Philip and the Deadly Curse
The Philip Series

Excerpt

Chapter One

Where is it? Philip wondered in exasperation as he moved every book in his school desk from one side to the other. He’d lost another Jolly Rancher, the second this week. No one could have taken it because he hadn’t been away from his desk all morning. Philip looked over his classmates to see whether anyone looked suspicious. His eyes finally settled on his best friend Emery, who sat directly across the aisle from him.

“Did you see my Jolly Rancher?” Philip whispered.
Emery shook his head and pointed to the front of the room.

“Did you lose something, Philip?” asked Mr. Ware, Philip’s fourth grade teacher. “I haven’t seen your head above the top of your desk for some time now.”

“I thought I left something here, but I can’t find it,” Philip answered.

“May I ask what is so important it takes you away from what we’re doing?”

“My Jolly Rancher.”

Mr. Ware scrunched up his face. “You lost a happy farmer?”

The class giggled.

“No, no. It’s candy.”

“Candy. Well, if anyone sees Philip’s candy, please return it to him. Now if you can return your attention to me, Philip, I’ll be a jolly teacher.”

Reluctantly, Philip sat up wondering if this bad luck of his would ever stop. Mr. Ware spoke to him nicely, but Philip knew when he’d been scolded; and he’d just been scolded. Where could his candy be? Philip began to slide down in his seat to look through his desk again, but caught himself. He’d already searched twice, and the next time Mr. Ware caught him, he would probably scold him with the louder voice the class never giggled at, and Philip had no desire to add more bad luck to his growing mountain of bad luck so he sat up and tried to pay attention. He couldn’t, though. The only thing interesting his brain at the moment was the bad luck following him everywhere lately.

When Philip met Emery for their usual walk to school that morning, Emery said hello and immediately bent over to pick up a quarter from the grass right near Philip’s left foot. Philip watched, astounded. Who knew how long the quarter had been lying there and how many times he had walked past it and not seen it? Emery shows up and one second later, he’s a quarter richer. He considered telling Emery he had a hole in his pocket and the quarter slipped through and fell out, but Emery might ask to see the hole. Philip had no choice but to congratulate Emery on his lucky find and silently bemoan his own bad luck.

Now his candy had disappeared, and Philip was fed up with one piece of bad luck following another and another and another. What could he do about it? Nothing. He sat back dejectedly and listened to Mr. Ware drone on about common denominators.

Walking home with Emery later, Philip decided to share his problem with his friend.

“Emery,” Philip began.

“Hold it,” Emery cried and ran across the street. He bent down and picked up something, then ran back to Philip. A big smile on his face, Emery held up a hard, pink air ball. “Here, catch.”

Philip grabbed the ball. “This is what you ran over there to get?” He bounced the ball and found it in very good shape.

“Didn’t you see it laying right along the curb?”

Philip shook his head and handed the ball back to Emery, who shoved it into his coat pocket.

Philip looked at him in sad wonder and said, “You found a quarter this morning and a good ball this afternoon.”

Emery shrugged and smiled. “Lucky, I guess.”

“Yeah, but why? Today I lost my Jolly Rancher. Mr. Ware yelled at me. I lost another Jolly Rancher Monday. I didn’t find the quarter, and I didn’t find the ball. All I have is bad luck. Why?”

“Maybe you need a good luck charm, like mine,” Emery said.

Philip stopped walking. “A good luck charm? You have one?”

Emery nodded. “Sure. Come on. It’s cold.”

“Show me,” Philip said.

“I’ll show you at my house. It’s in my pocket. I don’t want to undo my coat out here.”
Philip wondered what could possibly be giving Emery all of this good luck.