“I don’t understand what this is all about,” Roger’s father said. His voice was quiet, as it usually was, but Roger could detect the faint and way-too-familiar undertones that indicated his patience was wearing thin. “If there’s a point to this joke, I fail to see it.”
Marlene said something Roger didn’t catch. Then Roger’s mother said, “And Marlene, it’s not like you to do this sort of thing. Now where is Roger?”
“I really hope he didn’t put you up to this,” said Roger’s father.
They’re not buying this at all, thought Roger. They’re not going to be prepared, not really. When I go in there, they’re going to blow a gasket. He had to work at not scraping his forearms together. I used to crack my knuckles when I got nervous, he thought. Maybe this is what a mantis does instead. Roger looked at the back door. The woods were beginning to seem awfully friendly. He had already taken a couple of tentative steps toward the door when Marlene yelled out from the living room, “Come on in, Roger!”
Roger shook his head, tried to assume a “harmless mantis” pose as best he could, and wished he’d had a chance to practice it in front of a mirror. He stood for a long moment. Then he took a deep, whistling breath, came out of the kitchen, and rounded the corner into the living room to stand next to Jerry and Marlene.
“Mom! Dad, it’s me! Roger!”
Roger’s father stood by his favorite chair, a medical journal in his hand, and a faint scowl on his face. His mother was on the couch, but her own expression was more worried and puzzled. She’d apparently been reading a novel, and she was holding a finger between the book’s pages to save her place.
When she saw Roger, his mother pressed herself back against the couch, her eyes went wide, and she gasped. Roger’s father dropped his journal to the floor, but stood perfectly still. To their credit, at least neither one yelled “Aaack!” like Marlene had.
Roger’s father stared at Roger. Then he looked to Jerry and Marlene standing calmly next to Roger and at Lou, sitting on the floor in front of the three of them, wagging his tail happily, and obviously not the least bit upset that a giant mantis was behind him.
Roger’s father took a deep, slow breath. “Well,” he said, “nobody seems to be running away in terror. Roger? Is that really you?”
“I’m afraid so, Dad.” At least his parents hadn’t completely freaked out. Yet.
“Your voice is a bit strange,” said his father. “You sound like your art teacher.”
“Yeah, Dad. I know.”
Roger’s mother made a small, throat-clearing noise. She hadn’t taken her finger out of her book. Without taking her eyes away from Roger, she carefully put a marker in her book and set it on the table by the sofa. Then she got up and slowly approached her son. “Oh, Roger,” she said gently, if a bit hoarsely. “What on Earth have you done to yourself?” She reached out with a slightly shaky hand, dropped it to her side, took a deep breath, and then stepped closer before placing her hand gingerly on Roger’s hard-shelled shoulder. “Oh, son … ” she turned to her husband. “I think we need to take him to a doctor.”
“I am a doctor, dear. I can guarantee you there’s nothing about this in the medical journals.” He walked around Roger, examining him closely, careful not to touch him. Jerry and Marlene backed up to give him room. Then he squatted down to look at Roger’s underside, and Roger began to feel uncomfortable. Roger’s father stood up again. “How did this happen, son? Does anything hurt? Do you feel ill?”
“I woke up this way,” said Roger, wiggling his abdomen and claws. “Other than the obvious, I’m feeling fine.” He was almost weak with relief. Both his best friends and his parents had managed to stay calm so far. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he’d thought.
But now that he’d gotten past those fears, he found other concerns crowding into his head. “Can anyone fix this?”
“I don’t know, son. Certainly nobody around this town. If this happened suddenly, it’s possible it will reverse itself just as quickly. Kind of like that rash you had last month.”
“I don’t think calamine’s going to work on this, Dad! What am I gonna do? I can’t go anywhere like this!”
“You can stay in the house,” said his mother. “We’ll take care of you until we find out what this is all about. We could tell the school … something.” Roger’s mother’s expression did not match the hope in her words.
Jerry’s usual smile was gone.
“If you go outside,” Jerry said, “somebody who sees you might take a shot at you. Heck, I probably would.”
“Not if you knew it was Roger!” said Marlene.
“Well, no! Of course not!” said Jerry. “But even if nobody shoots him, somebody might haul him off to some secret underground lab or something. Put him in one of those big glass rooms they use. Experiment on him, like in that show with the guy who gets abducted by aliens.”
“You watch too much TV,” said Marlene.
Roger’s brain whirled. He’d thought about somebody shooting him. He hadn’t thought about being taken away for experiments. Hiding in the house sounded pretty darn good right now. But he had so many things he wanted to do!
“We’ve got the big game coming up next weekend against Centerville,” he said. “And I’m our team’s best batter!” The Centerville Badgers were the chief rivals of Roger’s Little League team, the Highland Falls Falcons. This was a little odd since Centerville’s players were zoned for Highland Falls high school, so by the time Roger got to high school he’d end up on the very same baseball team as the Centerville kids. As Roger looked down at his claws, his antennae drooped. I was our team’s best batter, he thought.
“There’s also school to think about,” said his father. “We don’t know how long this will last. We’d have to keep you out of school, homeschool you.”
Roger thought about his parents being his teachers. It would probably work—they were both pretty smart—but the idea didn’t appeal to him. And what about all his other friends? Would he be able to see them? Would they want to?
Jerry spoke up again. “I didn’t think about the big game. We’d have a hard time winning that without Roger. And don’t forget, Spring Break starts next Thursday, and the carnival’s coming to town then, too.”
“Roger doesn’t have hands anymore,” Marlene pointed out. “The big game might be a problem.”
Roger winced. At least the carnival won’t be a problem, he thought bitterly. I’d be perfect for a freak show.
“One thing at a time,” said Roger’s father. He looked at his transformed son for what seemed to Roger like a long time. Roger forced himself to hold his forearms still.
“So what do you think we should do, son?” his father said. The question had that “test” sound his father’s questions sometimes did. As if there was a right and a wrong answer, and he was hoping Roger responded with the right answer first.
Roger regarded his parents. Both were smiling at him, and it became even more obvious that being a giant mantis hadn’t changed how they felt about him. He looked at Jerry and Marlene standing next to him. Hadn’t they already shown they were okay with what he’d become?
Jerry gave Roger a little punch on one of Roger’s hard-shelled arms. “Got your back, man. Whatever you do,” he said quietly.
“Me too,” said Marlene, nodding.
Roger thought hard. His first idea had been to run away and hide, and he’d sort of tried that already. He was happy that his best friends and parents had rallied to him instead of poking him with sticks, but his next thought had still been something like staying in the house and avoiding everyone else until he changed back or something. But the more he thought about it, the less he liked that idea, too. What if it didn’t go away? Did he want to end up one of those freaks from the movies who lived in someone’s basement?
Roger thought more about the things he’d wanted to do this spring, like the baseball games, the carnival, and just hanging out with his frien
ds. It wasn’t fair! He hadn’t changed, not really. He just looked like a giant bug. Maybe once people found out that it was really just him … ?
“I … don’t know, Dad,” he said. “I kind of feel like if I just hide away that I’m giving up somehow. And my friends kind of count on me. But if I go out … ”
“Jerry and Marlene seem okay,” said his father. “What do you think your other friends will do? Or the rest of the town?”
“Maybe … maybe they’ll take it pretty much like you guys all did,” said Roger. “I sure hope so. I don’t want to hide. I want to keep playing baseball. I want to still do all the stuff I like to do.” His parents nodded. “If I can. At least I’d like to try!”
“And school,” said his mother.
“Yes. Priorities, son,” said Roger’s father, but he was smiling, despite sounding firm.
“Yeah, yeah. School, too,” said Roger. Whatever sort of test might have been going on here, he thought he’d passed.
“I think you’re right that Highland Falls won’t let us down,” his father said. “I’ve been in this town a long time, and there are a lot of good people in it. If you want to go out and keep living your life, even like this, your mother and I will help you do it.”
“But,” said his mother, “if you decide to go out in the open, even just in town, we have to be very careful. It’s not going to be easy keeping the rest of the world from finding out, and I don’t think we’re ready for that yet.”
“Your mother’s right, son. We’ll need to introduce you to the neighbors slowly and make sure people know the importance of keeping you a secret outside of our local community. I honestly don’t know how feasible that’s going to be, and I have to do some thinking about how to go about it, but if you want to live a normal life as best you can, it might be worth the risks. Are you still up for it?”
Roger didn’t need a lot more thinking to come up with the answer. Darn right he was up for it! Stay locked up while everyone he knew was out having fun? Not play baseball anymore? Never! He remembered a baseball game where his team had been down by ten runs in the final inning. He hadn’t given up then! Okay, they’d still lost the game, but by gosh, he hadn’t given up!
“I want to try it, Dad,” he said. Now that he’d decided what to do, Roger felt better than he had all morning. “What do we do first?”
“We’ve got baseball practice tomorrow,” said Marlene. “We could start with the team. They know Roger better than almost anyone else in the school.”
“Not a bad idea,” said Roger’s father. “Especially when you consider your coach.”
“Mr. Horowitz?” said Roger.
“Jacob is one of the finest men I know. If anyone can help you with this, it’d be him. Since he’s also your principal, it won’t hurt to have him already on your side once you go back to school. After breakfast I have to go into the medical office for a while, but after that I can drive over and talk to him.” He held up Jerry’s instant photos. “I have a feeling I’ll need these. Can I borrow them?”
“Sure,” said Jerry. “Hey, Roger, we’ve still got our own practice this morning, remember?”
Roger looked around at his friends and his parents. They were all still smiling, and Lou was wagging his tail. “Sure. Except … I’m really hungry!”
Everybody looked at Roger. His mother’s smile faded, and Marlene edged away from him slightly.
“Aw, jeez,” said Roger. “I’m not gonna eat anyone!”
“Relax, Joan,” said his father.
“Yeah, he didn’t eat us,” said Jerry.
“A mantis is a ferocious carnivorous predator, Bill,” said Roger’s mother. “I was a biology major.” She turned to Roger. “So, what would you like, son? Hopefully, something besides insects.”
Roger suddenly caught a whiff of the bacon on the stove, which made his hunger worse. But how was he smelling bacon without a nose?
“Bacon and sausage sounds really good right now,” said Roger.
“Bacon and sausage it is,” his mother said with a reassuring smile.
“We’ll see you out on the lot, Roger,” said Marlene. “Don’t take too long.”
“I’ll run upstairs and grab your baseball stuff,” said Jerry. “See you after breakfast!”
“I’ll get your breakfast on the table,” said his mother, heading for the kitchen. “It should hit the spot … ”
For a ferocious carnivorous predator, thought Roger, finishing his mother’s sentence.
Chapter Four
Roger’s mother served up a filling breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and wheat toast.
Roger couldn’t use a chair properly, so he just stood next to the table. He made a valiant attempt to use a fork, but couldn’t get a decent grip on it with the flexible finger on his claw. He dropped the fork twice, and his mother picked it up. Roger looked over at Lou, bending over his bowl and happily scarfing down his dog food along with the garnish of bacon that his mother had slipped into his bowl. Then he looked at his mother. “Mom? I’m not sure this is working.”
“It’s all right, Roger,” said his mother. “Just manage as best you can. We can worry about manners later.”
Gratefully, Roger dipped his head down and started picking up food with his claws and eating right off his plate.
He had no appetite for the toast, but ate a bit of the eggs and several helpings of bacon and sausage. It was delicious. His vision and hearing had gone a bit strange, but as far as he could tell his sense of taste was still the same, at least as far as meat was concerned. He could smell the food just fine, too. The bacon, in particular, smelled great. Roger still had no idea how he smelled things when he didn’t have a nose but got the impression that his antennae had something to do with it. They waved gently over his plate as he lowered his head to eat.
Roger’s complicated mandibles made short work of the bacon and sausage. He didn’t even have to use his hands—claws—to eat except to stab the food and pick it up off his plate (he had some trouble with the crispier pieces of bacon that just broke when he poked them).
Looking down, Roger could just see the little tentacle things surrounding his mouth, grabbing whatever was near and feeding it in. It wasn’t an appetizing sight. To their credit, neither of his parents said anything to make their son feel uncomfortable, but his mother spent most of breakfast keeping her eyes on her own plate. His father didn’t seem to be bothered at all, but Roger supposed it took a lot to gross out a doctor, never mind a Navy combat corpsman. Jeez, thought Roger, I’d probably look away if I could.
“Roger,” said his father. “We’re taking a critical step putting you out in public this soon. It’s risky in some ways, but if we can get more people to accept you, I think it could help protect you from other risks further on. A person who has his neighbors behind him has less to worry about from strangers.”
Roger nodded, chewing. He wasn’t quite sure what his dad was getting at, but he felt a whole lot better about things than he had this morning. His parents would make things work!
Roger’s mother reached over and patted him on the shoulder, very gently, as though his arm might come off. “We’ll let you finish up here. Call me if you want any more to eat.”
His parents got up and went into the living room. Roger had a few more pieces of meat and moved away from the table. He hadn’t been asked to clean up the dishes after breakfast, which he chalked up as the first real positive result of his transformation from a normal boy to a giant green praying mantis so far. He looked at his slightly greasy claws and wondered how he was supposed to wash up. Without thinking, he raised a claw to his mouth, and started … cleaning it off. His mouth parts seemed to know what they were doing, even if he didn’t. Then he remembered how his pet mantis had cleaned itself off after eating, very much like a cat. Roger shrugged and brought the other claw up to clean it off. Then he joined his parents in the living room.
“I’m heading out to practice
now with Jerry and Marlene,” said Roger.
“What if someone sees you?” said his mother. “Maybe you should stay close to home for the time being until we’ve sorted this out some more.”
“We’ll just be back in the vacant lot for now,” said Roger. “Nobody’s around, and you can’t see it from our street.” Also, he thought, it’s close to the woods if something goes wrong. He was just as worried about somebody else seeing him, but …
“Mom, Dad, I can barely even pick up a ball now. I have to find out if I can still play baseball at all!”
Roger’s father looked at Roger and nodded. “I think I understand, son,” he said. “Go out there with your friends, and be as careful as you can. If you see anyone else, hide.”
“And for heaven’s sake, don’t get hurt!” said his mother fervently. Roger looked at her. His mother was always telling him to be careful—it was a Mom thing—but she was acting like he was going out to jump motorcycles, not a little baseball practice.
“Okay,” said Roger’s father. “I’m heading for my office now, and later on, to Mr. Horowitz. Maybe later we can figure out how this happened, and hopefully how we can make you better.” He stood up and headed for the front door. “I’ll let you know later how things went.”
“Thanks, Dad,” said Roger. “See you later.”
Roger went out the back door and looked around the area carefully with his improved vision, but he didn’t see anyone. He walked quickly out to the vacant lot, his legs moving a lot more smoothly now. Lou, having gotten his share of leftovers, trotted along slowly by his side. The warm sun, high overhead, felt really good on his back. He could feel himself loosening up and becoming more energetic and remembered that insects were more active in warmer weather.
Roger Mantis Page 3