Page 47 - SuperCowboyFlipBook

Was this like radio or not? Leslie’s voice sounded like that of the teenage neighbor girl. I wondered if I maybe I was using the phone wrong. I thought I would do what my Mom and Dad did when they first picked up the phone. I started clicking the little handle up and down and saying, “Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?” “Knock that off. Of course we’re here, you little twerp,” Leslie said, the emotion rising in her voice. “I just told you to get off of the phone. Get off now, or I’m going to pound you to a pulp!” I thought if this was like a radio, with the tension building, there should be scary music. Jack’s voice came back on. “Now, Leslie,” he said. “He just sounds like a little kid that doesn’t know better. Be nice. Here, let me try. How old are you?” “I’m five.” “See,” Leslie fumed. “It’s the little neighbor twerp.” “No,” I protested, “I’m not a twerp. I’m a Johnson.” Jack laughed. I don’t know why he laughed, but something must have been funny. His laugh made me laugh, too. That really made Leslie mad. “Wait until I get hold of you!” she yelled. Then she said some things I thought weren’t supposed to be said on a radio, especially by a girl. “If I talked that way,” I said, “my mother would wash my mouth out with soap.” Jack laughed again, so I laughed. Leslie said a few more things that sounded like the way Mr. Brown talks. I was afraid Mom might come along and find out I was listening to that kind of thing, so I thought I’d better change the channel. The only thing on the phone to change the channel was a circular dial with