The Wild Kid Read Online Free

liar.”
    â€œI don’t lie. Only bad boys lie.”
    The kid stared at him with a look that, even in the dimness, Sammy recognized.
    â€œHow old are you, anyway?” the kid said.
    â€œI’m twelve. In twenty-eight days I’ll be thirteen.”
    â€œSo, what are you, dumb?”
    â€œNo. I’m Down’s.” Sometimes it was okay to tell, but sometimes people teased. “I’m young for my age. I’m a special person.”
    â€œYou’re a dumb person,” the kid said. “Only a dumb person like you would find me.”
    â€œBecause I lost my bike.” Sammy explained how he’d left his bike for five minutes and ten seconds, and how he’d run after the stealer, and about getting in the truck, and being chased into the woods and getting lost and climbing the tree and falling down.
    â€œAnd then I fell on your house.” He wanted to demonstrate the way he’d tripped and tumbled down, but it was hard to do without using his hands and feet. All he could do was yell, “Uh! Oh! Oh!” the way he had yelled falling down the hill.
    â€œYou’re stupid,” the kid said. “You don’t leave your bike where somebody can take it. If I saw it, I would have taken it in a minute. You’re really dumb.”
    â€œI’m not dumb. You can be retarded and not dumb.”
    â€œDumb.”
    â€œThat’s not nice,” Sammy said.
    â€œYou got it right that time, dummy. I’m a bad guy, so look out, Mr. Goody Boy. I suppose you never did anything bad?”
    Sammy said nothing.
    â€œWell, did you?”
    Sammy nodded. “Sometimes.”
    â€œRight! I got you, you little hypocrite. Don’t look at me with those big baby eyes and lie to me. I can tell, just by looking at you, that you lie all the time. Now, you’d better tell me the truth. You going to run away if I untie you?”
    â€œNo. I promise.”
    The kid freed Sammy’s hands and then his feet. Sammy rubbed his wrists and his ankles.
    â€œJust remember, you try anything, and I can tie you up again in a second,” the kid said. He wadded up the tape and threw it away, then crouched by the entrance, looking out. “What am I going to do with this dumb kid? What’s he want?”
    Who was he talking to? Sammy crept closer.
    â€œI let him go, and what? He goes back and tells everybody he found this guy in the woods. He starts blabbing about Kevin in the woods, and they say, ‘So that’s where he is!’ And then the whole army and air force and helicopters and search dogs come looking for me. They’ll get me and lock me up, and that’ll be the end of Kevin. I’ve got to kill him.”
    He turned and shoved Sammy into the back again. “You got me in a fix now, dummy!”
    â€œI can go home,” Sammy said. “I will. I’ll go right straight home.”
    â€œYou’ll be home, and I’ll be back at Fieldstone, that rat hole. They’re going to say, ‘Where’d you get this kid from?’ They’re going to say I kidnapped you. Anything I tell them, they’ll say it’s a lie.
    â€œFieldstone?” Sammy said. “Is that where you live?”
    â€œFieldstone is where they send me if they catch me. It’s a school you can’t leave. No way, man. Nobody’s grabbing K-Man and locking him up.”

8

    â€œDon’t even think about going out.” Kevin’s mattress was right in front of the doorway. He was lying down, hooked up to a tape player. “You want to be tied up again? Get back there.”
    Sammy had to stay in back. There was a plank he could sit on, but there wasn’t enough room to stand up. He was hungry and he had to pee, but he was afraid to say anything.
    Kevin lay on his back, and sometimes one foot went up and bounced around and then the other.
    â€œIs that good music?” Sammy asked.
    Kevin didn’t answer.
    Sammy held his