“Tomorrow, Bill?” Ronnie asked him.
“Tomorrow, partner!” Bill answered.
Ronnie turned and began to run, digging his toes into the embankment as he scrambled to the top. He raced through the apple orchard, leaping a time or two to grab at a pea-sized apple. He suddenly felt light enough to fly. At least now he’d be doing something to save the deserted village, not just standing by and listening to Grandfather argue with Mr. Evans.
Chapter 3
When Ronnie entered the house, he was whistling a tune through the space between his two front teeth. In the living room he found Phil sprawled out on the couch with his head propped up against a pillow and a comic book in his hands. Phil turned a page and looked up at Ronnie. “Hi!” he said. “Where’ve you been?”
“Down in the village.” Ronnie went over to Dad’s desk to see if there might be some important-looking papers as a result of the meeting that afternoon. “Don’t you get tired of lying around all the time?” he asked Phil.
“Not me.” Phil shifted his position. “It’ll take me another month to rest up from a year of school. What’re you looking for?”
“Oh—nothing. Maybe a deed to the village property.”
“Nothing like that—yet. Gramp’s lawyer arrived soon after you got booted away from the window, and they got nowhere from then on!”
“How’d you know what happened to me?”