A Katie Kazoo Christmas (5 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: A Katie Kazoo Christmas
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Chapter 9
“Wow!” Katie gasped as she stepped out of the house and onto her front lawn. “Look at all this.”
Katie lived on a quiet little block in a quiet little town. But looking around, she could be in New York City. That’s how crowded her street was. There were people everywhere!
“Yikes!” Jeremy exclaimed.
“I’ve never seen this many people in one place before,” Emma W. said. “It looks like all of Cherrydale is here.”
Kids were standing in front of Mr. Brigandi’s and Mrs. Derkman’s houses, taking pictures of one another with the decorations.
Dads lifted little kids onto their shoulders so the kids could see better over the crowds.
Cars moved through the streets. Drivers honked their horns as the traffic grew thicker and thicker.
News reporters stood by with their microphones in hand. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing at once.
Katie and her parents didn’t like the crowds, but the Derkmans sure seemed to. They were standing outside their house, proudly pointing out their decorations.
Katie looked over to see if Mr. Brigandi was doing the same thing. But Mr. Brigandi wasn’t on his front lawn. In fact, he was nowhere near the crowds. Instead, he was on his roof, putting a few last-minute decorations on his house. Katie could see him up there, arranging more lights.
“Excuse me,” a woman with two little girls said to Katie. “Could you move out of the way? I’m trying to get a picture of that house.” She pointed toward the Derkmans’ home.
Pepper didn’t like having strangers on his lawn. “Aroo!” he howled.
“Wah! Wah!” One of the little girls began to cry. “No like doggie.”
“Could you stop that dog from barking at my children?” the woman demanded.
Katie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was her front lawn, after all. “But . . .”
“Why don’t you take Pepper back into the house?” Katie’s mom cut in. “He can get hurt out here.”
That was true. Katie hadn’t looked at it that way. A little cocker spaniel could get trampled with all these people around. Katie quickly scooped up her dog in her arms and carried him back inside.
As soon as they were in the house, Pepper jumped up onto the couch and buried his little brown-and-white head in his paws. “Aroo,” he whimpered.
“It’s okay, boy,” Katie said as she patted his head. “They’ll be gone soon.”
Just then, Katie felt a light breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She turned to see if she’d left the door open. No. It was shut tight. The breeze was obviously not coming from the outside.
Uh-oh
! That could mean only one thing. This was no ordinary breeze. This was the magic wind. It was back!
Katie gulped. Oh, no. Not now. Not on Christmas Eve!
But the magic wind didn’t care about holidays. It came whenever it wanted to. And right now it was circling wildly around Katie. She shut her eyes tightly and tried not to cry.
The magic wind was really powerful tonight. It whirled faster and faster. It swirled like a horrible tornado.
A tornado that was blowing around only Katie.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie Carew.
Chapter 10
Brrrr.
Katie shivered. She wasn’t quite sure where the magic wind had blown her. But wherever it was, it was outside. And it was cold!
Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked around. She looked up. She looked down.
Uh-oh. Looking down had been a bad idea. The magic wind had blown Katie all the way to the roof of a two-story house! Down was very far away! Katie was scared!
“AAAAAHHHHH!!” she screamed. But her voice didn’t sound like a fourth-grade girl’s scream. It had been a low, deep scream. A
man’s
scream.
Katie looked at herself. Her big brown boots were definitely men’s shoes.
Her slacks were men’s work pants.
Her hands were big and blistery. And they were covered with hair. Yuck!
But it was her coat that helped Katie figure out who she was. It was a dark blue jacket with a zipper up the front and pockets on the sides. Katie had seen Mr. Brigandi wear it lots of times.
Which could mean only one thing. Katie had been switcherooed into Mr. Brigandi . . . while he was standing all the way up there on his roof!
This was
so
not good!
Katie did not like being so far from the ground. She really wanted to be back down with everybody else. Quickly, she looked around for some way to get down. But she didn’t see a ladder anywhere. There was no way for her to get off the roof. At least not that she could see.
There was also no way the magic wind was going to come and change her back anytime soon. Not with all those people down there staring at her. The magic wind came only when Katie was alone. And those people weren’t going to leave until after the contest was over.
Which meant Mr. Brigandi wasn’t going to be around to see if he’d actually won. That seemed very unfair to Katie. After all, Mr. Brigandi had worked very hard to make his house look so special.
At least it seemed special from down below. Katie looked around. From up on the roof, the decorations weren’t all that impressive. In fact, they looked kind of junky.
From close-up, it was obvious that the giant Santa was just a big chunk of painted plastic with a motor attached to its back. The motor whirred really loudly, making the Santa seem even
more
fake.
Not that Katie had ever thought that the Santa Claus was real or anything. But it had been fun to pretend.
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer didn’t look very nice from up close, either. His shiny nose was really just a big red lightbulb.
Katie bet the presents in the sleigh weren’t real either. They were probably just empty boxes. She took a few steps toward the sleigh to get a better look, and . . .
Whoa!
Katie tripped over a pile of Christmas lights that had been left on the roof.
“Oh, no!” Katie shouted. She grabbed on to the nearest thing she could find—the moving Santa Claus decoration.
The next thing she knew, Katie was sliding up and down as the Santa Claus moved in and out of the chimney on Mr. Brigandi’s roof.
Up. Down. Up. Down.
“Ouch!” Katie cried.
“Hey, check out the guy on the roof !” Katie heard someone shout from down below.
“Yeah, he thinks he’s Santa Claus!” someone else shouted. The crowd began to laugh.
Katie blushed. She was
so
embarrassed. Quickly, she let go of the Santa and scrambled to her feet.
“Okay, that wasn’t so bad,” she said to herself as she stood there for a moment. “I didn’t fall off the roof or anything.”
At least not yet.
Chapter 11
It was getting colder up on the roof. Mr. Brigandi’s jacket wasn’t very warm. Katie shivered. She wanted to get inside.
But that meant getting off the roof somehow. And without a ladder, it seemed impossible.
Still, Katie figured the magic wind hadn’t blown the real Mr. Brigandi up onto his roof. He must have climbed up
somehow
.
Katie walked carefully over toward one side of the house and looked down. There was an open window on the second floor. It led to one of the bedrooms. Mr. Brigandi must have climbed out the window to get to the roof.
But how?
He would have needed a ladder to get from the window to the roof. And there wasn’t one anywhere.
In fact, the only thing between the window and the roof of the house was a rose trellis. It was made of crisscrossed metal strips and attached to the side of the house. In the summer time, Mr. Brigandi’s roses covered the frame. But in the winter, it was just thick strips of metal joined together.
Sort of like a ladder.
That was it! Mr. Brigandi must have climbed the trellis to reach the roof. And that was exactly how Katie was going to get down!
At least she thought that was how she’d do it. The truth was, that trellis looked scary. Mr. Brigandi never should have been climbing on it. Katie knew her mother would be angry if she knew Katie was climbing on it.
But it was the only way Katie was going to be able to get down. She would have to take a chance.
Slowly, Katie got on her knees and placed her foot on one of the metal strips. The trellis shook slightly, but it didn’t fall.
“Okay, I can do this,” Katie said to herself. “I just can’t look down. That would be too scary.”
Unfortunately, Katie
had
to look down to find the next strip in the trellis. And when she did, she realized just how high up she really was.
“Oh, no!” she gulped. Tears began to form in her eyes. This was the worst thing the magic wind had ever done to her.
She had to get inside that house! Katie carefully moved her foot down toward the next rung and . . .
Whoops! Her foot missed the metal strip.
“Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!” she cried out. Quickly, she grabbed hold of a metal box that was sticking out from the side of the house. She held on tight, until she could regain her footing.

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