'Deon and Little Dude'

MRS. OTIS eases the baby back into her stroller.

I breathe again. Little Dude opens his eyes.

Now Mr. and Mrs. Otis are talking to Mrs. Moss.

They start walking straight toward us. My heart thumps halfway out of my chest.

I pull out my lucky stone and press it into Little Dude's hand.

He stiffens. "I can't take this! It's your lucky stone."

"I want you to have it. Don't argue."

He aims another low-five at me. I bend down to meet it. He grabs my hand.

Mr. and Mrs. Otis stop to talk to each other. Then they come up close.

Mrs. Otis says, "Boys, we want to talk to you."

Little Dude tells her, "When you left, I thought you were mad at me for spilling the punch."

"Oh, no," she says. "We do our best thinking on wheels. Every year we drive around after the picnic and talk. We didn't know if we'd ever find the right child."

Child, she said. Just one. I'm not going to be the one.

Mr. Otis takes a deep breath. "Deon, when we overheard you give your good-luck stone to Lionel, that did it. We just knew that the two of you should stay together. How would you like to share a bedroom at our house?"

Share a bedroom?

Little Dude punches his fist into the air. "All right!" he yells at the top of his lungs. "Now we really \o7will\f7 be brothers!"

Tears sting my eyes. I can't let them spill over. That wouldn't be cool. I grumble at Little Dude, "Do you always make so much noise?"

Mrs. Otis bends down and says, "Guess what we're going to buy first? 'Star Wars' sheets for both your beds."

My tears spill over. I don't care if I look cool or not.

This is a Kids' Reading Room Classic. The series first appeared Sept. 2-6, 2002. It will be on The Times' website at latimes.com/kids.