Crane Fly Crash (2 page)

Danny laughed. He knew Jenny couldn't possibly believe what he'd just said. Even though it was true. He and Josh
had
been all those creatures over the summer. Ever since
they stumbled into the secret laboratory in their neighbor's garden, they had discovered something incredible.

Their neighbor, Petty Potts, might seem like a batty old lady, but it turned out she was a genius scientist. She had invented S.W.I.T.C.H., a spray that could turn you into a creepy-crawly. Only Danny and Josh knew her secret since the day when they had accidentally got sprayed and turned into spiders. They'd been afraid of her at first. But now they were helping her by searching for some special missing cubes. They'd got four already. If they found just two more, Petty would have the code to make a new S.W.I.T.C.H. spray, which could change you into a reptile. They could find out how it felt to be snake or a lizard or even an alligator!

“You don't
have
to kill him, you know,” Josh told Jenny, still examining the moth. “All you have to do is open the window.”

“I've tried that,” huffed Jenny. “But it just keeps flying back in!”

“You need to turn your light off,” explained
Josh. He reached over and switched off Jenny's bedside lamp. “Moths get confused and think it's the moon. They keep flying toward it.” He eased open the window, blew gently on the moth, and smiled as it flew away into the night. “Off you go, hawky!” he called after it. “Go get your tea!” He closed the window and glanced back into the room. Danny was squirming on the bed with Jenny's foot on his head. “It's a hawk moth. They feed on nectar by moonlight. Isn't that sweet? And they can smell their girlfriends from miles and miles away.”

“Ugh,” commented Danny.

“Yeah, thanks for the biology lesson, you freaky little bug geek,” said Jenny. She released Danny and switched her lamp back on. “Now get out of my room, both of you. I've got to get ready to go out.” And she flounced to her mirror and started to brush her hair with the deadly weapon. She rummaged through all the bottles and pots of hair and makeup stuff. “MOM!” she bellowed, ignoring them. “Where's my hair spray?”

Mom didn't answer. She was singing along to the radio in the kitchen. The doorbell rang as Josh and Danny mooched out of Jenny's room. They shrugged at each other. Jenny was such a teenager.

Danny slid down the banister. He leaped off at the bottom step, landing with a thud by the front door and opening it a second later.

Standing on the doorstep was Petty Potts. As soon as she saw Danny and Josh stepping up behind him, she darted her eyes left and right behind her thick glasses. She hissed, “Excellent! The very people I was hoping for!” Her tweedy old hat was pulled down low over her face. The collar of her old trench coat was turned up. She looked as if she was pretending to be a spy.

“Shhhhhh!” said Petty, not coming into the house but leaning closer to them. “Now listen. This is very important. Very important.”

“What is?” said Danny.

“Hush! Shhhh!” Petty pulled her coat tight across her chest and frowned at Danny. “I need your help. But only you two must know!”

Josh sighed. Sometimes he thought Petty didn't even realize that she was a senior citizen and he and Danny were still in elementary school. She behaved as if they were all the same age. “What is it, Petty?” he asked, warily. Whenever they got involved with Petty Potts, they always seemed to end up uncomfortably close to being dead.

Petty glanced around again. “I am going away to a conference in Berlin,” she said, in a low voice. “A very important conference.”

“Are you going to show off your S.W.I.T.C.H. spray?” asked Danny.

“No! No! Not yet.” Petty looked quite alarmed.

“The world of science is not ready. I can't reveal my secrets now! Not yet. But—if something were to happen to me… ” She peered at them, slowly nodding her head. “Oh yes—something
could
happen to me. Then my work might never ever be known! And that—
that
—would be a tragedy!”

“Do you think someone's after you then?” whispered Josh.

Petty squinted at him. “What?”

“You know,” said Josh. “I mean—you've said before that you think people are spying on you. But do you think they're actually out to get you? Like in movies?”

“Good grief, no,” said Petty, as if she thought Josh was simple-minded. “I just mean that I might get run over by a bus or something. And of course, that could happen at any time! Anyway, just in case it does, while I am away, I want you to keep this!” And she pulled a plastic spray bottle out of her coat, the kind with a squirty button on the top and a little plastic cap over the button.

“We don't want that!” gasped Danny, backing away.

“Oh for heaven's sake! It's perfectly safe—all sealed tight,” said Petty. “Just pop it under your bed or something and keep it until I get back. Then if I
don't
come back for any reason, you can take it to
New Scientist
magazine and reveal my genius to the world.”

“Petty,” said Josh, “have you ever noticed that we're not grown-ups? I mean … you do realize that we're only eight, don't you?”

“What's that got to do with anything?” said Petty, thrusting the bottle into Josh's hands. She turned and walked back down the path. “See you next week, all being well! Take care, now. And keep searching for the cubes!”

Josh and Danny closed the door and stared at the bottle. “Wonder which type of spray it is,” muttered Danny. “Maybe … bee or wasp. Or centipede… ”

“We are not going to find out,” said Josh.

Danny nodded. Their creepy-crawly adventures had been exciting. But they had both been nearly eaten far too many times now to want to take a chance with Petty's latest spray.

It was still hard to believe, but Petty Potts had created S.W.I.T.C.H. spray in the underground lab in her garden. She used a secret formula she had worked out during her years with the government in a top-secret science department. She might be there still if her so-called friend, the eyebrow-less Victor Crouch, had not tried to steal her work and then wipe out her memory.

His plan was foiled, though, because Petty had suspected foul play. She had put a fake formula in her work desk and hidden the
real
secret S.W.I.T.C.H. formula inside six little glass cubes. Then she had re-created it at home when bits of her memory began to come back. It really worked. Josh and Danny ought to know. They'd been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed four times now.

“Come on,” said Josh, heading up the stairs. “Let's take this up to our room and find a place to hide it. She's better off not having it, probably. She sprays way too much of this stuff around.”

“We really should just try to stay away from her! Not answer the door next time,” said Danny.

“I know,” said Josh. “But … if we ever
did
find all her other lost secret formula cubes … well … ” He bit his lip, but his eyes shone. Petty had made a second secret formula. It was to create a spray that could switch them into reptiles. She put it into another six cubes. Only she'd lost them. So far they'd only found four. Without the last two, it could never work.

“Imagine,” continued Josh. “I could be a snake!”

“I could be an alligator!” said Danny.

“
If
we ever find the last two REPTOSWITCH cubes … ” sighed Josh. Petty had begged them both to search for her. But who knew where the missing cubes could be? The first four they'd found around the yards and houses in their neighborhood. But they might never find the last two. Petty had hidden them too well. That bit of her memory—about where they were—had not come back.

“I could be a giant tree lizard … ” went on Danny.

Suddenly something swung down from the top of the banister. “Hey! You little monsters! I knew you'd been messing with my stuff! Gimme my hair spray now!” And Jenny swiped the bottle out of Josh's hands before he could even squeak.

“HEY NO! NO! JENNY, THAT'S NOT YOURS!” shouted Josh. In reply, Jenny just slammed her bedroom door. Josh and Danny stood on the stairs and stared at each other in horror. Then they hurtled up to the landing and across to Jenny's room.

“JENNY! DON'T USE THAT! DON'T SPRAY IT!” they shrieked, in utter panic, crashing her door wide open.

“OUT of my room!” shouted Jenny. She had taken the plastic cap off the spray bottle. She was holding it up to her swept-back hair.

“Jenny! Please!” begged Josh, feeling his head reel with panic. “DO NOT USE THAT SPRAY! It's not what you think it is!”

“Oh ha-ha!” said Jenny. “Very funny.” And she sprayed a huge cloud of S.W.I.T.C.H. spray all over her head.

“What are you staring at?” demanded Jenny, slamming the S.W.I.T.C.H. spray onto her dressing table as the pale yellow mist settled on her hair and shoulders. “Get out of my r—”

And then she disappeared.

Danny and Josh stood very still. They didn't dare move. Jenny could be
anything
. And she could be
anywhere
! If she was a fly or an ant, she could be right where they might tread if they moved.