staring. Frank thought that Leon looked even happier than he did. He had never seen anyone react like that to anything before. He ran up to the gym teacher to get his gold medal. The gym teacher handed Leon his gold medal. Then he handed Frank his silver medal. Frank stared at his shiny silver medal with the red, white and blue ribbon attached to it. He kept staring at it. But everyone else was still staring at Leon. Leon was still jumping up and down, down and up.
After the gym teacher handed Wilma her bronze medal, he walked up to Leon.
“Son, what is your name?” he asked Leon.
“Leon. I’m Leon Thomas,” he said still jumping up and down.
“Leon. Please stop jumping. Who is your teacher?” he asked Leon.
“Mrs. Thomas,” Leon said.
“Son, we don’t have a Mrs. Thomas here. You don’t go to school here do you?”
“No sir. I go to school at home. My mom is Mrs. Thomas. She teaches me,” Leon said.
“How’d you get here?”
“I crossed Lemon Avenue and walked here. I wanted to race and win a medal too,” Leon said.
“Son, you can’t do that. This Field Day is for kids who go to school here. Please give me that medal back,” the gym teacher said.