The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee (13 page)

Jimmy McGee saw, and so did all the refugees, that halfway down in the beady-eyed, swaying snake, there was a bulge, not big, but still a bulge!

"Where there is one bulge, there could easily be two," the littlest ones thought. They hid in nearby bins.

Ms. Red Hen smiled appreciatively at Snakey's dance. She did suggest that, besides Eggy, there might be another addition to the refugee camp ... a little Snakey?

She was just as happy as everybody else, however, to hear Beaver say he would check the guest list carefully to make sure the bulge inside Snakey was not one of the refugee regulars.

"Here! All here!" reported Beaver.

"Here, all here, of course," thought Jimmy McGee, who was positive he knew what the bulge in Snakey was ... Little Lydia! But now, how to get her out of Snakey?

Then a gasp went up from the entire population, for in bright electric letters a sign appeared

on Snakey as she swayed this way and that on the rock throne of Jimmy McGee.

The sign said:
JIMMY MCGEE ... HERO ... BEBOP TO ME!

"A miracle!" said Owl. But he drew back to join the rest of the guests huddling in the rear and wondering, "What next?"

The sign came on, and the sign went off ... the same sign:
JIMMY MCGEE ... HERO ... BEBOP TO
ME!

Snakey swayed and swayed and, on her tippy-tail, danced her snake dance. She made some people dizzy.

"Voila!" said Filibuster nervously.

To Jimmy McGee, one thing was certain. The bulge in the beady-eyed, electrified Snakey was Little Lydia, the little lost do-nothing doll. Now how to get her out? How?

He addressed the refugees. "There is a prisoner inside our guest, Snakey. She must be rescued. But how?"

"How? How?" echoed voices through the winter headquarters.

A very faint sound, like a bebop word, echoed also from inside Snakey. "
How?
"

Jimmy McGee had to act right now! Little Lydia was sending him a bebop message! So while Snakey was balancing herself on her tippy tail on top of Jimmy McGee's stovepipe hat with his rare little thunder and lightning bolts inside it, Jimmy McGee thought up his plan. He said in bebop code:

Little Lydia, if you are the bulge in the snake I see,
Bebop, bebop a message to me.

Right away came the bebop answer:

I'm in the Snake;
I think I'll bake!

The refugees heard the bebops but did not completely comprehend the code. They knew it had something to do with the bulge in the beady-eyed snake. But what? Squirrel nervously dropped a nut from Bin No. 9. It struck Jimmy McGee's stovepipe hat, became all charged with electricity, and bounded right back up to him.

"Strange goings-on here," said Squirrel, and cuddled up to Raccoon.

Grinning widely, Snakey continued her tip-of-the-tail dance.

"
Get me out, Jimmy McGee!
" came the bebops. "
Get me out!
"

Everyone saw that with these words the bulge had begun to move.

"Digesting what she ate," said Owl sagely. Then he added, "Well, will you look at that, will you?"

Along with her bebop words, Little Lydia had an old-time attack of the zoomie-zoomies inside of Snakey. This made Snakey wriggle this way and that and then suddenly rise up into the air, off of the stovepipe hat completely, and shoot straight up to the topmost reaches of headquarters!

For a while she seemed to be suspended up there and to be dancing on zigzag stilts like pale streaks of lightning. She was doing what Little Lydia used to do back in summer headquarters!

This was a pretty sight but unsettling to some of the refugees, especially to Cardinal Bird, who had considered himself safe from all these shenanigans high up on his ledge. He did not sing his song right now. But Ms. Red Hen, her beak hanging open as she strained to keep track of Snakey and at the same time guard Eggy, suggested that Eely, from the aquarium, had passed on his electricity to poor little Snakey, a very young little hoop snake at that.

Others thought this might be Eely himself. But no. That fellow was too big. And anyway, there he was lying in his pool, much too shallow for him, but at least it was water. Also, he was flashing his own neon lights on and off, giving over and over his name and birth and source of origin—exactly what it said about him on the description over his pool in the aquarium.

Fortunately, he was very young, or he would not have fit in here at all.

"A competition!" exclaimed Ms. Red Hen and cackled with delight. "Electric eel in pool. Electrified snake doing high jinks in the loft! Cluck!"

"There's magic going on here," said Owl sagely. "Our host is a magician. See what else is inside that hat? A rabbit next, perhaps?"

"I'm already out, never was in," said Rabbit. She was so nervous that she hid behind a rock; but soon, unwilling to miss some other curious display, she came out.

Then down spun Snakey, who began to wind herself into a tight little coil again, this time on top of the hat, not as comfortable, but she didn't seem to care, for she didn't know what was inside that hat nor would it have mattered. Something was bothering her stomach.

Jimmy McGee said coaxingly, "Stand up straight just once more, please, Snakey. Then you can coil and uncoil as much as you want."

Snakey seemed to get a nudge from inside, for she looked herself over.

"Now!" said Jimmy McGee. "Coil yourself slowly ... slowly, oh, so slowly ... but tightly around and around my handsome stovepipe hat, which I now lend to you to add wonderment to this party. Begin with the tippy-tip end of you. There is a bulge in you. All the refugees can bear witness to this. You have swallowed something that is not in your line at all. If you do as I say, winding, oh, so tightly around my rare, handhewn stovepipe hat, you may force the little thing—whatever it is—up! And then, it will pop right out of your mouth!"

Swaying prettily on her tippy tail, Snakey eyed Jimmy McGee, and she grinned, for she could hear what he said.

But the bulge seemed to have gone in deeper! Dismayed, Jimmy McGee said, "Ts! Ts!"

Suddenly Bullfrog boomed out, "Snakey! Have you had something to eat that no one else here had even a bite of? If so, what? You have had refreshments. We'd like some, too!"

"In a refugee camp, you are supposed to share the provisions," Owl added firmly.

"What's that bulge in you anyway?" asked Badger bluntly. "Come clear, now!" He brandished his banging pipe.

Jimmy McGee said, "Don't bother Snakey! She's having enough trouble as it is getting what she has eaten down or up. Look at the way she's behaving! Would any of the rest of you like to have to behave that way? Swallow something that bebops and shoots you like a skyrocket to the top of my headquarters?"

No one did like that idea, and the grumbling ceased.

"Indigestion," suggested Ms. Red Hen. "The pip!"

Jimmy McGee tapped his stovepipe hat with one of his small banging pipes. "Come on now, Snakey!" he said. "You swallowed something that was not good for you. Do what I said, and out it will pop!"

Snakey paused, swaying prettily...

"Wind!" urged Jimmy McGee.

From inside Snakey there came a bebop echo. "
Wind!
"

And Snakey obliged. Beginning at the tip end of her tail, she began slowly, very slowly but surely, to wind herself tightly around Jimmy McGee's stovepipe hat. The narrow brim made a fine balance for this venturesome exhibition. She looked like a colorful jump rope beginning to be wound round and round a belaying pin on the deck of some strange boat.

Everyone watched tensely. They crowded closely in front of Snakey not to miss one single thing. A cheer went up as Snakey made the first go-round!

"Voila!" screamed Filibuster.

Pausing for a moment to look at them all, and with the rest of her lithe body swaying gracefully, little Snakey flicked her tongue in and out and grinned as though she appreciated the applause. Then she started her next go-round. Now, here she was, coming round the bend again!

Rabbit, who was used to races, became an umpire. "Now," she said, her nose all a-quiver, "she's coming round the bend again!"

"Two coils of Snakey round the stovepipe hat now!" shouted Badger. Snakey's coils were as neat and tight as those on a spool of fine thread!

"Bravo! Bravo!" Headquarters echoed the bravos all up and down and around.

"Tweet tweet-tweet!" sang Cardinal Bird.

Snakey started round again. With each go-round, when she came in sight, she stretched the whole rest of herself out toward her cheering audience, as though to say, "How'm I doing?" Then she flicked her tongue out of her wide, happy mouth before commencing the next go-round.

"Doesn't want to get dizzy," said Ms. Red Hen. "That's why she stops and stares after each go-round."

"Maybe she is measuring herself to see if all of her will fit," suggested the practical Badger.

Beaver nodded. "I think she'll fit, she's so small," he said. He was a builder and should know.

But with the next go-round, everyone could see that Snakey had reached the odd bulge in her middle. This was a problem! Now, she would have to wind herself even more tightly. Otherwise there was going to be a lumpy look to the coil, which until now had been so perfect! This tightness might, just might,
force
the bulge, whatever
it
was, "
Out!
"

That
out
had come from the thing inside!

Suddenly, whatever it was that Snakey had swallowed lighted up. It shone brightly through Snakey's skin! Of course Jimmy McGee knew that this was because the bulge had now reached the thunder and lightning bolt box inside his hat!

Even Jimmy McGee was excited at the amazing effect that this go-round had produced. Tiny zigzag streaks of lightning shone through Snakey's skin. If this kept up, Jimmy McGee's elegant hat would be transformed into some strange hat, perhaps a shako? Or a fez? Very loud bebops echoed through the cave. Faint rumblings of thunder also echoed through the cave. Snakey looked eerie, and what was in her sounded eerie, too.

Everyone drew back in awe!

"
Let me out!
" came the bebops, louder and louder.

"Whatever Snakey ate, she ate it alive!" observed Owl wisely. He had a scowl on his face. "And it's still alive!" he added. He truly must have great wisdom to understand this odd occurrence.

The curiosity of the refugees drew them like a magnet to the Snakey-trimmed hat of Jimmy McGee, who alone knew that the bulge must be Little Lydia!

Everyone had to see what was going to happen. Something was bound to, for with each go-round the bulge was slowly but surely being forced toward Snakey's mouth ... still happily grinning.

"Snakey may have eaten a whole swarm of lightning bugs," suggested Ms. Red Hen.

"Lightning bugs are out of season," said Owl.

"And they don't bebop," chirped a little voice from up high. This was Cricket. It was his first comment and drew attention. Some of the refugees clapped.

"Snakey may be a new species of snake altogether," suggested Beaver, taking a minute off now and then from building another dam to get a glimpse of the goings-on around the hat ... a new spectacle entirely from any in his experience.

"Voilà!" exclaimed Filibuster, who wished he had thought this up. But he was a good sport, and he agreed. "Yes," he said. "One not yet listed in books ... electric bebopping hoop snake!"

Owl also, being the wise one, put in, "Electric eel, yes! We even have one of those among our guests. But I agree with Filibuster. Electric bebopping hoop snake ... a freak. Still, in all fairness, we must agree we are not certain of the 'hoop' part yet. Only time will tell, and very soon. If so, in the books it may say, 'Only electric hoop snake known to mankind so far was first noted in the headquarters of a plumber by the name of Mr. John McGee in Washington, D.C.'"

Ms. Red Hen, tired of all this learned discussion, wanted to watch what was going on at the stovepipe hat and wished she could cluck "Filibuster!" and bring an end to his and Owl's learned discourses. She shoved her way closer to the center of attraction.

The twists Snakey was making around the hat were becoming slower and slower. Of course, Jimmy McGee knew that the bulge was Little Lydia. Being so close to his thunder and lightning bolt box, she had become recharged by its electricity.

"Quiet!" he commanded. "Everybody be quiet. The bulge speaketh now!"

"
Get me out of here, you, Jimmy McGee! You!
" And she added, "
Or I'll never speak to you ever again! So there!
"

"Soon!" promised Jimmy McGee in bebop code language. "You're nearing the finish now. Another go-round by Snakey and you will be at the exit. Then it will be zoomie-zoomie time again for you and for me!"

Ms. Red Hen said, "What'd I tell you? Or rather, Beaver tell you?" For she was honest and gave credit where credit was due. "A new species ... an electric bebopping hoop snake! Cluck, cluck-cluck, catawcut!" But she went on, "That's her vocal box, that thing that Snakey's got in there. That's what it is. And it got out of place ... belongs up there where it is now. Don't tongue and cheek go together? If she were the old-fashioned type of snake, she would hiss. That's what snakes do ... hiss ... not grin and get bulges. Cluck!" she said, disgusted, and clawed the hard rock with her foot to show her disgust.