“Thats right。” He gets up and clears his cereal bowl; saying; “Ive got to get to work and
youve got to get to school。 Ill expect a report tonight。”
Great。 Just great。 The day was doomed before it had started。 But then at school when I told
Garrett about what had happened; he just shrugged
and said; “Well; she lives right across the street from you; right?”
“Yeah; so?”
……… Page 24………
“So just go look over the fence。”
“You mean spy?”
“Sure。”
“But … how can I tell if one of thems a rooster or not?”
“Roosters are …I dont know… bigger。 And they have more feathers。”
“Feathers? Like Ive got to go and count feathers?”
“No; stupid! My mom says that the males always brighter。” Then he laughs and says;
“Although in your case Im not so sure。”
“Thanks。 You are giving me big…time help here; buddy。 I really appreciate it。”
“Look; a roosters going to be bigger and have brighter feathers。 You know; those long ones
in the back? Theyre redder or blacker or whatever。
And dont roosters have some rubbery red stuff growing off the top of their head? And some
off their neck; too? Yeah; the roosters got all sorts of
rubbery red stuff all around its face。”
“So youre saying Im supposed to look over the fence for big feathers and rubbery red stuff。”
“Well; e to think of it; chickens have that rubbery red stuff; too。 Just not as much of it。”
I rolled my eyes at him and was about to say; Forget it; Ill just ask Juli; but then he says; “Ill
e with you if you want。”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah; dude。 Seriously。”
And that; my friend; is how I wound up spying over the Bakers back fence with Garrett
Anderson at three…thirty that afternoon。 Not my choice of
covert operations; but a necessary one in order to report back to my dad that night at dinner。
We got there fast; too。 The bell rang and we basically charged off campus because I figured
if we got to the Bakers quick enough; we could look
and leave before Juli was anywhere near her house。 We didnt even drop off our backpacks。
We went straight down the alley and started spying。
Its not really necessary to look over the Bakers fence。 You can see almost as well looking
through it。 But Garrett kept sticking his head up; so I
figured I should too; although in the back of my mind I was aware that Garrett didnt have to