by jeff brown
“Come ON!”
“Don’t yell!” Emma said, but she crawled quickly through the hole with Stanley right behind her.
8
Hero!
There was much rejoicing in the courtyard. Mrs. Lambchop kissed Stanley and Arthur. Mrs. Weeks kissed Emma, and then everyone else, even Flash Tobin, who had arrived to take pictures. Mr. Lambchop shook hands with Mr. Weeks and Chief Johnson, who announced several times that Stanley was a great hero.
Flash Tobin took a group picture of all the Lambchops. “Need one more,” he said. “Emma, just you and Stanley. Your hero, right? Saved your life!”
“I could have got out by myself,” Emma said. “I just didn’t know exactly where the door was.” But she went to stand by Stanley.
“Smile!” Flash Tobin took the picture. “Yes, that’s good!” He gave Stanley a cheerful slap on the back, just as Emma’s elbow jabbed hard into Stanley’s ribs.
“Owww!” Stanley yelled.
Emma grinned. “That’s for you, Mr. Hero!”
“Are you crazy? What—” Stanley stopped. Everybody was staring at him. He felt peculiar, as if— Yes! He was getting round again!
“Wow!” Emma said. “How do you do that?”
“Hooray for you, dear!” shouted Mrs. Lambchop, and more cries rose from the others in the courtyard. “Do you see what I see? … He’s blowing up! … Are we crazy or what?”
Flash Tobin aimed his camera again. “Hold it, kid!”
But he was too late. Before him now stood a smiling Stanley Lambchop, shaped like a regular boy!
Mr. Lambchop ran to hug him, and everyone else applauded.
“Been thirty years with the Fire Department, and never saw anything like that!” said Chief Johnson. “Wouldn’t have missed it!”
“I’m really glad,” Stanley said. “But what made it happen?”
“What Dr. Dan said!” shouted Arthur. “Remember? The Osteo-posteo-whatever!”
“The OBP! The Osteal Balance Point.” Mr. Lambchop smiled. “Yes! The slap on the back from Flash Tobin, and the poke from Emma! That did it!”
A board fell from the tilting roof of the Merker Building, landing in a corner of the courtyard.
“Let’s go, folks,” said Chief Johnson. “We’re not safe here!”
A moment later, back out in the street, there was more hugging and kissing and saying good night. Suddenly, behind them, there were great creaking and grinding sounds. Turning, they watched what was left of the Merker building come crashing down.
Emma spoke first. “Oh, boy,” she said softly. “Wow!”
Mrs. Weeks caught her eye, and gave a little nod toward Stanley.
Emma looked puzzled. “Huh? … Oh, yeah!” She turned to Stanley. “I guess maybe you, you know, saved my life. Whatever.” She kissed his cheek. “Thank you very much, Stanley Lambchop.”
“It’s okay,” Stanley said, quite red in the face. “You’re welcome.”
Everyone went home.
9
Fame!
At bedtime the next evening, the Lambchops read again the Daily Sentinel they had enjoyed so much at breakfast that morning.
The front page headline read: RUDE GIRL SAVED! FLAT RESCUER REGAINS SHAPE! There were also two Flash Tobin photographs—the Lambchop family picture and the one of Stanley and Emma taken just before she poked him in the ribs. Arthur was particularly pleased with the family picture.
“Finally!” he said. “Not just Stanley! People could have been wondering if he had a brother, you know? Can I have this one?”
“You may,” said Mrs. Lambchop. “I want the one of Stanley with Emma, for my kitchen wall.”
“I don’t care about pictures,” Stanley said. “I just hope I never go back to being flat.”
Mrs. Lambchop patted his hand. “I told Dr. Dan of your recovery, dear. He thinks it most unlikely the flatness will occur again.”
“Yay!” said Stanley.
Arthur cut the family picture out of the paper, and used a red pencil to draw an arrow, pointing up at him, in the white space at the bottom. Under the arrow, he wrote, Hero’s Brother. Then he taped the picture to the wall above his bed.
Soon all the Lambchops were asleep.
The End
OTHER WORKS
DON’T MISS ANY OF THESE
OUTRAGEOUS STORIES:
Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure!
Stanley and the Magic Lamp
Invisible Stanley
Stanley’s Christmas Adventure
Stanley in Space
Stanley, Flat Again!
AND CATCH FLAT STANLEY’S
WORLDWIDE ADVENTURES:
The Mount Rushmore Calamity
The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery
COPYRIGHT
Stanley, Flat Again!
Copyright © 2003 by Jeff Brown
Illustrations by Macky Pamintuan, copyright © 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JULY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03558-5
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress catalog card number: 2008939053
ISBN 978-0-06-442173-7
09 10 11 12 13 LP/CW 20 19 18
First paperback edition, 2003
Reillustrated edition, 2009
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