Read Blossoms and the Green Phantom for Free Online Page B

began walking around the Phantom so he could enjoy it from every angle. As he went, he rearranged the air mattresses into a better circle. “I just sprayed one tiny little dot—over here, see? Right there.” He pointed at the spot with a dirty finger. “I wanted to make sure it was green enough.”
    “I don’t think there’s any question that it’s green enough,” Ralphie said. Ralphie still had not smiled.
    “I’m not going to spray the whole thing until it’s full of helium because if I do it now, see there are some wrinkles here and here, and the Day-Glo won’t get in the wrinkles. I want it to be perfect.”
    “I’m sure you do,” Ralphie said. He put his hands in his pockets.
    The Green Phantom was the least perfect thing Ralphie had ever seen in his life. On a scale of one to ten, it wasn’t even a one. Patched air mattresses in a triangle with collapsing garbage bags on top—it was like the stuff his little brothers were always making, only his little brothers at least understood that the stuff they made was pitiful. They even had the good sense to be ashamed of it. “Mom, Ralphie’s spying on us,” they’d cry if he even came close. And they didn’t expect their space junk to actually fly, they were happy just to sit in it and pretend to be flying.
    Ralphie shook his head. The more he looked at the Phantom, as Junior insisted everyone call it, the more he realized that it was not going to take “some helium” to fill the Phantom. It was going to take a whole bunch of helium.
    Ralphie cleared his throat. “Excuse me,” he said, “but were you planning to fill just the, er, air mattresses, or the garbage bags as well.”
    “The whole thing,” Junior said happily. “The works.”
    Ralphie said, “Mmm.”
    “Why did you say that? Mmm.”
    Ralphie could see that he had managed to get Junior worried. “Junior, don’t you know what happens to people who fill up both their mattresses and their garbage bags? Don’t you read Time magazine?”
    “No, no. We don’t even take magazines.”
    “I hate to be the one to break this to you, Junior, but people who fill up both their mattresses and their garbage bags float off and are never seen or heard from again. See, helium acts like a magnet, and you get too much of the stuff and it won’t let go of you and—”
    At that moment, Ralphie looked up and saw Maggie standing in the door of the barn. “Is anything wrong?” she asked.
    Junior said, “I don’t know. Ralphie says helium acts like a magnet and if I put too much inside, it will pull me off with it.”
    Maggie smiled. “Junior, you know not to believe everything Ralphie says.”
    Junior turned to Ralphie. “But you weren’t teasing when you said that your mom was the balloon lady, were you? She really does run the Balloonerie?”
    “Yes, my mom runs the Balloonerie.”
    “And you can get the helium?”
    “I said I could, didn’t I?”
    “Junior,” Maggie said, “you ought to know by now that when Ralphie says he can do something, it’s so.”
    Ralphie thought he better leave while he was still the helium hero. He walked around the Phantom, as if avoiding any contact with the thing, and said to Maggie, “I’ll see you later.”
    Junior followed Ralphie out of the barn. To make up for the fact that he had doubted Ralphie, he said, “If you wait till Pap comes, you can pick up the helium in the truck.”
    “No, thanks,” Ralphie said.
    “It would be a lot easier.”
    “Not really,” Ralphie said. Since he was going to have to steal the helium, the theft would be a lot less conspicuous by bike.
    He pushed off and began the long ride home.
    Michael and Vern were getting a drink of water at the sink.
    “Well, I’ll be going,” Michael said, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
    “Don’t forget to come back after supper,” Vern said. “Because Junior insists we have to do it tonight.”
    “I know. I will.” He paused, obviously reluctant to continue. “Do you