Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (9781101620748) Read Online Free Page B

Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (9781101620748)
Book: Gustav Gloom and the People Taker (9781101620748) Read Online Free
Author: Kristen (ILT) Adam-Troy; Margiotta Castro
Pages:
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happens once,” Gustav said, “it can happen more than once. And if it can happen more than once, it can happen all the time. It’s not my fault that you’ve never noticed it before.”
    â€œI’m surprised enough that it happened even once.”
    Gustav shrugged. “So now you’ve seen it happen once and you don’t have to be surprised the next time it happens.”
    Again, Fernie wanted to stamp her foot. “But that doesn’t explain anything! Shadows can’t run around by themselves!”
    â€œWho says they can’t?”
    The simple question nearly swept Fernie’s legs out from under her. Because as it turned out, she didn’t have an answer. She couldn’t remember anybody in her life ever telling her what a shadow could or could not do; not even her father, who knew fourteen ways television sets could explode if you changed channels too quickly. No, she realized now, her general understanding of the things a shadow could or could not do had just come into being all by itself. Even so, it still hurt her head to think about. “Even mine?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause it’s a shadow! It does what I do!”
    â€œYou haven’t been watching it carefully enough.”
    â€œI could watch it all day!” Fernie cried. “It would still only do what I do! That’s what a shadow is!”
    â€œThen,” Gustav said, “explain the dog.”
    Across the street, Mrs. Everwiner had reached the part of her epic story where the local TV station got involved, devoting the longest segment of the nightly news to her complaint about the cashier, preempting the story about all the missing people entirely.
    The repercussions of Mrs. Everwiner’s one moment of inconvenience at the supermarket just seemed to keep expanding outward, like a stubborn weed intent on overgrowing the entire world. At this rate, Fernie would not have been surprised to find out that wars had been fought over it.
    Pearlie and their dad still feigned interest, unaware that Fernie was involved in a much more interesting conversation just across the street. As much as Fernie wanted to resolve the confusion over what shadows could or could not do, she found herself needing to get back to them, if only for a moment, just to make sure she could return to a world that made sense.
    â€œGo ahead,” Gustav Gloom said, sounding sadder than ever. “Leave. I can tell you want to.”
    Fernie felt terrible. “Don’t take it personally. I’m just busy moving in. We have lots of boxes to take in.”
    â€œI’m sure you do,” said Gustav Gloom. “And I’m sure that you’ll be warned not to come over here ever again, because this house is a
bad place
and there’s nothing but trouble for you here.”
    â€œIs that true?”
    â€œIt’s what people will say. And they’ll also say to stay away from me, because I live here and that makes me as bad as the house.”
    Fernie felt worse with every word the strange little boy spoke. “Well, if the house is the problem, why do we have to talk here? Why can’t you come across the street with me and meet my family?”
    Gustav Gloom looked at Fernie and flashed one of the oddest expressions Fernie had ever seen: not sadness, but not happiness, either. It struck her as the look a person gets when he knows a joke that’s funny only to him. “I’m sorry. I can’t leave my yard.”
    Something about the way he said it made his meaning clear: It wasn’t a case of being forbidden from leaving his yard by parents who’d promised to punish him if he did; it was a case of being unable to leave, of being confined by the fence and the clouds that cast a shadow over his house like an animal inside a cage.
    Fernie’s mouth hung open. “Are you locked in there?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen why can’t you leave?”
    â€œI
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