CHAPTER 1 THE TROUBLE BEGINS There once was a boy named Fred Or at least he thought that was his name He'd been Fred yesterday as he coughed and sneezed and shivered on the sofa He'd been Fred when his mother drizzled his name in syrup across his pancake this morning before he came back to school after being out sick And he'd been Fred as he waited in line on the playground where friends
welcomed him back and Luisa pestered him about where he'd been I bet you were faking Fred Luisa had said And he was still Fred as he slid into his desk that morning sorting through the stack of worksheets he'd missed In fact he'd stayed Fred right up to the moment his teacher Ms Martinez handed him a book and said Too bad you missed the author's visit yesterday Had she used his name He couldn't remember So it had to be Fred who smiled at the book Limbo Lessons with the picture of ruffle shirted partygoers bending low under a limbo stick Just like his aunt had at the family reunion last summer He shuddered at the memory It was
definitely Fred who cracked open the book and whose eyes wandered to the words scribbled in black pen across the bright white page The words that is that started all the trouble To Frank
