Anaconda Adventure (7 page)

“Behind you!” he yelled at Charlie, and she glanced back and flipped her own tail around his neck. She tightened it quickly, and the whole weight of her body—plus Isobella's—plus the strong pull of the current—dragged against Josh's neck.

“Eeeerm … could you just … loosen off a bit?” he gurgled. There was very little space left for air to get through.

“Sorry!” Charlie called back. “But we've got to get back to the bank!”

Danny was taking care of this. He wound his tail round and round the tree branch, steadily dragging himself—and Josh and Charlie and Isobella—back to the bank. A minute later they all flopped onto the ground, exhausted.

Charlie unlocked her jaws from Isobella's soggy school shoe. The thick soles had a row of punctures in them. “Good job I didn't grab her leg or her arm,” she said. “I'd have bitten right through it.”

“Is she alive?” Danny asked, slithering across to peer anxiously at the soaking wet schoolgirl. In response, Isobella coughed, spluttered, rolled
over and spat water all over the bank. Then she slumped down again and let out a long sigh. Her eyes were closed. She seemed to be asleep.

The three anacondas looked at each other. What now?

“If she sees us she'll freak out,” Charlie said. “Probably run right back into the river in panic. We'd better get away. Wow! You two look amazing!” Charlie lifted her head and swayed it from side to side, flickering a black forked tongue out toward Josh and Danny.

“So do you,” said Josh. This was truly the most magnificent creature he'd ever been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into. He noticed the orangey-yellow stripes streaking out behind Charlie's and
Danny's round dark brown eyes, and the beautiful black and yellow spots along their browny-green bodies. They were all perfect specimens. He and Danny were a little smaller and shorter than Charlie, but not by much. Josh wanted to climb up into a tree and see how strong he was. He wanted to swim some more too—a lot more! He wanted to unhinge his jaws like Charlie had and see how wide they went and what it felt like.

“We should change back any second now,” he sighed. “Probably just as well—listen!” Above the hiss and bubble of the waterfall, they could hear shrill cries as Isobella's teachers rushed along the bank of the river.

“We've got to go!”

“Isobella! Charlie!”
called the desperate teachers, getting closer. Any minute now they could spot the astonishing sight of one half-drowned pupil and three huge anacondas coiled on the opposite bank. Josh realized it would look suspiciously as if they were planning a feast of Riverwashed Schoolgirl on a Bed of Woodland Salad. It was time to go.

“Quick—over here!” Danny said, and they all slithered away from the river and made for the cover of the wood. Shady ferns helped to hide them from view as the rescuers came running along the bank.

Charlie lost no time in heading up a tree. She wound herself around the trunk and got above ground quickly, before looping her impressive twelve-foot length along a moss-covered branch.

“Isobella! Charlotte!” called more voices. Miss Biffle and Miss Butcher were bashing their way along the river bank.

At this moment, Charlie S.W.I.T.C.H.ed back. She fell out of the tree with a splash, right into the shallows of the river.

“Ugh!” She crawled out and back over to Isobella. “Isobella!” she said, shaking the girl by the shoulder. “Izzy! Wake up! Stop looking so drowned!”

Isobella spluttered again and opened her eyes. She fluttered her lashes and whimpered. “Don't be so dramatic,” said Charlie. “You only fell in a river and got swept downstream and almost over the edge of a waterfall!” She grinned. “We've had scarier experiences in the school cafeteria!”

“Charlotte! Isobella!” Shouts of delight and relief could be heard as Miss Biffle and Miss Butcher fought their way along the bank toward them. “Oh! Thank heavens!” cried Miss Biffle. “Are you all right?”

“Fine!” Charlie said. “Just went for a little swim in the river.” She beamed and wrung out a soggy bunch of black curls. “Although Isobella tried to drink most of it.”

Isobella sat up, looking pale and filled with
amazement. “Did you … just save my life?” she gasped.

Charlie shrugged. “Well, I suppose I did,” she said. She'd had help, of course, but nobody would believe she'd had a couple of superhero anaconda sidekicks, so she thought it best not to mention it.

“Charlotte dived in after me and saved my life!” squeaked Isobella as soon as the teachers got there. “She's a hero! Charlotte! How can I ever thank you?”

“Ummmm … stop dissing my corn puffs?” suggested Charlie.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Petty Potts reached the ash tree and peered up at Josh and Danny in its branches.

“That's a lot of top quality snakeskin you're ruining with moss stains.” She waved the small, beeping, black torch-like thing at them. “At least a dozen handbags' worth.” She turned off the S.W.I.T.C.H.ee detector. Its blue light went out and the beeping stopped. “Come on. Get down before you fall down. You're not even a tree-climbing breed—you shouldn't be up there! Now, I have some antidote here, but I'm not climbing up a tree with it.”

Josh and Danny reluctantly slithered back down. They had enjoyed being snakes immensely. They'd both had a go at making their jaws unhinge and
found that they could probably swallow a small computer console each if they wanted to. Or possibly Piddle, their dog. They had also enjoyed watching, from a distance, as Charlie was hailed a hero by the two teachers for saving Isobella's life. “Looks like she might not get expelled after all,” Danny had hissed.

Petty held up the spray but paused long enough to remark, “Well! That's my best S.W.I.T.C.H. yet! I really have done wonders this time.” Then she squirted them with antidote.

“Here you go,” Josh said, pulling the green anaconda S.W.I.T.C.H. spray out of his pocket and handing it back to Petty. He was glad he'd shoved it into his pocket just in time, so it had safely S.W.I.T.C.H.ed too, along with all his clothes, into snakeskin, he guessed. “It was a good thing Charlie did borrow this,” he told Petty. “If she hadn't had it in her pocket, we wouldn't have been able to save that girl who fell in the river.”

“Really?” exclaimed Petty. “What's happened to Charlie, then?”

“She's S.W.I.T.C.H.ed back already and gone back with her teachers,” said Danny. “Ages ago—even though we all sprayed at the same time.”

“Hmmm,” Petty said. “Probably to do with mass. She's female, so I'm guessing she was much larger.”

“Yeah—she was huge! Amazing!” Danny marveled. “She saved that girl from going over the waterfall.”

“Truly?” Petty said. “Tell me all about it!”

They told her while they made their way back to the parking lot.

“I have chocolate cake at home,” Petty said, walking to her ancient station wagon. “I think chocolate cake will be just the thing to celebrate your life-saving adventure.”

Petty was just about to get in when she spotted an envelope beneath one of the elderly windscreen wipers. Petty snatched it up and opened it. Then she paused, turned, and raised her shaggy gray eyebrows at Josh and Danny. Lifting the envelope, she showed them the spiky writing: