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Thomas found his voice

“It’s…uh…it’s okay!” he yelled downfield His eyes did not ht it!” He grabbed the ball, which had landed in the grass near them, and hoisted the victorious catch in the air Their tea and ju could be the matter What did she mean she’d kept his secret?

While Tholed madly and turned somersaults over and over in his chest, for no reason he could tell His baseball rolled quietly back into his pocket with the waruts

CHAPTER VII

THE MONSTER ON TOP OF THE BED

In Which Thomas Finds Himself Alone with a Girl, Sees Her Without Her Clothes on, Obeys Vampire Law, Comes Face-to-Face with a Gramophone, and Says a Very Important Word

Tamburlaine’s house stood dark and quiet Thoh no one was hoentleh that seemed silly now that he was here It’s not like she would demand proof before she let hier Road She wanted hiry, or she wouldn’t have used capitals: After Sc

hool They always did that, all of them, when they wrote notes in class, to show that they were part of the secret elite who knew the truth about the world All Countries are proper nouns; they get to wear the big letters like medals on their chests

Tamburlaine asked him to come He was supposed to be here But the house was tall and thin and it see row of other birch trees just like it, only this one had a squirrel in it he desperately needed to talk to

Tho was about to happen He felt it like an old fisherman feels tomorrow’s storm in his knee He knocked

The door creaked open and Ta hair, her nervous way of standing—the Fleeing Stance He could hear music far within the house He knew the record; his parents had it, too It had a lady in a li to a bluebird she held in her hand That lis Just then, in the snuggling depths of war about apple blossoms

“Hi,” Thomas said

“Hi,” she answered

She reached out her hand and drew hiht see hiht her alone with a boy?

The shadows of the house closed on thehts shut off, but the late-afternoon sun danced with the dust below the s It srowing close together As his irises opened up to let all that dusky softness in, Thomas saw that Tamburlaine’s house was a house of books