How I Got My Shrunken Head (3 page)

My mouth dropped open. My breath caught in my chest. Both hands gripped the arms of the seat.

Then I saw the smile on Carolyn’s face. She shook her head, her eyes on Ernesto. “Mark is too smart for you,” she told him. “He’s not going to fall for a dumb joke like that.”

Ernesto laughed. He narrowed his dark eyes at me. “You believed me — right?”

“Ha-ha. No way!” I choked out. My knees were still shaking. “I knew you were kidding,” I lied. “Kind of.”

Carolyn and Ernesto both laughed. “You’re mean,” she told Ernesto.

Ernesto’s eyes flashed. His smile faded. “You’ve got to get used to thinking fast in the jungle,” he warned.

He turned back to the controls. I kept my eyes out the window, watching the island of Baladora sweep beneath us. Broad-winged white birds swooped over the tangled green trees.

A short strip of land had been cleared near the south shore of the island. Beyond it, I could see ocean waves smacking against dark rocks.

The little plane hit hard as we landed — hard enough to make my knees bounce up in the air. We bounced again on the bumpy dirt landing strip. Then we rolled to a stop.

Ernesto cut the engine. He pushed open the cabin door. Then he helped us out of the plane. We had to duck our heads.

Ernesto carried our suitcases out. Carolyn had her small canvas bag. My suitcase was a little larger. He set them down on the landing strip and gave us a short two-fingered salute. Then he climbed back into the little red plane and pulled the door closed behind him.

I shut my eyes as the propellers whirred, showering dust over me. A few seconds later, Ernesto took off. The plane nosed up steeply, just barely making it over the trees at the end of the landing strip.

The plane turned sharply and headed back over the water. Carolyn and I picked up our bags. “Where do we go now?” I asked, squinting in the bright sunlight.

Carolyn pointed. A clearing of tall grass stretched beyond the narrow dirt airstrip. At the edge of the clearing where the trees started, I could see a row of low gray buildings.

“That’s our headquarters,” Carolyn told me. “We built the airstrip right next to it. The rest of the island is jungle. No roads. No other houses. Just wilderness.”

“Do you get cable?” I asked.

She stopped short. Then laughed. I don’t think she expected me to make a joke.

We carried our suitcases toward the low gray buildings. The morning sun was still low in the sky. But the air was already hot and wet. Hundreds of tiny white insects — some kind of gnat — hovered over the tall grass, darting one way, then the other.

I heard shrill buzzing. And somewhere in the distance, the high cry of a bird, followed by a long, sad reply.

Carolyn walked quickly, taking long strides through the tall grass, ignoring the darting white gnats. I jogged to keep up with her.

Sweat ran down my forehead. The back of my neck started to itch.

Why was Carolyn in such a hurry?

“We’re kind of trapped here, right?” I said, studying the low, twisted trees beyond the small headquarters buildings. “I mean, how do we get off the island when we’re finished?”

“We radio for Ernesto,” Carolyn replied, not slowing her pace. “It takes him about an hour to get here from the mainland.”

That made me feel a little better. I scurried through the tall grass, struggling to keep up with Carolyn.

My suitcase began to feel heavy. I wiped sweat from my eyes with my free hand.

We were nearing the headquarters. I expected Aunt Benna to come running out to greet me. But I couldn’t see any sign of anyone.

A radio antenna was perched off to the side. The low buildings were perfectly square. Flat-roofed. They looked like upside-down cartons. Square windows had been cut in each wall.

“What is that stretched over all the windows?” I asked Carolyn.

“Mosquito netting,” she replied. She turned back to me. “Have you ever seen a mosquito as big as your head?”

I laughed. “No.”

“Well, you will.”

I laughed again. She was joking — right?

We stepped up to the first building, the largest in the row. I set down my suitcase, pulled off my baseball cap, and mopped my forehead with my shirtsleeve. Wow. It was hot.

A screen door led into the building. Carolyn held it open for me.

“Aunt Benna!” I cried eagerly. Leaving the suitcase on the ground, I ran inside. “Aunt Benna?”

Sunlight filtered through the netting over the window. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darker light.

I saw a table cluttered with test tubes and other equipment. I saw a bookshelf against a wall, filled with notebooks and books.

“Aunt Benna?”

Then I saw her. Wearing a white lab coat. Standing with her back to me, at a sink against the wall.

She turned, wiping her hands on a towel.

No.

Not Aunt Benna.

A man. A white-haired man in a white lab coat.

His hair was thick and brushed straight back. Even in the dim light, I could see the pale blue of his eyes, blue as the sky. Such strange eyes. They looked like blue glass. Like marbles.

He smiled. Not at me.

He was smiling at Carolyn.

He motioned to me by tilting his head. “Does he have it?” he asked Carolyn. He had a scratchy, hoarse voice.

Carolyn nodded. “Yes. He has it.” I could see that she was breathing hard. Short, shallow breaths.

Was she excited? Nervous?

A smile crossed the man’s face. His blue eyes appeared to twinkle.

“Hi,” I said awkwardly. I felt really confused. What did that question mean? What did I have?

“Where is my aunt Benna?” I asked.

Before he could answer, a girl appeared from the back room. She had straight blond hair and the same pale blue eyes. She was dressed in a white T-shirt and white tennis shorts. She appeared to be about my age.

“This is my daughter, Kareen,” the man said in his hoarse voice, more like a whisper. “I am Dr. Richard Hawlings.” He turned to Kareen. “This is Benna’s nephew, Mark.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Kareen replied sharply, rolling her eyes. She turned to me. “Hey, Mark.”

“Hi,” I replied. Still confused.

Kareen flipped her blond hair back over the shoulders of her T-shirt. “What grade are you in?”

“Sixth,” I told her.

“Me, too. Except I’m not in school this term. I’m in
this
dump.” She frowned at her father.

“Where is my aunt?” I asked Dr. Hawlings. “Is she working or something? I thought she’d be here. You know. When I arrived.”

Dr. Hawlings stared at me with those strange blue eyes. It took him a long time to reply. Finally, he said, “Benna isn’t here.”

“Excuse me?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. It was hard to understand his raspy voice. “Is she … uh … working?”

“We don’t know,” he replied.

Kareen played with a strand of her hair. She twisted it around her finger, staring at me.

Carolyn stepped behind the lab table and leaned her elbows on it. She rested her head in her hands. “Your aunt Benna is missing,” she said.

Her words made my head spin.

They were so unexpected. And she said them so flatly. Without any feeling at all.

“She’s …
missing?”

“She’s been missing for a few weeks,” Kareen said, glancing at her father. “The three of us — we’ve been trying really hard to find her.”

“I — I don’t understand,” I stammered. I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets.

“Your aunt is lost in the jungle,” Dr. Hawlings explained.

“But — Carolyn said —” I started.

Dr. Hawlings raised a hand to silence me. “Your aunt is lost in the jungle, Mark.”

“But — but why didn’t you tell my mom?” I asked, confused.

“We didn’t want to worry her,” Dr. Hawlings replied. “Benna’s your mom’s sister, after all. So Carolyn brought you here because
you
can help us find her.”

“Huh?” My mouth dropped open in shock. “Me? How can I help?”

Dr. Hawlings stepped across the small room toward me. His eyes locked on mine. “You can help us, Mark,” he said in his hoarse whisper. “You can help us find Benna — because you have Jungle Magic.”

“I have
what?”

I stared at Dr. Hawlings. I didn’t know what he was talking about.

Was
Jungle Magic
some kind of computer game? Was it like
Jungle King?

Why did he think I had it?

“You have Jungle Magic,” he repeated, staring back at me with those amazing blue eyes. “Let me explain.”

“Daddy, give Mark a break,” Kareen interrupted. “He’s been flying for a hundred hours. He must be wrecked!”

I shrugged. “Yeah. I’m a little tired.”

“Come sit down,” Carolyn said. She led me over to a tall stool beside the lab table. Then she turned to Kareen. “Do we have any Cokes left?”

Kareen pulled open a small refrigerator against the back wall. “A few,” she replied, bending down to get to the bottom shelf. “Ernesto is supposed to bring another carton on his next flight.”

Kareen brought me a can of Coke. I popped it open and tilted the can to my mouth. The cold liquid felt so good in my hot, dry throat.

Kareen leaned against the table, close to me. “Have you ever been to a jungle before?”

I swallowed more Coke. “No. Not really. But I’ve seen a lot of jungle movies.”

Kareen laughed. “It’s not like in the movies. I mean, there aren’t herds of gazelles and elephants gathering at the water hole. At least, not on Baladora.”

“What animals are on the island?” I asked.

“Mosquitoes, mostly,” Kareen answered.

“There are some beautiful red birds,” Carolyn said. “Called scarlet ibises. You won’t believe their color. Kind of like flamingos, only much brighter.”

Dr. Hawlings had been studying me the whole while. He walked over to the table and dropped down onto a stool across from me.

I held the cold soda can against my hot forehead. Then I lowered it to the table. “Tell me about my aunt Benna,” I said to him.

“Not much to tell,” Dr. Hawlings replied, frowning. “She was studying a new kind of tree snail. Somewhere on this end of the jungle. But one night she didn’t return.”

“We’re very worried about her,” Carolyn said, twisting a strand of hair. She bit her lower lip. “Very worried. We searched and searched. Then we decided you could help us.”

“But how can I help?” I demanded. “I told you — I’ve never been to a jungle.”

“But you have Jungle Magic,” Carolyn replied. “Benna gave it to you. The last time she visited you. We read about it. It’s in Benna’s notebooks over there.”

Carolyn pointed to a stack of black notebooks on the bookshelf against the wall. I gazed at them, thinking hard. I still didn’t understand.

“Aunt Benna gave me some kind of magic?” I asked.

Dr. Hawlings nodded. “Yes, she did. She was afraid the secret might fall into the wrong hands. So she gave it to you.”

“Don’t you remember?” Carolyn asked.

“I was so little,” I told them. “I was only four. I don’t remember. I don’t think she gave me anything.”

“But she
did,”
Carolyn insisted. “We know you have Jungle Magic. We know that you —” “How?” I interrupted. “How do you know I have it?”

“Because you saw the shrunken head glow,” Carolyn replied. “The head will only glow for people who have the magic. We read that in Benna’s notebooks.”

I swallowed hard. My throat suddenly felt dry again. My heart began to race.

“You’re telling me I have some special kind of magic powers?” I asked in a tiny voice. “But I
don’t feel strange or anything. I’ve never done anything magic!”

“You have the magic,” Dr. Hawlings said softly. “The magic is hundreds of years old. It belonged to the Oloyan people. They used to live on this island.”

“They were headshrinkers,” Carolyn added. “Hundreds of years ago. That head I brought you — it was Oloyan. We have uncovered many others.”

“But your aunt uncovered the secret of their ancient magic,” Dr. Hawlings said. “And she gave it to you.”

“You’ve
got
to help us find her!” Kareen declared. “You’ve got to use the magic. We’ve got to find poor Benna — before it’s too late.”

“I — I’ll try,” I told them.

But secretly, I thought,
They’ve made a big mistake.

Maybe they mixed me up with someone else.

I don’t have any Jungle Magic. None at all.

What am I going to do?

I spent the day exploring the edge of the jungle with Kareen. We uncovered some amazing yellow spiders that were nearly as big as my fist. And Kareen showed me a plant that can snap its leaves closed around an insect and keep it trapped for days until the plant has digested it all.

Pretty cool.

We climbed low, smooth-barked trees. We sat in the tree limbs and talked.

Kareen is okay, I think. She’s very serious. She doesn’t laugh a whole lot. And she doesn’t like the jungle at all.

Kareen’s mom died when she was a little kid. She wants to go back to New Jersey and live with her grandmother. But her father won’t let her.

As I talked with her, I kept thinking about Jungle Magic. And I kept thinking about how — whatever it was — I didn’t have it.

Sure, I’ve always liked jungle movies. And jungle books and jungle games. I’ve always thought
jungles are really awesome. But that doesn’t mean I have any special powers or anything.

And now Aunt Benna was missing. And her friends on Baladora were so desperate to find her, they had brought me here.

But what could I do?

What?

As I lay in bed that night, the questions didn’t go away.

I stared up at the low ceiling of the small wooden shack, wide-awake. There were six or seven flat-roofed shacks in a row behind the main building. We each had our own little shack to sleep in.

My little cabin had a narrow bed with a flat, lumpy mattress. A low bedside table where I placed my shrunken head. A small dresser with all the drawers stuck except the bottom one. A narrow closet, just big enough for the clothes I’d brought. And a tiny bathroom in the back.

Through the netting over the open window, I could hear the chirp of insects. And in the distance, I heard a
caww caww cawww.
Some sort of bird cry.

How can I help find Aunt Benna?
I wondered as I stared up at the dark ceiling and listened to the strange sounds.

What can I do?

I tried to remember her. I tried to remember her visit to my house when I was four.

I pictured a short, dark-haired woman. Chubby like me. A round pink face. Intense dark eyes.

I remembered that she talked very fast. She had sort of a chirpy voice, and she always seemed excited. Very enthusiastic.

And I remembered …

Nothing else.

That’s all I could remember about my aunt.

Did she give me Jungle Magic? No. I didn’t remember anything about that.

I mean, how do you give someone
magic?

I kept thinking about it and thinking about it. I struggled to remember more about her visit.

But I couldn’t.

I knew that Carolyn and Dr. Hawlings had made a terrible mistake.
I’ll tell them in the morning,
I decided.
I’ll tell them they got the wrong kid.

A terrible mistake … terrible mistake.
The words repeated in my mind.

I sat up. No way I could get to sleep. My brain wouldn’t let me. I was wide-awake.

I decided to take a walk around the headquarters building. Maybe explore back where the trees grew thick and the jungle started.

I crept to the screen door and peered out. My little cabin stood at the end of the row. I could see the other cabins from my door. All dark. Kareen, Carolyn, and Dr. Hawlings had gone to sleep.

Cawwww cawwwww.
The strange cry repeated in the distance. A soft wind made the tall grass bend and shift. Tree leaves rustled, making a whispering sound.

I was wearing a long, baggy T-shirt pulled down over boxers.
No need to get dressed,
I decided.
No one else is awake. Besides, I’ll just take a very short walk.

I slipped into my sandals. Pushed open the screen door. And stepped outside.

Cawwww cawwwww.
The cry sounded a little closer.

The night air felt hot and wet, nearly as hot as during the day. A heavy dew had fallen, and my sandals slid over the damp, tall grass. The wet grass tickled my feet through the sandals.

I made my way past the silent, dark shacks. To my right, the trees bent and swayed. Black shadows against a purple sky. No moon. No stars tonight.

Maybe taking a walk is a bad idea,
I told myself.
Maybe it’s too dark.

I need a flashlight,
I realized. I remembered Carolyn’s warning earlier when she showed me where I would sleep. “Never go out at night without a flashlight. At night,” she had warned me, “we are not in charge here. At night, this is the creatures’ world.”

The back of the headquarters building loomed ahead of me. I decided to turn around.

But before I could turn, I realized I wasn’t alone.

In the semidarkness, I saw a glint: a pair of eyes staring back at me.

I gasped. A chill ran down my back.

Staring hard through the purple night, I saw another pair of eyes.

And then another and another.

Dark eyes, staring at me without moving, without blinking.

Dark eyes, on top of each other.

I froze. I couldn’t move.

I knew that I was trapped. There were too many of them. Too many.