Read On the Road to Mr. Mineo's for Free Online

with them.
    Stella squinted.
    Mutt Raynard!
    What was he doing here?
    He almost never came into town.
    He stayed out there with all those wild Raynard kids who lived in the cluster of ramshackle houses.
    Stella glared up the sidewalk at Levi and the others. “I smell a rat,” she said.
    â€œHow come?” Gerald scratched at his splotchy red neck.
    â€œThat’s Mutt Raynard.”
    â€œI hate him,” Gerald said.
    â€œI bet you anything they’re talking about that pigeon,” Stella said. “I bet Levi is asking Mutt to help him. Mutt’ll do anything. He’s crazy.”
    â€œYeah,” Gerald said. “He’s crazy.”
    Stella shook her head. “I smell a rat.”

 
    CHAPTER TWENTY
    The Lie That Levi Loved
    Gerald Baxter eats dirt. He crawls up under the hydrangea bushes with a spoon in his back pocket. He hunkers down against the cool, moss-covered bricks of his house and scrapes and scrapes at the dry dirt.
    He puts the dirt into his mouth and chews and chews.
    â€œNo way!” Levi said when Mutt told him that glorious lie.
    Levi loved a good lie, and Mutt told the best ones in Meadville.
    â€œSo that means Gerald Baxter has worms,” Levi said, “because eating dirt gives you worms.”
    C.J. and Jiggs hooted and hollered and slapped their scabby knees, laughing up a storm.
    Then Levi told Mutt about the one-legged pigeon.
    Mutt raised his eyebrows.
    â€œAnd we’ve got to catch that thing before Stella and Wormy do,” Levi said.
    C.J. and Jiggs hooted and hollered again.
    â€œSo if you see it,” Levi went on, “catch it and bring it to us, okay?”
    â€œI saw that pigeon,” Mutt said.
    â€œReally?”
    Mutt nodded.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œUp yonder by the Laundromat.”
    Levi narrowed his eyes at Mutt. “You lying?”
    Mutt shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t the same pigeon you’re looking for.” He picked at dirt under his fingernails. “There’s probably lots of one-legged pigeons around here.”
    Levi glanced up toward the Laundromat.
    Mutt shrugged again. “Shiny green head. Black stripes on his wings.”
    â€œCome on, y’all,” Levi called to C.J. and Jiggs as he took off running toward the Laundromat.
    Then Mutt trotted up the sidewalk toward Luther’s Chinese Takeout, searching for the one-legged pigeon.

 
    CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
    Amy and That Temper of Hers
    Ernie rested his head on Mr. Mineo’s scuffed-up brown shoes while Mr. Mineo ate cold macaroni and cheese and rambled on and on about Sherman.
    â€œHe’s never been gone this long before,” he said, tossing a piece of macaroni onto the linoleum floor for Ernie.
    â€œAmy’s gonna be ticked off big-time,” he said. “Her out in that shed day and night, waiting on him to come home and him off gallivanting all over tarnation and back.”
    He pushed himself up out of his old plaid lounge chair and shuffled to the kitchen.
    â€œWhen he does show hisself back in that shed, she’s liable to peck him bald-headed,” he said. “You know Amy and that temper of hers.”
    He put the dirty bowl in the sink with the others and called to Ernie, “Let’s go see if he’s back yet.”
    They went around the side of the trailer to the shed. The rain had turned the red dirt on the path into gooey red mud. Inside the shed, some of the pigeons pranced around in the chicken-wire cage on the side. Some of them pecked at grains of gritty dirt on the floor. And others sat contentedly on perches.
    Mr. Mineo said hello to each one.
    Edna
    Frankie
    Martha
    Samson
    Leslie
    Taylor
    Amy
    Joe
    Christopher
    and Martin
    But not Sherman.
    â€œCome on, Ernie,” Mr. Mineo said. “Let’s go look for that dern fool bird.”
    The pickup truck splashed through the puddles of the narrow road along the lake, past the bait shop, toward Meadville. Mr. Mineo had driven up