The next morning Philip and Emery were on their way to Mr. Sorino’s, each carrying a plastic supermarket bag half filled with broken things they’d found at Emery’s house.
“I can’t believe anybody’d give us money for this junk,” said Emery.
Philip swung his bag in front of him. “You saw what he gave Leon. What about the big stuff we saw sitting outside last night?”
“We can’t carry a TV, a sofa, a big table.”
Philip pointed. “There he is.”
Mr. Sorino stood on his porch talking to another man. When the second man drove away in a small truck with an open deck in the back, the boys crossed the street and waved.
“Oh, hello, boys. You come to check over your things?”
“Yeah,” answered Philip. “And we brought you these two bags.” Philip handed Mr. Sorino his bag.
Mr. Sorino looked inside the bag and then glanced at Emery.
“You have a bag, too?”
“Yeah, here. We got all the broken stuff from my house. Maybe you can use it?”
Mr. Sorino took the bag from Emery. “You’ve been talking to your friend Leon, I’ll bet.”
The boys didn’t answer.
“Okay. I can use this. I try to make a little money fixing things and selling them to the recycle store in the mall . . .”
“Pete’s Repeat shop,” said Philip.
“Right. Come look over your stuff.”
Mr. Sorino carried the two plastic bags with him as he led the boys into the former garage. Someone had already emptied Philip’s bag out onto the table. Philip and Emery began their inspection, as Mr. Sorino put the new bags on a table, stood back, and watched.
“You want this Furby?” asked Emery.
“No, it doesn’t work.”
“How about these two trains?”
“No, my mother threw the tracks out long ago.”
“How about this peanut butter and jelly sandwich? It’s got ants on it.”
Philip tossed Emery a scornful look and finished his search in silence.
Philip held up a few toys before sliding them into his pockets. “Just these couple things, Mr. Sorino. You can have the rest.”
“Thanks, boys . . . I don’t even know your names.”
“Philip.”
“Emery.”
“Thanks, Philip. Thanks, Emery. This is very nice of you.”
“Glad to help,” said Philip. He and Emery exchanged a rapid glance, and Philip knew they were thinking the same thing. Where were their dollar bills?
Mr. Sorino continued to talk to them. “If you want to—you don’t have to, of course, but if you want to—if you find out that anyone threw away a TV or something big like that, I can fix that stuff up and get a pretty good payment for it—if I can get it to work.”
“We know where a TV’s thrown out,” Emery blurted.
Philip followed suit. “Yeah, and a sofa and a big table—the kind you put in the dining room.”
Mr. Sorino’s eyes opened wide. “Now, that would be helpful.”
“You have to get the stuff quick,” said Philip said. “It’s trash day. They’ll take it away today.”
“Don’t worry about that. Can you get me the addresses where you saw that? Make a list of what’s thrown away and put the address next to it. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” said Philip.
“Easy,” Emery agreed.
Mr. Sorino reached into his pocket and pulled out some bills. “Here’s a dollar for each of you. You bring me that list, and I’ll give you each another dollar. Okay?”
“You bet,” said Philip. The boys took the money and left.
As they walked, Emery said, “You think he told Leon to do what he told us? Make a list like that?”
“I don’t know, but we better go make ours fast, in case he did. My Aunt Louise is coming to stay for a couple days, so I gotta stay out of the way. I’ll have lots of time.”
“And since we only have to write down addresses and what we saw, we can go all over the neighborhood to look for stuff.”
“We gotta do it before the trash truck comes. Let’s get a pen and some paper at your house. We’re gonna be rich!”
The boys gave a whoop and charged down the street.