The Boy with 17 Senses (10 page)

“What?” Fiona called from behind the counter.

“I saw a rat scurry over there.”

“I'm on the phone, Uncle Gunther.”

“Just tell me where you left the fumigator—the foamy one. Hurry!”

“Hold on, I'm on the phone.”

“Fiona! Find the foam fumigator!” the giant bellowed. “Hey, that's alliteration, you know.”

Fiona appeared behind the counter. “I know what alliteration is, Uncle Gunther.”

“Fiona, find the foam fumigator,” Gunther repeated. “Fee-fi-fo-fum. HA!”

“You can't use that stuff again,” Fiona said. “It leaves a stinky film over everything. It'll scare away the customers.”

“So do rats!” Gunther shouted. “Where is it?”

“You put it on the high shelf, remember? I can't reach it.”

“Fine.” Gunther disappeared from Jaq's view.

Fiona came around the counter and got down on her hands and knees. She peered under tables and behind chairs. She was coming closer. Jaq pressed himself as flat as he could behind the pole, but she was going to find him. She would see the bright white bird and find him. He looked for a place to run, wondering if he could outrun a giant. Just as he was about to make a dash for the trash receptacle, a hand reached down and closed around him, squeezing him tight.

15

VICTORY IS A GIANT PLASTIC CHICKEN FILLED WITH GLUG

J
aq felt himself raised up, up, up in the air until he was face-to-face with the girl giant. She examined him with eyes that seemed as big as his head. Jaq was sure that she was going to eat him. “You're back! I knew you'd come back,” she said. He felt himself turned around in her grasp. “Wait—you're not Plenthy.”

“Eeep,” Jaq squeaked.

“You're younger,” she said. “And so skinny. Aww, you're just a kid.”

“Eeep.”

“FEE-FI-FO-FUM!” the man giant roared. “Fiona! I can't find it!” Jaq felt the ground rumble as the man giant searched behind the long counter. Metal smashed against metal. Jaq shook like the number 25, which is a very cowardly number.

Fiona looked at Jaq. “Where's Plenthy? I was beginning to think I'd just imagined him.”

“Arp,” Jaq said. “Urp.”

“Hey, relax,” Fiona said. “I won't hurt you. I'm just excited, I guess. When I told my mom I'd met a tiny little alien, she said I was making it up. Like I haven't heard
that
before. And then Plenthy disappeared, and I thought,
Maybe I
am
crazy
. But you're here now. I can show you to Mom, and then at least she'll know I was telling the truth.”

Jaq's head shook no while his mouth said, “Nerp.”

“You're shaking like a leaf.”

“Home.”

“You want to go home?”

Jaq nodded.

“Well, all right, little fella, I'll take you to your hidey-hole. Hey, you grabbed the plastic chicken. Do you want that?”

Jaq nodded.

“I don't care if you take it. My step-uncle Gunther is the worst.” She wiped her eyes. “I hate him so much.”

Jaq pointed to the half-eaten salty stick.

“You want some fries, too?”

Jaq nodded.

“Here, have some that haven't been on the floor.”

Jaq held his backpack open, and Fiona filled it with fries. Then she scooped up the plastic bird. Jaq was relieved that she hadn't noticed Bonip clinging to the bird's legs. She unlocked the front door and walked out of the restaurant and across the open area, and placed Jaq on the edge of the indoor garden. “This is where Plenthy always went after exploring in the mall. Do you know him?”

Jaq shook his head. She was so big. Terrifyingly big. Even though she sounded nice, there was no getting around that bigness.

“You're still scared, aren't you?” Fiona asked.

Jaq nodded. She handed him the bird and smiled. “Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you.”

Jaq smiled.

Fiona smiled back. “What's your name?”

“Jaq,” he said. “I'm Jaq.”

“FIONA!” The man giant had spotted her. He was coming toward them.

“Go!” Fiona said. “But come back and visit again, okay?”

Jaq, still stunned, managed to say, “Maybe?”

“I'll keep an eye out for you. Be careful next time. Bye!”

Jaq rushed into the bushes and disappeared.

Squish! Yank! Spin!
They zipped through the wormhole and popped back out in the cave behind the waterfall. The glow from the wormhole faintly lit the space. Jaq stumbled forward, dropping the huge bird. What did she call it? A plastic chicken? He fell to his knees and kissed the ground.

“Home,” he said. “We're home. And safe.”

Bonip lay beside him, completely still.

“Are you okay, Bonip?” he asked.

Bonip nodded. His belly was hugely distended. “But I still feel sick.”

Oh, the relief to be back on Yipsmix! Jaq's head immediately felt clear and sharp and focused. Unfortunately, the first thought that came to him was that he hadn't even tried to find that Plenthy fellow who needed help. He'd just grabbed the glug and left.

“That was really scary!” he said to Bonip, but he was really saying it to himself. It had been scary, and there wasn't anything more he could do—or was there? The girl giant knew Plenthy. She probably had a clue to his whereabouts.
Maybe Jaq should go back and ask her. He looked at Bonip, still unmoving. If the little wipper was injured, maybe Jaq should take him home. Yes, that was what he should do. He would take Bonip home and then think about going back for Plenthy.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Bonip burped. “So full. Arg.”

“We have to get out of here,” Jaq said. Just being next to the wormhole was making him nervous, like it might suck him back in. He glanced at it again. Was it dimmer than when he first went through? The electric shimmer of the wormhole seemed a bit less charged. “Can you lead me past the waterfall again?”

“I'll try. Just plop me on your shoulder.”

They edged slowly out from behind the waterfall and down the path. Soon Jaq was able to walk with his eyes open and fingers in his ears, and then they were far enough away that he could pull them out.

“Bonip, I'm really glad you came with me,” Jaq said. “I never would have gone through that wormhole if it weren't for you. And I would have jumped right back out of there, too. The things we saw! Can you believe it? A land of giants.”

“This
here
is a land of giants,” Bonip replied. “Dummy.”

“You know, with all this glug, I'll be able to buy so much food for my mom and Grandpa. They're going to be so happy. I'll even buy you some worms, Bonip. A whole stinking bucket of worms.”

“Don't talk about food,” Bonip said, rubbing his belly.

“Giant pink wiggly worms.” Jaq started walking down the path. “Squishy, melt-in-your-mouth worms. Meaty, juicy, delicious . . .”

Bonip moaned, then covered his ears.

It was a long walk home, and the day was almost over. The two moons rose over the hill as if they were glaring at the exhausted explorers. Jaq felt like they were the eyes of the sky god Smolders, judging him.
Look at you with your ill-gotten riches
, those eyes seemed to say,
while poor Plenthy is stuck somewhere on that loud and terrifying planet
.

At home, Jaq swung the gate open, and Bonip peeked out of the backpack. “Let me out here,” he said. Jaq lowered him to the ground, and Bonip ran off into the fields without looking back.

Even after his long day, Jaq got home before his mother, who was working longer hours at the hushware factory,
hoping to earn the money they needed for food, now that the fields were dead. She looked so tired when she walked through the door. She just plopped right down in her chair next to Grandpa, who was asleep, and closed her eyes. Jaq got her a footstool and took off her shoes.

“Mom?” he said. “I have something to show you. Remember that key I traded Klingdux for? Well, it had a secret note inside, and a map. I followed the map, and look what I found.”

He pulled out the blue egg. It took two hands to hold it. His mother opened her eyes a crack—she was too tired to open them all the way—but when she saw what Jaq was holding, her eyes went wide.

“It's glug,” Jaq said. “I'm sure it's glug. And there's more inside a giant bird I left outside.”

Jaq's mom gasped. “Where did you find that?”

“Up by the waterfall.” Jaq wasn't sure how much of the story he wanted to share with his mom, so he changed the subject. “Do you think we can sell it?”

His mother stood up and took the egg from Jaq. She held it carefully, turning it to examine every surface. Then she hugged it. “I can hardly believe it. It's fantastic. Oh, Jaq, this could save us!”

“I'll take it to the market tomorrow,” Jaq said.

“This time take your grandfather,” his mom said. “Make sure you get what it's worth.”

They ate a happy dinner of cold crunchy sticks that Jaq had brought back in his backpack. They were slightly covered in wipper hair, but an empty stomach isn't picky.

16

BETRAYAL TASTES LIKE ROTTEN EGGS

T
he next morning, Jaq got up early to walk to the river and get some worms. The river was farther away now, but Jaq didn't mind. He walked, imagining how surprised Bonip was going to be when he found the garden full of worms again. If there was one thing he knew about Bonip, it was that he was always hungry. Jaq smiled, picturing the gratitude on that little wipper's face.

Then he laughed out loud.
I can't believe it! Me, friends with a wipper!

He filled his bucket with worms and walked home, ready
to place them in his small garden of brickleberries and vegetables. (Vegetables weren't so bad if you ate them while your mom read a nice story about minions or a funny poem.) While he walked, he happily dreamed of selling the glug and buying Klingdux back from Tormy Vilcot. Then he'd buy an irrigation system for the fields. After that, maybe he'd have enough left over to buy a fancy hoverbike. It would be amazing to show up at school in style. Kids would want to come over to his house just to ride with him, like they did with Tormy. He'd have lots of friends. It was going to be great.