“There,” James says. “That’s better.”
Marvin can see that it is better. He’s filled with relief.
James takes a new, clean tissue and puts Uncle Albert inside it.
Then he holds out his finger so Marvin can climb back up.
“Where do you want me to take him?” James asks Marvin. “Back to the cupboard?”
Marvin smiles. Of course James would know what to do! He always understands. Marvin runs to the tip of James’s finger.
James lifts the tissue carrying Uncle Albert.
Marvin holds on tight. Far below, he can see Papa and Elaine watching from behind the toilet. He waves to them so that they’ll know everything is all right.
When they get to the kitchen, James bends down next to the cupboard where the beetles live and opens the door. Gently, he puts Uncle Albert’s tissue inside the cupboard. Marvin crawls off his finger.
“I hope your friend will be okay,” he tells Marvin. Marvin looks up at James, his heart full of thanks.
Then James quickly closes the cupboard door, before Mr. or Mrs. Pompaday can notice him.
As soon as the cupboard is dark and safe, Marvin calls, “Mama! Aunt Edith! Uncle Albert is hurt!”
Then he holds one of Uncle Albert’s legs and waits for help to arrive.
CHAPTER FIVE
Uncle Albert Gets Better
Mama and Aunt Edith come running out of the hole in the wall that is the beetle family’s front door.
“Oh my goodness!” Mama cries.
“Albert!” Aunt Edith screams.
“He cut himself on a pair of scissors,” Marvin tells them.
Mama acts quickly. “Here, help me carry him into the house,” she says. Together, they drag the tissue with Uncle Albert on it, while Uncle Albert moans softly.
“Oh, Albert,” Aunt Edith sobs. “Albert. Speak to me.”
“I’m a goner,” Uncle Albert says. “I’m badly cut.”
Aunt Edith flings herself over him. “Oh, my darling. What will I do without you?”
Marvin looks at his aunt and uncle, and thinks that Elaine and her parents are a lot alike.
“Nonsense!” Mama says. “Albert will be fine. Edith, it’s impossible to pull the tissue with both you and Albert on top of it.”
Still sobbing, Aunt Edith stands up and helps carry Uncle Albert into the living room.
There, Mama looks at the hole in his shell. Marvin thinks it looks better. There is no yellow goo oozing out.
“James helped us,” Marvin says. “He put medicine on the cut.”
“Thank heavens for James,” Mama says, and Marvin feels a swell of pride that he has such a good friend.
“Well, it stopped bleeding,” Mama says. “And it’s a small, clean cut. I think it will heal just fine. Are you in pain, Albert?”
“Ahhhhhhh,” Uncle Albert moans. “Yes! The pain is terrible.”
“All right,” Mama says. “I will get you some of the pink pill.”
Marvin knows that the pink pill is very special medicine. It makes pain go away. Mr. Pompaday calls them “baby aspirin” and takes them every day for his heart. Sometimes he drops one. This is exactly the kind of thing the beetles like to find when they go collecting … though Marvin and Elaine aren’t allowed to touch human pills because they are so powerful.
Mama comes back with a tiny bit of the pink pill and feeds it to Uncle Albert.
Just then, Papa and Elaine arrive. They’ve dragged the blue sack to the cupboard all by themselves.
“Oh, my dear, hurt father!” Elaine cries when she sees Uncle Albert. “How are you?”
But Uncle Albert doesn’t answer. The pink pill has made him sleepy, and he’s dozing.
“Let’s take him to the bedroom,” Mama tells Papa. “I think he’ll be much better tomorrow.”
And so the excitement is over.
The grown-ups leave to take care of Uncle Albert, and Marvin and Elaine are alone in the living room with the blue sack.
“Let’s look at what we found,” Elaine says.
They open the sack and take out the things from the day of collecting:
The shiny silver dime.
The bit of chewing gum.
The orange tack.
And the strange black thing with the sharp tip that Marvin found in James’s room.
“I’m sorry I was mean about the dime,” Elaine says suddenly.
Marvin looks at her in surprise. “That’s okay,” he says. “You found it. It’s a really good thing.”
“Yes,” she agrees. “But you found something too.” She crawls over to look at the thing Marvin found. “It’s interesting,” she says.
Marvin studies it. It’s so smooth and black and shiny.
All of a sudden, he thinks that maybe James didn’t mean to throw it away.
“It might belong to James,” he says. “I shouldn’t have taken it.”
“How do you know?” Elaine asks. “It was on the floor by the wastebasket.”
Marvin is quiet for a minute. “It just looks like something James would care about,” he says. “I’m going to take it back.”
“You are?” Elaine asks. “But then you won’t have anything.”
“That’s okay,” Marvin says. “I’ll find something good next time.”
Elaine is quiet for a minute. “Well,” she says, “I guess you can share my dime.”
“Really?” Marvin says.
“Yes,” Elaine decides. “We can share it.”
Marvin smiles at her. “Okay,” he says. “Thanks!”
Holding the black thing with two of his legs, he crawls out of the house, through the cupboard, and into the quiet kitchen.
It takes a long time to get to James’s room because the black thing is heavy, and Marvin has to crawl with only four legs.
When he gets to James’s room, he sees that James is still reading his book. Marvin crawls across the blue rug and up the leg of the desk. It’s hard to crawl up the desk!
He keeps slipping.
And once he almost falls.
Finally, Marvin makes it over the edge, dragging the black thing with him. He puts it in the middle of the desk. Then he runs toward James.
James looks up from his book.
“Hi, little guy! How’s your friend? Is he feeling better?”
James drops his book on the bed and sits up. Marvin runs over to the black thing and taps it with his front legs.
“Hey!” James says. His whole face breaks into a smile. “My shark tooth!”
So that’s it—a shark tooth! Marvin knows about sharks because James likes to watch a television show called Creatures of the Deep. It’s about fish and animals that live in the ocean. Sharks are the scariest of all.
And this sharp little black thing is the tooth of a shark. Marvin can hardly believe it.
James reaches for the shark tooth. “I thought I lost it,” he tells Marvin. “I can’t believe you found it! It’s from the beach when we were on vacation. I brought it back in my suitcase, but then I must have dropped it.”
Marvin beams up at him.
James holds the tiny black shark tooth under his lamp.
“You’re the best, little guy,” James says.
And Marvin is happy.
He is happy because Uncle Albert is going to be okay.
He is happy because Elaine is going to share the dime.
He is happy because he got to go collecting.
But most of all, he is happy because he made James happy … and there is nothing nicer than making your best friend happy.
About the Author and Illustrator
Elise Broach is the New York Times–bestselling author of books for children and young adults, including Masterpiece, the Masterpiece Adventures series, and the Superstition Mountain trilogy. Her books have been selected as ALA Notable Books, Junior Library Guild Selections, the recipients of two E. B. White Read Aloud Awards, and an Edgar Award nominee, among other distinctions. She lives in Conn
ecticut with her family. You can sign up for email updates here.
Kelly Murphy has illustrated many books for children, including Masterpiece, Alex and the Amazing Time Machine, and the Masterpiece Adventures series. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island. You can sign up for email updates here.
Praise for Previous Books by Elise Broach and Kelly Murphy
Praise for The Miniature World of Marvin and James, Book One of the Masterpiece Adventures:
“[A] winsome series debut … a sweet story of cross-species friendship.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Just right for a younger crowd.… Despite the simplicity of Broach’s pared-down sentences, the story brims with both emotion and moments of quiet wisdom.”
—Publishers Weekly
“New readers will be rewarded for the effort by this page-turning adventure, which is written throughout with emotional authenticity and illustrated with lively pen-and-ink illustrations in a brown and gray palette, ending with a very satisfying conclusion.”
—The Horn Book
Praise and awards for Masterpiece:
A New York Times Bestseller
An ALA Notable Book
Winner of the E. B. White Read Aloud Award
A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year
A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Selection
A CCBC Choice
A Junior Library Guild Selection
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
Collecting
CHAPTER TWO
Something Good
CHAPTER THREE
Uncle Albert in Trouble
CHAPTER FOUR
James to the Rescue!
CHAPTER FIVE
Uncle Albert Gets Better
About the Author and Illustrator
Praise for Previous Books by Elise Broach and Kelly Murphy
Copyright
Text copyright © 2015 by Elise Broach
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Kelly Murphy
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publishers since 1866
Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
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All rights reserved.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Broach, Elise.
James to the rescue / Elise Broach; illustrated by Kelly Murphy.
pages cm. — (The masterpiece adventures; book 2)
“Christy Ottaviano Books.”
Summary: “Marvin the beetle is going collecting with his family. All is good and well until Uncle Albert gets hurt. Marvin needs his human friend James’s help to save Uncle Albert before it’s too late”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-62779-316-2 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-62779-317-9 (e-book) [1. Beetles—Fiction. 2. Human-animal relationships—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Collectors and collecting—Fiction. 5. Rescues—Fiction.] I. Murphy, Kelly, 1977– illustrator. II. Title.
PZ7.B78083Jam 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014042196
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First hardcover edition 2015
eBook edition October 2015
eISBN 9781627793179
Elise Broach, James to the Rescue
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