Fly Frenzy (6 page)

Josh had just managed to slither out of the giant booger. He was edging away over the back of the sofa when he heard Danny scream. He could only just hear it over Mrs. Sharpe. She was still sneezing and gasping and blowing her nose noisily. Josh peered down from the top of the sofa and saw a terrifying sight.

A huge hairy spider was flipping Danny over and over with its legs and wrapping him up in silk. Danny was struggling hard. But he was no match for the spider. A female, judging by her size and skinny palps, thought Josh.

“Look!” he shouted down. “This is all a mistake! He's not actually a fly at all, and neither am I!” The spider paused, looked up at Josh, and narrowed all eight eyes. Then she came running for him, obviously wanting him for dessert.

“Fly away!” called up Danny, in a rather muffled way. Several bands of silk were across his face. Josh did, whizzing up out of reach. Then the spider scuttled back down to her main course.

“It's all right, Danny,” yelled down Josh, hovering above. “She won't kill you right away . . . she'll just . . . um . . . bite you . . . a bit . . . ”

“A bit?” squawked Danny.

“Yeah . . . and paralyze you with her venom . . . and . . . ”

“And?” mumbled Danny, through a mouthful of silk. “And what?”

“Make you runny before eating you.”

“Well—thanks for that!” called back Danny. “Knowing exactly what to expect makes me feel so much better!”

“Don't worry—I'll rescue you!” called back Josh.

“Will you?” asked Danny. The lady spider lowered her brown and grey speckly face toward him. She slid a pair of fat fangs out of her mouthparts.

“No,” admitted Josh.

Danny shut his eyes.

“But they will!” Josh yelled.

There was a crunching noise.

Danny opened his eyes just in time to see the spider's last leg disappearing into the furry face of . . .

“SCRATCH!” he yelled, joyfully. “SNIFF!” he added, just as joyfully. Another furry face appeared. Two giant brown rats were now peering at him with great concern. The last time he and Josh had met Scratch and Sniff, the rats had saved their lives. It looked as if it was becoming a habit!

“Careful now,” said Scratch. “It's pretty delicate work, picking silk off a fly without picking the legs off with it. Normally we just eat flies still wrapped.”

Danny hiccuped in fright. “Oh, don't be silly—I'm teasing you,” laughed Scratch. “We don't eat flies. We and flies have a bond! Humans hate 'em as much as us! And all rats and flies do is tidy things up, you know. Clear up the gooey stuff that you don't want lying around. Nah. We get along all right, rats and flies. Want me to get a swarm together and have them attack that Petty Potts for you? Ow—this stuff is sticky!”

“Oh, move over! Let me!” said his wife. Sniff leaned over. She carefully began to unwind the silk with her delicate, long-nailed fingers.

Josh landed next to them. “You gobbled that spider in one munch!” he marveled. “I thought you two said you never ate spiders . . . the last time we met.”

“Well, dear,” said Sniff, still carefully unraveling Danny. “We were being polite. You were both spiders yourselves at the time.”

“Don't really like 'em much,” said Scratch. He picked a bit of thorax out of his teeth with a cough. “But can't have one of 'em eating an old friend, can we?”

“What are you both doing here?” asked Josh.

“Oh, just doing our rounds, love,” said Sniff.

“Always worth popping in when she's making cakes. We heard a bit of a to-do in here. We recognized your voices!”

“Thank you so much!” sighed Josh. “I thought Danny was done for this time.”

“Well, he will be, if you hang around here much longer,” said Scratch. He cast his beady eyes around the dark cave behind the sofa. “Plenty more spiders where that one came from. How come you let that mad scientist catch you and spray you again?”

“We didn't—I mean—we decided to spray ourselves, this time,” said Danny. He got back up on his six feet and carefully flexed his wings.

“You must be stark-staring bonkers,” said Sniff. She shook her head with a quiver of whiskers. “You nearly got eaten last time. And here you are nearly getting eaten again! Didn't you learn your lesson?”

Danny and Josh quickly explained their mission.

“So,” said Scratch, “let me get this straight. You let Petty Potts turn you into flies so you could rescue some bits of twig for your mom?”

“Well . . . sort of,” said Josh. He had to admit that it now seemed like a fairly silly idea. “We wanted to find out if they cut off Mom's birds. Now we know Tarquin cut the birds off. And now we've found them here, Mom might still be able to wire the twigs back on again if we can get them back.”

“What—those bits of twigs that they're picking up and pulling apart now?” checked Scratch.

“NO!” shouted Josh and Danny, together.

“You've got to stop them! Please!” begged Josh. “We're too tiny to make any difference! Can you both create a distraction?”

Scratch and Sniff looked at each other, shrugged, and then ran out across the carpet.

“Eeeeek, eeeeek,” said Scratch in a rather bored voice. Mrs. Sharpe whirled around, looked down, and began to shriek with horror. “Eee-eek. Look at me. I might be carrying the plague . . . ”

He and his wife disappeared into the hallway, calling back, “Come on! Eeeeeek! Chase us!”

“How many times must I tell you,” they heard Sniff scold him, “not to keep bringing up the plague?”

With much squealing and hand flapping, Mrs. Sharpe and Tarquin ran out after them.

Josh and Danny grinned at each other. Then they flew up away from the dusty, dark cave behind the sofa. From high up on the ceiling, they could see the hedge birds still lying on the floor. Only one of them had lost a wing.

“Let's fly back and get Petty to debug us. Then bring Mom around here fast to confront them before they have time to destroy the evidence!” said Danny.

“OK,” said Josh. “If we can ever get Mom to believe us.”

Danny zoomed across the room and out into the hallway. But Josh suddenly felt rather peculiar and heavy. One moment he was in the air, about to fly after his twin brother—the next . . .

Josh found himself face down on the swirly red carpet. He had just changed back into a boy! He sprang up and opened his mouth to shout to Danny. Then he realized that he couldn't. He was in Mrs. Sharpe's living room! She and Tarquin were just outside in the hall squawking about Scratch and Sniff.

“Let's get the poker and the coal tongs from the fire. We can beat them out with those!” shrieked Mrs. Sharpe.

And the living room door was flung open.

Josh hurled himself back behind the sofa—a much tighter fit this time—just as they walked in.

“Ugh! How disgusting!” shuddered Mrs. Sharpe. “We shall have to call in an exterminator. But how can we? The neighbors will see. I will be so humiliated. Imagine—rats! Vermin in my home—my garden!”

Josh stared through a narrow gap between the sofa and the wall. He watched them crouch down by the hedge birds. There was a whimpering noise.