He ran to catch up to it. Kermit reached it first. “Hey—what’s it doing?”
Kermit demanded. “It’s turning on the garden hose.”
The hose was coiled against the back of the garage. A long end of it
stretched along the ground.
Evan stopped and stared as the creature perched on top of the nozzle. Its
body began to bounce up and down in a steady rhythm. It stopped squeaking and
began to make loud gulping sounds.
“Is it drinking?” Andy asked.
“Huh? I think it is!” Evan cried, staring in amazement.
The creature bobbed on top of the hose nozzle. Drinking. And as it drank, it
grew.
“It’s inflating—like a water balloon!” Kermit declared.
“We’d better stop it before it gets too big,” Evan warned.
Evan tried to turn the water off, but the spigot wouldn’t budge. “It’s
stuck!” he cried. “I can’t turn it! It’s stuck!”
The creature gulped more water. It was as big as a basketball now, and still
growing.
Evan grabbed it with both hands and tugged. His hands slid off the slippery,
wet body.
The creature was as big as a beach ball.
“Help me!” Evan cried, grabbing the creature again. “We’ve got to pull it off
the hose.”
He gave a hard tug. But the gulping creature held on to the hose.
Andy stepped up beside Evan. They both wrapped their arms around the
inflating creature and struggled to pull it loose.
“It—it’s attached itself!” Evan gasped.
The creature bulged, bigger, bigger, until Evan and Andy couldn’t get their
arms around it.
“Now what?” Evan groaned.
And the creature exploded.
Evan heard a deafening
POP.
A wave of cold water and slime hurtled
over him, knocking him over.
Evan landed in a sitting position.
“Ohhhhh.” He let out a groan as he wiped the thick blanket of slime off his
eyes and face.
“Sick,” he heard Andy mutter.
He turned and saw that Kermit and Andy were also drenched. Thick gobs of
slime clung to Kermit’s glasses. Andy’s hair was soaked, matted flat on her
head.
“Sick,” Andy repeated, staring down at her slime-covered hands. “Oh, yuck.
This is
sick
.”
Evan wiped more goo from his eyes. Then he turned to where the creature had
stood—and gasped in shock. “Oh, noooo!” he cried. “Am I
seeing
things?”
Two
blue creatures bobbed beside the garage.
Two creatures about the size of chipmunks.
Squeaking softly, they grinned at Evan, Kermit, and Andy. Their big black
eyes rolled in their heads.
“It
multiplied
!” Kermit exclaimed.
Evan swallowed hard. He scooped a gob of slime off his shoulder. “I don’t
like this,” he murmured. “I don’t like this one bit.”
“But they’re so cute!” Andy protested.
Evan shivered. The night air suddenly felt much colder. He turned to the
house. It was covered in darkness.
What if Aunt Dee wakes up and catches us out here? he wondered. I’ll be in
major trouble. My baby-sitting job will be over. No sleepaway camp…
“It’s getting late,” he told them. “We’ve got to go in.”
“But we can’t just leave these little guys out here!” Andy protested.
Evan sighed. He knew Andy was right. “Okay,” he agreed, “let’s round them up
quickly. We’ll get a bag or a bucket or something.”
The two blue blobs began bouncing in different directions.
“No! Don’t let them get away!” Evan cried. “If they split up, we’ll never
catch them.”
“I have an idea,” Kermit said. He darted across the grass and picked up the
garden hose. He turned the nozzle, and a hard spray shot out.
“I’ll keep them against the back of the garage,” he announced. “You go find
something to put them in.”
Evan watched as Kermit raised the hose and aimed the spray at the two
creatures.
The hard spray sent them both flying against the garage wall.
“It’s working!” Kermit cried. “I’ve trapped them!”
He kept the spray on them. The water pushed them back, pressing the two
creatures against the garage.
“Hurry—!” Kermit cried.
But Evan hesitated. He watched as the two creatures opened their mouths wide.
Wider. And began to gulp.
“Kermit—turn off the hose!” Evan shouted. “It’s a bad idea. They’re
drinking
it!”
As the stream of water shot into their gaping mouths, the creatures inflated
rapidly. They gulped the water hungrily, blowing up bigger and bigger.
“Kermit—shut off the hose!” Evan ordered.
Too late.
Another loud explosion. Another burst of water and slime.
And now Evan stared across the lawn at FOUR blue blobs!
Startled, Kermit dropped the hose. Water shot across the lawn.
Evan dove for the garage and frantically turned the water spigot. The water
dribbled to a stop.
But the four blue creatures were already lapping up water from the grass. And
growing bigger.
“We have to stop them,” Evan gasped. “We have to pick them up before they
explode again.”
He and Andy ran together, frantically reaching down to grab two of them. But
Andy stopped suddenly—and Evan ran right into her.
“Whoa!” he cried. “Why did you stop?”
“Look at them.” Andy pointed.
Evan gazed down at the bobbing creatures. They were lapping the night dew off
the grass. “What about them?” he asked impatiently.
“These four look different,” Andy replied. “Check out their faces. They’re
not smiling.”
“Who cares?” Evan shrieked. “They’re
drinking!
Why do we care if
they’re smiling or not? Do we want
eight
of them? No! So let’s get them!”
Evan leaped forward and grabbed one in each hand. One blue blob slipped out
and bounced away, squeaking loudly.
Evan wrapped both hands around the other one, determined to hold it tight.
“Get a bucket!” he told Andy. “Or a garbage bag or something!”
Then Evan let out a scream as a sharp jolt of pain shot through his arm.
He looked down. The blue creature had clamped its jaws around his wrist.
“H-help!” Evan stammered. “Owwwww! It—it’s
biting
me! It’s biting my
hand off!”
Evan tugged at the creature with his free hand. “Help me! Ow! It—it’s
sucking my skin!” he wailed.
Kermit and Andy dove to his side. They both grabbed at the wet blue blob.
Andy’s hands slipped off, and she stumbled backwards.
But Kermit held on, held on with both hands. And tugged. Tugged until they
all heard a loud
POP.
Kermit pulled the creature off and tossed it across the yard.
Evan rubbed his arm. “It was sucking my skin,” he moaned. “Sucking the water
out, I guess.”
Kermit started running to the house. “I’m telling Mom,” he cried. “This is
too dangerous!”
“No!” Evan grabbed Kermit around the waist. “I can’t get in any more trouble
with your mom. Let’s get them all rounded up first. If we don’t, there will be
hundreds
of them!”
Evan turned to Andy. Her teeth were chattering. “This is getting scary,” she murmured. “Listen to them.”
The blue blobs weren’t grinning anymore. Low growls came out of their
scowling mouths.
“They were so cute,” Andy said softly. “But now they’re turning mean.”
Two of the creatures were rolling in the grass, sucking up moisture. Two
others were bouncing toward the garden hose.
Evan turned away. He glanced quickly to the house. “Where is Kermit?” he
asked.
Andy shrugged. “Did he go inside to tell his mother?”
“I hope not,” Evan moaned. “I’m going to be in such bad trouble!”
The blue blobs were inflating, getting ready to explode and multiply.
“I’m
already
in big trouble,” Evan told himself. He started to the
house. But halfway there, he saw Kermit running from the garage.
“I’ll catch them!” Kermit cried. He waved a long-handled net in the air. Evan
recognized it—the net Kermit used to collect butterflies.
Kermit ran across the grass, swinging the net.
Evan heard a loud, wet explosion. His eyes swept over the dark lawn. How many
were there now?
Eight?
Yes.
His throat tightened in panic.
We can’t catch them all!
he thought.
Kermit lowered the net to the grass. Swung hard. And captured one of the blue
blobs.
It uttered a sharp growl. The net bounced and shook at the end of its pole.
“Got one! Where do I dump it?” Kermit called excitedly.
Evan spotted a bucket at the side of the garage. He ran across the grass
toward it, waving to Kermit to follow him.
Kermit saw the bucket too. He began to lower the net into it. “In you go!” he
cried.
But they both heard a ripping sound.
The creature hurtled out from the net—and bounced away.
“He—he chewed through the net!” Kermit exclaimed. He tossed the net aside.
Evan picked up the bucket and chased after the bouncing creature. “Just pick
them up and toss them in,” he cried. “If we can keep them from drinking, they
won’t multiply.”
Andy dove for one. It slipped out of her hands. “We need gloves,” she
suggested. “We could hold them better if—”
“We don’t have time to find gloves!” Evan cried. “If we don’t catch them
fast, there will be a
hundred
of them!”
“But what if they grab on to you?” Andy cried. “What if they start sucking
your skin?”
Evan didn’t know how to answer that question. He swallowed hard. “Just be
careful,” he told her.
Hearing low grunts, he raised his eyes to Aunt Dee’s flower garden. “Oh,
noooo!” he moaned.
“Mom’s flowers!” Kermit cried.
Three or four of the creatures were sucking the water from the flowers. The
blobs were already huge, ready to explode. A wide path of flowers lay dead and
wilted behind them.
Kermit’s mother took such pride in her flower garden; she struggled to keep
it blooming all through the winter. And now it’s a mess, Evan saw.
And she’s going to blame me.
“Get them!” he shouted. “Get them out of the flowers!”
But he heard a muffled scream. And spun around.
“Help me… help…” Andy struggled as a big blue blob wrapped around her
face.
It pulsed and throbbed.
She hit it with both fists. Pounded it.
She dropped to her knees, struggling to remove it.
Evan froze in horror as the creature grunted and growled, spreading wetly
over Andy’s face.
“Help…” she moaned. “Can’t breathe… can’t breathe…”
Evan gasped in horror as Andy struggled with the blue creature. She pounded
it with her fists. Pulled at its slippery skin. Shoved it with her open palms.
Evan took a deep breath. Ran over to her. And grasped the creature in both
hands.
It’s so slippery and cold! he thought.
He dug his fingers into its wet flesh, tightening his grip.
Then he heaved up with all his strength.
The creature lifted off Andy’s face with a loud
POP.
Evan lost his
balance and nearly fell.
The blob slipped out of his hands, bounced over the grass, and landed in a
large puddle near the driveway.
“Ohhhhhh, sick!” Andy moaned. She wiped thick slime off her face. Still on
her knees, her whole body trembled.
Evan raised his eyes to the blob. Facedown, it gulped the puddle noisily. Its shimmery blue body bulged bigger, bigger…
Until it exploded—sending a wave of water and slime over Evan and Andy.
Evan staggered back as the cold gunk washed over him.
Wiping it off his eyes, he helped Andy to her feet.
“The flowers!” Kermit cried. “They’ve ruined them all!”
Evan turned to the garden. In time to see two more inflated blue blobs
explode into four.
The four new blobs bounced up and down furiously, gnashing their pointed
teeth.
“The new ones have teeth!” Andy declared. “Each time they explode, they get
meaner!”
“I’ve had enough of this!” Evan exclaimed. He grabbed a shovel on the ground
beside the flower garden. “Kermit, Andy—hurry! Get big trash bags!”
Kermit darted into the garage. A few seconds later, he came out carrying two
plastic trash bags. He handed one to Andy. They swung them open and ran to catch
up with Evan.
“Let’s get these guys!” Evan declared.
He lowered the shovel blade to the ground and scooped up a blue blob.
Andy held out her trash bag. Evan dropped the creature into the bag. It
plopped in heavily. Andy gripped the top of the bag and held on.
Working feverishly, Evan scooped up another one and dropped it into Andy’s
bag.
Another explosion sent a wave of slime flying. Evan ducked under it—and
caught
two
blue blobs on his shovel blade. With a groan, he swung the
blade hard into Kermit’s trash bag.
In minutes, the two trash bags bulged.
“Only a few left,” Evan said, catching his breath. Despite the cool night
air, sweat poured down his forehead.
Beside the garage, two creatures gulped water hungrily from a puddle on the
grass. Another creature bounced over the wilted flower garden, uttering low,
angry growls.
“These guys are trying to get out,” Kermit complained. He had hoisted his bag
over his slender shoulder.
The bag throbbed. Inside it, the creatures grunted and growled.
“What are we going to do with these bags?” Andy demanded. “These blue things
are
alive!
We can’t just throw them in trash cans.”
“They wouldn’t fit, anyway,” Kermit said.
Evan wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. “Let’s get them
all collected first,” he sighed. “Then we can decide what to do.”
It took several minutes to round up the final three. They kept bouncing away
and sliding off the shovel.