Murphy's Law

By Debi Faulkner

All 11-year-old Murphy McKenna wants is a chance at a normal life – one where people aren’t locked in lockers, don’t throw red jello all over their classmates, never fall from second-story windows into the hedges and certainly don’t believe in (much less talk to) fairies. When Bram Worthington, the most popular guy in school, hires the I’ll-Detect-Anything Detective Agency, Murphy thinks she’ll finally get her wish. But MURPHY’S LAW hasn’t been rewritten just yet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debi Faulkner
• Release date: Feb 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458057549

Debi Faulkner

A native Detroiter by birth, I left the Motor City in 2001 for the Netherlands with my husband (a chiropractor) and my small children. In December of 2003, we moved again, this time to Ireland. While there, I took part in a mentorship program with the Irish author, Lia Mills, who helped me in making the transition from poetry to prose and from writing verses in poems to writing chapters in novels.In August 2006, we relocated yet again to the Netherlands. Now, if only I was fluent in Dutch . . .The upside of this nomadic lifestyle is that I have much more time than I would have had in the states to spend with my writing.My non-fiction piece, Binder Clips, won first place at the 2002 Feed the Writers Weekend in Amsterdam, and my chapter book, Kissy Frog, won an Honorable Mention in the 2006 W.I.N. Competition. I have also had numerous poems published online and in print literary journals, and several have won awards, including a chapbook shortlisted for the 2005 Listowel Writer's Week Poetry Competition. I am a member of SCBWI and IrishPen, and I have a BA in English/Creative Writing.Summoning is my first published novel.

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Murphy's Law

by Debi Faulkner

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Debi Faulkner

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For Ian, McKenna and Fallon

my everything . . .

Whatever can go wrong

Will go wrong

(and at the worst possible moment)

-- Murphy’s Law

Thursday, March 5

Chapter 1

It will be a long, dark night with only one star.

Murphy pushed up her glasses and rolled her eyes. Daysha Voo and her predictions were at it again.

Daysha, the sky is completely clear. Look, there are plenty of stars out tonight.

Hey, I just call them as I see them, Daysha said.

Shush! Someone’s coming. Murphy and Daysha ducked their heads behind the bushes. Murphy held her breath while Daysha cupped her hands in front of her mouth and forced herself to breathe slowly.

After the footsteps passed, Murphy checked to make sure the way was clear. It’s okay now. You’ll be fine. Go home, and I’ll get into position.

Good luck, Daysha mouthed.

Murphy cringed at the word luck. Luck would have nothing to do with it. Not if Murphy had any say in the matter. You have to understand that for Murphy, things always went wrong. But that was about to change.

No more whatever-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong for this girl. Murphy would solve Tara’s case and prove Murphy’s Law wrong.

Without looking back, Murphy ran along the hedges that led up to the main entrance of Wybend Middle School. There was a PTA meeting tonight, so the doors were open and the lights were on. Perfect.

For three Fridays in a row, love notes and gifts had appeared in Tara Curtis’ locker. That is, if you counted the torn-off corners of notebook paper that said things like

Ooo, ooo, oool,

your so coo-ool

wrapped around half of a chocolate bar as love notes and gifts. Tara was simply dying to know who it was. So she hired Murphy. Or, to be exact, she hired Murphy’s I’ll-Detect-Anything Detective Agency.

And she had a fool-proof plan.

Murphy tip-toed to the gym door where parents sat on folding chairs looking intently at the woman standing at the podium in front of the stage. Of course, that would require your definition of looking intently to include gaping open-mouthed and scratching their heads.

The woman’s hands flew around her head and waved in circles at her sides as she spoke. In conclusion, my plan will have these amazing children accomplishing amazing things! Who’s with me?

There was more looking intently so the woman said it again, Who’s with me?

A few of the parents clapped politely, while most of them turned to each other and shrugged their shoulders.

Murphy didn’t stick around for the encore.

The sixth-graders’ lockers were down the hall past Principal Gastroud’s office. The office door was shut and the light off, so Murphy crept forward.

Murphy planned to hide out in the girls’ room across from Tara’s locker. As she passed her own locker, though, she heard voices coming from one of the side hallways. The one she’d just passed, in fact. After extrapolating the data, Murphy predicted that, despite traveling in a straight line to minimize the distance between points A and B, the overall distance between the coordinates – namely herself and the girls’ room – was too great. In normal-people speak, she was about to get caught. Murphy speed-dialed the combination to her locker and jumped in. She held the door as close to the latch as she dared without it catching.

As the chatter grew louder, Murphy realized it was only one voice. Principal Gastroud’s voice. She was talking to herself. Actually, she was arguing with herself. As she passed Murphy’s locker, she pushed on it mumbling something about those kids leave these locker doors open . . . .

Murphy didn’t hear the rest of what Principal Gastroud had to say about the evils of open lockers. All she heard was the click of the latch as it caught and locked. Trapped might be a good word here.

After the initial shock, Murphy sighed and sank down into a crouch. Or it would have been a crouch except that her legs hit the door at a little more than a bend. Three slivers of light seeped in through the air slats cut into the door just above Murphy’s head.