Chapter 11

Chapter eleven The door to our apartment opened just in time. I had never been so glad to see my mom's face. I broke free from the zombie and zoomed inside like I had a jet pack on my back. "Frankie! Ashley! Get in here," I yelled. "And Mom! Slam the door! Quick!" But my mom wasn't fast enough, and the green-faced zombie followed us into the living room. This was it. I had no choice. It was time for me to be brave. "Stop right there," I said, stepping in front of my family and friends and spreading my tinfoil arms in front of them. "I am a zombie fighter. Take one step farther and I'll have to use my powers to melt you into a green puddle."

"Hank," my mom said. "That's no way to talk to Mrs. Fink." "But, Mom, can't you see? That's not really Mrs. Fink anymore. She's been taken over by zombies. Just look at her." "Oh," Mrs. Fink said, reaching out to touch my arm. "I think I understand the problem." "Don't get near me," I warned her. "You can't eat my brain. It's off-limits." "I'm not a zombie, honey," she said. "I promise." "Then why is your face green?" "I was just having some Halloween fun. So I covered my face with my avocado face cream." "Oh really? Then where have your teeth gone?" "They're in a glass on the sink. Maybe you didn't know, but I wear false teeth. I'm so sorry that I scared you." "Mrs. Fink," my mom said. "I'm so embarrassed about the way Hank spoke to you. If you'll excuse us, I'd like to have a word with him."

Mrs. Fink winked at me as she left, and a big glob of green slime slid off her face onto her shoes. "Don't forget to come back for a Tootsie Roll," she said to all three of us as she left our apartment. My mom looked me right in the eye. "What is all this about, Hank?" she asked. "I think I know, Mrs. Zipzer," Ashley said. "Ever since last night's movie, Hank has been worried about a zombie invasion." "We thought he was just kidding," Frankie said. "But now we see he wasn't." "This is silly, Hank," my mom said. "There's no such thing as zombies. They are made up." "Oh yeah?" I said. "Then how come it says in the encyclopedia at the library that zombies do exist? I read it, right on the page. It said, "According to experts, there is evidence that

zombies exist." My mom nodded her head. "I think I understand what's happening here," she said slowly. "Isn't it true, sweetie, that reading is very hard for you? And sometimes you add words to what's on the page... or leave words out?" "I guess that's true, Mom." "So I suggest we all go to the computer and look up zombies again. We'll give it another reading." Frankie, Ashley, and I followed my mom to the dining-room table, where she sat down in front of her laptop.

She typed in some words. In just a few seconds, the encyclopedia page about zombies popped up. It was the same page that was in the book I read. Frankie leaned toward the screen and read the first sentence out loud. "The word zombie was first used in 1819 in Brazil," he read. "Oh, that's what that word was," I said. "Brazil! Well, that makes much more sense than Bad Bill." Frankie continued reading. "According to

experts, there is no evidence that zombies exist." "Wait a minute," I said. "Where do you see the word no?" "It's right here, Zip," he said, pointing to the word on the screen. "Do you think it was there this whole time?" I asked. "Yes, I do." There was a long silence as I thought about that. "So I've been scared of a zombie invasion this whole time because I skipped over a two- letter word?" Frankie and Ashley and my mom all nodded. For some reason, I felt like I was going to cry. Why couldn't I read like Frankie and Ashley? At that moment, I really didn't like my brain. Why didn't it work like everyone else's? Ashley put one of her giraffe hooves on my shoulder.