Jack's New Power by Jack Gantos

hugged Mom and Dad goodbye.
Then she gave a special hug to Betsy. Then she rubbed Pete’s head and leaned forward and gave him a kiss. He did a little wiggle dance, like a worm. I’d squish him later. I waited for her to search for me, to ask about me, to feel pained that I didn’t show up to say goodbye. But she didn’t hesitate a moment. I was the farthest thing from her mind. She opened the car door and stepped inside. Dad closed the door for her. She leaned out the window as the engine started. “So long,” she said sweetly. “Thank you for everything.”
    â€œWait!” I shouted from the tree. From my moving around, the branches rustled like a beast pushing through the brush. “Wait for mel”
    Betsy, Mom, Dad, and Pete turned to look up into the tree just as I dove chest forward through the branches with one hand held over my broken heart and the other pressed against my feverish forehead.
    It was a perfect swoon. I kept my eyes on her face until I hit the ground like a dud bomb. I bounced on my chest and knocked the wind out of my lungs. My wide puppy eyes were filled with dirt. I tried to say something like, You are my purpleheart, but couldn’t. I was gagging for air. I reached forward with my hands and clutched at the little tufts of grass. I crawled forward, inch by inch, a wounded soldier in the battle for love.
    Anne looked at me with complete astonishment. I’m certain I saw her mouth make a little circle as if she were surprised. It was the most perfectly circular circle I had ever seen made out of lips. I wanted to tell her so.
    â€œAnne,” I grunted. “Save me.”

    She abruptly turned her head away, gave instructions to the driver, and the car pulled out of the driveway.
    Betsy walked over to me and stood above my upturned face. “You are pathetic,” she said and began to laugh. Then she dropped to her knees and pressed her hands to her cheeks. “My heart has ears,” she said, sighing with mock love. “What were you thinking when you wrote that?”
    Suddenly I leaped forward like a frog and slapped at my legs. I had fallen on a red-ant nest and they had crawled up my pants leg.
    â€œPete,” Dad ordered. “Get the hose and spray him down. I think he needs a cold shower.”
    I didn’t wait for Pete. I hopped up and scampered like a lunatic down the side yard and through my French doors. I closed them behind me. As I turned, I saw it. My diary was on my bed. It was open to the page where I had written one hundred Annes in a row. She had been wearing lipstick and had kissed the page and left a moist print behind. I held it to my lips. As I kissed it, I felt the ants pinching my legs.

New Power

    I t was the middle of summer and the flies were driving us nuts. There were millions of them. We were overrun. Our house didn’t have window screens, so they buzzed us all day and all night. But I had a plan. I knew that if you want to wipe out snakes you introduce the mongoose, its natural enemy, and before long the snakes are eaten and gone. If you want to get rid of mice, you buy a cat. And I knew that to get rid of flies you bring in lizards. So I did. I went out to the back yard and trapped a dozen and set them loose in my room. At first it was great. They zapped the flies with their long sticky tongues and swallowed them whole. But soon they ate so many they got fat and full and lay about the room with their eyes closed and arms and legs spread open like burned-out tourists.
    I stomped around the floor with a ruler, shouting, “Wake up! Time to sing for your supper. Eat! Eat!” I
slapped the ruler against the wall and startled them into moving their lizard lard. But they were useless and only lurched forward a few inches before taking another siesta.
    â€œForget that idea,” I said out loud. “This is a man’s job.”
    I got the flyswatter and went to work. Whack! One down. Whack!