Read Blossoms and the Green Phantom for Free Online

urged, insisted actually, that Pap notice him.
    “I’d help you if I could, Mud,” Pap said with a sigh. He kept scratching Dump.
    A flea moved behind Mud’s ear, and he scratched it without getting up. He just twisted slightly and scratched with his back paw. Then he rested his aching head back on his paws.
    The cut over Mud’s eye still stung. He had taken care of it the best he could by licking his paw and wiping the cut, but that was never as satisfactory as a direct lick. From time to time he still tried to shake off the pain in his ear.
    There was another “Good dog” from the Dumpster, and Mud’s tail made a low, unhappy sweep in the dust. He began to whine, and Pap called, “Mud, you too. Good dog, Mud.”
    Suddenly, Mud lifted his ears. He heard the sound of a motorcycle in the distance. He crawled out from under the truck.
    “Somebody coming, Mud?”
    There were sounds of another struggle and then Pap’s face appeared over the side of the Dumpster. He was holding on to the Dumpster like a baby holding onto its crib.
    Pap heard the motorcycle then. He knew it was useless, but he couldn’t help himself. He began yelling, “Help help help help help,” over and over.
    There was something about this that Mud didn’t like. He had known from the moment Pap disappeared into the Dumpster that something was wrong, badly wrong, but he had not known how wrong until he heard the panic in Pap’s voice. This was something Mud had never heard before. Pap was afraid.
    Mud threw back his head and began to howl. He was a good strong howler, and now there were three noises in the air—Mud’s howls, Pap’s helps , and the drone of the motorcycle.
    The motorcycle went by in a roar. The two riders never glanced at the Dumpster. The noise of the motorcycle began to fade. Then it was gone.
    Pap was the next to give up. His helps grew fainter and weaker, and then he sagged back into the garbage bag chair and was silent.
    Mud kept howling. These were his howls of misery, and when Mud was really unhappy, he could howl for hours.
    Dump pawed at Pap’s leg, asking to get back in his lap. After a moment, Pap picked him up. “There was two of them on the bike, Dump. Didn’t neither one of them see me.”
    He patted Dump with one hand. With the other, he pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his eyes.

CHAPTER 10
The Helium Hero
    Everyone was just as impressed with his saying “Helium” as Junior had hoped they would be.
    “Yes, helium,” he said again with a firm nod.
    Actually, it was more than just being impressed. They were shocked, Junior thought happily. Even his mother was standing there with her mouth open. He knew this because he could feel her chin drop onto the top of his head.
    Junior was delighted with their reaction. Everyone, seeing the unpainted air mattresses and the garbage bags, had probably thought that he, Junior, didn’t know what he was doing, that this was just another of Junior’s crazy inventions that wouldn’t work. With one word, he had changed all that.
    He couldn’t help himself. He said the word one more time. “Helium.”
    It was Vern who stopped Junior from saying it any more. “Helium!” He came two steps closer to his mom. “Mom, we can’t get helium!”
    He felt he had to let her know this was completely impossible before she put him in charge of it. “Helium costs money—big money—and it comes in heavy cans like—” Vern sputtered for words and couldn’t find them. With his hands he measured out a large bomb-shaped object. “You can’t just go in a store and buy helium!”
    Needing corroboration, he turned to the one person in the crowd he could count on. “Can you, Michael?”
    Michael shook his head.
    Vern turned back to his mother. “See, Mom?” he said.
    The disbelief of Vern and Michael, his mother’s shocked chin resting on his head, did not worry Junior at all. He had expected this reaction. He would have been disappointed if it had been any other way.
    He