Crane Fly Crash (3 page)

“Can you see anything?” whispered Danny, his eyes round and shocked.

“No!” whispered back Josh, desperately scanning the room. He listened for buzzing or chirping. All he could hear was Piddle the dog barking in the yard and the far-off drone of the vacuum cleaner. Mom was vacuuming the dining room.

“There!” hissed Danny and pointed to the flowery duvet on Jenny's bed. Something was dancing along the yellow flowers. Something that looked confused and panicky. Of course, this thing
always
looked confused and panicky to Danny. It was a crane fly.

“A crane fly,” murmured Josh. “Quick—Danny—shut the door!”

Danny got the door shut in two seconds. He bounded back to the bed to stand next to Josh and stare in wonder at their six-legged sister.

“Wow,” said Danny.

“Yup,” agreed Josh. “Never expected
this
to happen.”

The crane fly fluttered along the flowery duvet like a nervous and not very talented dancer. It jiggled to the left and shimmied to the right and then clung to one of the cottony peaks in a shivery way.

“She must be freaking out!” marveled Danny. “What should we do?”

“Well,” Josh put his head to one side and considered. “She's quite safe in here. There are no predators, probably.” He looked at the quivering insect and sighed. “I suppose one of us ought to spray ourselves and go and look after her. That would be the nice thing to do.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “And since when has Jenny ever been nice to
us
?” he asked.

Josh shrugged. “She is our sister.”

“Right then—off you go!” Danny handed the S.W.I.T.C.H. spray to Josh.

“Well—can't we toss a coin or something?” said Josh.

“
You're
the one who wants to be nice!” said Danny.

Josh sighed, took the bottle and sprayed a short blast on his hand. Any part of the body seemed to do. “Just make sure you stay here and don't let Piddle in. Until we're human agai—” he said, before he too vanished.

“AARRGGH!” commented Jenny, as soon as she laid eyes on the creature frolicking toward her. Unaware that it was her little brother trying to manage more knees than could ever be right.

“I know what you mean,” said Josh. “But you don't look so great, either, Jen!”

His sister's face was long, horselike, and light brown. She had two thin finger-type things poking out where her mouth should be. Two short feelers stuck up from between a pair of eyes that were large, round, bulbous, and a shimmering green-black color. Josh was still adjusting to his
own
eyes. They gave him a view as if he were looking through hundreds of tiny lenses all joined together. He'd had vision like this as an insect before. It didn't take him long to get used to the strange effect. Or to the fact that he could see almost
behind
him with these amazing eyes.

“Josh? Josh?” shrieked Jenny. She whirled around in a circle, her long, elegant brown legs staggering over the thick tufts of cotton that tangled across her duvet. Up this close, the cotton weave looked like thick woven mesh. The kind of thing you might see in a metal cable factory. “Josh?” shrieked Jenny again. “Where are you? Help me! There's a monster coming for me.”

Josh sighed. “Jen-eee! I'm he-ere!” he called.

Jenny whirled her long, skinny brown body back around to face him. She screamed loudly and then fell into a crumpled heap.

“Oh do stop that!” said Josh. “Yes—I'm a crane fly! So are you! Get over it!”

“How—how—how can I be?” whimpered Jenny.

“It's a long story,” said Josh. “But don't worry—it
won't last
. It's just for a short while. You'll go back to being normal at any time.”

“My room's g-gone all b-big,” gibbered poor Jenny. “I don't know what's going on …”

Josh frowned. Actually, he couldn't be sure how long Jenny's S.W.I.T.C.H.ed state would last. He and Danny had only ever had quite short, quick sprays. The effects had lasted about half an hour. The one time they had
drunk
S.W.I.T.C.H., in a special potion form, it had lasted probably ten minutes longer.

But Jenny had really sprayed a gallon of the stuff at her hair. Maybe she'd be a crane fly for
hours
.

“I—I've got six legs!” she was murmuring now. She turned around in slow circles to get a better look at her strange new body. “And wings. I can fly—sort of. Look!” And she whisked her wings into a thrumming motion. She rose up a little way above the duvet like a spindly helicopter. She wasn't very graceful. Her legs dangled about like long socks on a washing line. After a few seconds, she flopped back down on the bed. She twitched the strange brown fingery things at her mouth area and stared at Josh. “I'm dreaming, aren't I?” she said.

“Yes, that's it!” said Josh. “You are dreaming.” This was
good
, he thought. Jenny really couldn't find out about the S.W.I.T.C.H. spray. Far better if she thought she was dreaming. “Yep—it's all a big weird dream,” went on Josh. “Do your fishcakes wear roller skates? Mine do. Eeep.”

Jenny was staring at him as if he'd gone crazy.

“It's OK—you're in a dream … remember?” said Josh. “Being able to fly … four extra legs … fishcakes on roller skates … eeep?” Nothing ever made much sense for very long in
his
dreams.

But Jenny wasn't paying attention. She had turned away from him. She was dragging her flimsy self across the bed toward the pillow end. She walked a bit and then rose up and flapped about. Then she slumped back down for a while and then walked a little way again. It was kind of random, thought Josh. He realized, though, that he was doing the same thing. “Where are you going, Jenny?” he called after her.

“To explore my dream!” she called back. “I'm going
there
!” and she raised one of her forelegs and waved it toward a huge white edifice bathed in glowing golden light. “I've got to go there!” And now she took off and flew straight toward the glow.

“Whoa—hang on—wait!” called Josh, taking off, too, to keep up with her. He felt very wobbly in the air. This was nothing like being a housefly or a grasshopper. Those creatures had felt like well-oiled hi-tech machines. They swooped through the air and moved around like military aircraft. Being a crane fly was a lot more haphazard. The legs were—well—just stupid! They didn't seem to know what to do with themselves. They wouldn't tuck up neatly under his body. They didn't work very well when he let them just drop either. They swayed about and messed up his aerodynamics.

Jenny, though, was managing to fly in spite of her legs. She was now zooming straight toward the big golden glow. As he followed his sister, Josh felt the air around him getting warm. There was something he needed to warn Jenny about—something dangerous … but oh! The light! The
light
!

“Isn't it loveleeeeeee?” called back Jenny. “OW!” She suddenly jerked backward as if she'd been struck. After a confused spiral in the air, she went toward the light again. “OW!”

“Oooooooh, the pretty light!” sighed Josh, zooming toward it. “OW!” Something hot smacked him hard in the face. Dazed, he flopped onto a flat white surface, next to a huge pink spiky thing. But he didn't stay there long. “Oooooooh, the pretty light!” Once again, he was up, flying. “OW!”

“Isn't it loveleeeeeee?” sang Jenny, flapping up above him. “
OW!
”

Oooh—loveleeee! OW! Oooh—pretty—OW!
It was like a strange song and dance act. He and Jenny just kept doing it. Even though they didn't know why and even though it hurt, in a bashy-burny way …

They were too mesmerized by the wonderful light to even notice when one of Jenny's legs fell off.

Danny had only seconds to stand gaping at his transformed brother and sister. Then Mom called out “Danny! Josh!” She began to thud slowly upstairs. The nozzle of the vacuum made sucky, thwacky noises against each of the steps as she worked her way up.

He jumped. Uh-oh! This could be a problem.