Crane Fly Crash (6 page)

“It's OK—they're ignoring her,” said Josh. He chuckled. “She won't like that!”

“Noooo,” said Danny flapping along beside him. He dodged a rather heavyweight moth that was giving him a funny look as it bumbled past. “Her best friends ignoring her won't do her any harm. It's the bit when they try to kill her that is going to upset her.”

He wasn't wrong. Four seconds later, Jenny fluttered eagerly in front of Chelsea's nose. A lot of shrieking split the evening air. Both Chelsea and Louise began to bash frantically at the creepy leggy thing in their faces.

“UGGH! KILL IT! KILL IT! GET IT OFF ME!” squealed Chelsea.

Poor Jenny did somersaults through the air, horrified. Josh and Danny swooped down and managed to catch her. “Stop!” yelled Danny. Josh restrained his sister from going back for another try. “Don't bother, Jen! They're not worth it!”

“I never liked them anyway,” added Josh.

Jenny sniffed. “I thought they were my
friends
.”

“Yes, but that was before you turned into a four-legged freak,” pointed out Danny.

“And remember,” added Josh. “This is just a dream, anyway.”

“Ooooooh!” said Jenny. She began to flap her way toward something new. She flapped so hard she dragged Josh and Danny with her.

This time it was an
orange
light. A bulb in an orange glass shade, which hung from the wooden beam above a front porch. It was a bit of a jumping, jiving hot spot. It was already heaving with the local nightlife. Three large moths were spiraling around inside it. At least a dozen midges were bouncing up and down in the cooler pool of light by the glass rim. A dozy-looking, see-through lacewing swayed about in one corner, gazing into a dazzling crystal cube up by the hot metal bulb socket.

“Oh not
this
again!” moaned Josh as he and Danny were dragged in with Jenny. “Jen! You know you'll only end up getting hurt!”

But Jenny was already head-butting the porch light. Danny was right up there next to her. Their cries of delight and pain echoed all around the orange glass room created by the outdoor lightshade.

Josh shivered and made himself turn away from the light. The glow was so incredibly tempting! He peered out into the night sky and saw something black and arrow-shaped suddenly zoom past. It made him gulp with horror. He knew what that was. He had seen it circling their garden on many warm summer evenings. It was a bat. A pipistrelle bat. And pipistrelles liked nothing better than a mouthful of crane fly.

Josh took a deep breath and turned around. Ignoring the dozy green lacewing as it fluttered past him into the night air, he dived back into the orange insect disco. He managed to tangle his limbs around Danny and Jenny and tug them back outside. “There!” he said, pointing a leg at Jenny's bedroom window. “That's the light we want! That one!” And he zoomed straight for it, dragging his siblings with him.

The dark arrow flitted by so close that he heard himself scream. Then he realized it wasn't his scream. The dozy-looking lacewing shot over his head, feebly flapping in the vicious teeth of the bat.

Thud-thud-thud. They hit the bedroom window. Then Josh dragged Jenny and Danny up to the opening and shoved them through it. Exhausted, they all slid down the inside of the glass and landed in a quivering heap on the sill.

For a few seconds there was peace.

Until …

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“What is THAT?” screamed Jenny.

Josh and Danny stared at each other, mystified. They had heard some weird noises when they'd been shrunk down to creepy-crawlies before but nothing like this. The howling, droning noise just went on and on. And it was getting louder.

“Uh-oh!” gulped Danny, as a gigantic figure loomed back into Jenny's bedroom. It was all too big to take in properly. He could see a long shining thing, moving in front of the gigantic figure. The long shining thing was making the
VROOOOOOOO
noise. It was moving from side to side. And getting closer.

“What
is
it?” asked Josh. Jenny squeaked and shut her wings up tight and scrunched her four legs close together.

“It's Mom,” said Danny. “And the vacuum.”

“Oh dear,” said Josh.

“Oh help!” yelled Danny. “It's coming this way.” And it was. The long shiny thing was waving through the air. Mom always vacuumed the cobwebs off the wall, ceilings, and … windowsills!

CRASH!

Suddenly the shiny metal tube, with an enormous round, black sucking mouth, was at the far end of the windowsill. A cloud of dust and cobwebs was swirling up in front of it and then being whipped away into the dark tunnel. A tunnel from which there could be no escape.

“FLY! FLY!” shrieked Danny. They all shimmied up into the air, shrieking with fear. The sucking nozzle swept along the sill to the corner where they'd been crouched seconds earlier. Then it began to climb up toward the top corner of the window. The three crane flies were flapping about in a kind of multi-legged disco dance of terror.

“Outside again!” yelled Danny. But Josh saw the black arrow shape flicker past, seeking more insect munchies.

“NO—THIS WAY!” bawled Josh. He shot across the glass at an angle, past the upper end of the nozzle. He dropped down as fast as he could go, off the edge of the sill and into a dark narrow chasm.

Plop! Plop! Jenny and Danny skidded in behind him. They all clung to the dusty wallpaper, jiggling up and down with shock. “We should be safe here,” whispered Josh. “We're down behind the radiator.”

“What about spiders?” said Danny, looking around edgily. He'd come horribly close to getting eaten by a spider when he spent some time being a housefly earlier that summer.

“Can't see any,” said Josh.

“OK—what about when she changes back?” said Danny. “It can't be long now before she cha—I mean, before she
wakes up from her dream
,” he added, realizing that Jenny was listening. “She's going to end up a bit flat!”

Josh nodded. Changing back to normal would be impossible behind the radiator. Jenny would get squished. She would look like a human waffle.

“Look—I don't know what I'm doing here,” said Jenny, suddenly. “This is a stupid dream, and I've had enough of it. I'm going to meet the sucky monster and get it over with. Then I'll wake up.”

“No! Jenny—don't!” yelled Danny and Josh.

She looked quite surprised. “You
don't
want me to get sucked up by a monster? Man, that's a shock. Well, in that case, I'll just have to wake myself up!” She scrunched up her horsey brown face. The little fingery bits on her mouth twiddled through the air as she concentrated hard.

KER-LANGGGGG! VROOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Josh and Danny and Jenny all looked up and shrieked. Mom had changed over to the thin nozzle. The one that could fit down behind the radiator! And it was hurtling straight toward them!