Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar Page B

crazy. “I smell like garbage!”
    “That’s the wonderful thing about telephones,” said Gus. “She can’t smell you.”
    “No, you still can’t go out with your kid’steacher. It’s probably against the law. Besides, she probably already has lots of dates for tonight or is busy grading papers.”
    “Lots of dates for tonight?” questioned Gus.
    “Okay, then, what about Angeline? What would she think if I went out with her teacher?”
    “She likes Mr. Bone,” said Gus.
    “That’s just it,” said Abel. “And I told you, her name’s not Mr. Bone. It’s Melissa Turbone.”
    “That’s too bad,” said Gus.
    “It’s just that she’ll finally have a teacher she likes, and I don’t want to do anything to blow it for her. It might be very traumatic for her and result in deep psychological implications.”
    Gus stopped the truck.
    “What are you doing?” asked Abel. “What are we stopping for?”
    Gus pointed at the row of industrial trash bins. “Garbage, Abel, remember?”
    Angeline ate lunch with Gary, Miss Turbone, and Miss Turbone’s fish. She hardly said a word as she ate. She thought about what Christy had said, and about Mrs. Hardlick, and none of it seemed to make any sense.
    “So how does it feel to be back in school?”Miss Turbone asked her.
    She didn’t answer her. She stared at the fish. She felt like she needed to go back to the aquarium or, better still, to the ocean. She sipped a glass of salt water.
    “We’ll be taking that field trip to the aquarium in three weeks,” said Miss Turbone.
    “I don’t know,” said Gary. “That aquarium sounds fishy to me.”
    Angeline didn’t laugh. She didn’t think it was a very funny joke.
    Someone knocked on the door and Gary opened it. “Hey, Goon,” said a kid from his class, all out of breath. “Is Miss Turbone in here? Miss Turbone, there’s a phone call for you in the office.”
    Miss Turbone laughed but nobody knew why. It was because when the boy said “Miss Turbone,” it sounded to her like “Mr. Bone.”
    The office was nearly empty when she got there. Everyone except one secretary was at lunch. Miss Turbone walked into the vice-principal’s office and picked up the phone. “This is Mr. Bone.”
    “Melissa?”
    “Yes,” she said, unable to place the voice.
    “Hi, this is Abel Persopolis, Angeline’s father.”
    “Oh, hello, Abel,” she answered warmly. “I was just having lunch with Angeline.”
    Abel nodded.
    “You haven’t changed your mind about switching her to my class, have you?” she asked him.
    “No,” said Abel. He was calling from a pay phone at a gas station. Gus had parked the truck across the street and told him he wouldn’t move until Abel called up Mr. Bone. “So, you got home all right last night?” Abel asked. He was sweating.
    “Yes. Why? Is it a dangerous trip?”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” said Abel. “You never know.”
    “I had no problems,” she assured him.
    “Well, I just thought I’d call and make sure,” he said.
    “Thank you, Abel. That is very sweet.”
    “Okay, fine,” he said, thinking that he could now say good-bye to her and then tell Gus that she didn’t want to go out with him because of the psychological problems it would cause for Angeline.
    “Is that all?” Melissa asked him.
    He paused. “Yes. No.” He took a breath. “Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?”
    “Tonight?”
    “Yes. See, I wanted to go out with you before Angeline switched to your class. I hear it might be against the law to have dinner with your kid’s teacher.”
    Melissa laughed. “I’d love to have dinner with you tonight,” she said. “We’ll have to keep our eyes out for the cops, just the same,” she added, playing along with his joke.
    Since she knew the way to his apartment, she said that she’d drive. “It’s too hard to give directions to my condominium.”
    Abel walked back to the truck.
    “Well?” Gus asked eagerly.
    “What?” Abel asked