Anaconda Adventure
Page 4
“No—of course not!” Josh said with a weak grin. “Now … something … a little sticky. I have an idea.”
Petty nodded. “So have I,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They reentered the zoo for the third time that day, waving their day pass tickets at the person on the gate. Josh and Petty immediately headed for a wooden building to their left, ignoring the large pond and the wildfowl area. Danny followed them, puzzled. Something sticky, he thought, might be frog spawn in the pond or something. But no … it was autumn and you didn’t get frog spawn in the autumn. Maybe something in the visitor centre sweet shop, then … but no, this was not a sweet shop. This was … this was …
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” wailed Danny. “NOT THE INSECT HOUSE!”
Josh and Petty each grabbed an arm and dragged Danny inside. They knew he was scared stiff of creepy-crawlies and would never go in on his own. It didn’t matter that he’d been an insect several times; they still freaked him out. It didn’t matter that he’d even eaten quite a few insects while he’d been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into a reptile or amphibian; he’d blocked that out.
“Why are we here?” whimpered Danny, trying hard not to look at all the many-legged creepy-crawlies in their little glass displays. “There’s nothing sticky about insects, is there? They’re all dry and crispy and … eurgh!”
“Well, there’s nothing sticky about most insects, true,” Josh said, firmly tugging Danny along to a tall, well-lit display filled with branches and vegetation. “Except … these.”
Danny looked through the glass and saw branches and vegetation. And twigs. And sticks. Sticks with legs. Sticks … with faces.
“NOOOOOOO!” he wailed. “I HATE STICK INSECTS. They’re so CREEPY! NOOOO! This can’t be right! It’s another kind of sticky! Toffee! Yes! Toffee! That’s sticky, isn’t it? You could hide a marble in a toffee, couldn’t you? You could definitely—”
Petty tapped him on the shoulder and pointed into the stick insect display. In the far corner was a small glass orb with a ribbon of purple running through it.
It was the latest S.W.I.T.C.H. marble. Number five.
Six or seven enormous stick insects were wiggling about, completely surrounding the marble.
And only Danny could get it.
To one side of the stick insect display, there was a small black door with a sign that read STAFF ONLY. This door should certainly have been locked—but it was ajar. Petty opened it and pulled Josh and Danny through with her before any other visitors or staff could come in and see them. It was gloomy behind the door. It smelled of warm, damp vegetation. The hairs on Danny’s arms and neck stood up. His heart was racing. He was here in the inner sanctum of the INSECT HOUSE! It was horrific.
Petty had found the back of the stick insect chamber and was turning a stout plastic peg which held the access panel in place. Now she was tilting the panel, allowing a shaft of light and the smell of warm greenery up through it.
“Come on,” Josh said. “Breathe in. You can do this.”
“Look,” whispered Danny, standing rigid with his fists clenched at his sides. “We’re twins. Who’s going to know the difference if it’s you that gets the marble? The Mystery Marble Sender can’t see us in here!”
Josh pointed to a little red light in the ceiling. “Security camera,” he said. “I think they’re watching. But you don’t have to. I can get the marble. Even if the Mystery Marble Sender does see us and not send us any more clues, five marbles might be enough for Petty to carry on with creating MAMMALSWITCH.”
“Yes,” Petty said, peering around from the back of the stick insect display. “I might be able to work it out. After all, there were only six insect and reptile S.W.I.T.C.H. cubes. Most likely there are only six marbles, too. I might not need the last one …”
“But … if we’re wrong …” Danny said. He took a big lungful of air and then let it out in a long, shaky breath. “No,” he said. “If we don’t get any more clues and you can’t work out the formula, I’ll always know it was my fault. I’ll get it.”
Josh clapped his back. “I knew you would!”
Shaking, Danny put his hand through the open panel. In front of him was a network of branches and twigs and leaves. And some of them would be twigs and leaves. And some wouldn’t …
“I think you’re going to have to put your head through,” Josh said, close behind him.
Another whimper escaped. Danny knew Josh was right. Without seeing what was below him he could be blindly swiping at stick insects.
“They’re quite fragile,” Josh said. “You’ll hurt them—snap their legs off or something—if you grab them.” He was, of course, far more worried about the stick insects than his brother.
Danny slowly pushed his head through the opening, not daring to look up in case of dangling horrors. Below him at least twenty stick insects of all sizes were clambering about. “Ooooh—they are so hoooorrible!” he moaned.
“They’re fantastic!” Josh said, just behind him.
“Their proper name is phasmids. They’re even better at camouflage than chameleons. They live on plants. Apart from the praying mantis variety—that’s a vicious hunter, that is. And the American walkingstick insects can spray stuff out of their glands that can turn you temporarily blind—I’m going to shut up now …” tailed off Josh, realizing how very unhelpful he was being.
“I’m still going with hoooorrible,” breathed Danny. If he could reach down through the display without the tickle-tickle touch of one of those hideous things against his skin, he might just have enough courage left to knock away the thick green one that was crouched right across the marble.
Sweat dripped off his nose.
Slowly he moved his hand down, feeling as if he was trapped in a nightmare. Then he felt a tickle. On his left ear. He froze. “Jo-oo-oosh …” he squeaked. “What’s on my ear?”
“Erm …” Josh said. “Nothing. Just a bit of leaf.”
Danny didn’t believe him. He started shaking badly—and then his hand bumped into a chain of three stick insects, apparently attempting a very slow trapeze act, and they tumbled right across his wrist, waggling their legs and feelers and trying to get a grip.
“Eeeeaaargh!” Danny was ready to freak out … but he couldn’t give up! He just couldn’t! He plunged his hand down and flicked the big green one off the marble. He scrabbled, moving the marble three times while yet more stick insects dropped onto his arm. And a leaf was moving down his shoulder. Only it wasn’t a leaf. It was a LEAF INSECT—looking all green and leaf-shaped and innocent but with LEGS!
“Gaaaaaaaah!” Danny shot back out of the display, desperate to get the creepy-crawlies off him.
“STOP!” Josh yelled. “Stay ABSOLUTELY STILL!”
Danny froze. Was he about to be blinded by stick insect spit?
Josh gently collected all the creatures clinging to his brother, carefully put them back in the display, and closed the panel. “It’s OK—they’re all safe!” he sighed.
“THEY’RE all SAFE?” Danny spluttered. “What about ME? I could have been blinded!”
“Nah—none of these are American walkingsticks,” Josh said.
“Well, thanks for telling me that NOW!” Danny stared at Josh, twitching.
“Go on,” Josh said. “Freak out. Just do it quietly, OK?”
Danny freaked out. Quietly.
“Well done!” Josh said a minute later when his brother had stopped doing his little dance. “You were brilliant!” And he gave Danny a rough hug. “I mean … you did get it, didn’t you?”
Danny grinned, held out his fist, and opened it up.
“Aha!” Petty said, her eyes gleaming in the dim light. “Number five!”
Back in Petty’s lab in the attic above Princessland (a huge shop filled with stuff for girls, which was almost as horrifying as stick insects as far as Danny was concerned), they examined the marble.
“Yes—another hologram—another bit of code,” confirmed Petty, peering through her powerful
microscope.
Josh and Danny took a look. The hologram this time was of a cat of some kind. A tabby … or a tiger. It was hard to tell.
Petty looked thoughtful. “Only one more to go,” she said. “So I’m guessing our Mystery Marble Sender will reveal himself soon. And then what? This … feels dangerous to me. Very dangerous.”
“Maybe whoever it is just wants to help,” suggested Danny with a hopeful shrug.
Petty gave a hollow laugh. “Ooooh, I doubt that! Nobody ever just wants to help. Everybody’s out for themselves! I learned that the hard way when my so-called best friend betrayed me and stole my work—or what he thought was my work—and burnt out my memory!”
She picked up a picture in a shattered glass frame. In it was her old friend, Victor Crouch, his arm around a younger Petty, smiling. He wore a hat but no eyebrows.
“Do you think it is Victor Crouch?” asked Josh. “That he survived being S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into a cockroach and then found your MAMMALSWITCH code in marbles?”
Petty stared at the picture and narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure,” she said. “It doesn’t seem quite like his style. But then … maybe I’ve just forgotten what his style is.”
“Well,” sighed Danny. “I guess we’re going to find out soon, aren’t we? It won’t be long now before the Mystery Marble Sender isn’t a mystery anymore.”
“Yes,” agreed Petty. “But I have a nasty feeling we’re not going to like the revelation. Go home now, both of you. Come to the house tomorrow after school. And remember, wherever you go … someone is watching!”
Josh and Danny were back home in time for dinner, and afterward they went down the garden with Piddle.
“It’s been such a freaky few months, hasn’t it?” Danny said, as they sat on the grass by the climbing frame and Piddle ran around them, trying to persuade them to throw his ball. “Nobody would ever believe what’s happened to us—that we’ve been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into spiders and all kinds of insects, amphibians, and reptiles.”
“Nope,” Josh said. “But they will one day—when Petty goes on TV. And we’ll be part of it. Everyone will know then. We’ll be famous.”
“Maybe Charlie will be on TV with us too,” Danny said. “She ought to be!”
“Danny! Josh!” called Mom from an upstairs window. “Get up here now and tidy your room! It’s revolting. It’s a snake pit! Really!”
BOOKS
Want to brush up on your reptile knowledge?
Here’s a list of books dedicated to creepy-crawlies.
Johnson, Jinny. Animal Planet™ Wild World: An Encyclopedia of Animals. Minneapolis: Millbrook Press, 2013.
McCarthy, Colin. Reptile. DK Eyewitness Books.
New York: DK Publishing, 2012.
Parker, Steve. Pond & River. DK Eyewitness Books.
New York: DK Publishing, 2011.
WEBSITES
Find out more about nature and wildlife using the websites below.
National Geographic Kids
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/
Go to this website to watch videos and read facts about your favorite reptiles and amphibians.
San Diego Zoo Kids
http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/animals
Curious to learn more about some of the coolest-looking reptiles and amphibians? This website has lots of information and stunning pictures of some of Earth’s most interesting creatures.
US Fish & Wildlife Service
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/amphibians-reptiles-and-fish.aspx
Want some tips to help you look for wildlife in your own neighborhood? Learn how to identify some slimy creatures and some scaly ones as well.
Ali Sparkes grew up in the wilds of the New Forest, raised by sand lizards who taught her the secret language of reptiles and how to lick her own eyes.
At least, that’s how Ali remembers it. Her family argues that she grew up in a house in Southampton, raised by her mom and dad, who taught her the not terribly secret language of English and wished she’d stop chewing her hair.
She once caught a slow worm. It flicked around like mad, and she was a bit scared and dropped it.
Ali still lives in Southampton, now with her husband and two sons. She likes to hang out in the nearby wildlife center spying on common lizards. The lizards are considering legal action …
Ross Collins’s more than eighty picture books and books for young readers have appeared in print around the world. He lives in Scotland and, in his spare time, enjoys leaning backward precariously in his chair.