Read A Boy Called Duct Tape for Free Online

inside. All the lights were out. I kicked the door in frustration. I thought I was going to be sick. I kicked the door again, harder this time.

7
    We returned to the Blood Brothers Trading Store early the next morning on our dirt bikes. Kiki rode Pia’s bike, and Pia and me doubled up on my new Mongoose. The SORRY, WE’RE CLOSED sign was still in the window and all the lights were out inside.
    I felt like a stupid fool for allowing Earl Blood to trick me so easily. I thought about going to the police, but who would Sheriff Hickman believe? It was an adult’s word against a kid’s. Besides, what proof did I have? None.
    Licking our wounds, we entered Lyda’s Café and ordered cherry limeades. The frustration of losing the gold coin to Earl Blood had my brain spinning out of control. The same thought circled through my head : I was tricked out of $6,250!
    Kiki found a copy of the Jamesville Times in our booth. The front-page headline yelled:
    RECORD CROWD EXPECTED FOR 71 ST OUTLAW DAYS FESTIVAL
    “We should go,” Kiki said in a cheery voice. “It might make us forget about losing the coin.”
    “ Losing ?” I said, arching my eyebrows.
    “Okay, it might make us forget about being swindled ,” Kiki said.
    “Exactly.”
    “What’s swindled?” Pia asked, slurping her cherry limeade through a straw.
    “It’s sort of like being cheated,” Kiki said.
    I knew I would never forget about being swindled. I would probably still be thinking about it when I was 40 years old. I tried to put it out of my mind, and gestured at the newspaper. “What’s the story have to say?”
    Kiki snapped the wrinkles of the page and read aloud:
    “‘ Saint or scoundrel? More than 130 years after his death from an assassin’s bullet, the people of Jamesville are still arguing the character of Jesse James. The debate will renew itself as the 71st annual Outlaw Days Festival begins today in the Jamesville city park.’”
    “What’s a scoundrel?” Pia asked.
    “A bad person,” I said.
    “Like those Blood brothers?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, like the Blood brothers—scoundrels and swindlers.”
    “Good lead,” Kiki observed. “Saint or scoundrel? Clever.”
    “What’s a lead?” Pia asked.
    “Pia,” I said, my nerves on edge, “how many questions are you going ask?”
    “A thousand.”
    I let out a frustrated breath.
    “It’s the first paragraph of a news story,” Kiki said. “Our newspaper in St. Louis is having a contest for kids to see who can write the best story about ‘My Summer Vacation Without A Computer.’ I’m going to write a story about my vacation in Jamesville. But I can’t go near a computer—no Facebook, no chat rooms, no computer at all.”
    “What will you write about?” I asked.
    Kiki shrugged. “I’m not sure. Any ideas?”
    “Write about the Outlaws Days Festival,” Pia suggested.
    “Hmm …” Kiki gave it some thought. “That might be a little—”
    I cut Kiki off. “Boring?”
    “Yeah, boring,” Kiki confirmed.
    “Oh,” Pia said.
    Kiki turned back to the newspaper:
    “‘The celebration began in 1939, the same year a Hollywood film company came to Jamesville to make the movie titled The James Boys . Four hundred locals, the total population of Jamesville at the time, were used as extras to portray their forefathers of 1879, the year James was shot and killed.’”
    I enjoyed watching Kiki’s mouth move. I had never seen a girl’s mouth move with such perfection, and for a few minutes I did forget about being cheated out of the coin.
    “ ‘Bootlegger’s Cave, located near James Creek less than two miles from Jamesville, was used in the movie as the James Gang hideout. In reality, many caves in the Jamesville area were actually used by the gang when they were robbing and stealing. Jamesville residents have claimed for years that a fortune in gold and silver coins was stashed by the James Gang in one of those caves, and the legend of the Lost Treasure of Jesse James still