Pinocula

  Pinocula looked at me as if he were confused.

  As I was telling him more about myself, Pinocula’s hat wiggled and he reached up to straighten it. I had forgotten about the small thing that had bit me. I asked to see what was under his cap, but Pinocula insisted there was nothing. I thought about faking an arm spasm so I could knock his hat off. It seemed like a stupid idea, but for some reason my brain liked it.

  I shook my shoulders and flung my right arm toward Pinocula’s hat. Pinocula ducked, and my hand hit my desk lamp. The lamp crashed to the floor, and the room went dark. Pinocula liked the change.

  I couldn’t see anything. I stretched my hands, and they knocked off his hat. Instantly, there was the sound of flapping and something brushed past my right ear. I reached inside my desk drawer and found the pack of glow-in-the-dark wristbands I had gotten from the state fair last year. I pulled a couple of them out and cracked the tubes so they lit up. Pinocula really liked them.

  Pinocula laughed. I didn’t think it was particularly funny, but I smiled to make him feel okay about his sense of humor. I stood up from my chair and began to slowly search my room for whatever had popped out of his hat. There was no sign of anything, and the window was still open from before.

  Pinocula had a really hard time telling the truth. He jumped off my desk and looked around the room. His left foot clicked while his right leg and left arm rattled like hollow wooden pipes. He stopped in front of the closet and held up his glowing wrist. Beardy shielded his eyes.

  I tried to explain to Pinocula that I was beginning to feel a little sick and should probably rest up for school in the morning, but that just made him more excited.

  Pinocula wanted to go with me to school. I thought it sounded like a bad idea, but I told him if he let me get some sleep, I’d think about it. I was worried he might mess something up while I was sleeping, but he said …

  Pinocula took a seat on my beanbag, and I crawled back into bed. I fell asleep wondering if he had a heart and just what other bits and pieces he might be made of.

  CHAPTER 4

  STRANGE RELATIONS

  I woke up to the sound of my little brother singing right next to my bed. Lately Tuffin had been making up songs and singing them loudly.

  His songs didn’t make much sense. I told him to kindly shut his mouth while I tried to open my eyelids. My eyes hurt and my bones were aching, but I got out of bed and ready for school. Looking out my window, I saw that the sky was filled with dark clouds. While brushing my teeth, I noticed the Band-Aid on my thumb. My mind quickly began to clear out the cobwebs of forgetfulness from sleep.

  Pinocula! I ran back into my room and searched everywhere for him. I checked my brother’s room and my parents’. No luck. I checked Libby’s. She was no help.

  I couldn’t find Pinocula anywhere. The only thing I could think of was that he escaped through my window. I stared out the glass. There was nothing outside my window besides the empty rock island in the middle of the cul-de-sac and the abandoned Awful House where the Pangs used to live.

  Looking at the Pangs’ old house made me shiver. After Wonkenstein had caused Mr. Pang’s toes to grow long, Mr. Pang thought his house was haunted. So he and his son, Ogre, had moved. It was spooky but cool to have an empty house in the neighborhood now.

  I left my room and went looking for my mom. I needed to act sick so I could get out of going to school and keep searching for Pinocula.

  I tried a few more excuses, but Mom wasn’t budging. So I gave up and left my house. On the bus I sat next to my best friend, Trevor. His glasses were crooked as usual, and he seemed excited. He was carrying a model of a wolf he had made for one of his classes. He was pretty geeked up about the project. He started to tell me all kinds of facts about wolves, but I interrupted him.

  I asked Trevor if he was aware that not many closets in the world had old laboratory supplies and books in them that dripped and smooshed together to produce small, living, mixed-up creatures. He wasn’t listening.

  Trevor’s thoughts were too wrapped up in wolves to get his attention. My friends Aaron, Jack, Rourk, and Teddy were sitting behind us. I considered telling them, but they were busy with their own conversation.

  My first class of the day was reading. My teacher, Ms. Bela, is way strict and always talks about books as if they’ll save the world. She thinks there’s nothing more important than reading.

  We were halfway through class when the door opened and Principal Smelt walked in with a surprise.

  I … I … couldn’t believe it! Pinocula was wearing some of Tuffin’s clothes, and he had on my mom’s sunglasses.

  Everyone turned and looked at me. I didn’t know what to say, so I just sat there looking like a piece of dead wood.

  Principal Smelt told the class that according to the official-looking letter Pinocula had given him, Pinocula had an unusual condition that required him to wear sunglasses and not be in the light.

  All the girls ohhhhhed, as if that were adorable.

  Pinocula walked down the aisle and climbed into the desk next to me.

  Ms. Bela welcomed Pinocula and then went back to talking about how reading was the only real subject that mattered. As soon as everyone was looking away, I leaned over and whispered,

  I tried to explain to Pinocula what a horrible idea this was, but he wouldn’t hear it. To make matters worse, he kept answering questions that he clearly didn’t know the answer to.

  As soon as class was over, I picked up Pinocula and ran down the hall to the empty gym. I put him on one of the bleachers and began to pepper him with questions.

  Pinocula explained that while I was sleeping he had explored my house and found his new clothes. After that he slipped out my window and went around the neighborhood searching for a decent coffin to rest in.

  When the sun came up, Pinocula began to feel guilty about not going to school. Apparently, the Pinocchio part of him longed to learn. The vampire part of him wasn’t all that keen on schooling, but he thought there might be a lot of tasty wooden rulers and pencils for him to bite.

  While we were arguing, two girls came into the gym to hang up a poster for the dance that was coming up this Friday. Our first middle school dance. It was only three days away, and most of the girls were jazzed about it while most of the boys were scared. The two girls looked at us as they hung up the poster. They were kind of upset about the “Under the Sea” theme Principal Smelt had picked.

  Pinocula started to point out problems with Twilight.

  The two girls looked hurt by what he was saying, so I put my hand over his mouth and pulled him away to my next class.

  It was weird, but for some reason all the students and staff of Softrock Middle School just accepted Pinocula as my cousin. At lunch, even Trevor fell for it.

  After lunch, Pinocula and I went to the school library to see if I could find some books about him. They didn’t have Pinocchio, and thanks to Twilight and everyone’s obsession with vampires, all the vampire books were checked out. Every girl I knew loved the un-dead, including the librarian.

  I had to stop Pinocula from taking a bite of the wooden counter, and we left empty-handed.

  During shop class, I worked on the spice rack I was making while Pinocula made a mirror. It was sort of a silly thing for him to make, given the vampire part of him couldn’t be seen in his reflection.

  While I was getting my stuff at the end of the day, Pinocula wanted to test out my locker as a coffin. I set him in to see how it felt.

  Janae was coming, so I quickly slammed the door. I was worried about how out of place he’d look resting in my coffin-locker. Janae saw me slam the locker and asked if I was mad about something. I should have just said no, but instead I lied.

  Janae stood there staring at me. She looked like she was waiting for me to say something else dumb … so I did. To make it worse, I pointed at her while I said it.

  Janae looked like someone had just told her that her cat died. I hadn’t meant to say it that
way. I wanted Janae to go to the dance with me, not go with me. I tried to explain my way out of it.

  My mouth wouldn’t shut up. I begged my brain to stop the madness, but it was no use. I continued talking and talking, and Janae kept looking more and more worried. I was telling her dumber things than the things I usually said. I knew I needed to say something good or Janae might never speak to me again. So I threw out a new lie.

  Janae smiled wide. She asked me if it’d be okay for two of her friends to ride with us in the limo. I had to use both of my hands and some of my toes to answer her.

  Janae thanked me and smiled again. She walked off, leaving me alone. It had all happened so fast I barely had time to realize what a huge lie I had told. As soon as the coast was clear, I opened my locker again.

  Pinocula tried to comfort me by admitting he said a lot of things that he shouldn’t.

  My body began to ache and my eyes burned as I walked with Pinocula down the hall and out to the bus. I was glad my closet had created something new, but I was beginning to worry that Pinocula was making my life much more confusing than it needed to be.

  CHAPTER 5

  FINDING THE BOOKS

  Before I got home I put Pinocula in my backpack so that my mom wouldn’t see him. I felt pretty certain she’d know Pinocula wasn’t a cousin of mine.

  There were a lot of things running around in my brain at the moment. The loudest thought in my head had to do with me finding the books I needed to read so that I would better understand Pinocula. The school library didn’t have the books, and the public library wouldn’t let me visit at the moment—I guess they were still bothered by the fort that Jack and I had built out of books last time we were there. The books I needed were probably in my closet, seeing how they had helped bring Pinocula to life, but my closet was locked. I had learned from experience that if Beardy didn’t want to open up, there was no way we could bust it open.

  Pinocula wanted to lie down and think, so I put him in the bottom drawer of my dresser. It had worked for Hairy, but it seemed more fitting for Pinocula.

  With Pinocula comfortable, I slipped out my window and headed to the rock island to hang with my friends and see if by some chance they had any books.

  The island was in the middle of our cul-de-sac. It was covered with rocks and had a couple patches of grass, a dozen bushes, and a few palm trees. It was the perfect place to hang out.

  The only person on the island at the moment was Trevor. He had his model wolf and was building a fort for it.

  Trevor always got into whatever he was studying. It didn’t matter how stupid or boring the subject was. His last school project had been one of his most embarrassing.

  I told him that I also liked wolves, but that I had more important things on my mind.

  I took a few minutes to fill Trevor in. At first, he was confused because he still thought Pinocula was my cousin. After a little more explaining, he understood that Pinocula was a new creature from my closet. He got extra pumped when he remembered that vampires and wolves go together.

  Trevor suggested we go to his house. His mom was heavily into vampire books and movies, and he thought she might have a copy of Dracula. It was strange to me that Trevor’s mom liked vampires. She was known for being scared of the dark and against any books that had questionable and grown-up words in them. But according to Trevor she had no problem with glittery vampires.

  Trevor’s mom wasn’t home, so we went to her bookshelf and searched for ourselves. There, in the middle of the bottom shelf, was the book I’d been looking for.

  Trevor pulled out Dracula and told me I could borrow it. He said his mom didn’t like Dracula as much as the other books because there were no handsome vampires in it. They didn’t have a copy of Pinocchio. Trevor suggested we check with Mr. Harker who lived a few streets over. Mr. Harker and his wife were constantly trying to get people to join their book club. They also liked to brag about how many books they owned, so there was a good chance they’d have a copy of Pinocchio.

  Trevor and I walked through the alley behind my house and down through another alley to get to the Harkers’ house. When we finally got there, I was a little reluctant to knock.

  I finally got up the courage and rang the doorbell. Mr. and Mrs. Harker answered together. They looked like they had been standing right behind the door waiting for someone to ring.

  They were super pumped to see two young minds looking for books. When I asked them if they had a copy of Pinocchio, Mr. Harker said,

  Mr. Harker went on and on about how much he had loved the book Pinocchio as a child. He also informed us that his book club would be meeting tomorrow evening and he thought it might be fun to do a reading.

  Before we could leave his house, I had to promise that I’d come back for the reading tomorrow. Mr. Harker also kept the copy of Pinocchio to have it waiting for me.

  While we were walking home, Trevor and I tried to figure out what had just happened. We were both a little confused.

  When we got back to my house, I took Trevor to my room to show him my new creature. I wanted to talk to Pinocula about a bunch of stuff, but he was still resting.

  I closed the drawer. Trevor was pretty disappointed that Pinocula wasn’t in the mood to talk.

  Trevor went home, and I got down to the business of reading Dracula. The book was a struggle to get into at first. When I read Harry Potter and Star Wars, they felt new and futuristic. Dracula seemed like a story really old people would like.

  The book began with a man going to Transylvania to help Dracula buy a house. Most of it was written in letters or journal entries, sort of like the book you are holding right now. The difference is I’m writing and drawing The Creature from My Closet books so that future generations will know what happens behind my odd closet door. I think the author of Dracula was just writing to scare people.

  When dinnertime came, I skipped it so I could keep reading. The book was really beginning to grow on me.

  I started to feel like I was in it and I was the one writing the letters and having to save the world from Dracula. The book even talked about wolves a few times. I couldn’t wait to tell Trevor. When I was about halfway finished, I decided I’d better go to sleep. It was only eight o’clock, but I was pooped. As I was shutting the book, the bottom drawer of my dresser slid open, and Pinocula sat up and stretched.

  I pleaded with Pinocula to keep resting, but he wanted no part of that. It was dark, and he was itching to do something. I tried to grab him, but he jumped up to the window, slid it open, and sprang out. I climbed out after him, begging him to stop. It was night, but there was still enough moonlight to see.

  Pinocula reached the island. He hopped onto one of the large rocks and looked around. I was just about to lecture him on the importance of doing what I said when something near the palm trees made a noise. I grabbed Pinocula and held him behind me. Then “something” stepped out from the trees.

  Jack was out on the island by himself, standing between the palm trees, doing nothing. Pinocula started talking, and because he was behind my back, it looked like I was speaking.

  Jack stared at me for a few seconds. I think he was trying to decide if he still wanted to be friends. He tried to look behind my back, but I kept moving to keep Pinocula hidden. At first he wondered if I was holding my cousin, but then he realized …

  Reluctantly, I pulled Pinocula out from behind my back. It was dark, but Jack could see enough of him to guess what he was.

  I was going to lecture Jack on keeping Pinocula a secret when I suddenly felt weak. My thumb where I had been bitten began to tingle. I rocked back and forth.

  I fell to the ground before I finished my thought.

  CHAPTER 6

  ABANDONED

  I know that part of the reason I am writing all of this is because someday it might be important to the scientific community.

  Because of that I should probably include a few scientific facts. Here’s one. Being bitten by a weird batlike creatu
re that comes out of your closet can be hazardous to your health. One moment I was standing on the island talking to Jack and holding Pinocula, and the next thing I know I’m lying on the floor in a dark room. I could hear Jack and Pinocula saying stupid things about me.

  I sat up and they jumped back. Both of them were wearing glow bracelets that they must have gone and taken out of my room.

  I was surprised to see Trevor. Jack let me know that he and Pinocula had run into Trevor while they were dragging me to the Awful House. Trevor had been outside letting his model wolf look at the moon.