9
" Sam whacked Jacob over the ear. 'You know,' he said, his voice low, 'those pancakes'll go straight to your hips.'
Jacob glowered at him. 'You know,' he mimicked, 'there's a reason nothing rhymes with orange.'
'There is a reason,' returned Sam. 'It's because orange comes from the Arabic word naranj, which in turn is thought to derive from the Tamil words aru, which means six, and anju, which means five. Because when you cut an orange in half, it has six segments in one half and five in the other. So nothing rhymes with it because we don't have many other words appropriated from Tamil. "
― Lili Wilkinson , Pink
16
" There was a crackle. Kobe's voice came through the cans. "What would you guys do," he said, apropos of nothing, "if Jules turned into a lizard?"
Another crackle. "Hey!" Jules said.
"It wouldn't happen," said Jacob, and I saw him shrug in the half-light.
"But what if?"
I pressed the talk button on my cans. "There's an old fish tank in our garage," I said. "I'd put Jules in it, and then get a heat rock from the pet shop."
I heard Sam's low chuckle. "Make sure you wash your hands first."
"Why?"
"So you don't get any lizardy diseases."
"I don't have any lizardy diseases!" Jules's voice was getting higher.
"Not yet, but wait until you're a lizard."
"What's a heat rock?" asked Jacob.
"It's a rock," I told him, "that you heat up. Lizards like them. Anyway, once I'd done that, I'd take you to see my cousin Adam."
"IS HE A WIZARD? "
― Lili Wilkinson , Pink
