Sister+Brother=Trouble by Frank Murphy (good non fiction books to read .TXT) 📕

over to Leon. He saw him, but Leon was behind a little bit. Frank thought to himself that it must be hard running in those silly flip flops, but that Leon must be pretty fast to keep up.
They reached the end of their driveways. The blaring song was nearer. It was coming down Lemon Avenue from a car with a giant hot dog and bun on top. It was the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile. The Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile came through neighborhoods and kids could get hot dogs. It was like an ice cream truck. The only difference was that the hot dogs were free.
The big hot dog car stropped right at the edge of Leon’s and Frank’s driveways. The lady in the brown and orange Oscar Mayer uniform leaned out and asked Leon if he wanted ketchup or mustard.
He was jumping up and down like a bouncy ball. “Both, please!” Leon said. Leon took his hot dog and said, “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Just ketchup, please,” Frank said to the hot dog lady. “Thank you may-hem,” Frank said, trying to copy the way Leon said thank you.
They sat down on the curb and started eating their hot dogs.
“Perfectly perfect,” Leon said with his mouth full.
“Hmhmmm,” Frank agreed with his mouth full.
Frank realized that this was the first time he had been with Leon without the tall fence separating them. He felt okay. He actually liked Leon. He thought that he could tell Kathleen about how un-strange Leon could be.
Frank looked down and noticed something on that big white daisy on Leon’s flip-flop. It was a blue ink drawing of a bug with wings. It looked like a flying ant. It was really detailed. Frank could see patterns on the wings. Frank didn’t ask Leon about it. He thought he might start talking like an encyclopedia again.
“Hey! Hot dogs remind me of my friend – Jimmy Choo,” Leon said.
“Who’s that?” Frank asked.
“He’s my friend who lives on Naomi Avenue,” Leon said.
“Nay-me what?” Frank asked. He didn’t quite understand Leon in between his big mouthfuls of hot dog.
“Nay-Oh-Me. Naomi Avenue. It’s a couple of blocks away,” Leon said.
“Why hot dogs?” Frank asked.
“Because Jimmy Choo does what his last name says. He chews and eats raw hot dogs,” Leon said. “Jimmy Chooooo!”
“That’s okay. I sometimes do too. My sister told me the Oscar Mayer Company cooks all the hot dogs in the hot dog factory. When our moms cook them, they’re really just warming them up,” Frank explained, proudly.
“It’s not that. It’s that he takes the tip of the hot dog, pulls it back and…SNAP…breaks it open. Then he goes into his nose and digs out a big green one. Then he puts it inside the hot dog and closes up the tip. Then… he eats it! And… CHEWS it. Jimmy Choooooo,” Leon said.
Frank swallowed a mouthful of hot dog down his throat like it was a water balloon. He put his hand over his mouth. He didn’t say to Leon that it was the grossest thing he had ever heard, but he thought it.
“Leon, I gotta go,” Frank said.
“Okay, see ya’ Fred,” Leon said.
Frank didn’t stay long enough to correct Leon about his name. He started running back to his house. He hurried to open and close the gate…flew past the kumquat tree…past his grandparents’ house and into his backdoor. He tossed the rest of his hot dog into the trash and headed for the bathroom.

Chapter 13
August

The next morning Frank woke up and immediately hoped that his sister was awake. He got out of bed and did his normal morning stuff: brush teeth and get dressed. But before he got his Rice Krispies he headed to Kathleen’s bedroom. He was hoping that Kathleen had forgotten about the bucket of potion disaster. He gently knocked on her door.
“K??” Frank said. (Sometimes he called her “K” for short.)
“What?” she said.
“Wanna ride?” he asked.
“Not Big Wheels!” she said.
“Okay, bikes then!”
“Alright, I’ll meet you at the garage.”
Twenty minutes later Kathleen met Frank at the garage. They hopped on their bikes and raced around the driveway. Circles and figure eights. Skidding their bikes’ back tires against the black top. And playing a game called “Chicken”. This is where each rider pedals toward each other. The first one to steer out of the way is the “chicken”. (Frank always lost!)
They took a break and stopped riding. Kathleen turned her bike upside down and started rotating one of her bike pedals. This made the back wheel spin around and around, quickly.
“Ice cream!” Frank called out! “Ice creammm!!”
From the other yard they both heard a voice crying out, “Insects are yummierrrr!”
They both looked at each other and giggled. Frank knew that Kathleen wasn’t angry anymore about the disaster. They never spoke about it again.
“Hey, guess what!” Kathleen said.
“What?” Frank asked.
“It’s August!”
“Really?!” Frank looked over to Lemon Avenue. “Yesss!” he said.
“Let’s convince mom to train us,” Kathleen said.
Frank thought about the word “train” and knew it meant the “choo-choo train” kind and “something you do with dogs” kind. Then he realized Kathleen really meant “teach”. But he didn’t want to correct her. He was just happy she wasn’t mad about the disaster anymore.

Chapter 14
Lemon Avenue

Later that day Kathleen and Frank were eating lunch. Their mom had made one of their favorite meals - grilled cheese sandwiches. The sandwiches came with two bowls of Lipton chicken noodle soup (with extra noodles, Frank always asked for more noodles!) and potato chips.
“Mom?” Kathleen said.
“Yes, honey?” Mrs. Murphy said.
“It’s August!”
“I know. It’s August 1st,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Do you remember?” Kathleen asked.
“Remember what?”
“Remember that Frankie can’t wait to learn to cross the street by himself!” she said.
Mrs. Murphy giggled. “Oh, yes. That’s right. You mean you don’t care about crossing the street on your own?” Mrs. Murphy asked.
Frank interrupted, “She does. She told me today that we should ask you to train us! But she really meant teach.”
Kathleen frowned at Frank.
“Okay then…after lunch we’ll walk out and practice,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Woohoo!” Frank said.

Mrs. Murphy and Kathleen walked the long driveway to Lemon Avenue. Frank was already there, jumping up and down.
“Kathleen! Frank! The first rule is this: you must hold hands, always,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Got it,” they both said.
“Second, you have to stand at the edge of the curb and look both ways.”
“Got it!”
“Third, you have to look both ways again!” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Gotcha!” said Kathleen.
“Got it!” said Frank.
“And you shouldn’t run!” said Mrs. Murphy.
Frank’s couldn’t believe his ears. He had been practicing running. He expected to zoom across the street – like a superhero. No cars could ever hit him. He was too fast. Now his mom was telling him: “no running!”
“Never?” asked Frank.
“Never!” said his mom.
“Why?”
“Because you might trip and fall. You’re under much better control when you’re walking,” she explained.
“Oh,” he said. Frank’s shoulders wilted. “But what if a big truck is speeding down the – ”
“It’s not a game, Frankie,” said Mrs. Murphy. “And if there was a truck speeding, then you didn’t look both ways in the first place!”
“Okay. I understand,” he said.
“Alright, let’s practice!” said Kathleen.
They practiced walking across the street. Frank felt like a big kid. His mom even let him try it once by himself. Oh how he wanted to run as fast as he could across Lemon Avenue.

Chapter 15
Kindergarten and Changes

Frank started his first year in kindergarten. Eventually, crossing the street became something as regular as brushing teeth, getting dressed and eating Rice Krispies every morning. But Frank’s first year in school brought all kinds of new adventures and changes. And his first year brought a really big change – Frank and Kathleen found out something that would affect them everyday.
“Kathleen and Frank, your dad and I have to talk to you about something,” Mrs. Murphy said.
Kathleen thought about the potion experiment with Leon and was pretty sure a punishment was coming. Frank didn’t just think it, he blurted it out.
“It’s my fault the branches are broken and we didn’t really really try to hurt him and no bugs got hurt and – ”
“What are you talking about, silly?” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Um. Nothing. He’s just rambling on…tell us!” Kathleen saved Frank.
“The house we live in – we’ve just outgrown it. We need more room. And your dad and I have decided to move – ”
“You’re leaving us here! All alone!” Frank blurted out. “You and dad aren’t that tall. Your heads don’t even reach the ceilings!”
“No, honey. Please let us finish,” Mrs. Murphy said. “We have decided to move.”
“…And let you come too!” Mr. Murphy added, laughing.
“Yes. And let both of you come with us. But we want to know what you both think,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“What about Grandma and Grandpa? And Hilde and Heidi?” asked Frank.
“Well, Grandmom and Grandpa found a new place too. It’s close. Hilde and Heidi are so much trouble with that fence and running away. Your Uncle Jack agreed to take them. He has horses and they’ll love being there,” Mr. Murphy said.
The next thing Frank thought about was how he had just learned to conquer crossing Lemon Avenue. Now he was moving to a new house where he’d have to learn how to cross a whole new street.
“You said grandma and grandpa are going to be close. Does that mean we are moving somewhere close to here?” Kathleen asked.
“Yes! It’s just a few neighborhoods away on a street called Naomi Avenue,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Nay – Oh – ME Avenue?” Frank asked. His eyes opened wide and his eyebrows were almost touching the sky.
“Yes!” Mrs. Murphy said.
Before Mrs. Murphy said the words Naomi Avenue all Frank was thinking about was:
• No more kumquat tree.
• No more grandparents living in front of them.
• No more Hilde and Heidi.
• And no more Leon!
But after those words – Naomi Avenue – all he could think about was a kid named Jimmy Choo. He thought about the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile coming around. And he thought about how he was going to have witness this kid chew, chew, chewing raw hot dogs - with you-know-what inside!