Edward Lee - Monster Lake

This was all very interesting, not to mention weird, but Patricia knew she better take her pictures and get out of here. It was getting really late. So she reached up to put the yellow bottle back on the shelf and—

NOOOOO! she thought, her heart suddenly beating wildly in her chest.

The heavy bottle slipped out of her fingers and fell—

crash!

—right on the floor where it shattered into hundreds of pieces.

“Now you’ve really done it!” Patricia said aloud. “I’m going to get in all kinds of trouble for this!”

The yellow muck in the bottle spread quickly across the floor. At once, a faint creeky smell filled the room. Frantic, Patricia rushed about, looking for a mop and bucket to clean up the mess, but there were none. All she could find, in a small closet, were a few paper towels. She grabbed the towels, then immediately knelt down and started picking up the big pieces of broken glass, careful not to cut herself. And when she wiped at the gunk on the floor—more bad luck.

The stuff was staining the wooden floor yellow!

I better just leave it, she thought. Maybe they’ll think the bottle just fell off the shelf. There was no way she’d be able to clean it up properly. She put the paper towels in the wastebasket. Just take the pictures and get out of here! she thought. So she turned toward one of the shelves with the glass tanks, raised the camera, and—

thunk!

Patricia froze.

thunk! she heard again.

Her heart beat violently against the inside of her chest. What was that noise?

Then she looked down, and her eyes went wide as big silver dollars.

The yellow gunk on the floor, she saw now, was seeping down through the cracks in the trapdoor! And the trapdoor—

thunk!

—was where the thunking sound was coming from!

But then came another sound, a much louder one:

Ka-CRACK!

Patricia shrieked to herself. The trapdoor slammed up an inch with the sound, and that’s when she realized the most frightening thing of all—

Something’s under that door, and it’s trying to get out!

And when she heard the sound again—

Ka-CRACK!

—the padlock broke off, and the trapdoor violently flew open, and Patricia thought her heart would stop when she saw what was now climbing up into the room…

««—»»

“Oh, I’m sorry, Terri, but Patricia can’t come to the phone now,” Patricia’s mother said. “She’s not feeling well.”

Terri’s eyes thinned as she held the phone to her ear. She’d dialed Patricia’s number right after breakfast, remembering their plans to go to the town library.

“What’s wrong?” Terri asked. “Is it her knee?”

“No, we don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Patricia’s mother worriedly replied. “We couldn’t get her out of bed this morning. We think she may have come down with the flu. The doctor’s coming over shortly. Why don’t you call back this afternoon? Maybe she’ll be feeling better then.”

“Okay,” Terri said. “’Bye.”

Terri hung up, raising an eyebrow. That’s funny, she thought. Yesterday Patricia had had to go to the hospital to get stitches in her knee, and today she’d caught the flu. She didn’t look sick when I saw her last night. She looked fine.

Oh, well. There was nothing Terri could do about it. She hoped Patricia would get better soon, but it was still disappointing because Terri was looking forward to going to the library with her today, to find out more about those words. Now, she’d have to go by herself.

“Hi, honey,” her mother said, walking into the kitchen.

“Hi, Mom,” Terri replied but then paused. Her mother was dressed in jeans and an old blouse, not one of the usual dresses she wore to work. “How come you’re dressed like that, Mom?”

“Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you, but I won’t be going to work today.”

“Your mother’s taking the day off, Terri,” her Uncle Chuck said, coming into the kitchen himself. “But we’ll both be working down in the boathouse most of the day.”

As usual, Terri thought.

“It’s for that special project I’ve told you about,” her mother added.

Yeah, right, Terri thought sarcastically. “What kind of project is it, exactly?” she asked.

Uncle Chuck and her mother looked at each other, as they had many times in the past.

Like they were hiding something.

“Never you mind about that,” her uncle cut in. “It’s complicated stuff that you wouldn’t understand. Say, aren’t you going to the library with Patricia today?”

“No, I’ll have to go by myself,” Terri said. “Patricia’s got the flu.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” her mother said. “We’ll get pizza tonight for sure, okay?”

“Great!” Terri said enthusiastically. It would be the first time in months that they’d had dinner together.

“Well, have fun at the library,” Uncle Chuck said. “Remember to be home before dinner time.”

“Okay,” Terri said.

Then her mother and uncle, both toting the familiar black briefcases, went out the back sliding door and walked down to the boathouse.

Terri frowned after them. Why would her mother be taking a day off work only to spend the entire day working with Uncle Chuck in the boathouse? And it was weird the way Uncle Chuck had cut Terri off when she’d asked about this “special project.”

Things are just getting weirder and weirder, Terri thought. But at least there was one good thing: they’d be having pizza together tonight, and that was something they hadn’t done in a long time. It would make things feel more like a family for a change.

She took her piece of notebook paper and left the house, walking down the street. The day was so beautiful—bright, warm, and sunny—it was hard to believe how weird things seemed at night, how unreal and scary.

It didn’t take her long to get to the town library; it was just a short walk. The air-conditioning momentarily chilled her when she entered the narrow-windowed, gray-brick building. It didn’t look like many people were here right now, probably because it was still pretty early. Mr. Seymour, the librarian, said hello to her when she passed by the check-out desk. Terri returned the greeting and went on her way. One of the library’s wings, called the Natural Science Wing, was devoted completely to science, zoology, and biology books, and this was definitely where she’d be able to find out more about the words she’d found in her uncle’s briefcase. She walked directly to the wing, but then stopped in her tracks.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she moaned out loud.

The wing’s doors were locked, and there was a sign which read: WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE BUT THE NATURAL SCIENCE WING IS CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS. THE WING WILL REOPEN IN TWO WEEKS.

Terri couldn’t believe her luck—it just got worse and worse, didn’t it?

I can’t wait two weeks! she thought. She had to find these things out now. Mumbling to herself, she walked back to the check-out desk. Maybe Mr. Seymour could help her.

“Excuse me, Mr. Seymour,” she asked. “But I need to know about these words, and the Natural Science wing is closed.”

Mr. Seymour was sort of tubby, and he was always reading poetry books behind the desk. He was nice to all the town kids, and he always went out of his way to help people out with their school assignments or whatever they needed to look up. He wore glasses and had long brown hair in front that sometimes hung in his eyes. “Yeah, I’m afraid so, Terri,” he said. “Each year we have one section of the library repainted and recarpeted, and this year, the Natural Science section was on the list. They always do it late in the summer because that’s when we have the fewest people in.” He leaned over the desk, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and took the piece of paper from her. “Hmmm, what have we got here?” he said and began reading the words on the paper. His forehead seemed to crunch up as he read. Then he said, “Well, these are some mighty sophisticated words for a twelve-year-old. Do you know what genetics are?”