I stop listening, even though Patne is acting like he wants to be friends.
I stop listening because I am staring at his paper cup.
Of ice cream.
From Big Round Pumpkin.
It’s the special Halloween ice-cream flavor.
And no way is it candy crunch.
The ice cream is red. Blood red. In it are chunks of what look like—
“Patne!” I shout. “Are those white chocolate chunks?”
“Huh?”
“What’s that ice cream?”
“I was just telling you about it,” he says. “My dad said I could have some. I think he was just trying to be polite to your dad, but who cares? I ate one cup there, and your father gave me a second for the road!”
“No,” I say. “What’s the name of the flavor? Do you know the name of the flavor?”
“Sure, I do,” he says. “Who could forget? It’s loose tooth.”
Loose tooth!
Loose tooth!
“My dad made loose tooth!” I cry, grabbing Patne’s furry fake paws and jumping up and down.
Patne doesn’t know why I’m so happy, but I don’t take the time to explain. Instead, I run over to where Chin is chatting with the other ballerinas. “It’s loose tooth!” I shout nonsensically, throwing my hands in the air.
Loose tooth!
Loose tooth!
I skip-dance down the block, whooping and hollering.
Chin catches up to me, doing some kind of fancy ballet-type leap. Locke, Linderman, and Daley are following us, twirling and laughing and yelling, “Loose tooth! Loose tooth!”—even though they don’t know what it means.
“You’re giving me a stomachache,” complains Inkling, in my ear. “With all this dancing around.”
“Oh, be quiet,” I tell him, but I slow to a walk. “You know you’re happy for me.”
“I’m just happy Halloween’s nearly over,” he says. “People will be throwing out their jack-o’-lanterns tomorrow, don’t you think?”
“They certainly will,” I promise. “I’ll help you raid the trash.”
We get to Big Round Pumpkin. Both my parents are dressed as cows. They are holding trays filled with small cups of loose tooth. A large blackboard next to them reads:
Sample our special Halloween flavor:
LOOSE TOOTH,
invented by Brooklyn’s own HANK WOLOWITZ.
And then at the bottom:
PS: Made with all local, organic ingredients!
I throw myself at Dad, nearly knocking him over. “Loose tooth!”
“I got your notebook,” Dad says, squeezing me. “I hope I picked a good flavor.”
“You what?”
“All those recipes you had! They must have taken a lot of work.”
I step back and frown at Dad. I don’t know what he’s talking about.
“It was an awesome surprise,” Dad goes on, “you leaving the notebook in my coat pocket. I was like, What’s this? And then I was like, Oh wow. A whole notebook of flavors.”
Oh.
I haven’t seen my notebook since I scrawled “beet juice” in it, the day Chin brought me the vegetable present. “You read my notebook?” I say stupidly.
“That was a clever place to leave it. No way I’d miss it.”
I didn’t leave my notebook in Dad’s coat pocket.
Inkling.
Inkling must have.
“Mom cooked the beets at home this morning,” Dad says. “She said she thought you figured out what we were making.”
“No.”
“The deep red is what puts it over the top, don’t you think? I added just enough beet for a good bloody color, mixing it in with raspberry mash. Then I stirred all that into the custard base, added the white chocolate squares, and here ya go, little dude! Your first flavor. Are you surprised?”
I am.
I am.
“Thank you,” I whisper to Inkling.
“Think nothing of it,” he says, patting my hair.
Dad bends over the portable freezer he’s got outside and scoops cones for me and all four dead ballerinas. We sit on the bench in front of the shop, five in a row. Locke takes out her fangs. We lick the loose tooth ice cream and chew the white chocolate teeth we find inside.
“A ghost stole Hank’s top secret squash project,” Chin tells my parents. “It stole my jack-o’-lantern, too.”
“What?” Mom looks puzzled.
“There’s a ghost in the elevator,” says Chin. “Ask anyone. It demanded the squash project for a sacrifice.”
“Okay, Sasha,” says Mom, distracted by the line of people asking for sample cups of ice cream. “Hank, I hope you’re not too disappointed. I would have loved to see your project, after all your hard work.”
“I’m fine,” I say.
Chin’s mom stops by, wearing red lipstick and regular clothes. She stands chatting with my parents.
Locke’s parents come over, too, on their way home from being lawyers. They shake hands with Dad and ask him about the shop.
Nadia, Max, and Gustav wave from the other side of the street. They’re on their way to the party.
Without Mara and Jacquie.
Chin is making jokes with Linderman. Locke is asking my dad questions about making ice cream. Daley is sorting through her stash of candy.
Inkling taps my knee, and I give him my waffle cone. A soft crunching comes from under the bench.
Nobody notices. I scratch his neck the way he likes.
It is a beautiful, beautiful night.
The best Halloween, ever.
A Note from the Author
As in the first book about Wolowitz and Inkling, I have used a lot of my favorite Brooklyn locations but fictionalized them and rearranged space so my characters can walk from one place to another instead of taking the subway. Hank’s neighborhood is a combination of Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens.
Big Round Pumpkin is inspired by the wonderful ice cream and amazing flavors at Blue Marble: www.bluemarbleicecream.com. Locke, Linderman, and Daley borrow their names from girls I know, but their characters are wholly imaginary. I thank the real girls for saying it was okay for me to invent freely. Likewise, Henry Kim. He won an auction for the chance to have his name in one of my books and was kind enough to let me invent the guy’s personality (even though it isn’t such a nice one).
Many thanks to Altebrando, Mlynowski, Kaplan, Sarver, Gamarra, Aukin & Aukin & Aukin, Bray, Rimas, Siniscalchi, Hinds, Verost, Lutz, Sun, and Bliss.
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About the Author and Illustrator
Emily Jenkins is the author of INVISIBLE INKLING, the first book featuring Hank and Inkling. She has also written the chapter books TOYS GO OUT, TOY DANCE PARTY, and TOYS GO HOME, plus a lot of picture books, including THE LITTLE BIT SCARY PEOPLE, THAT NEW ANIMAL, and FIVE CREATURES. She has worn the same butterfly costume for the past nine Halloweens, and if she has an invisible friend—she’s not telling. Visit her online at www.emilyjenkins.com.
Harry Bliss is the New York Times bestselling illustrator of DIARY OF A FLY, DIARY OF A WORM, and DIARY OF A SPIDER by Doreen Cronin; A FINE, FINE SCHOOL by Sharon Creech; WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE? by William Steig; and the first book in this series, INVISIBLE INKLING. He is also an award-winning, internationally syndicated cartoonist and cover artist for the New Yorker magazine. Harry Bliss lives in Vermont. You can visit him online at www.harrybliss.com.
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Praise for INVISIBLE INKLING
“INVISIBLE INKLING is charming, fresh, and funny. Now I want an invisible friend of my own!”