There were plenty of things which Ari Soffit could ignore. Sometimes he could ignore Flossie Beemis, casting dopey, dewy gazes at him over her maracas during music class. Usually he could ignore Jimmy Jasper, humming off-key, behind him in math. But he couldn’t ignore Finbar Fenker. Not anymore. Not after Finbar had spent all of […]
Category > Hunting the Rose
Chapter 2
Ari’s first day back at school wasn’t as bad as he’d been afraid it might be. Finbar Fenker smirked at him, and even snorted a little. Ari shrugged, but didn’t feel like he needed to count to ten. Luckily, at square dancing time, Mrs. Kirkle assigned partners and Ari only had to touch Flossie Beemis […]
Chapter 3
Soffit’s Deli sat halfway up Spoke Street from the harbor, snugly squeezed between DiRosa Savings and Loan and Granny Frappler’s Antiques. Granny Frappler’s frizzy gray hair was, as usual, hastily braided into two frizzy gray braids and she was seated in her usual rocker by the front door as Ari passed, squinting intently at a […]
Chapter 4
That night in bed, in his small room above the deli, Ari had a terrifying dream. He was getting married to Flossie Beemis, who gazed at him all dewy-eyed from behind a dangling veil of spaghetti noodles, while Arden Feeny read the vows from an enormous dictionary and Finbar Fenker cackled insanely from the choir […]
Chapter 5
“Who are you?” demanded Ari, keeping a firm grip on his yardstick. Apparently, the stranger in the deli booth either ignored or didn’t notice the question and continued smiling at the chihuahua, whose antics he obviously found very entertaining. The man’s hair was a curly mop and stuck out from under his cap in random […]
Chapter 6
Ari spent most of the next day trying to make sense out of what he’d seen in the deli the night before. And when he wasn’t doing that he was counting to ten. Or higher. At lunch in the school cafeteria Finbar Fenker yelled “Be a taster, not a waster!” and squirted pickle relish all […]
Chapter 7
Daylatch closed the door behind Ari and Uncle Ellery. “So why are you here?” he said bluntly, even though Ari was sure he actually did know why. “Why are you calling my loan due?” said Uncle Ellery. “I have ten years left on it according to the contract we signed when the bank lent us […]
Chapter 8
Pretty weird to walk everywhere with a compass, thought Ari, realizing he was now standing at the edge of the giant inlaid floor compass, at “N” for north. Math was not Ari’s favorite subject, but he knew that on a compass there was a big circle divided into three-hundred and sixty spaces which started and […]
Chapter 9
Ari was having a very difficult time concentrating on the usual subjects at school the next day. During math, Jimmy Jasper’s off-key humming didn’t distract him nearly as much as the verses on the old note, which were replaying themselves in his head completely uninvited. What were the chiseled stones? Who was Charlie Krew? And […]
Chapter 10
Ari was having an awfully hard time getting to sleep. He almost wished the reason was another visit from Dewey Daylatch, because as weird as that would be, it wouldn’t give him the queasy feeling he now had in the pit of his stomach. Uncle Ellery’s snoring wasn’t the problem either, but it would have […]
Chapter 11
Two blocks down the street from the deli, where Spoke Street hit the east end of town, sat Saint Zita’s Church. Saint Zita’s was old and sturdy, but there was something silly about the the way it was made of gray rocks which were so clearly too big for it that it looked like a […]
Chapter 12
“Well,” said Arden between swigs of lemonade. “This riddle thing is a pretty cool old mystery, but what does it have to do with keeping your Uncle from getting pounded by Dudge Hunker?” “It’s just a feeling I have,” replied Ari. “Maybe there is a prize, or a reward, or something for solving the riddle. […]
Chapter 13
There was a small utility room just inside the back door of St. Zita’s, full of things things like cleaning supplies and extra candles. Ari noticed right away that Arden had, in fact, thrown their trash in the plastic waste can to the right of the door. But since she was not in the supply […]
Chapter 14
Finbar Fenker and Flossie Beemis shrieked and cheered and clung to the ropes of the boxing ring. In one corner, Ari wiped the sweat off Uncle Ellery’s brow and handed him water. In the opposite corner crouched Wilton Daylatch, with eight lanky tarantula legs, all tapping impatiently for the bell to resume the fight, while […]
Chapter 15
Ari struggled to stay as far as he could from Finbar Fenker for the rest of the day, and when Arden spotted Finbar rap-dancing by the main entrance after the dismissal bell rang they made a quick detour through the kindergarten room and headed out a side door. The quickest route to the library from […]
Chapter 16
By the time Ari got outside after the last school bell, Arden was already sleuthing around the gigantic trunk of the old black walnut tree. “Maybe there’s something here,” she said looking it up and down. “Initials carved in the trunk, a secret opening in the base…something.” “I think we have to climb it,” said […]
Chapter 17
After school on Wednesday Ari dodged Flossie Beemis, who was posing coyly by the front door, and caught up with Arden in front of the school. “Daylatch moved the fight,” Ari said. “It’s going to be on Friday.” “Friday?” replied Arden incredulously. “It can’t be Friday! That leaves us no time to look for the […]
Chapter 18
The deli was closed for the Founders’ Day celebration, but Ari woke up in no mood to celebrate. He could hear Uncle Ellery sparring with a punching bag in the basement–the chain rattling and clinking with every whomp whomp whomp of his uncle’s boxing gloves. Ari washed his face and clomped down two flights of […]
Chapter 19
“Ari,” demanded Arden as she reached the Daylatch Academy gate right behind him. She paused to catch her breath. “Have you thought about this at all? How are we supposed to get through this gate?” “I don’t know,” he replied. The stone wall loomed tall, gray, and ominous. There was no easy way to get […]
Chapter 20
“You must be the children from the Short Stars Modeling Agency,” gushed the perfectly groomed receptionist. “Um…yes,” replied Arden hesitantly. “That’s right.” “Well…how clever of the modeling agency to send such, such…natural looking children,” said the receptionist in a tone that was clearly meant to be tactful. “This will make for some perfectly realistic advertisements!” […]
Chapter 21
In every direction, heavy equipment clanked and droned. Conveyor belts carrying garishly multicolored bottles rattled past thundering mechanical arms and thumping pistons. The boys in blue jumpsuits, dwarfed by the metallic maze of machinery, were scattered in clusters around the hall. Some were at the tedious task of picking flawed vitamins out of the batch, […]
Chapter 22
“Okay!” yelled Ari, as the boys streamed past him and thundered down Duchy Street. “Okay! So when you get to the park, STOP THE FIGHT!” “I don’t know,” said Arden shaking her head. “They’re not paying any attention to you.” “Let’s go,” yelled Ari. “All they have to do is stampede the fight.” He tore […]
Chapter 23
It was an elegant meal for a kid. Candlelit tables, in a room full of leather upholstery and charbroiled steaks. Flossie Beemis, stretched languidly across the ebony grand piano, sang sultry songs about walnut trees and fluttered her lashes at Ari, while Finbar Fenker, in a waiter’s tux, presented him with a sterling silver dome […]
Chapter 24
Granny Frappler’s cackling was making Ari nervous. She sat rocking in her chair, ever so calmly, turning the compass over and over in her bony hands. Every so often she emitted a sound like “hee hee,” or “hoo hoo.” Ari didn’t know what that could mean, but he imagined that she might make that noise […]
BEA AND THE SMART KIDS
BREAKFAST OF SCALLYWAGS
HUNTING THE ROSE
THE LEGEND OF LOGJAM