Philip and the Loser (9781619501522) (3 page)

“
Start counting,” said Philip.
“Remember, count slow.”

“
One . . . two . . . three . .
.”

Emery waved at Philip, and they ran to the
hallway closet. Emery opened the door and tossed the shoes onto the
topmost shelf. Then he and Philip got their jackets and shut the
closet door softly. They tiptoed to the front door, opened it
quietly, and closed it behind them. As Leon worked his slow way to
one hundred, Philip and Emery ran as fast as they could toward the
park two blocks away to enjoy a quiet afternoon without Leon.

Emery waited for Philip on the sidewalk next
morning, and he did not look happy.

“
What’s wrong?” Philip asked as they
started off toward school.

“
Stupid Leon is what’s wrong. I’m in
trouble ’cause of him.”

“
What’d he do?”

“
He didn’t find his shoes.”

“
You’re in trouble because Leon lost
his shoes?”

“
He didn’t
lose
them. We hid them. Remember? We hid them, and then he
couldn’t find them. He walked around my house all afternoon singing
some stupid song about his shoes.”

“
A song about his shoes?”

“
Yeah. And singing about being a
Kleebis. What the heck is a Kleebis anyway?”

Philip shrugged. “I don’t know. I made it up.
So he sang . . . ?”

“
Yeah. And my mother asked him what he
was doing, and he told her about being a Kleebis—you can guess how
much sense
that
made—and why he didn’t have
any shoes on. That probably didn’t make any sense either. She
helped him look for them, but they couldn’t find them, and when I
got home, I got yelled at for hiding his shoes and going to the
park without him.”

“
So what did Leon do then?”

“
He sat on the floor, laughing and
singing about being a Kleebis. He wants to play the game
again.
He
liked
it!”

They saw Leon skipping up Brill Street in
their direction.

“
Uh, oh. Here he comes,” said
Philip.

“
Hi, guys. We gonna play Kleebis again
later? Kleebis forever,
woo hoo. Yuk yuk.”

“
You’re only allowed to play Kleebis
once a month,” said Philip in disgust. “It’s in the
rules.”

“
Oh,” said Leon, disappointed. “I don’t
like those rules much. Maybe we can make up a game
like
Kleebis, you know. Kleebis forever,
woo hoo.
Kleebis forever,
woo
hoo.”

“
Leon,”
screamed Emery.
“No
woo hoo
ing. It’s against the rules, and I
don’t want to hear it. And no Kleebis.
And no
singing!”

Under his breath Leon muttered,
“Kleebis forever,
woo hoo,”
while Philip and
Emery walked ahead of him to school.

It was one of Mr. Sagsman’s days, and
when he greeted the class, he immediately asked the children to
pass up the essays he’d assigned about brotherhood. Philip worried
about his essay. In it he complained that he only had a little
sister and
sister
hood was ruining his
life. He didn’t think Mr. Sagsman would like this example,
though.

“
Okay, kids, last night you had to find
some illustration of brotherhood in your own life.” He glanced
through the class’s essays as he spoke. He lifted his eyes for a
moment and looked straight at Philip. Philip turned red and melted
down in his seat. Philip watched Mr. Sagsman’s lips puff out as he
exhaled a big sigh. He put the papers down on the teacher’s
desk.

“
I have a new assignment for you, a
long-term assignment. I want you to plan some kind of activity, an
activity that displays the principles of brotherhood, something to
show me you understand what brotherhood really means. We’ll go over
last night’s papers now one by one.” He looked at Philip. “At least
most of them, so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about and
what I’m looking for. Then you’ll have a week to come up with your
project, and the project must be completed by the following Monday.
That gives you two full weekends.”

Philip knew Mr. Sagsman would ignore his
paper. His paper was stupid, and he knew it. He didn’t know why he
wrote such silly stuff, but he felt tired and didn’t want to do the
essay at all after playing in the park with Emery. Plus, he had
other homework to do and writing needed too much concentration. So
Philip settled in and listened to what his classmates had written
until the bell sent Mr. Sagsman to his next class.

Later, on the way home from school, Philip
waited for Leon to turn off toward his house, and when he did,
Philip asked Emery, “Want to go to the park again?”

“
I can’t. I told you. I’m in trouble. I
have to stay in.”

“
Can you go to Mrs. Moriarty’s?” Mrs.
Moriarty was Philip’s favorite neighbor. She was an older woman who
lived alone and liked visits from Philip and the other children in
the neighborhood. She always had dishes of candy out—M & Ms,
tiny Hershey Bars, miniature Milky Ways—and she didn’t complain one
bit when Philip took all he wanted.

“
No, I gotta go right home and nobody
over.”

“
Oh, well. At least Leon went
home.”

“
That’s ’cause his family’s coming to
my house for dinner tonight, and he’s got to do his homework this
afternoon. I have to spend the
whole
night
with him.”

“
Oh,” said Philip sympathetically.
“Well, see you tomorrow.”

Emery grunted a quick goodbye, and Philip
crossed the street and headed toward Mrs. Moriarty’s. He knocked on
her door and called through the screen.

“
You home, Mrs. M.?”

“
In here, Philip.”

Philip entered and found Mrs. Moriarty
sitting at her dining room table, sewing.

Philip slid onto a dining chair. “What are
you doing?”

“
I’m sewing borders on these doilies
for my woman’s club.”

Philip turned to look into the living room.
“They’re the things you stick on the arms of your chairs,
right?”

“
Right.” Mrs. Moriarty looked up at him
and smiled. “There’s some candy on the coffee table. Go and see
what you like.”

Philip didn’t hesitate. This time he found a
bowl full of tiny Tootsie Rolls and a second bigger bowl full of
miniature, foil-wrapped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Philip took a
handful of each. He thought a minute and put two Tootsie Rolls
back. He didn’t want Mrs. M. to think he was a greedy pig. He sat
back down at the table and peeled the paper from a Tootsie
Roll.

“
Want one?” Philip asked.

“
Not now. I don’t want to get any
chocolate on my hands.”

“
Why are you sewing so many?” Philip
mumbled as he tossed the Tootsie Roll into his mouth.

“
My club is having a fair in two
weekends to raise money for the new hospital. I’m going to
contribute these and hope people will buy them, and I’m going to
bake some pies and sell them, too.”

Philip had tasted Mrs. M.’s pies before. He’d
have to remember to tell his mother to buy one. He had a sudden
thought. He chewed fast and swallowed.

“
The fair’s kind of like a brotherhood
thing, isn’t it? I mean helping the hospital?”

Mrs. M. stopped sewing.
“
Mmm,
yes, I think you could say
that.”

“
Can Emery and I help you? We have to
do a brotherhood project for school and turn in a report in two
Mondays.”

“
Do you know how to sew?”

“
Sew? No. Is sewing the only thing at
the fair?”

Mrs. M. laughed softly. “No, other women are
doing other things. There, finished.” She opened her eyes wide and
stretched. “I could go cross-eyed with all this sewing I’m doing.
Time for a break. May I?” She reached for a Reese’s.

“
What else will be at the fair?” Philip
asked.

“
Other things for sale. A flea market.
You know, people trying to sell things they don’t need
anymore.”

“
Yeah, my dad likes to go to them. He
looks for toys he played with when he was a kid.”

“
And games.”

“
Games? What kind of games?”

“
Games to win little prizes. Nothing
very big.”

“
Games. Hey, I’ll bet Emery and I could
make a game for your fair. And any money we get from it, we could
give to the hospital. Could we do a game at your fair?” Philip felt
excited. When he’d left school, the idea of doing something about
brotherhood had been very annoying. Neither he nor Emery knew what
to do. Now, he had this great idea only half-an-hour after school
ended. He celebrated with another Tootsie Roll. “Huh, can we do a
game?” Philip repeated when Mrs. M. was slow to answer.

“
Well, I suppose it would be all
right.”

Mrs. M. talked real slow, like she wasn’t
sure it was a good idea. Philip tried to reassure her.

“
Emery and I will be careful. We’ll
make up a good game. Don’t worry. Nothing can go wrong.”

Mrs. M. raised her eyebrows and gave Philip a
small grin. “Okay. You and Emery go to work, and let me know what
you come up with.”

“
Oh, boy! Great,” Philip cried, jumping
up from his chair. “We will. I won’t see Emery until tomorrow,
though. He’s punished because Leon lost his shoes, but I’ll call
him when I get home. Bye now.”

Philip grabbed some more Reese’s cups on his
way to the front door as Mrs. M. scratched her head and wondered
who Leon was and what Leon’s shoes had to do with anything.

Friday morning Philip met Emery outside his
front door.

“
Are you done being punished?” Philip
asked. “We have stuff to do this weekend.” Philip had called Emery
as soon as he got home from Mrs. Moriarty’s the day before. Emery
agreed that making a game for Mrs. M.’s fair would be a fun and
easy way to do their brotherhood project. They hadn’t talked long,
though, because Leon’s family was due for dinner, and Emery had to
get his homework done.

“
I
think
I’m done
being punished. My mother didn’t say anything this morning. Having
two baby sisters makes my mother forget things, so at least they’re
good for something.”

“
Okay then, after school let’s go to my
house and work on the game for the fair.”

Emery noticed Philip look down Brill Street.
“Are you looking for Leon?”

“
Yeah, I hope we miss him.”

“
We won’t see him today.
He’s
punished this weekend, and his mother is taking
him to school this morning so she can talk to his
teacher.”

“
Good! He deserves to be punished.”
Philip took a few more steps. “What did he do?”

“
He got 33% on his math test and 25% on
his spelling test.”

“
Wow! 33% and 25%. They don’t even add
up to a good mark. Leon is a loser. A real loser.”

“
He thinks he’s a Kleebis.”

“
What!”

“
He kept singing his Kleebis song last
night, all night. You know, Kleebis forever,
woo
hoo.”

“
I know, I know.”

“
I wanted to stick a baked potato in
his mouth to keep him quiet.”

“
You should have. Well, at least we can
work on our game in peace this weekend. What games did you think
of?”

“
Well, there are all those games we saw
at the circus sideshow this summer. Break balloons with a dart.
Throw rings on pegs. Throw a ball and knock down those cat
statues.”

“
Yeah, they’re all good. Let’s both
think about it in school and then pick one later.”

When they reached the schoolyard, Emery
pointed at Leon being led into school by his mother.

“
Did he do anything else besides sing
last night?” Philip asked.

“
He took off his shoes and threw them
up in the closet. Then he wouldn’t tell his mother where they were.
My mother thought I hid them again.”

“
He put them in the closet where we hid
them?”

“
Yeah.”

“
What did he do that for?”

“
He said he felt more like a Kleebis if
his shoes were in the closet.”

“
There’s something wrong with that kid.
How did he chip his tooth?”

“
Hah!” Emery snorted. “He did it
jumping up and down on his bed. Remember how he bounced on the
chair in my living room? Well, he bounced in his bedroom and missed
the bed and ended up on the floor bleeding and with a cracked
tooth. His mom didn’t like that.”

“
I guess not. He’s weird.”

“
I know,” said Emery said somberly.
“Last night he took two of the babies’ diapers and wrapped them
around his elbows.”

“
What did he do
that
for?”

“
He told his mother he wanted padding
in case he fell down. He didn’t want to chip his elbows, he said,
but all he got was yelled at for wasting the diapers. Then, after
dinner he started yelling from the kitchen that he couldn’t see, he
couldn’t see. His mother jumped up, spilled Coca-Cola on the rug,
and ran into the kitchen to see what happened.”