by Alex Polan
“Because,” said Carlo, barely blinking. “You have a butterfly on your head, dude. A huge blue butterfly.”
CHAPTER 12
“What do I do?” whispered Ethan. This was the third time he’d had a butterfly land on him today, but it was the only time it had happened when he wasn’t in the safety of the Butterfly House.
If I make one wrong move, the Blue Morpho might flutter away and be gone for good, he realized. No pressure there. He felt his palms start to sweat.
“I don't know,” said Carlo. “Just don’t move.” He glanced over both shoulders. “I wish my mom would get back here, or even Gia. But our two bug experts are on a kiddie train somewhere!” He seemed more disgusted with that train now than ever.
Ethan took shallow breaths so he wouldn’t move his head. “Should I try to make it into the Butterfly House?” he asked.
Carlo chewed his lip. “Maybe. But first, let me go inside and try to find Spark. He’ll know what to do. Remember, don’t move.”
He tiptoed past Ethan and slowly pulled the first glass door open.
Ethan held his breath, hoping the movement from the door wouldn’t scare the butterfly away. Then he counted the seconds, waiting for Carlo to return or for Mrs. Walker to get there—for someone to show up who knew what to do with a giant blue butterfly from the rainforest!
When he caught sight of his reflection in the window, Ethan almost laughed. Who needs a Butterfree cap when you’ve got a real butterfly on your head?
He spent the next sixty seconds fighting the giggles rising in his chest. Don’t move! he ordered himself.
“Ethan!” someone called from behind.
He turned slowly, as if he were a fragile Pokémon egg suspended in an incubator. Then he saw Devin running toward him.
He wanted to scream at her to stop—or at least to slow down so she wouldn’t scare the butterfly. But if he shouted, he’d scare the butterfly away himself. So all he could do was hold out one hand and use his other hand to point toward his head.
When she was just a few feet away, Devin skidded to a stop and clamped her hand over her mouth. Then she turned around and ran back toward Mrs. Walker, who was pushing Gianna in a wheelchair.
By the time they reached Ethan, his neck had a cramp in it from holding his head so still.
“Try not to move,” Mrs. Walker said.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Ethan whispered. “But what do I do?”
“Wait till Mr. Thompson opens the door.” She pointed toward the front door, which was opening ever so slowly.
Mr. Thompson, his eyes wide behind his thick glasses, was waving Ethan toward him. Ethan could see Carlo’s anxious face, too, behind the second glass door.
“One step at a time,” said Mr. Thompson. “You can do it, son.”
Ethan had never moved so slowly in his life. It was hard just to lift his foot off the concrete, he was so afraid he would startle the butterfly.
As he walked, he kept his eyes on Mr. Thompson, who was staring at the butterfly. If it flew away, Ethan would know it just from the look on Mr. Thompson’s face.
He took another step. Then another. And another.
Now he was standing inside the front entrance, between the two glass doors. As he let one door gently close behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief. Halfway there, he told himself.
Mr. Thompson guided him slowly through the second door.
Now, finally, Ethan was standing in that peaceful paradise. He felt the sun streaming down on him through the windows at the top of the Butterfly House. The Blue Morpho must have felt it, too, because that was when it took flight.
It fluttered its wings and floated up toward the sun. Mr. Thompson wandered down the path below it, talking to the butterfly as if it were his long-lost pet.
Ethan ran his hand through his sandy-brown hair and looked up. “I can’t believe that was on my head,” he said.
“I know, right?” said Devin, hurrying through the door. “Again!”
“Maybe your hair reminds the Morpho of a pile of dead leaves or twigs,” joked Carlo.
“Gee, thanks,” said Ethan. But he laughed. It felt so good to be able to move—and laugh—freely now without worrying about disturbing the butterfly. But someone was missing. “Where’s Gianna?” he asked.
“She can’t come in.” Devin made a sad face. “The zoo had a wheelchair for her to use, but Mrs. Walker said it won’t work on the stone path in here.”
“Well,” said Carlo, waving them deeper into the Butterfly House, “I guess we’ll just have to find that lost bug cap for her. C’mon!”
They hurried toward the bridge, careful not to step on any butterflies. Ethan kept looking upward, wondering if his friend the Blue Morpho would be back. He saw Monarchs and Swallowtails, and even a Zebra butterfly fluttering past. But the Morpho had flown away.
“So where did she say she left it?” asked Carlo as they neared the bridge.
“I don’t know,” said Ethan. “She just said she put it down so it wouldn’t fall into the water.”
He searched the stone walkway and the wooden bridge. He even carefully stuck his head beneath the wooden rail and hung upside down, staring into the stream below. A big koi swam by, staring right back at him. But it wasn’t wearing a bug cap on its scaly head.
“See anything down there?” asked Carlo.
“Nope.”
As Ethan stood back up, he realized his sister had disappeared. “Devin!” he called. “Where’d you go?”
“Down here.” Her voice was muffled by the plant she had crawled under. The leaves were long and green, like a giant umbrella.
Carlo laughed. “Are you playing hide-and-go-seek?” he asked. “Because, I can see you, you know.”
“I’m looking for the cap,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. “It’s green and yellow, right?”
“I think so,” said Ethan. “I’m starting to forget, it’s been so long since we’ve seen it.”
“Well, if no one has found the cap yet, maybe it’s because it’s in a good hiding spot. It’s camouflaged,” said Devin, pronouncing the word slowly. “By something green. Like maybe a plant.”
Ethan met Carlo’s eyes and shrugged. “She could be right,” he said.
As he dropped down to the ground beside his sister, an orange butterfly floated up.
Then he heard the squeal.
“It’s here! I found it!”
Devin popped her head up out of the plant. Then her hand shot up, too—holding the bug cap.
“Yes!” said Ethan, reaching out to give her a huge high five. “You found the lucky cap!”
“I can’t wait to tell Gia,” said Devin as she untangled herself from the long leaves of the umbrella plant.
“You won’t have to wait much longer,” said Carlo. “Look!”
They turned around, and there was Gianna hobbling toward them on a single crutch. Mrs. Walker held firmly onto her other arm, especially as they neared the stream. But they had both seen the cap. And they were both smiling widely.
Devin hurried over and gently placed the cap on Gia’s head, right where it belonged. “There,” she said, giving the cap a pat. “Now the Morpho butterfly and the bug cap are both home, safe and sound.”
Gia laughed, which made the antennae bounce a little. “Thanks, Devin.”
“I’d like to thank all of you,” said Mr. Thompson as he walked toward them, his hands clasped. “Thank you for bringing that Morpho back where it belonged. I didn’t think we were going to see our biggest butterfly again. I was worried!”
“We were, too,” said Gia. “We’re big fans of bugs and butterflies!”
Mr. Thompson reached out and wobbled one of her antennae. “I can tell,” he said with a wink.
“Right now,” said Mrs. Walker, “I’m worried about you, Gia. I think it’s time to get to a doctor to check out that ankle. It’s swelling bigger and bigger by the second.”
“But, Mom! It doesn’t even hurt anymore,” s
aid Gianna. “It must be my lucky cap working its magic.”
“Oh, that’s right!” said Carlo, pulling out his phone. “The Pokémon should start showing up around here again, now that the lucky Pokémon-catching cap is back on Gia’s head.” When his phone buzzed in his hand, he held it up and grinned. “See? A Venomoth. How perfect!”
“Really?” said Gianna. “Mom, can I use your phone? I haven’t caught a Venomoth yet!”
Mrs. Walker shook her head firmly. “No. I think you have your hands full already,” she said, nodding toward the crutch.
Ethan pulled out his own phone and turned it on, hoping there was enough juice left in the thing to catch the Venomoth. He didn’t have one of those in his Pokédex yet, either.
It took a while for the app to load. By then, Ethan had just a smidge of life left in the red battery bar in the upper corner of his phone. But he barely noticed it, because something else had just popped up on his screen.
“Oh?” said Ethan, reading the screen.
It was an egg.
An egg that was about to hatch!
“My egg is hatching!” he said, nudging Carlo. “What do you think it’s going to be?”
They both watched the egg crack. Then it cracked again. Then it wobbled.
But just as the Pokémon was about to spring out of the egg, something horrible happened.
The battery died.
And the screen went black.
CHAPTER 13
“No!” shouted Ethan, staring at the black phone screen. “Not now!”
He shook the phone, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Then he turned toward Gianna, as if this were all her fault. “I thought your cap was lucky. Why would my battery die at a time like this? I was just about to hatch an egg. It doesn’t get much more unlucky than that!”
Gianna bit her lip. He could tell she was trying not to smile. “You know what I always say, Ethan. You don’t have good luck or bad luck because of what you wear on your head. It’s all up to you—and your attitude. Now, can you try to put on a happy face?”
Mrs. Walker laughed. “What a wise daughter I have,” she said, putting her arm around Gianna.
Ethan didn’t want to smile, but he couldn’t help it.
“That’s better!” said Gianna.
It was a whole lot easier to smile when Mr. Thompson came back with a surprise for them. “I just talked with the zoo office,” he said, “and we’d like to give you some free zoo passes so you kids can come back again another time. How does that sound?”
“Yay!” said Devin. “Count me in.”
“Me, too,” said Gianna. “But maybe next time, I’ll leave my lucky cap at home. Right, Mom?”
“Oh no you won’t,” said Carlo. “Thanks to your lucky cap, I just caught a Beedrill with really high Combat Power. Two hundred and sixty-three!”
“Wow,” said Ethan. “Yeah, Gia is definitely wearing her cap next time.”
Mrs. Walker just shook her head as she led Gianna out of the Butterfly House. Ethan held open the door for them, making sure no butterflies escaped this time. He gazed upward and said a silent good-bye to the Blue Morpho, then let the door close gently behind them.
“You know,” said Devin as they walked toward the zoo exit, “we actually saw a lot more here at the zoo when we weren’t catching Pokémon. Like those cute little prairie dogs.”
“And the bison,” said Carlo.
“And the koi in the stream,” said Ethan.
“Oh, and don’t forget the goat!” said Gianna. “You got an up-close look at that one, Carlo.” She started laughing, but then winced. “Okay, maybe my ankle does hurt a little.”
“We’ll be at the car soon,” said Mrs. Walker, holding Gianna by the elbow.
Devin walked on Gianna’s other side. She couldn’t really help her walk, but Ethan noticed how his sister tried to distract Gia by talking to her. Devin’s really good at that, he realized.
“So you have two lucky caps now,” she said to Gia. “Your bug cap and your Butterfree cap. How are you going to wear two of them at the same time?”
Gia shook her head. “No, I still have only one lucky Pokémon-catching cap.” She almost reached up to pat it, then seemed to remember she shouldn’t let go of the crutch. “But this one is kind of like a Caterpie. And Caterpie evolve into Butterfree, eventually. So … maybe I’ll wear my Butterfree cap when I'm evolving my Pokémon.”
“Or you could wear it when you’re hatching them,” said Ethan. He couldn’t stop thinking about his own Pokémon egg—the one that cracked open and then disappeared right before his horrified eyes. “Do you think my egg hatched already? Or will it crack open again as soon as I turn my phone back on?”
Carlo shrugged. “Only one way to find out. Luckily, Mom has a charging cord in her car. I bet it’ll fit your phone.”
“Really?” said Ethan, glancing tentatively at Mrs. Walker. He was afraid she would say no to more Pokémon playing in the car, but she didn’t.
She nodded and smiled. “Sure. We’ll give it a try.”
A few minutes later, they reached her maroon minivan. Devin and Ethan slid into the way back, and Mrs. Walker pulled her seat forward to give Gianna plenty of room to stretch her leg out in the middle seat, too.
When Carlo plugged Ethan’s phone in up front, Ethan held his breath. “Anything?”
“Not yet. You really drained your battery,” said Carlo.
“I know! I can’t stand it. Which Pokémon do you think was in that egg?”
Carlo shrugged. “I’m sticking with my first guess—Grimer.” He spun around in the seat to give Gianna a warning look. “Don’t even think about making a joke about the bubble gum on my shoe, either.”
She shook her head and smiled, leaning back against the seat.
“I’m guessing it’s Butterfree in that egg,” said Devin. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”
“Or maybe a Morpho?” piped up Mrs. Walker.
Carlo laughed. “Good one, Mom. Oh, look! Ethan’s phone turned on.” He unplugged it and handed it back to Ethan.
The Pokémon GO app started right up again. “But where’s my egg?” said Ethan, trying not to panic.
He checked his list of Pokémon and sorted it by most recent captures. And there, at the top, was something new. Something yellow with an enormous snout.
When Ethan clicked on the Pokémon, it stood tall and wiggled its fingers at him, as if trying to cast a spell and lull him to sleep.
“A Drowzee!” said Ethan. “Cool. I don’t have that one yet.”
“Sure you do,” whispered Carlo with a grin. “You have one right in front of you.” He gestured toward Gianna.
Ethan craned his neck to see around the seat. He could see that Gianna was nodding off to sleep. Her lucky bug cap sat cockeyed on her head, covering one eye.
He laughed quietly and then settled back into his own seat. A nap sounded pretty good, actually. What an exciting day! Team Mystic had solved not just one mystery, but two.
Team Valor may be strong, thought Ethan, closing his eyes. But Team Mystic is smart. And we never give up.
Do you love playing Pokémon GO?
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