In Uncle Al : In Uncle Al (9780307532572) (2 page)

Andrew Dubble, smaller than a speck of dust, flopped onto his uncle Al’s wrist.

Andrew, his pocket-sized robot friend Thudd, and his thirteen-year-old cousin Judy had just been plucked from an Australian river by their uncle Al. He had come looking for them with a rowboat and a powerful searchlight.

Wowzers schnauzers!
thought Andrew, bouncing on Uncle Al’s skin.
We’re too small to see! And it’s nighttime, too.

During their trip down the river, a shock from an electrical fish had shrunk them from the size of beetles to the size of bacteria.

When Uncle Al had opened their vehicle, the shiny, round Umbubble, they had tumbled out of it.

Ga-nuff … ga-nuff … ga-newww …
Judy snored.

The shock that had made them small had also made Judy snooze.

With one hand, Andrew clutched the collar of Judy’s jacket to keep her from falling off Uncle Al’s wrist and into the river. With his other hand, he clung to one of Uncle Al’s hairs.

Uncle Al shined his searchlight on the river.

Andrew looked up at Uncle Al. It was like looking up at the gigantic head of one of the presidents carved into Mount Rushmore.

Uncle Al’s bushy eyebrows came together like two gigantic caterpillars. His frowning eyes scanned the dark ripples around his boat. “I wonder if they fell out when I opened the Umbubble,” he said to himself.

“Uncle Al!” cried Andrew.

But Andrew’s voice was much too small for Uncle Al to hear.

meep …
“Purple-button time!” came a squeaky voice from Andrew’s pocket. It was Thudd, Andrew’s little silver robot and best friend.

In the middle of Thudd’s chest were three rows of buttons with three buttons in each row. All of the buttons blinked green except for the big purple one in the middle. Pressing this button was the way Andrew, Judy, and Thudd could reach Uncle Al in an emergency.

Thudd pressed his purple button. It blinked three times and went off.

Nyeeeeeeeee …

The sound was close by.
What’s that?
wondered Andrew.

Nyeeeeeeeee …

The sound kept getting louder.

NYEEEEEEEEEE …

The whining was so close and so loud that it hurt Andrew’s tiny ears.

By the glare of the searchlight, Andrew made out something strange just above his head. It looked like a giant, hairy flower bud attached to a long, hairy stem. Andrew’s eyes followed the stem up.

Way above, he glimpsed what was at the end of the stem—a horrible head!

“Yowzers!” he whispered. Two black eyes covered most of the head like a helmet. Long, hairy antennas stuck out from under the eyes.

Eek!
“Mosquito!” squeaked Thudd.

Suddenly the hairy bud snapped open and slammed down over Andrew and Judy!

Eek!
squeaked Thudd. “Mosquito snout! Called proboscis.”

Inside the darkness of the mosquito snout, Andrew and Judy were squashed between two walls. Andrew couldn’t move. He tried to push the walls.

“Youch!” he said. The walls had razor-sharp edges, like blades.

The snout began to shove Andrew and Judy along Uncle Al’s skin.

Eek!
squeaked Thudd. “Mosquito look for good place to bite! Look for tiny blood tube called capillary. Near top of skin.”

“What if Uncle Al swats the mosquito?” asked Andrew. “He’ll crush us, too.”

meep …
“Mosquito light, light, light!” said Thudd. “Human not feel anything yet.”

Ga-nufff … ga-nufff … ga-newww …
snored Judy. She squirmed as though she were having a bad dream.

“Androoooo?” she said sleepily.

“Jeepers creepers!” said Andrew. “You’ve been asleep for a long time!”

Judy rubbed her eyes. “Where are we?” she asked. “Where’s Uncle Al?”

“Um,” Andrew began. But just then, the blades inside the snout started sawing into Uncle Al’s skin!

Andrew sniffed a coppery smell.
Blood!
he thought.

Eek!
“Mosquito snout gonna push Drewd and Oody inside Uncle Al!” squeaked Thudd. “Drewd got Schnozzle?”

Andrew shoved a hand into one of his pants pockets. He quickly pulled out two pairs of black goggles with noses attached and mustaches underneath. He handed one pair to Judy.

“Put on the Schnozzle, Judy!” said Andrew.

Judy pushed her face into Andrew’s. “This isn’t
Halloween
, Bug-Brain!” she yelled.

meep …
“Quick! Quick! Quick!” said Thudd.

Andrew shoved the Schnozzle over his nose and hooked the earpieces behind his ears.

The blades of the mosquito’s proboscis were sawing deeper and deeper into Uncle Al’s skin. Andrew and Judy were on the very edge of the hole. One of the blades caught on Andrew’s jacket and dragged him into the hole.

“Yowzers!” yelled Andrew.

“Aaaaaack!” hollered Judy, tumbling in after him.

A blasting spray drove them down and down. Without another scream, Andrew and Judy disappeared beneath Uncle Al’s skin.

Andrew tumbled over and over into warm, dark wetness. He reached for the mini-flashlight that he always kept on his belt loop.

The batteries are just about dead
, he thought.
But I’ll give it a try.

He clicked the switch. The light went on— and it was bright!

Maybe the batteries got recharged when we got shocked by the electrical fish
, he thought.

By the light, Andrew saw he was in a tight, twisty tube. He bounced against rubbery walls as a fast-flowing, chicken-soup-colored river dragged him along.

Uh-oh
, thought Andrew.
We must be in a capillary.

The rushing stream was stuffed with round red things that looked like doughnuts without holes.

The doughnut-y shapes were as big as Andrew. They felt like Jell-O when he was squeezed against them. Andrew and Judy got sandwiched between two of the squishy things.

These must be red blood cells!
thought Andrew.
The guys that carry oxygen from our lungs.

Andrew had been holding his breath as he bumped and tumbled through the tube. He felt he would burst if he didn’t breathe now.

I designed the Schnozzle’s mustache to get oxygen from water
, he thought.
I sure hope it can get oxygen from blood, too.

Andrew took a small breath through the Schnozzle nose.
Yay!
he thought.
The mustache picks up oxygen from blood. I can breathe!

Now let’s see if the thought-phones work.

From a pocket, Andrew pulled two tiny wire spirals and slipped them over Thudd’s antennas.

Thudd! Judy! Can you hear me?
thought Andrew.

“Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” came Thudd’s voice through the Schnozzle’s earpieces.

“You’ve
really
done it this time, Bug-Brain!” came Judy’s voice.

“Super-duper pooper-scooper!” Andrew said in his head. “You
can
hear me!”

All he had to do was think and the
Schnozzle’s earpieces would send out his thoughts. And he could pick up the thoughts of others, too.

As Andrew tumbled through the river of blood, he turned up a tip of his shirt collar and unzipped a secret pocket. He pulled out what looked like a piece of rubber band with a black rubber cup at each end.

It was the Drastic Elastic, one of Uncle Al’s inventions. It could keep anything connected to anything.

Andrew pressed one of the cups against the back of his neck. It stuck. He tossed the other cup to Judy, who was just behind him.

“Shove the Drastic Elastic cup against the back of your neck, Judy,” he said. “It’ll keep us from getting separated. No matter where we are, pulling on the Drastic Elastic will snap us back together.”

Andrew tied Thudd to the Drastic Elastic, too.

“Oh,
great!”
said Judy. “If we ever get out
of Uncle Al, I’m going to invent something that will keep us
apart!

“How on earth did you manage to get us into Uncle Al?”

meep …
“Mosquito squirt us inside,” said Thudd. “Mosquito got two tubes inside snout. One tube squirt spit into bite. Mosquito spit make animal not feel mosquito bite. Then other snout tube suck up blood. Female mosquito need blood for babies. Male mosquitoes not bite.”

“This stuff we’re in doesn’t even look like blood,” said Andrew. “It’s yellow.”

meep …
“Yellow stuff called plasma,” said Thudd. “Plasma kinda like river that carry red blood cells. Plasma carry food to body, too. Carry bad stuff away.”

“How do we get it to carry us out of— Aaack!” Judy hollered. “Something just landed in my hair!”

Andrew felt something plop onto his head, too. Long, twisty spirals dangled over
his eyes like wet pasta. A few of them sped off into Uncle Al’s blood.

meep …
“Bacteria!” squeaked Thudd. “Germs! Can make Unkie sick, sick, sick!”

Suddenly a giant white blob covered with shaggy tentacles squooshed through a slit in the capillary. The blob was bigger than the red blood cells. It squashed Andrew and Judy against the side of the rubbery capillary wall.

“Oh
NOOOOO
!” hollered Judy. “It’s
horrible!”

meep …
“White blood cell,” said Thudd. “Called macrophage. Macrophage mean ‘big eater.’ White blood cell eat up lotsa germs.”

The tentacles swarmed over Andrew in the tight capillary. They were touching his cheeks and tickling his neck. They were tugging off the spaghetti-like bacteria. Tentacles were poking into his nose!

Eek!
squeaked Thudd. “Big-eater cell can tell that Drewd not belong inside Uncle Al! Big eater wanna eat Drewd!”

“Yaargh!” hollered Andrew, struggling to pull tentacles out of his nose.

meep …
“Gotta hide!” said Thudd.

“Hide?” said Andrew. He battled the tentacles fiercely as the blood river swished them along. “There’s nowhere to hide!”

meep …
“Hide inside red blood cell,” said Thudd. “Quick! Quick! Quick!”

Andrew kicked the red blood cell that smooshed against him. It was like hitting a soft balloon.