The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee (12 page)

"Wouldn't Little Lydia love this! Right up her alley," he thought. He realized that with the coming of the electric eel, strange events were bound to take place in headquarters, but what he did not yet know. He put Eely on the list.

EEL:
Eely, an electric eel from the aquarium. A puzzle.

Jimmy McGee had seen that door ajar at the aquarium and had banged it shut when he had zoomed home from 3017 Garden Lane. Eely must have already gotten out and probably had been, through all this wild storm, tossed hither and yon in the brook or some nearby pool. What else might have escaped? Ts! Ts! That careless caretaker of such an important landmark as the aquarium!

Silence had fallen over all the refugees with the advent of the electric eel, and they all awaited another communication writ in lovely letters on this strange creature's back. But Jimmy McGee was used to such phenomena, he himself and then Little Lydia being expert practitioners of this art.

Right away—no time to be lost—he had to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Little Lydia, find her, get her back to Amy. He was certain that someone here had the answer, but who? He had his suspicions.

The only refugee who had not stepped forward to be counted, listed, and inspected by him was Snakey. She was still coiled up tightly in the middle of Jimmy McGee's real and rightful seat. When he became a little tired, he would curl up in it and have a one-two sees' rest!

He gave Snakey a strong poke with his scroll pipe, but there she lay. She would not stir.

"Snakey!" said Jimmy McGee. "Unwind! Say who you are, as the others have. Enter in! Do a snake dance! We are going to have a party soon—when we have something to celebrate— and I hope that will come about very, very f" soon!

No movement on Snakey's part.

Owl said in awe, "She is in a trance."

Everyone gathered around to see a snake in a trance. They had supposed she was a cushion in this fine, generous gentleman's headquarters. Now all eyed Snakey with their bright, beady eyes.

"What a poor sport she is!" said Badger. Others nodded in agreement.

No one knew why Jimmy McGee wanted Snakey to unwind, but they were on his side. They were all guests in his headquarters!

Filibuster said in disgust, "Voila!"

Snakey didn't care even if she heard. She had her head tucked so deeply inside her pretty coil that it was nowhere to be seen. Jimmy McGee thought that maybe Little Lydia was deep inside Snakey's coil and not inside Snakey, so he went to the top of his throne and peered as far into the coil as he could.

"Bebop, Little Lydia!" said Jimmy McGee.

There was no bebop reply. But suddenly, as though a needle had been stuck in her, Snakey did rouse herself. She unwound just an inch or so, even raised her head, which she swayed round and round while flicking her tongue in and out. She grinned a wide grin.

She was a friendly little snake and a very young one. Though silent, she appeared to be laughing. Everyone there knew that the way most snakes hear was with their tongues, for they have no ears. Jimmy McGee thought she might never have heard him urge her to unwind, this being the first time she had even raised her head. She must have gotten the message from some other source!

Little Lydia! Jimmy McGee was certain now that she must be inside Snakey.

Snakey observed everybody curiously with her beady eyes and then pulled her head back down inside her coil. So that was the end of what anyone could see of Snakey right now.

It seemed cozy and peaceful inside headquarters. Now and then Eely made things brighter by flashing a word on his shining back in a strange and foreign language. Maybe he was giving the news or telling about life in the aquarium? The refugees, scattered here and there, found the lights pretty anyway.

Outside, the storm was beginning to abate somewhat. Soon it might end and the guests depart. Jimmy McGee just had to find Little Lydia before the refugees went away.

He said, "Now we know who everybody is. Now the fun part of the party will begin. Make music, all of you. Let's have dancing and songs, charades ... whatever."
Fun
was Little Lydia's favorite word. He thought it might bring a response.

"
Fun!
" Jimmy bebopped.

There was again a stir from somewhere inside Snakey.

"Let the party begin! Let the one who first took refuge here lead off. Who
was
the first? Eh?"

"Who-oo-oo was the first?" echoed Owl.

Filibuster said, "Voilà!"

Who
had
been the first refugee here?

The refugees eyed one another. Some wanted to have been the first and so would lead the dance. Others, the shy ones, like Rabbit, were glad not to have to lead off, not knowing the steps, though they would try to follow suit. Ms. Red Hen would have loved to lead off, but she could not even pretend to have been the first one in. Everyone knew that wet and flustery, and possibly with the pip, she had blown in later.

Then spoke Owl. All listened carefully, put a paw or a claw behind their ears, not to miss one single wise word.

Said Owl, "I thought that I was the first one here because when I blew in, I did not see one single soul. I flew to this ledge, and I fluffed up my wet feathers." He gave an example of how he had done this. "
Then,
suddenly from way up there, from deep inside that flat ledge and close to the wall, I suppose, there slithered out"—here he gave a dramatic pause, and everyone held his breath—"Snakey! And there she is!" He pointed at her, but she paid no attention, her hearing apparatus tucked down inside her coil.

Owl went on to say more to the breathless assemblage. "She slithered over to that choice rock, where she then coiled herself, looking like a pinwheel on the Fourth of July about to be lighted and go phizzing round and round. That, of course, as you see, did not happen, for there on that choice rock she still is! Therefore, Snakey was first, I second. I am sorry not to have had the honor to give a grand 'Hoo-oot!' when Mr. McGee might clap his hands and say, 'Let the Grand March commence!'" Then this learned Owl added, "By the way, she is a hoop snake. That's why she doesn't have better manners!"

Before Jimmy McGee ever zoomied off to Amy's house, he certainly had noted that Little Lydia was staring at something on the nearby rock with those electric blue eyes of hers. But there was nothing unusual about that. She was always just staring, and it depended on how she was lying. Sometimes one might think she was staring at something special. Maybe she
had
noticed Snakey. Or perhaps Snakey had come in right after he had left and before the rains came and found herself that nice high ledge to rest on, safe from rain and wind.

That was it! She had not been up on that ledge when Jimmy McGee left. He was impressed with Owl's accurate account of Snakey and of her slithering down to his throne. He just must see the whole of Snakey! She must know something very important about the whereabouts of lost Little Lydia! He had a strong suspicion about those whereabouts now.

"Snakey!" coaxed Jimmy McGee. "Please uncoil yourself. Stand up! Owl says you were the first one here. You have the honor to be the leader of the Grand March!"

Jimmy McGee saw that he might as well be talking to a wall. He had to persuade Snakey to raise her head and stick out her little tongue in order to hear him. Maybe help would come as before. He bopped Snakey gently with his small but most powerful bopping pipe and thought he heard a faint "
Fun! Funny fun!
"

That proved it. "Little Lydia is inside of Snakey! I must get her out!" he said to himself.

Again help came from within, for the coil gave a slithery wriggle. Snakey raised her head! "O-o-h, that's fine!" encouraged Jimmy McGee. Then before Snakey's head and her hearing apparatus could tuck itself back in the coil, Jimmy McGee said, "An honor is being bestowed upon you! Unwind completely! You are to be the leader of the Grand March of the Refugees!

"Do your pretty snake dance! Owl says you are a hoop snake! What a distinction! You probably have many talents. But all the refugees are watching you ... their leader! Everyone will do some special thing, but I imagine you will outshine them all!"

All the refugees gathered around and fastened their eyes on Snakey. Would she unwind? If she did, they could see how long she was. If she were very long, they would make haste back to their own ledge and watch, not dance.

Snakey did not unwind, but she did raise her head a little higher.

"Ah!" said Jimmy McGee. "That's great." He gave his own head a shake to make sure his famous thunder and lightning bolt box was safe and sound up there in his stovepipe hat ... to be used only in an emergency.

Snakey unwound a little more. She raised her head still higher. All could see it very well. It was pretty. She did a graceful dance movement with just her head, turning it almost all the way around and pleasing everybody with her wide grin. She was a friendly little snake. She looked to be laughing, as though she were having fun.

She flicked her little tongue out so that now she could hear and appreciate the applause. She was a very little hoop snake, perhaps only a few months old, and blown away from her family! Or from the zoo.

"My!" said Jimmy McGee. "If dancing with only your head is this pretty, how pretty the whole of you must look in a full-length dance! On the tip of your tail, for instance! Wouldn't we all like to see that! Wouldn't we, people?" He appealed to his guests. "Clap! Clap! Everybody clap!" implored Jimmy McGee.

Filibuster said shrilly, "Voila!" Everyone clapped in his or her own way. "Tweet tweet-tweet," sang Cardinal Bird. Beaver slapped his flat tail on the entrance rock. So did Badger with his not-flat tail. Squirrel threw nuts and bolts around like acorns. They didn't hit anyone—he was careful of that. Raccoon and Squirrel waved their tails.

Too bad that one of Squirrel's nuts had not hit Snakey ... not hard, but just hard enough to keep her awake and be part of Jimmy McGee's "stand-up-straight" plan. But Snakey, still grinning amiably, just tucked her head inside her colorful coil and seemed about to go to sleep again.

Jimmy McGee was exasperated. When would he ever be able to see whether or not she had a bulge inside of her? The Little Lydia bulge and where in Snakey it was? It seemed to him that he heard a murmur inside Snakey like the rumbling of a person's stomach who has indigestion, or ... but, it couldn't be ... a faraway faint rumbling of thunder. He checked his hat. Bolt box still up there safe and sound.

Jimmy McGee decided the party must go on, whether or not they had a spoilsport in their midst. The first refugee, Snakey, who was supposed to lead the Grand March, was tucking her head away again. "Owl," said Jimmy McGee. "You were the second one here. Please be the substitute Grand March leader, the stand-in."

But now Owl did not want the honor. Said he would rather be the Commentator.

In the end it was Badger. He was already a sort of policeman. Jimmy McGee gave him a banging pipe, which he was to bang three times if anyone went on too long with their solo or recitation. So now he was like an orchestra leader, and everybody made music.

Badger was a marvelous march leader. Jimmy McGee felt things would go on splendidly while he put into effect a very great idea he had had. It involved a way to get Snakey to stand up straight and be inspected.

Everyone was busy and had joined in except Snakey, and of course Eely, who couldn't; he
had
to stay in the water. However, he contributed to the festivities in a beautiful fashion. He flashed his electric lights on and off, making the cave very pretty; a musical behind a little waterfall in Mount Rose Park!

"Just like the lights on old Broadway," observed Raccoon, who had spent some time in a park in the area.

"Right," said Owl.

Then everybody wanted to talk or sing or do a dance all at once. But suddenly Ms. Red Hen, as though to cap the climax, gave a loud "cluck-cluck catawcut," stood up, walked around—though no one had said "Encore" to her long speech about the ancestry of Rhode Island reds—hopped up on a ledge across the dance floor from Snakey, and laid an egg! A hurricane egg! Cheers went up from all over headquarters, both for Ms. Red Hen and for Eggy.

All this hullabaloo and shouts of "Hurrah!" aroused even Snakey from her torpor. She eyed Ms. Red Hen's ledge with great interest; and she grinned her wide, wide grin and flicked her tongue to right and to left. Ms. Red Hen covered her hurricane egg completely with her wings and spread herself over it so widely that she was as big as two hens. No one was going to get even a peek at Eggy ... certainly not beady-eyed Snakey!

"Well, now is the time," Jimmy McGee reluctantly decided, "to make use of my thunder and lightning bolt box!" He was not going to open it. It was still in his stovepipe hat and was going to stay there. He was just going to see if, by being very close to it, it would have an electrifying effect on Snakey.

Jimmy McGee placed his stovepipe hat with his treasured bolt box in it on the seat close to Snakey. He said, "Snakey! Now that you have had such a deep slumber midst all the partying, how would you like to do a little hoop-snake dance around and around my elegant stovepipe hat? No one else come close, please," he implored his guests. "She may be shy!"

Snakey flicked her tongue against the stovepipe hat with its precious thunder and lightning bolts inside. The effect on her was terrific! With her "hearing aid" tongue, Snakey heard a strange sound, which was electrifying to her!

She rose up and balanced herself on the stovepipe hat by just the slender tip end of her tail! She swayed and swayed and did the noted snake dance, such as few have ever seen, and all the while she was grinning and flicking her tongue to right and to left.

"Listening to the music," explained Owl. "And," said the wise owl, "she is a hoop snake. Remember that, and do not be surprised at what she may do next!"

The refugees were stunned at the sight of this remarkable performance. They drew back a little, not knowing much about hoop snakes, even such a tiny one as this, and in spite of what Owl said, knew they would be surprised at what Snakey might do next.