Hunter Moran Saves the Universe Read Online Free

just after he wakes up, how excited he was on his birthday this year. He even shared his last piece of cake with me, a little gooey, mostly eaten, but still …
    â€œHang on, Steadman!” I yell.
    The hall window goes up. Linny and her friend Becca poke their heads out. Becca is here again? She’s the biggest know-it-all in the world.
    Zack and I inch our way around the steeple so they can’t see us.
    They do see Steadman; their screech is loud enough to break our eardrums. Zack and I peer around the steeple asMom barrels out the back door, with Mary pinned to her jeans, a look of horror on her face.
    And Steadman?
    Steadman loses his balance but somehow manages to connect with the flagpole. He swings back and forth gently.
    â€œJust like an orangutan,” Zack says.
    William comes out next. Mom always says he’s the one with a head on his shoulders. He stands under the window, arms out. “Jump!” he yells to Steadman. “I’ll catch you.”
    William may have a head on his shoulders, but he doesn’t have too much in the brain department. He can’t even catch a pop fly.
    But Linny has brains. In two seconds she and Becca reach our bedroom. They lean out; Linny grabs one of Steadman’s wrists and Becca the other one. They lug him inside an inch at a time, then slam down the window and lock it.
    Something flits into my mind. Something about Steadman? Something important? Whatever it is, it flits right out again.
    Old Lady Campbell disappears around the corner and William goes inside to spatter more paint on the hall wall. The 6:20 train comes into the station, while Mom sinks down on the doormat, crying, with Mary hanging off her shoulder. I can see Mom’s lips moving. She’s counting. She does that to calm herself. I can almost hear her. “Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty …”
    Poor Mom. It’s all too much for her.
    â€œMaybe we should do something for her,” I whisper to Zack.
    â€œWe’ll make our own beds,” he said. “From now on. All we have to do is throw the quilts across the whole thing.”
    â€œShe’ll be thrilled,” I say. “And at least we haven’t been implicated in the Steadman situation.”
    Zack nods. “We’ll be able to check out Dr. Diglio’s house before he blows up Newfield.”
    I can’t even bear to think of that.
    We can see into Diglio’s yard on the other side of St. Ursula’s. The front may be a desert, but the back is a jungle. Hedges surround his fence, trees poke up here and there, and a tangle of butterfly bushes hides the windows. Probably a load of poison ivy, too.
    It’s a perfect spy backyard. You’d have to hack your way through to see what’s going on in there. And that’s what we might have to do. It’s a good thing Pop has a hacksaw thrown in with his rusty tools in the garage.
    â€œBut where’s Diglio?” Zack asks.
    Like magic he appears out his back door, carrying a shovel. His head is hunched into his shoulders.
    It’s helpful that he doesn’t look up. He walks to a tree, then bends over and begins to dig.
    â€œBurying something,” Zack breathes, as if I don’t see exactly what he does. He snaps his fingers. “That thing we saw on TV? Bombs Over …”
    â€œ Over Mars . Tuesday night, eight o’clock. That’s whatthey did, kept the bomb in an underground tunnel until they were ready to use it. Then …”
    â€œOlyushka,” Zach says; he nudges me.
    Pop is turning into our path from the train station, swinging his laptop in its orange case. Not only is Pop reliable, like Linny, he also has a head on his shoulders, like William, but once in a while it can be an irritable head. Zack and I will be confined to our bedroom forever if he catches us up here.
    Diglio stops digging. Still bent over like a pretzel, he rubs the small of his thick back with one hand.