by Edward Lee
Terri couldn’t look up at her Uncle Chuck. “I…,” she began, but then she paused. What could she say? It occurred to her that she could lie to Uncle Chuck, she could maybe make up a story, she could say that she heard someone down there or something like that, and that she found the boathouse door already open. Maybe he would think there were burglars or something. But Terri didn’t like to lie, she knew it was something only crummy people did, and she also knew that when you lied, eventually the lie would catch up with you, and then you’d be in even more trouble.
So instead, she did what she felt was the right thing.
She told the truth.
“I was curious,” she told Uncle Chuck. “You and Mom spend so much time down there, I was curious. And—”
Again, she hesitated. If she told him about the toad she’d seen last night, or the giant salamander, he might not believe her. He’d think she was telling lies, and that would just get her in more trouble than she was already in.
“I was just curious,” she repeated.
Uncle Chuck looked down at her. His face looked made of stone, and his foot never stopped—
tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap
“I have a mind to call your mother at work right now and tell her what you’ve done, and the only reason I won’t is because it would upset her,” he said. “She’s very busy at work, and she works very, very hard, and since your father left, she has to work even harder to pay the bills and to keep food in the refrigerator and a roof over your head. It’s not easy for her, you know, and you just make it that much harder for her when you do things like this. That’s pretty selfish of you, isn’t it? That’s pretty darn inconsiderate of you.”
tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap
“And,” he continued, “do you have any idea how disappointed she’d be?”
Suddenly there were tears in Terri’s eyes. She felt smaller than a lima bean right now. She knew her mother worked hard to keep the house and everything, and the last thing in the world Terri would ever want to do was disappoint her mother. All at once, she never felt more ashamed of herself.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed.
tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap
Uncle Chuck seemed to be cooling down a little now, though. “I want you to understand something, Terri. When your mother or I tell you to do something, or in this case, when we tell you not to do something, there’s always a good reason. And the reason is this: we told you not to go to the boathouse because it’s very dangerous for a girl your age down there. That pier is old. One of the planks could break, and you could break your ankle, or worse, you could fall in the water and drown. And there’s a lot of computers and electrical equipment in the boathouse; you could get an electrical shock and have to go to the hospital, or you could even die. Plus, there’s a lot of chemicals and things in the boathouse that are dangerous.”
Chemicals.
That reminded Terri of something. Those bottles, she thought. Those stinky bottles full of green and yellow gunk…
Was that what Uncle Chuck meant? Those tall, glass bottles she’d seen on the metal shelves?
“Anyway,” Uncle Chuck went on. “You’re going to your room now, and you’re going to spend the rest of the day there.”
Terri sniffled. “Am I grounded?”
“I don’t know, that’s up to your mother, not me. Go on now. Go to your room, and I don’t want to hear a single peep out of you, do you understand?”
Terri nodded. Then she got up from the table, her eyes still cast down to the floor, and she went to her room.
««—»»
Each minute seemed to tick by like an hour, and suddenly Terri’s room felt like a prison. I’ll go nuts cooped up in here all day long, she dreaded. Summer was almost over, and whenever she looked out her window, she could see what a beautiful day it was, and all that did was depress her even more. I could be outside playing badminton or doing something with Patricia, or—well, anything. Anything’s better than sitting in my room all day.
And, of course, once Uncle Chuck told her mother about catching her in the boathouse, she’d probably be grounded for the next week, or maybe even the next month…
And she didn’t even want to think about that.
But there were other things—scary things—that she had no choice but to think about: the toad she’d seen last night, the giant salamander, and all those other animals in the back room of the boathouse—all with long, sharp fangs.
Sitting on her bed, Terri pulled out some of her Golden Nature books. She had the whole series: Flowers, Trees, Rocks and Minerals, Mammals, Birds, and, the one she was most interested in now, Reptiles and Amphibians. These were great books that were informative and easy to read, plus they had lots of pictures; her father had given her the entire set of books as a Christmas present several years ago, because Terri had told him that she wanted to be a zoologist when she was older, just like him and Mom.
Amphibians, the book’s introduction began, are a special kind of animal that include frogs, toads, and salamanders. Amphibians are cold-blooded, which means that their body temperature varies with the weather, and they hibernate during the winter when it’s cold. Amphibians breathe air like most animals but they are unique because they can live in the water too, because that is where they lay their eggs, and they need to keep their skin wet. In fact, that is how amphibians drink water, they absorb it through their skin. Amphibians eat insects, moths, and worms…
Terri already knew this; she quickly turned through the pages to “Toads.” She wanted to double-check her facts. Maybe there were some rare kinds of toads that had fangs and ate animals instead of insects and worms.
The book also told about how toads laid eggs in ponds and fresh-water lakes—sometimes they laid as many as 20,000 eggs at a time—and that they slept during the day and only came out at night to feed. Terri already knew all about this too; this wasn’t the information she was looking for.
But then—
I knew it, she thought.
The book plainly stated that toads, however rare, had no teeth; instead, they had big, sticky tongues which shot out of their mouths to catch insects to eat. And the book also stated that American toads never grew larger than six inches long. The toad she’d seen last night was over a foot long! And so were the ones she’d seen in the glass tanks when she’d snuck into the backroom at the boathouse.
Then she turned to the “Salamanders” chapter and discovered the same thing. Salamanders never grew to be more than ten or so inches long, and Terri was sure the one she and Patricia had seen on the pier was easily three-feet in length, and the ones she’d seen in the glass tanks were huge too. And salamanders didn’t have teeth or fangs either. Like toads and frogs and all other amphibians, salamanders ate insects. In fact there was a special word for that, Terri noted. According to the book, toads, frogs, and salamanders were called insectivores, which meant that they only ate insects and worms.
But the toad I saw last night, she felt certain, was trying to eat that baby rabbit. And rabbits definitely aren’t insects! They’re mammals!
All these things, all these facts and details, only mystified Terri more. And she knew now that there was no way her eyes could have been playing tricks on her. Patricia had seen the salamander too.
Terri didn’t know what to do.
She wished she could call Patricia, but how could she? Uncle Chuck had confined her to her room all day, and he was in the house.
clack!
Terri glanced up. The sound she’d just heard was familiar, and after a moment’s thought, she knew what it was.
It was the sound of the back sliding door closing.
She went quickly to her bedroom window, which faced the back yard, and she saw—
What’s he doing? she wondered.
Her Uncle Chuck was walking across the yard.
Maybe he’s going to mow the grass, Terri considered, but that couldn’t be, could it? He’d have to go out front to the garage first, because th
at’s where they kept the lawnmower.
But then Terri saw what he was doing.
He had a briefcase in his hand, like one of the briefcases she saw him and her mother bring home every day…
So that’s where he’s going, she noticed next.
Uncle Chuck was walking toward the path, then entering the path, then disappearing into it between the trees.
The path that led down to the lake, and to the boathouse.
And that gave Terri an idea…
««—»»
You’re in enough trouble as it is, Terri reminded herself. You must be crazy to take a chance like this.
But she couldn’t help it; this was an opportunity she wouldn’t have otherwise.
Still peering out her bedroom window, she waited a few minutes, to give Uncle Chuck plenty of time to get down to the lake.
Then she left her room.
She had to be quick. Getting caught out of her room would get her in more trouble than she could even think about.
But she had to call Patricia.
She moved quickly yet quietly, back into the kitchen, keeping an eye on the big glass pane of the back sliding door so she could see if Uncle Chuck was coming back up to the house.
No sign of him.
She snatched up the phone and dialed Patricia’s number as quickly as she could—
beep-beep-beep
It was busy.
She hung up and decided to wait a few minutes, keeping her eyes glued to the path entrance in the back yard. She had no idea how long he’d be down there. Sometimes he worked in the boathouse with her mother for hours on end, and sometimes he went down there by himself for hours too. But, then again—
Maybe he’s only going down there for a few minutes, Terri considered. To check some notes or something. Or…
Here was another thought.
Maybe he’s going to the boathouse to check up behind me, to see if I touched anything, or broke anything.
But if that were the case, then why would he be taking the briefcase with him? The fact that he was carrying the briefcase seemed like a pretty good sign that he’d be down there for a while, probably several hours, as usual.
Terri scratched her chin. Another thought occurred to her. Yes, Uncle Chuck definitely caught her in the boathouse, but only in the front room. She had gotten the door to the back room closed before he’d seen her. Which meant:
He doesn’t know that I was even in the back room, she guessed. So that means he doesn’t know that I saw those glass tanks with all the big toads and salamanders in them, or those bottles of gunk, or that trapdoor on the floor with the padlock on it.
And there was one more thing. Uncle Chuck had never asked her how she was able to get into the boathouse in the first place, had he? No, Terri was sure he hadn’t, and that seemed pretty absent-minded of him. Usually, adults always asked about every little detail.
These questions itched at her, along with many others. But her biggest question for the moment was this:
What’s Mom going to say when she finds out I was in the boathouse?
But Terri pushed these questions aside, at least for the time being. She would have to worry about them later. Right now, though, her goal was to call Patricia.
Terri glanced out at the path entrance again, and didn’t see any sign of Uncle Chuck. Then she picked up the phone and redialed Patricia’s number.
It’s ringing! Terri thought.
A woman answered, Patricia’s mother. “Hello?”
“Hi,” Terri said. “May I please speak to Patricia?”
But suddenly Patricia’s mother sounded very upset, like something awful had happened. “Patricia’s not here right now,” she said, her voice shaking. “She—oh, the poor thing!”
“What?” Terri asked. “What happened?”
“Patricia had to go to the hospital—”
««—»»
The hospital!
Terri couldn’t believe it; she felt crushed. Patricia was in the hospital! When Terri asked Patricia’s mother exactly what had happened, her mother said she wasn’t sure. “She got cut very badly,” Patricia’s mother had said over the phone, still very upset. “She has to get stitches.”
And that was all Patricia’s mother had said; she had to hang up quickly because she was expecting her husband to call from the hospital, and she didn’t want to tie up the phone line.
Terri went back to her room and sat glumly on the bed. With all the bad things that had happened lately—now this. Would it ever end? For the last year, it seemed, nothing good had happened. First, her parents’ divorce, her father moving away. Then the strange way her mother had been acting, and all the extra hours she had to work, and Uncle Chuck too. Then the big toad with teeth, and the salamander, the strange glass tanks she’d seen in the boathouse, and all the other weird things that had been going on. And now this—
Terri’s best friend had gotten hurt and was in the hospital to get stitches…
It’s not fair, Terri thought. Sometimes the world just isn’t fair at all…
She stayed in her room the rest of the day, as Uncle Chuck had ordered. All she could do was worry about Patricia. But she’d been right about Uncle Chuck. She sat looking out her bedroom window for the entire afternoon, keeping her gaze trained on the backyard. As expected, hours later, Uncle Chuck had trudged back up to the house, toting his briefcase. He’d spent most of the day working down at the boathouse.
And what bothered Terri most was that her mother and uncle must know about the giant, fanged toads and salamanders because they had so many of them in those glass tanks she’d discovered in that locked back room.
Terri strained her mind to think of a reason for this. The only thing she could guess was that her mother’s zoology laboratory must have discovered some new kind of toad and salamander that were unknown to the world until now, and that’s why they had so many of them in those glass tanks: to study them and do research on them. And some of the toads and salamanders must have gotten out of their tanks somehow and gotten into the lake.
That would explain the toads I saw in the back yard last night, Terri guessed. And the huge salamander Patricia and I saw on the pier this morning…
She only wished she could find out more, but how could she? Once her mother got home from work—and Uncle Chuck told her about how Terri had snuck into the boathouse—she’d probably be grounded. There’s no way I’ll be able to get into the boathouse again, she realized, and if there was one thing she knew, it was this:
The boathouse was the place that held all the answers.
But…
Wait a minute, Terri thought, wondering.
Those words she’d seen on the computer screen, those strange, complicated words. Plus there were the typed words on the labels that had been taped to the weird glass bottles, as well as more typed labels on the tanks. Terri had no idea what the words meant, but maybe she could look them up, couldn’t she?
I could look them up in the dictionary! she thought.
But there was one big problem with that:
She couldn’t remember the words!
She sat down at her desk, got a pad of paper and a pencil out of the drawer. She tried to remember the words, or even parts of the words. If she even remembered a part of one, she could write it down quickly, and then maybe remember the rest of it.
She stared down at the pad of paper, reaching far back in her mind, trying to jog her memory.
Jeeze! she thought in complete frustration.
She just…couldn’t…remember…the words!
Then she put the pencil down. Maybe she’d remember the words later, if she didn’t try to think about them so hard. Sometimes memories would just pop up when you least expected them to. If you tried too hard to remember something, it wouldn’t work. She’d had this problem a few times before, on school tests. When she couldn’t remember an answer to a question, she’d sit back for a moment, close her eyes, clear her mind, and then the answer w
ould come.
But when she did this now, she came up with nothing! She’d been in such a hurry when she was in the boathouse, she didn’t have time to really concentrate, and she hadn’t thought to write anything down.
What am I going to do? she wondered.
It was so frustrating. And she couldn’t ask Patricia because Patricia was in the hospital, and Terri had no idea how long she’d have to be there. She didn’t even know what was wrong with her!
And Patricia probably wouldn’t remember the words either, Terri decided in still more frustration. She probably didn’t even see them. And she couldn’t have seen the words on the labels because Patricia was never in the backroom. It was just me.
How would she ever find the answers?
thunk-thunk-thunk!
Terri nearly jumped an inch off her bed, startled. Someone was knocking on her bedroom door. Before she could even get up, Uncle Chuck’s voice announced from the other side of the door:
“Terri, Patricia’s on the phone.”
««—»»
Terri’s excitement raced through her. Patricia’s called! It didn’t mean that Patricia was out of the hospital but at least it meant that she was all right; otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to call.
“Keep it short, young lady,” Uncle Chuck said when she came out of her bedroom. “Don’t forget, you’re still being punished.”
“Okay, Uncle Chuck,” Terri peeped in reply. She raced to the kitchen, picked up the phone.
“Patricia! What happened? I called earlier and your mother said you had to go to the hospital! Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Patricia answered over the line. “I got a big cut on my knee, and I had to get stitches.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Well, not really. The doctor sprayed this cold stuff on the cut and it made my skin numb, so I didn’t feel anything. It hurt when I fell down, though.”
“What happened?” Terri asked, relieved that her friend was okay.
