In the Jungle (4 page)

“Hey, Uncle Al!” said Andrew.

“Hiya, Unkie!” said Thudd.

“We’re up a stupid tree, Uncle Al,” said Judy. “You’ve got to get us out of here!”

Uncle Al’s eyebrows went up. “You guys are great climbers,” he said. “I’m surprised you can’t get down by yourselves. But I’ll be right over. Where are you?”

When Uncle Al visited Andrew and Judy by using his Hologram Helper, he could hear them but not see them.

“In the Australian
rain forest
,” said Judy.

“Good golly, Miss Molly!” exclaimed Uncle Al. His eyebrows came together. “How did
that
happen?”

“It’s a long story,” said Andrew. “But—”

“It doesn’t matter how we got here,” Judy interrupted. “All that matters is getting out before we get eaten by beetles or birds or something.”

“The Australian rain forest is a dangerous
place,” said Uncle Al, “but you don’t have to worry about beetles and birds.”

“Um, that’s not exactly true,” said Andrew. “We, uh, got ourselves shrunk by the Goa Constrictor I built to shrink garbage. Now we’re the size of small beetles.”

“Albert Einstein on an egg sandwich!” exclaimed Uncle Al. “You
shrunk
yourselves again?” He shook his head. “I’ll get the whole story later,” he said. “But I need to leave right away so I can get to Australia tonight. Do you have any idea where you are?”

meep …
“Northeast part of Australia,” said Thudd.

“Ah!” said Uncle Al. “The Daintree Rain Forest. Let me think.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I have an idea,” he said.

Uncle Al rubbed his chin. “It would be very hard to find you in the middle of the rain forest,” he said. “But a river runs through it. If you can find a way to travel down the river, it will carry you to a place where I
can
find you.”

“Wowzers!” said Andrew. He pushed a hand into one of his pants pockets. “I have some Umbubble,” he said. “We can use it to float down the river!”

Umbubble was a special bubble gum that Andrew had invented. You could blow it up so big that you could get inside it.

Judy frowned. “We’re surrounded by trees
in this stupid jungle,” she said. “We’ll never be able to see where the river is.”

“What kind of a tree are you in?” asked Uncle Al.

meep …
“Strangler fig,” said Thudd.

“Great!” said Uncle Al. “They’re usually very tall. Climb to the top of the tree. You’ll probably be able to see the river from there. Note the direction, climb down the tree, and hike to the river.”

Judy groaned. “Climb up the tree! Climb down the tree! Hike to the river! There’s dangerous stuff in these trees. And who knows what awful things are on the ground and in the river.”

Uncle Al wasn’t smiling now. “You guys have done things that no one else has ever done,” he said. “You can do this. Keep your eyes open and be very careful.”

“How will you find us on the river, Uncle Al?” asked Andrew.

“I have to talk fast,” said Uncle Al. “The batteries on my Hologram Helper are running out. Listen closely.

“On the edge of the rain forest, there’s a village,” said Uncle Al. “You’ll see the lights. The river is very narrow there. I’ll string a fine net across the river and catch you.”

“But how will you even know you caught us?” asked Judy. “We’re so small, and it will be dark by then. You’ll never find us.”

meep …
“Got idea, Unkie!” squeaked Thudd.

“What is it, Thudd?” asked Uncle Al.

meep …
“Lotsa rain-forest stuff glow in dark,” said Thudd. “Bugs, caterpillars, worms, mushrooms got bioluminescence. Mean ‘living light.’”

A smile stretched across Uncle Al’s face. “Brilliant, Thudd!” he said. His voice was beginning to sound far away. “Ghost mushrooms! They glow so brightly, you can read by
their light. They’re easy to find on the forest floor.”

Uncle Al’s voice was so soft that Andrew and Judy could barely hear him. His hologram was fading.

“Uncle Al, you’re disappearing!” said Judy.

Uncle Al raised his eyebrows. His lips moved faster, but it sounded as though he were mumbling underwater.

“Uncle Al!” shouted Judy. “Come back!”

But with a pop and wiggle, he disappeared.

Andrew looked at Judy and shrugged. “Guess we’d better get climbing,” he said.

Judy glanced up and shook her head. “The top of the tree is so high, we can’t even see it,” she said.

“It’ll be easy to climb up,” said Andrew. “The bark is rough. And we can grab on to the ferns and mosses.”

Judy cocked her head. “And what about the weird things that want to eat us?” she said.

meep …
“Peppermint smell keep some animals away … maybe,” said Thudd.

Judy rolled her eyes. “
Thank
you, Thudd.”

Andrew grabbed the stem of a fern frond, got a foothold in the tree bark, and began climbing.

“Come on!” he called down to Judy. “It’s getting darker. It must be way past noon by now. We’ve got to meet Uncle Al tonight.”

“Humph,” Judy grumbled. But she grabbed a long gray strand of moss and started up.

Climbing was hard. Soon Andrew and Judy were huffing and puffing. Sweat dripped down their foreheads and into their eyes. Their arms and legs got scraped by the tree bark. They were too out of breath to talk.

A stream of green ants trickled down the tree. Andrew would have liked more of that fizzy, limy stuff, but there was no time for that.

meep …
“Look!” squeaked Thudd, pointing up. “Top of the tree close, close, close!”

“Wowzers schnauzers!” cheered Andrew. “We can get there in half an hour!”

Judy stopped and pushed strands of hair away from her sweaty face. “I need a break,” she said.

She crept from the tree trunk to a branch and flopped down on an orange fungus.

“Just for a couple of minutes,” said Andrew, sitting down beside her.

Suddenly something dropped over them. A net!

“YAAAAAH!” hollered Judy.

“Holy moly!” said Andrew.

He tried to pull the net off. But the more he struggled, the more tangled he got.

Eek!
squeaked Thudd. “Net-throwing spider! Spider weave net from spider silk. Watch for prey. Throw net on top of prey. Then spider bite prey with poison fangs! Gotta get out
fast, fast, fast
!”

“I’m
trying
!” said Judy, pulling at the spider silk. It stretched like chewing gum. The more they pulled, the more net there was to trap them.

“Noop! Noop! Noop!” squeaked Thudd. “Not pull web. Gotta
eat
web! Saliva in mouth break web!”

Judy’s mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide.

meep … “EAT! EAT! EAT!”
screeched Thudd.

Andrew heard a rustle behind him. He spun around.

A leaf quivered. In the shadow under the leaf, Andrew spied a hairy head. Below its two enormous, round black eyes were two gigantic, hairy fangs.

“YAAARGH!” cried Andrew. His legs felt like pudding.

Andrew turned and began stuffing globs of spider net into his mouth.
Tastes kind of like milk
, he thought.

Judy was eating frantically, too. Her cheeks bulged with spiderweb.

Suddenly Andrew felt something brush
his back. The hairy brown fangs of the spider were rising up behind him!

Andrew froze. Judy grabbed his arm and shoved him through the hole they’d eaten in the net.

Broken strands of silk caught on their
clothes, but they ripped themselves away. They were free!

But the spider tore through its net. It was scuttling after them!

“Ack!” screamed Judy as a claw scratched her scalp.

They stumbled as fast as they could over the rough bark of the tree branch. Andrew looked frantically for a place to hide from the spider.

meep …
“Look, Drewd!” Thudd squeaked. He was pointing to a group of tall, thick green towers sticking up from the branch.

Hanging down from one of the towers was a star-shaped, red-and-white-striped flower. It was as big as a person’s foot.

Andrew and Judy ducked under ferns and mosses as they scrambled toward the strange-looking thing.

“Ugh!” said Judy breathlessly. “Something stinks!”

“Woofers!” said Andrew. “It’s worse than when we got lost in the garbage! What
is
that thing?”

The closer they got to the strange plant, the worse the smell grew. The giant flower was covered with fuzzy red hairs—and lots of flies.

meep …
“Called dead-horse plant,” said Thudd. “Cuz flower stink like dead thing.

“Smell of dead-horse flower bring flies. Pollen from flower stick to flies. Flies carry pollen to other dead-horse flowers. Then flowers make seeds. Seeds make more baby dead-horse plants.”

meep …
“Hide under dead-horse plant,” said Thudd.

One of the spider’s clawed feet pricked Andrew’s leg.

“YEOW!”
hollered Andrew.

With a burst of energy, he flung himself between the green cactus-like columns of the dead-horse plant.

Suddenly the spider stopped. It scuttled to the monster flower. In a blur of speed, the fangs snatched a fly.

Judy shivered. “That could have been you—
or me!
” she whispered.

meep …
“Spider busy eating fly,” said Thudd. “Drewd and Oody gotta get out now. Gotta go up tree. Gotta find river.”

Slowly, quietly, Andrew and Judy crawled
out from the green columns and away from the spider.