In the Garden Read online

  Judy went to the center of the daisy which looked like a big pincushion. She tied one end of the Drastic Elastic around one of the tall, pin-like parts. She pointed to a thick lily stem on the other side of Harley’s head.

  “I’m going to throw the other end of the Drastic Elastic around that stem,” she said. “When Harley raises his head, the Drastic Elastic will pull our daisy onto his ear. Let’s hope he’ll want to scratch it!”

  Judy squinted at the thick stem. “It’s time for my best curveball pitch,” she said.

  Judy swung her arm. Her tongue touched the top of her lip, as it did when she pitched in Little League. She threw the end of the Drastic Elastic way over Harley’s head toward the stem.

  It stretched and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d—and caught! The end spun around the stem. Now the Drastic Elastic stretched above Harley’s head.

  Harley licked his lips and started to raise his head.

  Andrew and Judy held their breath.

  Harley’s head touched the Drastic Elastic and pushed it up. This pulled the daisy toward his furry brown ear!

  “Yes!” said Andrew.

  He and Judy grabbed on to the pin-cushiony part of the daisy as it tilted. The petals and the ear got closer and closer. Finally, they touched!

  Harley’s ear twitched a little. Then it twitched a lot! Harley’s hind leg moved toward his ear.

  “He’s going to scratch!” said Andrew. “Hang on!”

  WHAT’S UP?

  Harley started to scratch—and scratch and scratch! With every scratch, the daisy shook as if there were an earthquake.

  Thudd pressed the button that made his Goggle Scope flop down over his face screen. The Goggle Scope made faraway things look near, like a telescope.

  meep … “Drewd! Oody!” squeaked Thudd, pointing below. “Look!”

  “I don’t see anything,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Helicopter!” said Thudd.

  “Are you sure?” asked Judy.

  “Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd.

  “We’ve got to get down there and find it,” said Andrew.

  He looked at the Drastic Elastic, tangled between the daisy and the lily. “I guess we’ll have to leave the Drastic Elastic behind,” he said.

  They hopped off the petal and floated down to the dirt.

  meep … “That way!” said Thudd, pointing left as they landed.

  Next to a huge, round pit, Andrew and Judy saw a glint of silver.

  “THE HELICOPTER!” Judy screamed.

  Judy and Andrew scrambled over boulders of dirt. They crept among the squirmy, wormy things wriggling through the soil.

  When they got to the helicopter, Judy looked it over carefully. There were just a few scratches and a dent on the door.

  “It looks okay,” said Andrew.

  “But will it fly?” said Judy.

  She got into the pilot’s seat. Underneath the seat was a little magnetic box where her parents kept the key.

  “Fasten your seat belt,” said Judy.

  She turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. She checked the fuel. There was enough.

  As Judy tried to start the helicopter again, something shook beneath them.

  It felt like they were on top of a huge egg about to hatch!

  meep … “Cicadas comin’!” said Thudd.

  Judy tried the ignition again. This time she turned the key farther.

  Yaketta yaketta yakketta, the engine sputtered.

  Something enormous was coming out of the pit! A huge brown buggy head with bright round red eyes reared up in front of the helicopter.

  Andrew turned to see a herd of red-eyed cicadas behind them!

  ROARRRRRRRRR! The helicopter engine came to life!

  The helicopter wobbled. Then it began to rise up between the leaves! It rose above the daisies! It rose above the roses!

  Down below, cicadas were covering the ground! Cicadas were crawling up trees! Cicadas were crawling up legs!

  “Erf!”

  “Eeeeeyiiiii!!”

  “Noooooooo!”

  From high above the garden, it looked like Mrs. Scuttle’s guests were dancing. But they were frantically shaking off bugs.

  Judy steered the helicopter over the fence and into her own yard.

  “There’s the Atom Sucker!” Andrew yelled. He pointed to the porcupine-shaped machine bouncing under a tree.

  Long, skinny copper tubes stuck out all over it. There was a fat iron pipe in the front. That was where the shrinking happened. That was where the un-shrinking was supposed to happen, too.

  KAPOCKETA POCKETA POCKETA! clattered the Atom Sucker.

  The copper tubes were twirling and the whole thing was shaking like a washing machine on spin cycle.

  “So how can we push the SHRINK lever to UN-SHRINK?” yelled Judy. “This helicopter is lighter than a ladybug.” She checked the clock on the control panel. “It’s 7:59,” she said. “We’ve got two minutes left to un-shrink.”

  Andrew scratched his nose. “Um, fly us to the back of the Atom Sucker,” he said. “Get us just above the red switch.”

  The warm June evening was beginning to get dark. Tiny lights flickered on and off in the yard.

  meep … “Fireflies!” said Thudd. “Got lights in behind! Fireflies blink to find mate!”

  “Put a sock in it, Thudd!” yelled Judy.

  They were hovering above the back of the Atom Sucker. They could see the big red switch. Beside the switch were two marks. The top one was labeled SHRINK. The bottom one was labeled UN-SHRINK. The switch was pushed up to SHRINK.

  “Fly closer to the switch!” Andrew shouted.

  “What’s your plan, Bug-Brain?” Judy asked.

  “Don’t worry,” said Andrew.

  Judy gave Andrew that “wait till I get my hands on you” look. But she flew down and hovered above the red switch.

  SCHLOOOOOOORP!

  Andrew reached into his pocket and pulled out the bottle of Bug-Goo. He took the top off the bottle, leaned out of the helicopter window, and squeezed.

  Glug, glug, glug!

  Gloppy green drops of Bug-Goo dripped down onto the red switch.

  “Better fly higher!” yelled Andrew.

  Down below, rivers of insects began streaming into Judy’s yard. Cicadas and ants and termites and beetles!

  A cloud of flying bugs swirled around the Atom Sucker! Fleas and flies! Lightning bugs and ladybugs! Mosquitoes and moths and mantises!

  Soon bugs were piled a foot high on the red switch! And still more piled on!

  Andrew smiled as he watched. “The weight of all of those bugs should push the switch down to the UN-SHRINK setting!” he said.

  Suddenly the Atom Sucker stopped jostling and jolting. It was completely still.

  Then, under the blanket of bugs, it looked like the tubes were beginning to twirl slowly in the opposite direction. They picked up speed! They zinged around so fast, the bugs got thrown off!

  The big iron pipe in the front wagged just as it did when they got shrunk!

  “I think it’s ready to un-shrink us,” said Andrew. “Let’s fly to the front of the big pipe.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “I think it’s ready to shrink us even more,” she said. “We should just wait for Uncle Al to come get us.”

  Before Andrew could say anything, a big bug foot slammed into the helicopter’s windshield.

  “Hold on!” screamed Judy. “We’re going to crash!”

  The helicopter tumbled through the bug-filled air.

  SCHLOOOOOOORP!

  Suddenly Andrew felt as though he were being tickled by monkeys and squashed into a suitcase.

  There’s something awful happening in my pants! thought Andrew.

  His legs felt prickly and tickly—and so did everything else!

  Andrew opened his eyes. Bugs were crawling all over him! Ants and cicadas were marching up his seat belt. A praying mantis was perched on his knee. They were all normal bug size! And Andrew was back to n
ormal boy size!

  Andrew smiled such a big smile, it felt as though his lips stretched all the way around his head.

  “This sounds stupid,” said Judy. She was shaking bugs off of her jacket and scooping bugs out of her socks. “But it’s great to be big enough to have bugs crawling on me!”

  “Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd from Andrew’s shirt pocket.

  Through the bug-covered windshield of the helicopter, they saw they were in front of the Atom Sucker. The Atom Sucker and the helicopter were just where they were before they got shrunk.

  Judy turned off the helicopter engine. She and Andrew unbuckled their seat belts and stepped out into Judy’s yard.

  The Atom Sucker was quiet.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “Someone must have switched off the Atom Sucker!”

  “Christopher Columbus on a buttered bagel!” came a familiar voice.

  Uncle Al was making a path through the bugs.

  “I am so happy to see you guys!” said Uncle Al, wrapping his arms around them. “And don’t worry about the Atom Sucker. I unplugged it!”

  Woof!

  Harley bounded over to Judy. She gave him a big hug and kissed him on his wet black nose.

  Mrs. Scuttle was right behind Harley.

  “Oh, Professor Dubble!” said Mrs. Scuttle. She was blushing. Beetles were hanging from her hair. Termites were creeping out of her dress. Cicadas were crawling over her sandals and up her legs.

  “My party is a total disaster. But it’s worth it to have a visit from such a famous person! I saw you on television! You were explaining how dolphins started out as cow-like creatures millions of years ago! Who could believe it?”

  “Ah, Mrs. Scuttle,” said Uncle Al, “Andrew and Judy have even more amazing things to tell. But right now they look very hungry. Pizza, anyone?”

  “Yes!” said Andrew and Judy together.

  meep … “Look for water bear?” said Thudd.

  “Thudd!” said Uncle Al. “You found a water bear?”

  “Yoop!” said Thudd.

  “Amazing!” said Uncle Al. “It’s getting dark now, but we’ll come back tomorrow, if that’s all right with you, Mrs. Scuttle.”

  “Oh, please do, Professor Dubble!” said Mrs. Scuttle. She blushed even more. A firefly flew out of her ear.

  Uncle Al led the way out of Judy’s backyard. “By the way, guys,” he said, “I’ve been working on this new gizmo, the Water Bug. It’s for deep-sea expeditions. Maybe you’d like to help me test it? I’m planning to search for the giant squid. No one has ever seen one alive!”

  As they walked through Judy’s buggy yard, Andrew had a funny thought. Maybe you can count on bugs to solve your problems!

  STAY TUNED FOR ANDREW’S NEXT BOOK,

  WHEN ANDREW, JUDY, AND THUDD BEGIN

  A WHOLE NEW ADVENTURE!

  ANDREW LOST

  UNDER WATER!

  In stores July 22, 2003

  TRUE STUFF

  Thudd knows a lot, and what Thudd says is true! Thudd wanted to tell Andrew and Judy more about the weird stuff in Mrs. Scuttle’s garden, but they were getting “bugged.” Here’s what Thudd wanted to say:

  A fly’s mouth looks like a hose. Flies eat by squirting digestive juices onto their food. The juices turn the food into goo. Then the fly sucks up the goo through its hose-mouth!

  If you take a fistful of dirt, you will be holding billions and billions of microscopic animals!

  Animals that are poisonous to eat—like monarch butterflies—are often very brightly colored. These bright colors are a warning to animals looking for a snack.

  Many animals that use poison to capture their food, like snakes and spiders, are colored to blend in with their environment. This helps them sneak up on their prey.

  A parade of fifty water bears would be only an inch long! They’re little, but they’re probably the toughest animals on Earth. If their environment gets too dry, they dry up, too. They turn into little barrel shapes called “tuns.” They can survive like this—without eating or drinking—for more than 100 years! They come back to life when they get wet again. Water bears can survive at temperatures above boiling and below freezing!

  Humans and animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out another gas called carbon dioxide. Plants need carbon dioxide to grow. They take it in through “lips” on their leaves called “stomata.” Carbon dioxide is made up of carbon and oxygen. Plants use the carbon and puff out oxygen through their stomata.

  Worms don’t have eyes or ears or noses. They don’t even breathe! The oxygen they need passes through their skin directly into their blood.

  Ants have very tiny brains. But working together, ants can do amazing things. Some ants keep “ranches,” where they raise mealybugs and other insects. The ants drink the insects’ poop the way we drink milk! Other ants build amazing tent-like shelters out of leaves. They use silk threads to sew the leaves together. The silk threads are produced by baby ants! The adult ants carry the babies from leaf to leaf like portable sewing machines. The adults tap on the babies’ heads to get them to spin out sticky thread!

  Find out more!

  Visit www.AndrewLost.com.

  WHERE TO FIND MORE TRUE STUFF

  They’re raising families under your fingernails! They’re boogieing across your pizza! They’re having a party in your underpants! They’re the weirdly wonderful microscopic creatures that inhabit every inch of the Earth, including the ocean and the air. You can see them in these books:

  MicroAliens: Dazzling Journeys with an Electron Microscope by Howard Tomb and Dennis Kunkel (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993)

  Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist’s Microscope by Stephen Kramer, with photographs by Dennis Kunkel (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001)

  Yuck! A Big Book of Little Horrors by Robert Snedden and Steve Parker (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996)

  Do you want to find out more about insects? Look for these books:

  Micro Monsters: Life Under the Mircroscope by Christopher Maynard (New York: DK Publishing, 1999)

  You can learn a lot about bugs from this book—and it’s funny, too!

  Ugly Bugs by Nick Arnold (New York: Scholastic, 1998)

  Want to see bugs in 3-D? Check out this big, fat book:

  The Big Book of Bugs! edited by Matthew Robertson (New York: Welcome Enterprises, 1999)

  Turn the page

  for a sneak peek at

  Andrew, Judy, and Thudd’s

  next adventure—

  ANDREW LOST

  UNDER WATER!

  Available July 22, 2003

  BYE-BYE, HAWAII!

  Andrew Dubble looked up through the tall palm trees.

  “This reminds me of when we were lost in the dog-hair forest on Harley’s nose!” he said.

  “Eeeuw!” said Judy, his thirteen-year-old cousin. She gave a little shiver. “I don’t ever want to think about that! Do you have to be so irritating on our very last morning in Hawaii?”

  Judy tossed her frizzy hair and marched toward the ocean. She kicked up little fountains of beach sand with every step. Andrew followed her.

  meep … “Drewd and Oody gotta pack now!” came a squeaky voice from Andrew’s shirt pocket. It was Thudd, a little silver robot and Andrew’s best friend. “Plane leave in three hours!”

  “I guess you’re right,” sighed Judy. “But I just hate to leave.”

  Their trip to Hawaii had been so much fun. They swam with dolphins and took an amazing helicopter ride over a volcano!

  Andrew and Judy were surprised when Judy’s parents took them to Hawaii after the mess they got into three weeks ago.

  That was when Andrew accidentally shrunk himself, Judy and Thudd down to microscopic size with the Atom Sucker. They had been snuffled into a dog’s nose, flushed down a toilet, carried off by a cockroach, and dragged into an anthill!

  Their parents had been a little upset. But most of all, they were proud of the kids for solving the big problem
of being very little.

  Judy stopped to pick up a shell.

  “Before we finish packing,” said Andrew, “there’s something I’ve got to show you.”

  “What?” asked Judy.

  “It’s a surprise,” said Andrew.

  Judy looked at Andrew. Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of surprise?” she asked suspiciously. “The last time you surprised me, I ended up swimming in dog snot.”

  Andrew laughed. “It’s a surprise for Uncle Al,” he said.

  Andrew and Judy’s uncle, Alfred Dubble, was a top-secret scientist. His job was so secret, no one knew exactly what he did. He was the one who invented Thudd.

  “Uncle Al has this new invention,” said Andrew. “But he’s been so busy showing us Hawaii, he hasn’t had time to finish it. So I’ve been getting up early every morning to work on it. I’m going to show Uncle Al what I did after breakfast.”

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “You’ve been messing around with one of Uncle Al’s inventions? He’ll have a cow!”

  Andrew shook his head. “Uh-uh,” he said. “Come on. We’ll be back in ten minutes.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “I’d better check this out before Uncle Al does,” she said.

  Andrew led the way down the beach. Huge blue waves were crashing onto the white sand.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “Look how high the waves are!”

  meep … “High tide!” said Thudd. “Moon pull big lump of water to this side of Earth!”

  They came to a quiet lagoon surrounded by palm trees. A few small boats were anchored there.

  Andrew walked up to a garage on the edge of the water. There was a small box in the middle of the door. Andrew talked into the box. “Good golly, Miss Molly,” he said.

  Chugga chugga chugga came a noise from inside the garage. The garage door rolled up slowly.