9 The Bad-Luck Magnet

Chapter 9 The Bad-Luck Magnet "Wow!" Dad exclaimed when he saw the pumpkin in the window. "You weren't kidding. That is one big pumpkin!" "Hello, there!" said Dan. "Back again?" "My school really needs books," I said. "And he really likes candy," said Dad with a smile. "Matter of fact, so do I." "Is No-name around?" I asked. "I just got here a few minutes ago," said Dan. "But I haven't seen her. Maybe someone decided to take her home." "My daughter will be disappointed if they did," said Dad. "She spent all of our dinner begging us to add No-name to our family." No No-name was good news. Finally I could concentrate on more important things. I thought about the world's biggest pumpkin.

Mr. Page had said it was over one thousand six hundred pounds. He'd shown us a picture of it too. The bookstore pumpkin was smaller than that. But it was still pretty big. I thought about the medium-sized pumpkin at school Ms. Diz had weighed. It was seventeen pounds. The bookstore pumpkin weighed a lot more than that one. Finally I felt ready to take a guess. I wrote down my number: 964 I put ROSCOE RILEY on my paper. And also my telephone number.

Then I folded up the paper and put it into the plastic pumpkin that held the other guesses. There were a lot of other guesses. "Good luck," said Dan. "We'll be announcing the winner on Saturday morning during the Fall Festival." Dad looked at his watch. "We've got a few minutes before we have to pick up Max," he said. "Let's go check out the kids' books section." That's where Hazel had run into No-name! "We should probably go get Max," I said quickly. "We've got plenty of time," Dad said. I followed him very closely down the aisle. So far, so good. No No-name. We passed the picture book part. And the pop-up book part. And the books that have a lot of big words and not enough pictures part. Just as we passed a tall stack of wizard books, I tripped. My shoelace was untied. That happens about twenty times a day. I bent down to tie my shoe.

But somebody else wanted to help. No-name! She leaped out of a bookshelf and grabbed my shoelace. "It's her, Dad!" I cried. I could feel the bad luck rubbing off on me. "Just relax," said Dad. "She's only playing. Kittens love string." I stood statue still. "Dad," I said in a trembly voice, "I will have to burn this shoe. It is totally covered with unluckiness."

No-name rubbed on me. Right on my lucky red sock. "Great," I said. "Now I have bad-luck cat stink all over my red sock." Dad grinned. "I think she likes you." "Dad," I said. "We have to get out of here. If she walks in front of us, we are cursed forever. Or for seven years. I'm not exactly sure which." Gently Dad pulled the shoelace from Noname's little claws. Then he picked her up. "Dad!" I cried. "What is wrong with you?" "I'm just holding her," he said. "It's not like she's crossing my path." No-name made that rumbly purring noise again. She sounded like she'd swallowed a little toy engine. It was a good sound. But I knew it was just a sneaky cat trick. She wanted me to think she was cute so she could cross my path and ruin my life. "Please can we go now? She's already unlucked my lucky sock." "All right," Dad said. I dashed ahead of him down the aisle.

I guess No-name thought I wanted to play catch-the-boy. She jumped right out of Dad's arms. And she ran right after me and my shoelace. "Help!" I cried. "I'm being chased by bad luck!"