On the Road to Mr. Mineo's by Barbara O'Connor Page A

both hands and walked carefully back to the lawn chairs. She sat down and cradled the pigeon in her lap. He made a soft, warbley, cooing sound.
    Stella could hardly believe her good luck. She had found the pigeon before Levi had!
    She began to imagine all the things she would do with him.
    She would make him a comfy little cage on top of the shed on the garage roof.
    She would feed him popcorn and birdseed from a Dixie cup.
    She would let him fly around over Meadville every day, and then he would come back and land on her shoulder and keep her company.
    At night, he would sleep in a cozy little bed that she would make out of one of her father’s old flannel shirts.
    â€œHis name is Harvey,” she told Gerald.
    Harvey was the name Stella had picked out for the dog she had wanted for so long. Harvey was a good name for a dog, she thought. And now it was a good name for a pigeon.
    Stella and Gerald spent the rest of the day playing with Harvey.
    They drew a pigeon town on the garage roof with colored chalk. They drew houses and watched Harvey hop from house to house.
    They added roads with stop signs and a lake with boats. They drew a church and a birdseed store and a Chinese takeout restaurant.
    They sang “Home on the Range,” and Harvey hopped around the pigeon town like he was dancing.
    They tried to teach him to carry a card and put it into a coffee can, but he never quite got the hang of it.
    It was the most fun Stella had had all summer.
    It might have been the most fun Stella had had in her whole life.
    And then, while Harvey was hop, hop, hopping from the chalk lake to the chalk church, someone called out from the street below:
    â€œYoo-hoo! Wormy!”

 
    CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
    Mr. and Mrs. Wormy
    Levi!
    Gerald clutched his stomach.
    His heart felt like it was going to bust right through his T-shirt.
    â€œDang,” Stella said. “He better not come up here.” She tiptoed to the edge of the roof and peered out toward the road.
    â€œDo you see him?” Gerald asked.
    Stella motioned for him to be quiet.
    â€œMr. and Mrs. Wormy!” Levi called from the sidewalk out front.
    Gerald watched Harvey hopping to the chalk birdseed store, where Stella had put some crumbled saltine crackers. His knees felt trembly. He sat on the hot tar roof of the garage, in the middle of the chalk lake, and wished he hadn’t eaten so much cereal that morning.
    â€œMr. and Mrs. Wormy!” Levi’s singsong voice was closer now.
    â€œLet’s put Harvey in the shed,” Stella whispered.
    Gerald nodded.
    Stella scooped the pigeon up and placed him gently inside the shed. Just as she was shutting the door, Levi’s head appeared at the edge of the roof.
    Gerald tried his best to look like someone who didn’t care about Levi.
    â€œYou’re not supposed to be up here!” Stella hollered, racing over to the ladder.
    â€œI’m not on the roof, Mrs. Wormy.”
    Stella stomped on Levi’s fingers and he grabbed at her leg, but she jumped back just in time.
    Gerald sometimes enjoyed it when Stella and Levi hit and kicked at each other like that. He admired the way Stella never cried and how she thought of so many ways to fight.
    Levi glared over at Gerald, his eyes scanning the chalk pigeon town. “Hey,” he said. “What’s that?”
    Gerald wished he could go over there and stomp on Levi’s fingers like Stella had. He wished he could call Levi names and push and shove him and not care one little bit if Levi called him Wormy.
    But he couldn’t.
    All he could do was sit there forlornly and wish his mother would come out and make Levi go home.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Levi asked again, pointing at the chalk houses and roads and church and lake.
    â€œNone of your business,” Stella said.
    â€œHave y’all got that pigeon?” Levi glanced around the garage roof.
    Gerald felt his face turn red. He kept his eyes on the pigeon lake