Mr.FORTISQUE

Chapter-9

WE NEED MONEY!

A visit to the art gallery

piggy's empty

why does my mouth water?

That was a pretty weird talk with Leo the other day. I told Amanda and Scorpius all the details-meeting Leo, etc. etc. Amanda screeched loudly and Scorpius' face was blank. You know how they look when they are excited, don't you? We were at Leo's house. Leo Freedley was a very nice boy, except that he only talks when you ask him questions. Turned out Chayton Freedley lived next to Leo's house. But as Chayton died three years back, the house was empty.

Our next task was about something related to Chayton Freedley or probably one of his paintings. Amanda suggested that we take a good look at all of his paintings. We sipped our smoothies that Leo made for us(mango). He was a bad talker, but an amazing snack maker. Leo then took us three to Chayton Freedley's house, which was now an art gallery. There were four sections totally. The first section was full of quotes written in calligraphy style. The second section-sceneries and other nature beauties. The third- portraits of celebrities, from Mandela to Brad Pitt. The fourth section was just food. Yes, just food. Paintings of all varieties of food and I mean it. Doughnuts, lasagnas, cakes...all of which looked so realistic, like you could literally grab them and stuff them in your mouth. I was truly overwhelmed. An artist of such standard seriously deserved more credit. My mouth started watering and soon I was daydreaming, swimming in a pool full of cake, when Scorpius Greengrass shook me and pointed at a painting. It was a pie. A pie filled with what looked like raspberry jam. It looked really realistic. It just then struck me that our mission was to find a magic pie. Could this be it? Was it really just a painting or did we have to find a real pie? There was a caption below it-"For Mrs. Hazel Culpepper Biel, who is the sole reason for what I am now."

OK, so we kinda found the next clue, but how to investigate further, with Leo staring at us, staring at the painting? We had to buy that piece. But paintings costed so much money. Remember? Hazel Culpepper Biel is my great-grandmother's name, if I haven't told you. When I asked Leo, he told me that the pie painting costed fifty- seven dollars. We had to find some money. My piggy bank was empty. Not even a single dot of dust. Scorpius and Amanda smiled widely, which meant that they had none either, which also meant that we had to work for which we needed a one day job or something that could fetch us some money. Once we finished thinking about ways of earning money, we said our bye byes to Leo and rushed home. Scorpius was putting up a lemonade stand. Amanda was selling all of her old Star Wars merchandise on a 30% discount. I made a mental note to myself, to throw a lavish party for my friends. They give up so much for me. I know how much the Star Wars stuff meant to Amanda. After all, they were my friends :) I decided to use my brains by helping my sister with her homework( gal's weak in math and also has a lotta money in her piggy bank.)

THERE'S MORE

Yours Sheldonly,

Sheldon Fortisque