The Fairy Swarm

  Pearl whipped around. Victoria’s frizzy pigtails bounced as she rushed toward them. Pearl was so furious her face went as red as Victoria’s overalls. “What are you doing?”

  Victoria skidded to a stop. “How come you’re out here? Officer Milly said we couldn’t go outside until the Town Hall bell rang.” She put her hands on her hips. “Are you going to meet the dragon? I want to meet it, too.”

  “We’re not meeting a dragon,” Ben insisted. “We’re out here because…” He paused for a moment, gathering a story. “We’re out here because I lost my inhaler, which I need in case I have an asthma attack. Asthma attacks can be very serious, and they can be brought on by stress. And this whole killer bee thing is very stressful. So I’m sure Officer Milly would give us permission to search for it. That’s why we’re out here.”

  “I didn’t know you used an inhaler,” Pearl whispered in his ear.

  “I don’t,” he whispered back. Pearl sighed with relief, happy that they didn’t have to add an asthma attack to their growing list of things to worry about.

  “Go away before you get in trouble,” Pearl said.

  Victoria leaned against the welcome sign and folded her arms super tight. “I’m not moving, and you can’t make me. I want to meet the dragon.”

  “Oh yeah?” Pearl took a step toward her. What was she going to do? Pick her up and carry her? Why was Victoria always getting in the way? Why did she have to be such a pest? They stared at each other, steely-eyed. It was like an old western movie, where the bad guy and the good guy got ready to draw weapons. Except this was Buttonville, and the only weapon Pearl had was words. Anger welled and spewed out like a volcano. “I hate you!”

  Three small words, when put together, were the most terrible Pearl had ever spoken. They echoed off the welcome sign.

  Victoria’s arms fell to her sides. She looked a bit stunned, as if someone had tossed cold water in her face. Pearl took a step toward her. “Uh, gee, I didn’t—” Pearl started to say, but that chugging sound suddenly grew louder. Ben grabbed her arm.

  “It’s coming closer,” he warned. Pearl whipped around.

  A black truck had turned off the highway and was speeding toward them. Its brightly painted logo read, BYE-BYE, BUGS.

  15

  Pearl ran into the middle of the road. Half her brain said, “Don’t do it. You’ll get flattened like a pancake.” But the other half of her brain, the half with the louder voice, yelled, “Save the fairies!”

  “Pearl!” Ben hollered. He reached out to grab her, but he wasn’t quick enough. Once she’d set her mind to something, Pearl operated on one hundred percent pure determination. Her goal—keep the exterminator from reaching Buttonville.

  The truck barreled toward her. She couldn’t see the driver’s face through the dirty, bug-splotched windshield. Headlights flashed at her. A horn blasted its warning. Despite the looming danger, she stood her ground, waved her arms above her head, and shouted, “Stop!”

  The truck veered around her. Ben and Victoria jumped aside as the truck careened over the sidewalk. Brakes screeched, and the scent of burning rubber polluted the air. The truck came to a dead stop just inches from the Buttonville welcome sign. The engine sputtered, then went quiet.

  I did it, Pearl thought, smiling at her accomplishment. But when the driver’s head popped out the window and she saw the look on his face, she wanted to run in the other direction.

  “Hey, kid, what are you doing? Are you crazy?” The door flew open, and the driver slid out. He was a very short man with thick arms like a weight lifter’s. His overalls were blue, and his name tag read BUG GUY. “Better not be any damage,” he grumbled, adjusting the pair of safety glasses that sat on his forehead. He stomped around the truck, kicking the tires and looking for dents. Then he climbed onto a rear wheel and began to inspect an odd contraption that sat in the truck’s bed. It looked like some kind of machine, with a barrel-sized clear canister, a bunch of switches and buttons, and a long vacuum tube.

  “The Vacuumator,” Ben whispered to Pearl. She nodded.

  “You have me to thank,” Victoria said proudly. “I’m the one who called him. I’m saving the day.”

  Pearl wanted to tell Victoria that she wasn’t saving the day. She was totally ruining it. But Pearl kept that comment to herself. She still felt bad about having said those other mean words.

  Bug Guy seemed satisfied that nothing had broken. He stepped off the wheel, wiped his hands on his overalls, and frowned at Pearl. “Do your parents know you’re playing in the middle of the road?”

  “I wasn’t playing,” Pearl said. “I wanted to stop you. We don’t need your help anymore.”

  “But I’m supposed to catch some killer bees,” Bug Guy said.

  “The killer bees are gone,” Ben told him.

  “Huh?” Victoria put her hands on her hips. Sunlight glinted off her blue braces as she spoke. “But we just saw them on Main Street. What makes you think they’re gone?”

  “We saw them leave,” Pearl replied.

  Bug Guy reached into his pocket. “Don’t be so sure. Killer bees are real good at hiding.” He pulled out a green licorice rope and took a bite.

  Pearl’s legs stiffened. Would the fairies smell the candy and come swarming? That would be the absolute worst thing that could happen! “Uh, I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.”

  “Why not?” Bug Guy asked.

  “Candy’s not healthy,” Ben said, stepping closer to the man. “It can cause diabetes, and obesity, and…”

  “And ringworm,” Pearl added.

  Ben gave her a weird look. “Yeah, and ringworm. Also, it can make you hyper, so you shouldn’t eat it if you’re driving and operating heavy equipment.”

  “What are you talking about?” Bug Guy spoke with his mouth full. “This is a special gluten-free, low-calorie licorice. It’s practically good for you.”

  “Does it have sugar?” Pearl asked.

  “Of course it has sugar. Wouldn’t taste good without sugar.” He took another bite. Pearl and Ben looked at the sky. Sunny and blue, with no signs of churning clouds. Not yet, anyway.

  Victoria, in her usual snoopy way, had climbed onto the truck’s tailgate and was peering into the back. “How does this thing work?” she asked.

  Bug Guy proudly puffed out his chest. “Well, the Vacuumator is my own invention. It’s patent pending.” He pointed to the glass barrel. “That’s for vermin containment and observation.” Then he pointed to the hose. “That’s what sucks up the vermin. I’ve got all different sizes of nozzles. Got one big enough for rats and bats. And got one small enough for fleas. I even got one big enough for burglars. I figure police departments all over the world will want one.” He showed her the end of the hose. “But I put on the medium-sized nozzle, which should be just right for killer bees. And this here starts the suction.” He pushed a button, and the Vacuumator started rumbling. “I’ll show you.” He aimed the hose at a pebble. In a flash, the pebble disappeared and reappeared inside the canister.

  Pearl and Ben had inched forward to see what all the fuss was about. “What do the other buttons do?” Ben asked.

  “That one is the off button. And that one spits the vermin back out, but that’s only for relocation. We wouldn’t want to relocate your swarm of killer bees. They’ll have to be destroyed, of course, to make the world a safer place.”

  “Do you have a nozzle big enough for a dragon?” Victoria asked. She beamed a wicked smile at Pearl.

  “Killer bees and dragons?” Bug Guy said with a snort. “What kind of town is this?” He took another bite of licorice. Pearl shuffled nervously. She’d never seen green licorice before. Although the sky was still clear, she was getting a very bad feeling.

  “What flavor is that?” she inquired.

  “Kiwi,” he replied.

  Both Ben and Pearl gasped.

  “You want a piece?” Grasping both ends of the rope, he stretched it until it broke. A fruity scent filled the air, follo
wed by high-pitched humming. A small cloud appeared above the tree line, swirling and churning and heading straight for them.

  “Killer bees!” Victoria screamed.

  Bug Guy dropped his licorice. “Push the button! Push the button!” he hollered as he pulled the vacuum hose out of the truck.

  “No, don’t push the button!” Pearl and Ben cried.

  But Victoria’s stubby fingers were already reaching for it, and before Pearl or Ben could stop her, the Vacuumator roared to life. Bug Guy slid his safety glasses over his eyes, raised the hose like a sword, and hollered, “Take cover!”

  While Victoria crawled under the truck, Pearl lunged at the Vacuumator, and Ben lunged at Bug Guy. But their efforts were too late. The fairy swarm dive-bombed the kiwi-flavored licorice, and with swift aim, Bug Guy sucked them right out of the air.

  “Got ’em!” he shouted, just as Pearl reached and pressed the off button. The engine shut down and the suction stopped. But it was too late. “Got every last one of them! Bye-bye, bugs!”

  Ben climbed into the back of the truck and peered into the canister. Pearl didn’t want to look. What if the fairies were hurt? What if they were…dead? She couldn’t bear seeing such horror. She closed her eyes and grimaced, waiting for Ben to deliver the news. “Are they…?”

  “It looks like they’re okay,” he reported.

  Pearl almost burst into tears. She climbed in next to him. Indeed, the fairies were flying around inside the container. They seemed a bit dazed, because they kept bumping into one another, but that was to be expected after what they’d been through. “Do you see Twanabeth?”

  “There she is,” Ben said, pressing a finger to the glass. Twanabeth had separated from the swarm and was waving and yelling at the apprentices. But without a creature calculator, they had no idea what she was saying.

  “How do we get them out of there?” Pearl whispered. The glass container didn’t have a lid or an opening, other than the one for the vacuum hose, which was attached with a metal ring and bolts.

  “If we push the relocation button, the fairies will shoot back out,” Ben suggested.

  Pearl looked over her shoulder at Bug Guy, who was wiping dirt from his licorice pieces. “But if we let them out, he’ll go after them again.”

  “Right. I wonder…” Ben rubbed the back of his neck. “The vacuum hose is pretty long. If we could get this truck to the hospital, we could push the relocation button and shoot the fairies through a window into the Fairy Lounge.”

  “Brilliant,” Pearl said. “But how—?”

  “What’s a fairy lounge?” Victoria interrupted. She’d crawled out from under the truck and was trying to squeeze between Ben and Pearl. Pearl tried to ward her off with some sharp elbow jabs, but Victoria threw her weight into the battle and broke through. “Those bees look weird.” She was about to press her face against the glass. Fortunately, Ben was quicker.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” he said, snatching her glasses off her face.

  “Hey, give those back!” she complained.

  “If you want them, come and get them.” Ben jumped out of the truck. Then he waved the glasses, trying to entice her away from the fairies. It worked. Victoria chased him around the welcome sign. Pearl stood in the truck’s bed. What should she do? She glanced through the truck’s back window. The keys were still in the ignition. Could she drive the truck to the hospital? She’d never driven before, but how hard could it be?

  “Okay, kids, time for you to run along.” With his mouth full of licorice, Bug Guy curled the hose into the truck. Then he grabbed the driver’s-side door. “Gotta take those nasty killer bees back to the shop to be exterminated.”

  Pearl needed a distraction. Something that would lure Bug Guy away.

  A yellow tennis ball rolled past the truck.

  16

  The yellow tennis ball rolled into the middle of the road, leaving a glistening trail of slobber on the pavement. Ben, who’d been wrestling Victoria for possession of her glasses, froze in a half nelson and gawked. “Uh-oh,” he said.

  Victoria broke free and grabbed her glasses from his hand. “If you scratched my lenses, I’m gonna tell my mom, and you’ll get into so much—” With her glasses back in place, she stopped talking and stared, slack-jawed, at the forest, from whence the tennis ball had emerged. Color drained from her face.

  Pearl knew, without turning around, that a pair of glowing red eyes were looking out from between the trees. She could hear the familiar thumping of a large tail. She smiled. Even if she’d gotten a wish from a genie in a bottle, no better distraction could have been conjured at that very moment.

  After quickly climbing out of the truck, Pearl ran into the road, picked up the soggy tennis ball, and threw it down Main Street.

  “What are you doing?” Ben asked with alarm.

  Although she and Ben were a team, there was no time to huddle and agree on a plan. The ball soared like a comet across the sky and landed with a thunk outside the Welcome Wagon office. It rolled past the bookstore and then the diner, and came to a stop right in front of the Dollar Store. Pearl cupped her hands and yelled, “Fetch!”

  Like an overgrown, scale-covered, fire-breathing puppy, Metalmouth bounded from the woods. “Oh goody, goody, goody,” he said, his tongue hanging out. “We’re gonna play fetch.”

  When it came to odd sightings in Buttonville, a galloping dragon certainly beat a swarm of killer bees. Buildings shook, lampposts swayed, and pigeons scattered as Metalmouth charged into town. Steam spouted from his nostrils, fogging up windows.

  Bug Guy forgot all about his job and his truck. He yanked his safety glasses off his head. “What in the blazes?” He took a few hesitant steps down the road. “Is that a—?”

  “A dragon!” Victoria said, pushing Ben out of her way. “I knew it!” She took off at a full sprint.

  “Hey, little girl!” Bug Guy called. “Maybe you shouldn’t get too close!” But he didn’t heed his own advice. He hurried after Victoria. “The other bug guys ain’t gonna believe this.”

  A fire hydrant cracked open as Metalmouth’s tail whacked it, releasing a geyser of water.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Ben said.

  “It was the only way to get rid of Victoria and Bug Guy.” Pearl jumped into the driver’s seat. She touched the key. She’d never driven anything before, not even a lawn mower, because her family didn’t have a lawn. “I don’t know what to do. Ben!”

  He snapped out of it. “I’ve only driven cars in video games,” he told her as he hurried toward the truck.

  “Then you can drive this one.” She wasn’t sure that was true, but it was worth a try. Persuading Ben to do things that made him uncomfortable had become one of her best skills.

  “But it’s against the law.” He started wringing his hands. “Ten-year-olds aren’t supposed to drive.”

  “Ten-year-olds aren’t supposed to do a lot of things, but look at us. We’re amazing!” She hoped the pep talk was working.

  Ben hesitated. “We could get into huge trouble. And I thought—”

  “Yeah, I know. I said I’m sick of being called a troublemaker, but I don’t care anymore. The fairies need our help, and that’s way more important than what people call me.”

  Up the street, the tennis ball had rolled into a gutter, and Metalmouth was trying to fish it out with one of his long claws. Victoria and Bug Guy were still mesmerized. Pearl smacked the steering wheel. “There’s no time to argue. As soon as he gets the ball, Metalmouth will run back here, and we won’t be able to get away. Come on! Drive!”

  She scooted across the bench seat. Ben climbed in and shut the door. Then, his hand trembling, he turned the key. The truck rumbled to life. Pearl glanced through the back window. The fairies were still flying around inside the canister. Ben seized the gearshift. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. Hold on.” He pushed the gear. The truck rolled forward and bumped right into the welcome sign.

  “You have to go backwa
rd,” Pearl told him.

  “I know I have to go backward,” he fumed. “I just don’t know how.”

  “Maybe there’s a button,” she suggested. They looked at the dashboard. She fiddled with every knob and switch she could find. A spray of water coated the windshield. The wipers began to swoosh. The headlights flashed. The radio blared a country song. “Where is it?”

  The driver’s side door opened, and a voice said, “Scoot over.”

  “Mr. Tabby!” both Pearl and Ben cried as they made room for Dr. Woo’s assistant.

  “We’re so glad to see you,” Pearl said. She wanted to hug him. “We’re trying to get the fairies to the hospital, but we don’t know how to drive. And we have to go before Bug Guy notices we’re taking his truck.”

  “I am well aware of the situation.” Mr. Tabby turned off the radio, the wipers, and the headlights. “Seat belts,” he instructed.

  Pearl thought this was odd, considering that Mr. Tabby hadn’t been concerned about seat belts while traveling between dimensions in the Portal. But she didn’t argue. As soon as she and Ben were securely strapped in place, Mr. Tabby grabbed the gearshift. The truck backed away from the welcome sign. Ben groaned. The word nicest was dented.

  “Mrs. Mulberry isn’t going to like that,” he said.

  Mr. Tabby shifted again and drove the truck over the sidewalk and onto Main Street. Up at the other end, Metalmouth had finally collected his tennis ball. He wagged his tail, hitting a lamppost so hard it toppled over. Victoria and Bug Guy didn’t take their eyes off the dragon, so neither noticed that the truck was on the move.

  Metalmouth, however, did notice. He looked down the street. Pearl reached her hand out the truck’s window and waved. Seeing that his fetch partners were leaving, Metalmouth took to the sky, but his escape wasn’t quick enough. Mrs. Mulberry stepped out of the Dollar Store, pointed, and screamed.

  “Uh-oh,” Pearl said.

  Ben’s knuckles went white as he gripped the dashboard. Mr. Tabby made a sharp turn onto Fir Street, leaving tire marks in the road. He might have been half cat, but he could handle the truck like a race car driver. Pearl’s stomach lurched as the truck flew over a pothole. The poor fairies didn’t even have seat belts!