On Earth Read online

  The shrew crept out, wobbled, and fell over into Judy’s hands!

  “Oh no!” said Judy. “I think it fainted! I’ll take it upstairs.”

  While Judy climbed into the upper compartment, Andrew studied the hole in the tube. “Is there any tape around here?” he asked.

  bong … “No, Master Andrew,” said the Time-A-Tron. “Professor Dubble was kidnapped before he could stock the Time-A-Tron with tools and supplies.”

  Andrew scratched his head. Then he noticed something small and dark and round on the floor beneath the owl.

  “I guess you can’t expect owls to use litter boxes,” Andrew said.

  meep … “Not owl poop,” said Thudd. “Owl pellet. Owl not got teeth. Owl eat whole animal. Owl stomach digest meat. Then stomach make bones and fur into lump called pellet. Owl throw up pellet, spit it out.”

  Andrew rolled the owl pellet along the floor with his slipper. It was hard and dry. He tapped it and it fell apart. Inside were little bones—and a tiny skull!

  meep … “Mouse bones!” said Thudd.

  Andrew examined the tachyon tube.

  “Hmmmm,” he murmured. “This tube is made out of soft stuff. I wonder …”

  Andrew put one end of the broken tube inside the other. Then he pushed little bones through both parts to hold them together.

  Andrew climbed the ladder up to the top compartment.

  It felt cooler now. Outside, the melted rock had gone from yellow to reddish orange.

  Judy’s bathrobe was piled on the floor next to the chair. In the middle of the bathrobe was the shrew, curled into a ball.

  “I think he’s okay,” said Judy. “He even ate some scraps from your stupid fudge.”

  “Super-duper pooper-scooper!” said Andrew. “And I fixed the broken tachyon tube!”

  “Then let’s try moving forward in time,” said Judy.

  Andrew and Judy fastened their seat belts. Then Judy smacked the Fast-Forward button.

  Flack! Flack! Flack!

  HNNNN… HNNNN… WOOHOOOO!

  The display lit up.

  4 BILLION YEARS AGO

  Judy held down the Fast-Forward button.

  bong … “Bravo, Miss Judy!” said the Time-A-Tron. “We are moving through time again!”

  They had traveled 500 million years since they were trapped inside the baby Earth.

  Andrew and Judy watched the gooey rock outside the Time-A-Tron change from fiery red-orange to dull brown.

  meep … “Rock not so hot now,” said Thudd.

  bong… “Do check the Super-Peeper, little Dubbles,” said the Time-A-Tron. “You can watch what is happening on the surface of the Earth.”

  The Super-Peeper showed a lumpy ball covered with pimples—and the pimples were steaming!

  “Eeeuw!” said Judy. “The Earth looks disgusting!”

  meep … “Earth got lotsa volcanoes now,” said Thudd. “Volcanoes erupt! Throw up lotsa stuff from inside Earth. Lava. Gas. Steam.

  “Lava turn into land. Make little continents. Gas turn into air. Steam turn into water!”

  As Andrew and Judy watched, enormous storms began to swirl over the Earth. Water collected in the shallow places.

  meep… “Rain make oceans,” said Thudd.

  bong … “And somewhere out there, life is beginning,” said the Time-A-Tron.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “It’ll be great to have company!”

  bong … “It is not the kind of company you would like,” said the Time-A-Tron. “It is not even the kind of company you could see. The only things alive now are bacteria. Perhaps you would call them germs.”

  Andrew and Judy watched as chunks of land crept across the Earth like bugs across a kitchen table.

  meep … “Continents moving,” said Thudd. “Continents always moving. Crunch together. Break up. Then smoosh together in different way. Move as fast as fingernails grow.”

  bong… “That is right, little friend,” said the Time-A-Tron. “The changes you see inside the Super-Peeper take millions of years.”

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “Our piece of land is creeping from the South Pole to the equator!”

  600 MILLION YEARS AGO flashed the display.

  chee chee chee

  The shrew had scurried up the chair and skittered across Judy’s hand.

  “Ohhhh!” yelled Judy. Her hand flew off the Fast-Forward button.

  BUH-BUH-BUH ZNERKKK!

  The digital display stopped at 360 MILLION YEARS AGO.

  KRAAAAAAAAACK! KRUUUUNK!

  The Time-A-Tron dropped back into normal time. Instantly, they were caught in a gushing river of rock. They were shooting up through the Earth like a cannonball!

  SSSSSSSSSSSSS …

  With a sizzle, the Time-A-Tron hit black water. An instant later, they burst to the surface. Through twisting pillars of smoke, Andrew saw blue!

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” he yelled. “The sky!”

  “Look!” said Judy, peering through the dome. “Land!”

  A big wave rolled the Time-A-Tron sideways onto a patch of sandy beach. They were surrounded by ferns as tall as refrigerators.

  Beyond the beach was a forest of strange-looking trees. Their long, skinny trunks rose toward the sky. At the tops of the trees were bushy branches that looked like feather dusters.

  Clack! Clack! Clack!

  Andrew turned toward the sound. A fist was poking out of a fern and knocking on the Time-A-Tron’s dome!

  “What is that?” asked Judy.

  bong… “It is amazing,” said the Time-A-Tron. “Humans will not appear on Earth for more than three hundred million years!”

  A face pushed its way through the ferns. The face had a big smile and lots of freckles and was surrounded by curly red hair.

  “How did he get here?” asked Andrew, waving at the boy.

  The boy motioned for them to come out.

  “Let’s go!” said Andrew.

  bong… “It may not be safe out there,” said the Time-A-Tron. “Tell the boy to come inside.”

  “Look!” said Judy. “He’s sticking his tongue out at us!”

  Andrew and Judy unbuckled their seat belts.

  Judy looked around for the shrew. She saw a skinny little tail poking out of the compartment under the control panel. The shrew had found a place to hide.

  “Okay, little guy,” said Judy. “Stay put till we get back.”

  Andrew pulled open the door in the floor. Since the Time-A-Tron was on its side, Andrew and Judy slid into the lower compartment.

  Andrew switched on the light. He looked for the owl, but it was nowhere to be seen.

  bong…

  The outer door opened.

  Andrew poked his head outside. The air was hot and wet. Andrew breathed in the salty, fishy smell of the sea.

  He hopped out and waved to the boy. “Hey there!” he said. “My name’s Andrew.”

  “I’m Judy Dubble,” said Judy, stepping through the door.

  meep … “Thudd here!” squeaked Thudd from Andrew’s pocket.

  The boy came over to the door. He was wearing dirty green shorts and an orange T-shirt with a picture of a lizard on the front.

  “Hi!” he said. “My name’s Beeper. Beeper Jones. You’re on my island!”

  “How did you get here?” asked Andrew.

  Beeper chuckled. “Doctor Kron-Tox dumped me here,” he said.

  “Why would Doctor Kron-Tox kidnap a bratty little kid?” asked Judy.

  “He didn’t kidnap me,” said Beeper. “He’s my uncle, but he makes me call him Doctor Kron-Tox. He said he dropped me off here to do stuff for him. But the real reason he dumped me is because I’m a pain.

  “My uncle told me about you Dubble kids. He doesn’t like you very much. Why are you in your pajamas?”

  Judy put her hands on her hips and looked down at Beeper. “Because your stupid uncle kidnapped our uncle when we were getting ready for bed,” she said crossly.

  B
eeper cocked his head and smiled. “Want to see some cool stuff?” he asked.

  “Sure!” said Andrew.

  “Andrew!” said Judy sharply. “We’re not wandering off on some bizarre-o island. We could be eaten by a Tyrannosaurus or something.”

  Beeper laughed. “I wish there were dinosaurs here!” he said.

  meep … “No dinosaurs for hundred million more years,” said Thudd.

  “Come on, Beeper,” said Judy. “Get into the Time-A-Tron. We’ve got to rescue our uncle, then we’ll get back to our own time.”

  “I can’t leave without my stuff,” said Beeper.

  “What stuff?” asked Andrew.

  “Stuff that I left in the forest,” said Beeper. “I even have something that can help you find your uncle. But first, you need to help me carry my things.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “I guess we have to,” she said.

  bong … “Do be extremely careful,” said the Time-A-Tron. “Hurry back. And this is most important—do not go into the water.”

  “Why not?” asked Andrew.

  bong … “Because I said so,” said the Time-A-Tron, with a bit of impatience.

  “Okay,” said Andrew. “We won’t go swimming.”

  The beach was covered with large, cake-shaped rocks. Andrew stepped onto one of them … and slid off.

  “Oofers!” he said. “These rocks are slippery!”

  meep … “Rocks called stromatolites,” said Thudd. “Made by special bacteria. Bacteria make mud stick together. Burp up lotsa oxygen, too. Baby Earth not got much oxygen till bacteria start burping three billion years ago!”

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew, getting back on his feet. “Germs must have burped a lot in three billion years.”

  “Eeeeeuw!” said Judy, scrunching up her face. “I’m breathing germ burps!”

  “That’s so neat!” said Beeper, hopping from stromatolite to stromatolite across the beach.

  Judy rolled her eyes. “So where did you get a name like Beeper?” she asked.

  “‘Beep’ was the only word I said till I was four years old,” said Beeper. “Everyone thought I couldn’t talk.

  “Then my grandpa took me to a zoo. I saw an octopus and a platypus! A zookeeper let me hold a big, fat, hairy tarantula spider. After that, no one could make me stop talking.”

  Beeper led them to the edge of the forest. Vines as thick as sausages hung down from the weird trees. On the ground, roots were tangled like fat snakes. The air smelled like a moldy cellar.

  “What lives in the forest?” asked Andrew, wiping sweat from his forehead.

  “Hoo boy!” said Beeper. “Wait till you see!”

  Judy peered into the green gloom of the forest.

  “There’s no path,” she said. “How do you know where you’re going?”

  “I make a trail by bending branches,” said Beeper.

  “Oh great,” said Judy rolling her eyes. “That’ll be real easy to follow. Wait a minute.”

  Judy pushed her hands into her pajama pockets. She pulled out a pen, a dime, a tiny notebook, a spool of thread, and a bottle of glue.

  Judy put back everything but the spool of thread. She tied the loose end around a tree trunk. “We can follow this back,” she said.

  Beeper stuck out his tongue. “Let’s go!” he said, leading the way through the tangle of trunks and vines and roots.

  The ground was wet and slippery. Needles of sunlight poked through the umbrella of leaves high above. Water dripped from the treetops. They heard small splashes. Little scraping sounds came from inside rotting logs.

  “I haven’t seen a single bird,” said Andrew. “Or even a squirrel.”

  meep … “No birds on Earth yet,” said Thudd. “No squirrels. No mammals at all.”

  fffffff … fffffff …

  A shimmer of color flashed through a patch of sunlight. It was the transparent wing of a huge insect!

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “A dragonfly!”

  “It’s the size of a seagull!” said Judy.

  “Isn’t it cool?” said Beeper. “We’re gonna take some back with us! My uncle’s gonna have a theme park with prehistoric animals. I’m in charge of collecting insects and spiders and stuff.”

  “Um, the Time-A-Tron warned us not to fool around with things in the past,” said Andrew.

  “Yaaaaah!” cried Judy, doing a crazy dance. “A cockroach the size of a shoe just crawled over my foot!”

  “I’ve got a bunch of those, too!” said Beeper. “I’ll show you. We’re almost there.”

  They came to a swampy place beside a pond. Giant dragonflies were gliding lazily over the dark water.

  Hssssss …

  A snakey sound came from under a fern. Something quick and brown—like a small crocodile—darted out. It snatched a dragonfly resting on a leaf and gobbled it down.

  Beeper jumped over a log. “Here they are,” he said.

  Near the edge of the pond were wire cages. In one cage, two giant dragonflies fluttered their wings. In another cage, four cockroaches the size of footballs scuttled up the walls.

  Behind these cages was a cage big enough for a large dog. Inside, a collie-sized scorpion was snapping its giant black claws. It reared its tail—with a sharp stinger at the end—up over its head!

  “Don’t worry,” said Beeper. “She’s just protecting her babies. See?”

  As Andrew and Judy got closer, they saw that the scorpion’s back was squirming with lots of white scorpions the size of kittens.

  “Aren’t they cute?” asked Beeper.

  “Eeeeeuw!” said Judy. “They’re disgusting!”

  Beeper crouched next to a hollow log. “You’ve gotta see this guy!” he said.

  The end of the log was covered with a screen. A scraping sound came from inside.

  Andrew leaned over. “I can’t see anything,” he said. “It’s too dark in there.”

  Andrew pulled his mini-flashlight out of a pocket, flicked it on, and looked inside.

  sssssssssssss …

  The beam glinted off something shiny and brown.

  Andrew made out a sandwich-sized head with long, twitchy antennas. Below them, sharp jaws opened like scissors. Lots of spiny legs stuck out from a long, armored body.

  The beam of light made the creature zigzag quickly toward the back of the log.

  “Yowzers!” said Andrew.

  Beeper grinned. “It’s a gigunda centipede,” he said. “He’s six feet long! Isn’t he beautiful? Did you see those fangs? He’s real venomous!

  “But I don’t have a cage for him. You’ve gotta help me carry this log back to your time machine.”

  “No way!” said Judy. “You can’t just take these things back to our time! What if they got loose?”

  meep … “Our time not good for them,” said Thudd. “Food different. Air different. Future time got less oxygen.”

  Beeper looked at his collection of cages. “Gee,” he said. “I don’t want them to get sick or anything. But can’t I take something back? How about a couple of cockroaches?”

  “Oh great!” said Judy. “Wouldn’t those be nice in the kitchen?”

  Andrew smiled. “Remember when that cockroach dragged us up through the kitchen drain?”

  “What?” said Beeper.

  “Puh-leeeze!” said Judy, kicking a tree. “I’m still trying to forget it. These cockroaches are so big, you could hitch them up like sled dogs!”

  meep … “Mother cockroach lay fifty eggs every month,” said Thudd. “In one year, mother cockroach and her babies make thirty thousand cockroaches.”

  Judy shuddered. “Beeper,” she said, “it’s you or your zoo. You can come with us or you can stay with them.”

  “Tum tee dum tee dum,” muttered Beeper, walking up to the scorpion cage. “My uncle never told me how to take care of these guys. The scorpion looks kinda hungry.”

  Andrew nodded. “So let them go, and come with us.”

  Beeper tapped the centipede’s
log and looked inside. “I guess it’s good-bye, big guy,” he said.

  “Finally!” said Judy. “But before you let them out, give us a head start. I don’t want to be around when you open those cages.”

  “Fraidy-cat!” chuckled Beeper, pulling up the latch on the scorpion’s cage.

  “Don’t you dare!” said Judy.

  “You’re no fun,” said Beeper. “But I’ll count to twenty before I let them go.”

  “I’ll stay with Beeper and help him,” said Andrew.

  “One … two … three …,” counted Beeper.

  Judy clambered off through the muck.

  By the time Beeper got to twenty, Judy was waving at them from a rock on the edge of the pond.

  Andrew opened the dragonfly cage. In a moment, their rainbow wings were flitting above the pond.

  Beeper opened the cockroach cage. The cockroaches didn’t seem to know they were free.

  “We’ll have to pick them up and take them out,” said Beeper. He reached in and grabbed the biggest one. Its legs scrambled madly in the air.

  Andrew wrapped both hands around the next biggest one.

  It felt like plastic. He put it down on the mossy ground and it scuttled away.

  The last two cockroaches skittered out on their own.

  Beeper went to the scorpion cage.

  “I’d better do this myself,” said Beeper. “She trusts me.”

  Beeper lifted the door. “Good-bye, girl!” he said. “Good luck.”

  As the mother scorpion crawled away, two of the scorpion babies fell off her back. Andrew and Beeper gently picked them up and put them back on. The scorpion crept off into the forest.

  Next, Beeper jumped on top of the giant centipede’s log.

  “Better get up here,” said Beeper to Andrew. “I don’t know what this guy will do.”

  Andrew hopped up behind Beeper. When Beeper pulled up the screen, the centipede waggled out—and started to creep onto the log!

  Beeper reached behind him. There was a backpack on the ground. He grabbed it and shoved it between him and the centipede. The centipede skittered off in the opposite direction.