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a new classic by Edward Summer |
ulia
Calder walked across the driveway just as her husband drove up.
He rolled down the window and waved, then pulled the car into the driveway.
"I left Samantha with Craig and Genny," Julia said. Maybe she'll actually stay in their house this time. I figured that it might help if I brought her favorite food along this time. Genny said she barely touched the dry stuff.
"I think she watches too many cat food commercials. She thinks she's Morris the Cat." Douglas held the back door open and followed Julia inside.
"Anyway, everything is packed. It just has to go in the car."
"Great. I promised to get Fred's teddy bear out of the basement. They got so excited chasing the frog around, that Fred actually forgot to take it!"
"That's not like him. Maybe he was upset."
"Or maybe he's growing up and it's not so important anymore. Anyway, I promised to mail it, so he'll get it back in a day or so. I'll be up in a minute." He kissed Julia on the cheek, flipped on the light switch, and walked down into the basement.
Reon and his demon army clung to the shadows motionless as they waited for the lights to go out again and for this intruder to go away. To keep the fire from showing, Reon kept his eyes nearly closed and barely breathed. Through lowered lids, he watched as the man walked around the basement, apparently looking for something on top of the boxes. What does he want? Reon wondered. He must not find us. I do not want to kill him yet. It is too soon. Others would know before we had the amulet. And it is too light for me to move! It must be the darkest part of the night.
Reon's mind wandered back to his midnight attacks many centuries ago. How easy to capture a village from people who were asleep or dulled with dreams. He and Sniffler and the other dogs stood proudly as his men torched one or two of the houses as an example of what would happen to those who resisted. What did it matter if the houses were occupied? It only made a stronger lesson. No one resisted. Ever. Reon sighed. They could have conquered the world. He remembered laughing, and his dogs barking. Barking. Sniffler barking. Sniffler. Sniffler? Where was he? Reon glanced up toward the basement window. Sniffler should have been back long before this. He was unsure of whom or what Sniffler was chasing. Only that it had to be stopped. Stopped. Now.
And the frog, Reon thought. He will die before me. If I can find him. Reon glanced around through the shadows wondering where the frog was. This man must leave, leave at once! He is interrupting my plan. But Reon could do nothing but stand and wait, immobile in the dusty darkness.
"Where did he leave it?" Douglas wondered out loud. "A teddy bear shouldn't be this hard to find." After a few more minutes, he shrugged and decided to give up. Douglas had just placed his foot on the first step when a loud, croaking noise made him stop. He turned around.
The frog hopped out of the shadows into the center of the basement floor. With a second precise leap, the frog landed next to Douglas's right shoe.
"You aren't so hard to catch!" Douglas observed, somewhat amused. He bent down and picked up the frog. "You didn't happen to see Fred's teddy bear, did you?"
The frog croaked loudly.
"I guess not. Well, at least I can put you back where you belong." Douglas walked quickly upstairs, snapped off the lights and slammed the door shut.
Reon's eyes blazed to life. A group of little demons around him gnashed their teeth in frustration.
"Curse my brother," Reon muttered hotly. "Too soon to kill the man. His woman would stop us! Too light to catch her. Teefr! Teefr! I will capture you soon. Soon. It will feel good to kill again."
The fire welled up in his chest, curled out of his nostrils and up around his spiny horns. Flames from his eyes, nose and mouth formed a sheet of fire that covered Reon's face in shimmering orange and blue. Reon agonized through each burning breath, waiting, waiting, always waiting for the right moment to begin.
Douglas
gently placed the frog next to the little pool of water in the terrarium
and slid the glass lid closed. He decided, on second thought, to put in
more food. Reopening the lid, he dumped a few grasshoppers and the black
cricket into the terrarium, then closed the top again.
The frog's tongue hungrily snapped up the cricket and swallowed it whole. The frog then closed its eyes and settled down to sleep next to the rose.
"Funny," Douglas said out loud. "I don't remember any pink roses in the garden, just white ones." He stared at the rose for a moment. The kids must have gotten it someplace else, he thought. He also concluded that a terrarium was a weird place to keep a rose, but then, a kid is a kid is a kid. "At least you'll have enough to eat," he said to the frog, "and Tony will be back next week to feed you more."
Douglas walked downstairs. He made a last-minute check of the electric timer that would turn the lights on and off in the house at night. Then he locked the back door and got into the car.
"Did you find the bear?" Julia asked.
"Nope. I have no idea where he left it. But I did catch the frog! Actually, he hopped right up to me and sat there until I picked him up. I put him in the terrarium with a three-year supply of grasshoppers." Douglas started the car and backed down the driveway. "Anyway, I'm sure the bear will turn up eventually. I'll have Tony look for it when we get home."
"Poor Fred. He really loves that bear."
"Well, what can we do? It's time to leave. Let's just go and have a good time."
He backed the car into the street, shifted out of reverse and set off toward the highway.
"You know, maybe we do leave Tony alone too much." Julia buckled her seat belt. "We haven't taken him anywhere since he was a baby."
"This is business, and there isn't much for him to do."
"I know, but… well, I don't know. Maybe next time we should give it a try."
"Well, we'll see." Douglas rolled the thought over in his mind briefly
and drove on in silence.
"Thank you," Fred said as he took the Band-Aid from the flight attendant.
"May I help you with that?" Judy asked.
"No. Thanks. I can do it myself."
Judy smiled and walked away down the aisle.
Fred peeled the backing off the Band-Aid and applied it carefully to the torn spot on Teddy's arm. Teddy craned his neck to see his "wound" being patched while Dunkey looked on admiringly.
"Poor Teddy," Fred said, patting the Band-Aid into place.
"I'll be okay," Teddy said modestly. "At least I didn't lose much stuffing."
"We've got to get back somehow," Ginger blurted out. She fondled the amulet nervously.
"Yeah, right." Tony said. "How? Parachute?"
"I don't know. Maybe we could take a bus when we get to my house."
"Fat chance your parents would let us do that."
"We could hitchhike."
"I don't think so."
A depressing silence settled over the two children. Fred played blissfully with Teddy who, actually, was relieved to be back with Fred.
Their silence was interrupted by a sudden jolt and the ringing of a chime that told the passengers to fasten their seat belts.
"More turbulence, Teddy," Fred said as he slipped the bear in under the seat belt so they were strapped in together. "Now you won't fall off." Fred looked uneasily out the window toward the heavy clouds and patted Teddy reassuringly, but did not see what was really going on outside.
Inch by inch against the blasting head winds, the Pterademon flew closer and closer to the plane. With a last stupendous push of its wings, the scaly creature came close to the flap of the plane's left wing, then opened it's fanged mouth wide. The icy wind blasted down its throat at hundreds of miles an hour challenging the Pterademon's determination and Sniffler's desperate hold on the Pterademon's neck.
With a clacking clash, the Pterademon bit down into the trailing edge of the wing. A shock wave jolted through the plane as the Pterademon held on with a death grip. Its teach pierced straight through the wing. The plane shivered as if to shake off an annoying fly.
The plane shook up and down. The flight attendants stopped distributing drinks because the ice kept shaking out of the clear plastic cups.
"We'd better get above this," the pilot said, placing his hands back on the controls.
"I've been trying to," said the co-pilot, "but the controls are not responding! It's like something is jammed. Listen, you can hear the servo motors straining!"
The pilot listened carefully. A soft, low-frequency moan quivered up through the carpeting of the cabin and into the soles of his feet.
With all of his weight, the pilot pulled back on the steering column, and the elevators seemed to work. Then he tried turning the wheel, but it wouldn't budge. The flaps were frozen. He turned and tried to look back toward the wing, but the angle was wrong. And the cloud cover was too thick. The more he tried to turn the wheel,, the more the servo motors groaned against some resistance.
"What's wrong?" Ginger asked clutching the arms of her seat.
"Just turbulence," Tony answered blithely. "It happens every time!"
Fred clutched Teddy a little bit closer to his side.
A current of air hit the Pterademon's long tail, shaking it like a pennant in a typhoon. The creature's body shook up and down and wobbled the plane in its course.
Sniffler stared toward the row of dim window lights that formed a dotted line along the side of the plane's cabin.
Cautiously, Sniffler loosened the grip of one forefoot and placed it onto the surface of the wing. He pressed down, and his strong claws bit into the metal and held tight. Sniffler placed a second foot down and anchored the claws. Then he let go of the Pterademon's neck with his back legs and placed them simultaneously onto the wing. The claws dug in like tiny can openers.
The Pterademon watched as Sniffler crept inch by inch toward the center of the wing leaving a trail of puncture marks behind. Repeatedly gusts of wind jolted the Pterademon straining its grip on the wing.
The glow of the windows grew brighter as Sniffler approached the fuselage. What is this hard, shiny thing that flies? Sniffler wondered. So much noise it makes, even in the wind. There never was a bird like this that swallows up its food whole! Is it alive inside? Thick, rainy clouds rushed across the wing, obscuring Sniffler's view. Finally, he was close enough to see in through the window. It was high above him, but Sniffler could still make out the profile of a face just before a hand reached up to pull down the shade.
They are alive inside! Sniffler realized. They must not live! I must tear open the belly of this thing now!
Sniffler walked to the place where the wing and the cabin joined. Releasing his right foot, he placed it up onto the cabin and dug in his claws. Then he did the same with his left foot and hind feet. Slowly he crawled up the side of the plane, leaving the same trail of punctures in the fuselage. It was almost two yards up to the bottom edge of the first window. Sniffler peered in. The shade was closed. Sniffler crawled back toward the next window. Inside a woman slept with her head on a small pillow.
Sniffler inched his way back along the cabin, clinging to the side. Sniffler's body vibrated as he stuck out perpendicular to the plane. The slipstream of air that ran along the fuselage tore at him, stretching his legs and ankles, threatening to hurl him out into the clouds.
As Sniffler reached the next window, a tremendous blast of air shook the plane. Tony, Fred and Ginger were jolted and slammed back into their seats. Fred fidgeted and clutched Teddy. He turned and looked toward the window.
"Gingerrrr!" Fred was trying to scream, but only a dry gurgle came out. "Ggggginnnngerrrr!
Teddy, who was being squished against the armrest of the seat by Fred's elbow, looked up at Fred's face. The boy's eyes were open very wide, and his mouth was open even wider.
"Now what?" Ginger said with annoyance.
Fred didn't' answer. He just continued to stare toward the window in terror.
First Ginger, then Teddy followed Fred's gaze.
"Oh, no!" Teddy said aloud. He was so shocked that he didn't even consider the idea that someone else might hear. "They've found us!"
Dunkey and Tony turned to look.
Staring in through the window was the Sniffler's deformed face. His pug nostrils were flattened against the window. The flames from his eyes steamed and scorched the glass. Drool slithered across the window in the rain.
They are mine! thought Sniffler in a fury of revenge. He raised a clawed
foot and smashed through the outer layer of the window.
