Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 6) Read online

  enough, I could see people’s Christmas lights on

  up and down the street.

  Then Rowley asked me if I wanted to make a

  snowman. I slammed the door shut, but only after

  I helped myself to a few cookies.

  I told Mom what Rowley said about the electricity,

  and she told me to go down to the basement to see

  if there was something wrong with our fuse box.

  chatter

  chatter

  202

  When I opened it up and looked at the circuit

  breaker, here’s what I found—

  off

  off

  on

  off

  off

  off

  off

  off

  Master

  Bedroom

  Basement

  Manny’s

  Room

  Kitchen

  Greg’s

  Room

  Dining

  Room

  Upstairs

  Bathroom

  Downstairs

  Bathroom

  The only switch that was ON was the one for

  Manny’s room.

  I ran upstairs, and when I opened Manny’s door

  I got a blast of heat. Manny was sitting there

  with a space heater, a pile of food, and a bunch

  of OTHER stuff, too.

  203

  When things got bad, Manny must’ve figured it

  was every man for himself. I think he would’ve let

  the rest of us freeze to death as long as HE had

  enough to survive.

  Mom asked Manny why he cut off the power to

  the rest of the house, and he started blubbering

  that it was because no one ever taught him how to

  tie his shoes.

  While Mom dealt with Manny, I went down

  to the basement and switched on the circuit

  breakers for the rest of the house. The

  electricity came back on, and the furnace kicked

  in. A few minutes after that, Dad called. He

  said the highways were clear and that he was

  coming home.

  204

  I looked out the window and saw the plow coming

  up our hill.

  rumble

  Mom said it was a “miracle” that Dad was gonna

  be home for Christmas Eve, but to be honest with

  you, I had totally forgotten what day it was

  until that moment.

  Dad picked up some food on the way home, and the

  rest of us ate like a pack of wolves. And let me

  just say, I’ll never take food for granted again.

  smack

  gobble

  bite

  chomp

  smack

  chew

  slork

  Mom said she was gonna go out with Dad to try

  and find a place that was open that sold glasses.

  205

  Before she left, Mom asked me to take a present

  down to the police station for the Toy Drive and

  put it in the outdoor bin, because today was the

  last day you could turn a gift in.

  But I wasn’t too eager to show my face at the

  police station, and I REALLY didn’t need to

  spend Christmas in jail. I knew I’d let some kid

  down if I didn’t turn in our present, though, so

  I found a ski mask in our closet and headed out.

  It took forever to get to the police station, and

  I crawled the last twenty feet to the bin just to

  play it safe.

  trudge

  trudge

  206

  crawl

  crawl

  Once I knew the coast was clear, I stood up and

  tossed the present in the bin.

  toy drive

  Then I turned around and headed home. But

  when I walked by the church, I remembered

  something. I had filled out a request for the

  Giving Tree, and I asked whoever got my

  envelope to leave my cash under the recycling bin

  behind the church.

  207

  The church parking lot was covered in snow.

  I was pretty sure the recycling bin was buried

  somewhere behind the church, but I didn’t know

  the exact spot.

  Luckily there was a shovel leaning up against the

  wall, and I started digging to find the recycling

  bin. But it wasn’t in the place I thought it would

  be, and I ended up clearing out a HUGE area

  looking for it.

  soop

  kitchen

  entrance

  I wish the church had a hose attached to the back

  of the building, because that would’ve made the job

  go a lot easier. I was pretty desperate to find

  that envelope, because I figured if I was gonna

  start my life on the run, I could really use a big

  wad of cash to get me by for the first few weeks.

  208

  But when I finally found the recycling bin, there

  was no envelope beneath it.

  I was pretty bummed on the walk back home, and

  I forgot all about being careful not to be seen.

  So I was totally unprepared when I got to my

  front door and a police car pulled in the driveway

  right behind me.

  I thought this was it for me, so I ran inside

  and locked the door. But when the police knocked,

  Rodrick let them in.

  209

  I thought about jumping out the back window

  and making a run for it, but I’m glad I didn’t,

  because I would’ve looked like an idiot. It turns

  out the police weren’t there for me at all. They

  were just there to collect last-minute gifts for

  the Toy Drive.

  I thought they might be bluffing and that they

  were just using the Toy Drive as a way of flushing

  me out. But I finally worked up the courage to go

  to the front door, and I even brought a donation

  with me and tried to act casual.

  210

  The police said they couldn’t accept a used toy as

  a donation and that they were only taking new

  items in their original packaging. I actually think

  they were just a little freaked out by Alfrendo,

  because they seemed to leave in a hurry after that.

  Christmas

  When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t believe

  it was Christmas and I was in my house with

  electricity and heat and wasn’t on the run from

  the police.

  I went downstairs to see if there was anything

  under the tree, but I was totally shocked to find

  there weren’t any gifts at ALL.

  211

  At first I thought it was all Santa’s Scout’s

  fault and that he’d been running his mouth about

  the trouble I’ve gotten myself into lately. But

  Mom came downstairs a few minutes later and told

  me Santa DID come last night and that he left

  our gifts in the garage.

  Mom said the snowstorm really messed up Santa’s

  schedule, so he ran out of time to wrap presents

  and just put them in garbage bags instead. That

  didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but at that

  point I was relieved to be getting any gifts at all.

  The rest of the family came downstairs, and Mom

  said we could have fun reaching in the trash bags

  and guessing what our gifts were.

&nb
sp; Greg

  Rodrick

  Manny

  212

  It wasn’t really the same. But I think Dad was

  pretty happy he didn’t have any wrapping paper

  to clean up.

  After I was done with the gifts in the trash

  bag, Mom handed me a wrapped present that she

  said was from HER.

  It was my “Tower of Druids” graphic novel, so I

  was a little confused. Mom said she felt bad about

  forging Kenny Centazzo’s autograph, so she

  found out where he was appearing a few weeks

  ago and got my book signed for real this time.

  dig

  dig

  shake

  shake

  213

  She said she had to wait in line for three hours

  but she was happy to do it for me.

  But based on what’s written in my book now,

  I’m guessing Kenny Centazzo didn’t hear my

  name correctly.

  Hopefully I can find a rich guy named Craig who’s

  really into graphic novels so I can sell it to him

  for a pile of cash.

  please write

  “to my biggest

  fan, greg.”

  To my biggest

  fan, Craig

  Kenny Centazza

  214

  Rodrick got a snare drum and some drumsticks,

  and Manny got a bunch of toys and a pair of

  sneakers. Even though Mom taught Manny how

  to tie his shoes yesterday, it looks like he’d

  prefer to have her do it for him anyway.

  After we were done opening presents, Mom said it

  was time to go to church. I told her we couldn’t

  go because we didn’t have any clean clothes to wear,

  but that’s when she pulled out three last gifts.

  sip

  tie

  tie

  santa got all

  three of you boys

  v-neck sweaters!

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  I really like to spend Christmas in my pajamas,

  and the second you put on dress clothes, it feels

  like it’s over. So I decided to put my clothes on

  OVER my pajamas and pick up where I left off

  once we got back home. But it was a mistake to

  wear flannel pajamas underneath corduroy pants

  and a V-neck sweater for a two-hour service.

  After we got home from church, I went upstairs

  to change. I actually had puddles of sweat in

  my shoes, so I had to empty them out in the

  bathroom sink.

  When I got downstairs the newspaper was on

  the kitchen table, and here’s what was on the

  front page—

  dump

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  Well, the newspaper didn’t exactly get the story

  right, but I’m not gonna complain. In fact,

  that article inspired me to put out a new edition

  of the “Neighborhood Tattler.” And I’ll bet we

  can sell a TON of copies.

  The Daily Herald

  Unidentified Do-Gooder Clears the Way

  Unselfish Act Allows Soup

  Kitchen to Open

  The blizzard that crippled the town and shut down

  many basic services threatened to cancel the soup

  kitchen, which many less fortunate individuals rely

  on for a hot meal on Christmas. But an unidentified

  juvenile spent his Christmas Eve shoveling out the

  church sidewalk to make sure that didn’t happen.

  see MYSTERY, A2

  The Neighborhood

  TATTLER

  Masked Hero

  REVEALED!

  The Tattler can exclusively report that

  the mysterious do-gooder who

  shoveled the church sidewalk on

  Christmas Eve is none other than our

  very own editor in chief, Greg Heffley.

  “I just wanted to do the right thing,”

  said Heffley when asked why he decided

  see HERO, A2

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