"Nothing." Gina scrambled for her record, then dashed to the front door.

I followed her outside - and around the corner of the house, where we ran into Mel and a whole bunch of kids. Mel was holding a fistful of dollar bills.

"All right. Just what is going on here?" I demanded.

The kids grew silent.

Except for Mel. "What happened?" he asked Gina.

"She," said Gina angrily, pointing at me, "got mad. I want my dollar back." "Your dollar back!" I said with a gasp.

"Yeah! Mel's charging us a buck apiece to go inside and see the incredible retard who can memorize dates and music. The amazing dumbo who can sing but not talk," said Gina.

My jaw dropped.

Mel Tucker had a real sideshow going. He thought he'd found an even better attraction than the stupid chicken he'd once seen playing a piano.

"You," I said, advancing on Mel - and I can look pretty menacing, even though I'm short. (Several children ran away.) "Do you know what you're doing? You're using Susan. You're making a spectacle of her." I turned to the rest of the kids. "And I don't ever want to hear any of you use the words 'retard' or 'dumbo' again. Do you hear me?" "Yes," murmured the few children who hadn't already run off. "And as for that money, Mel, half of it - at least half of it, belongs to Susan. She did all the hard work. So fork over," I ordered him.

But of course he didn't. Mel and the remaining kids ran down the street. When they were about half a block away, they began to laugh. How can people be so insensitive?

And how could I have been so naive? How could I have thought those kids suddenly wanted to be Susan's friend? I should have seen through them. At least Susan couldn't see through them. I was glad she didn't know what was going on.

1 needed to cool off.

So I led Susan over to the Hobarts', where 1 knew Claud was baby-sitting.

Chapter 12.

While I was dealing with Mel Tucker and the other neighborhood kids, Claudia was sitting for the three younger Hobart boys. No wonder James hadn't come over to play with Susan. He'd been busy trying to prove that he was neither a Croc nor a wimp. . . .