Anaconda Adventure (5 page)

Petty was worried. Really worried. Josh and Danny might imagine that she was a heartless scientist, obsessed only with her own success, but she really did care about what happened to them. After all … who else was going to help her with her experiments if Josh and Danny got eaten?

Of course, if they were still in anaconda form, it was highly unlikely that anything
would
try to eat them … but a panicky member of the public might stamp on them, or the keeper might catch them and put them in with another constrictor and it might … Petty shuddered, imagining two Josh- and Danny-shaped bumps moving slowly down the body of the huge green anaconda she'd seen in the reptile house. This breed had been known to eat each other—
and
small humans. So, S.W.I.T.C.H.ed or unS.W.I.T.C.H.ed, Josh and Danny could be lunch.

There had been no sign of them in the reptile house, and the keeper, coming out past her as she went in, had not been carrying a bag of captured snakes. So where had Josh and Danny gone? She'd searched for them in the zoo shop, the café, even in the small Chatz TV marquee which was set up near the penguins, recording some kind of wildlife program. Josh would love that! But he wasn't there.

She could see that group of schoolchildren—an expensive girls' school by the look of the straw hats—heading along the path toward the river. She hurried toward them and called out, “Have any of you seen two boys—blond—twins—about your age?”

The girls looked at each other and then back at her. Some of them shrugged and several of them giggled. “I love her hat!” snickered one girl with a shiny fair bob of hair and a superior expression. “It's soooo antique.”

Petty narrowed her eyes at the girl as she patted her battered beanie. “Well, I'd offer to swap it for yours,” she said. “Except your head is far too small. Such a tragedy, an undersized brain!”

“Well! I've never been so insulted!” gasped the girl.

“Really?” said Petty. “I'm surprised nobody's made the effort.”

Another girl, with a cloud of black curls and dark brown eyes, hooted with laughter and gave Petty a little wave as the party was hurried along the path by its two guardian teachers. The laughing girl was walking close to the teachers. They were deep in conversation with each other and paying no attention to her as she turned back to Petty and motioned urgently at her … as if she wanted Petty to follow.

Uncertainly, Petty followed, keeping a short distance from the school party. Then the girl dropped down and started to fiddle with her shoe. Her teachers, calling out to their pupils ahead to make notes of the trees along the river, didn't notice.

Petty caught up, and the girl immediately bounced up on her feet and gave her a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Petty! It's meeee! Charlie!”

“Good gracious!' Petty squinted through her smeary glasses. “So it is! Whatever happened to your hair?”

“Never mind that now,” Charlie said. “We haven't got long! Josh and Danny are OK. I rescued them in my bag. I had to leave them on the school bus, though, hiding.” She waved back toward the zoo parking lot.

“Thank heavens for that!” sighed Petty, turning to go.

“But wait … can't I have just a little S.W.I.T.C.H. spray before you go? Pleeeeease?” Charlie gave Petty the big eyes treatment. “I mean … I did just save Josh's and Danny's lives! Probably!”

“And I thank you very much,” Petty said. “But I don't hand out S.W.I.T.C.H. like candy, you know. Well … I did once, but that was a bad idea …”

“But I'd be ever so careful!” insisted Charlie. “I would never use it in public or …”

“Charlie! You are a first-rate girl, and I would love to get you on the S.W.I.T.C.H. Project,” Petty said. “But I'm not handing over S.W.I.T.C.H. spray to you just for fun. You know how dangerous it is. Didn't you nearly end up as a heron's breakfast last time? No—I'm sorry, but that's that.”

And Petty turned on her heel and fell over.

“Oooh—these stupid woodland paths!” she snapped, as Charlie helped her to her feet. “What's wrong with a nice bit of tarmac?” And, carefully stepping over the tree root that had tripped her, Petty hurried away.

Charlie was about to call after her. She really was. Because a small white bottle with a squirty spray button on it had fallen out of Petty's coat pocket as she tripped. Charlie really wouldn't have kept it if Miss Butcher hadn't, at that moment, turned around and bellowed at her from farther along the path.

“Charlotte Wexford! Come here AT ONCE!”

“Oh, well,” muttered Charlie, slipping the bottle into her blazer pocket. “I'll be able to mail it to her. Probably.”

Josh and Danny hit the emergency exit button and got off the bus at the back, without getting noticed. Happily, it didn't set off any kind of alarm. A minute later they found Petty Potts stomping up to the parking lot, muttering to herself.

“It's OK—we're safe,” called Josh.

“You'll never guess what!” called Danny, as they reached Petty on the path to the parking lot. “We were rescued by—”

“Charlie Wexford!” Petty said. She seemed to be turning out her pockets. “Yes, I know. I just met her on the river path. And I do believe the little lightfingers pickpocketed my S.W.I.T.C.H. spray!”

“What—Charlie? Steal? She wouldn't do that!” Josh said.

“Don't be so sure,” sniffed Petty. “She's a very determined young lady, and she wanted some S.W.I.T.C.H.”

“Even so,” Danny said. “Charlie's all right!”

“I didn't say she wasn't all right,” Petty said. “I've been known to steal things myself when it was desperately important. But not just for fun! Come on—we have to find her and get that spray
back. There's been far too much upset today. Why on earth did you think it would be a good idea for us to try out a S.W.I.T.C.H. at the zoo?”

“We didn't!” Josh said, stonily. “You did!”

“I did not!” Petty turned and stomped back into the park again, and they hurried along with her.

“You did!” Danny said. “You said you wanted to see how S.W.I.T.C.H.ing near real snakes affected us.”

“Yes, of course I did!” Petty said. “So why did you say I didn't?”

“Petty, you could have some amazing arguments just on your own,” sighed Josh.

They saw Charlie, at a distance, down by the river with the other St. Gwendoline's students following the river wildlife walk. “We'll run ahead,” Danny said. “Make sure she doesn't get away!” He and Josh took off, leaving Petty grumbling as she marched on after them, looking out for trippy tree roots.

“Get that S.W.I.T.C.H. spray back!” she called after them. “Charlie has no idea how dangerous it can be! If she uses it, there will be trouble. Desperate trouble …”

Charlie caught up with the others as they reached the river, which wiggled through the many acres of the zoological park, passing the enclosures of giraffe and rhino and ostrich. At this end, though, it had left the exotic animals behind and was rushing into the countryside. Little information posts along the path offered tips on where to spot woodpeckers, kingfishers, and foxes.

They stopped near an arched stone bridge that spanned the river. Below, on the near side, the water tumbled over some rocks in a small, fast waterfall, and on the far side the current moved much faster as the river deepened and flowed on downstream. There were warning signs that nobody should swim in it.

“I haven't got a small head—have I?” Isobella was demanding.

Her two best friends, Lucy and Jemima, chorused, “Of course not!”

“But that horrid, ugly old witch lady said I had!” pouted Isobella, taking off her straw hat and patting her hair anxiously. “She said I had an undersized brain!”

“She got
that
right,” muttered Charlie.

Isobella spun around and glared at her. “What would you know, Wexford?” she spat. Then she turned back to her friends. “It's horrible! Our teachers should complain to the park staff. It's not right for ugly old witch ladies to go around picking on well brought up young ladies!”