At Odds with Getting Even by C. Safos Soledad crept on her toes. The fifth board on the dining room floor creaked like a bullfro
g groaning in the midnight moonlight. She dodged the floor board, gingerly leaping over it. The hardest part about moving around with such calculated moves was controlling her breathing. Her breath was held in tight like a well-concealed hand of poker. It was making her heart race, and her racing heart was making her hot. Soledad could feel the heat in her ears. She could make out the back of David's head from the end of the dining room to where he was sitting in the living room. She knew it was him. He always wore his Mets hat everywhere he went. In fact, Soledad was sure that she hadn't seen him without the cap in at least three years. It was almost a part of his head. Bull's-eye, she thought to herself. She noted during dinner that her brother David said he planned on watching a scary movie before he went to bed. That's when the wheels in Soledad's head started to turn. It had only been a week since she reached into her dirty clothes hamper only to pull out a rubber snake instead of a tube sock. Before her scream could even reach her lips, she knew that the prank had David's fingerprints all over it. The laughing from his bedroom confirmed as much. As she held her breath, she could still hear him laughing. She slowly and quietly reached into her jeans pocket to pull out the whistle. She clasped it tight in her hands to keep the ball in the whistle from rattling around. She imagined the sound would rattle around in David's head the same way. She could hardly contain herself. She took the whistle in her mouth and finally took a deep breath. Just as she was about to let the whistle ring, the hat fell forward. David wasn't even there. He had simply left his cap on the couch's back, and it looked like he was watching television. Suddenly, the hall closet flung open. David leapt out waving his hands around screaming, "Brahahahahaha!" Soledad leapt forward onto the couch screaming and falling on David's hat and the back of the couch. "You can't get me," David said, "I'm too good!" Soledad stomped out of the room and up the stairs. "Sol," David yelled, "I was just kidding! Don't be mad!" As she walked up the stairs and out of sight of the living room, she pulled out David's Mets hat. She placed it on her head. I'm not mad at all, she thought to herself. 3 What can the reader infer by the narrator's statement, "He had simply left his cap on the couch, and it looked like he was watching television"? A. David is angry. B. David is clever. C. David is lucky. D. David is bossy. R
