by David Lubar
“Stop that!”
Rex sat at the edge of
the hole. He was panting
with that dog expression
that looks kind of like a
smile and also kind of
like he has a stomachache.
I rushed over to rescue Willow. But Rex
began to dig again. A moment later, Willow
leaped out of the hole and started to lick
herself clean.
Great. Most cats get hair balls. My cat is
going to cough up mud balls.
Rex walked to a different part of the
yard and started to dig another hole. Willow
followed him. So did I.
I couldn’t stand all the strangeness. I had
to do something.
Anyone who’s ever been on a merry-go-
round knows how slowly it turns when you
stand at the center. The farther out you go,
the faster things spin. My brother, my sisters,
my pets, and my friends were standing far
from the center, way out in the Looniverse.
They’d always been strange, but now it was
like they were clinging to the very edge, with
their feet flying in the air. I was in the center,
the only normal person of us all.
After Rex finished digging, I waited until
he picked up Willow. Then I tossed the coin
into the hole.
Rex instantly dropped Willow.
“Good boy,” I said.
Rex started to fill the hole. I went to check
my fish. They were swimming around like
normal. Burying the coin seemed to have
worked.
Just to be safe, I went
out back to make
sure the coin
was still
buried.
When I got there, I found Sarah Beth,
Derwin, Libby, Quentin One, Moose, and
Mouse all there. They stopped talking the
instant they saw me.
Now I really felt left out. “What’s going
on?” I asked.
“We want to talk to you,” Sarah Beth said.
“Right now,” Moose added.
I felt a ripple in my stomach. I’d never
seen them look so serious.
“What do you want to talk about?” I asked.
They stood there, looking at one another,
and at the ground, and at the clouds — but
not at me. What could be so terrible that they
were afraid to tell me? I wondered.
chapter
10
STRANGE
TRUTHS
Finally, Derwin stood on his tiptoes and
whispered something to Moose. Then Moose
stepped forward.
“Well,” he said, “we wish you’d try to be a
little less strange.”
“Me?” I asked. I couldn’t have been more
surprised if he had told me there was a
kangaroo on my head.
“You,” Moose said.
“What are you
guys talking about?”
I asked. “There’s
nothing strange
about me. Right
now, I’m the only
normal person
around here.”
“No way,” Moose said. “Strange stuff
happens when you’re around.”
“It sure does,” Libby said. “After you read
that story to me, all those mice showed up.”
Mouse nodded. “I got stuck in the air
when you came over.”
“I got the strangest twisty feeling when I
rode my bike past you,” Quentin One said.
“You’re the one who told me about the
thousand words,” Derwin said. “My hand
still hurts!”
“I only have trouble with my food when
you’re at dinner,” Sarah Beth said.
“Things have always been a little strange
around you,” Moose said. “But they seem
to be getting even stranger lately.”
“Definitely stranger,” Sarah Beth said.
“Stranger for sure,” Derwin said. I felt
like I’d been punched in the stomach. How
could they blame me for the way they had
been acting? “This isn’t fair,” I said. “And I
don’t like the way you’re ganging up on me.”
“Look,” Derwin said, “all we’re asking is
that you try to be a little more normal.”
“Think about it,” Moose said.
I watched, shocked and hurt, as all the
two-legged creatures left the backyard. I went
up to my room, alone, and thought about
everything.
If I did nothing, and let the coin fade
without giving it to the Stranger, I would
remove all strangeness from the world.
Was that what I wanted?
I thought about how both
Derwin and Moose had
shouted, “What a great
idea!” I thought about all the
wonderful paintings, movies, and
books that must have started out
as strange ideas. Did I
want a world without any
strangeness?
No!
I ran out back, grabbed
a shovel, and dug up the coin.
STRANGER
FOR SURE
GETTING
EVEN STRANGER
LATELY
DEFINITELY
STRANGER
When I saw it, my heart sank. The face
was smooth and blank. I looked closer, but I
could barely make out the “r” in “stranger.”
I needed to give the coin to the Stranger
immediately. But I still don’t know who it is.
“Think!” I told myself.
I remembered Mr. Sage’s words. Let your
experiences guide you.
I thought about my experiences since I’d
found the coin. Derwin made a saying become
real. Sarah Beth’s train moved. Libby’s mice
showed up. Moose got a swell idea. Mouse
lifted himself. My pets acted weird. Then
everyone blamed me for their strangeness.
Their words echoed through my mind:
It all fell together. I finally knew who the
stranger was!
I thought about Derwin’s pencils. A sharpener
makes things sharper. A sweetener makes
things sweeter.
The Stranger makes things stranger!
“Could it be?” I whispered. Am I the
Stranger?
chapter
11
NORMALLY
STRANGE?
But if I was the Stranger, why were the
words fading?
I realized there was one more thing I had
to do.
“You’re mine,” I
whispered to the coin.
The silver coin glowed
like the moon. The
words rose up, solid
and bold. I watched
the sky as the moon
rose and fell.
This time, I knew it wasn’t my imagination.
And I knew that strangeness was no longer
in danger of fading away. I smiled, knowing
I’d made the right decision.
The sad part was that my friends and
family wouldn’t want me around anymore. I
wasn’t sure I’d be able to get used to that.
Far off, I heard an ice-cream truck.
Maybe a strawberry ice pop would cheer me
up. I w
ent around to the front yard. Derwin,
Moose, and the others were standing there,
waiting for me. Quentin One was gone, but
Quentin Three was there on his skateboard.
“We’re sorry about what we said,” Sarah
Beth told me.
“It’s pretty boring when you’re not
around,” Moose said.
“Very boring,” Derwin agreed. “Nothing
fun happens.”
“So you want me around again?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” they all said.
“That’s great!” I said. The music of the
ice-cream truck moved closer.
“Buy me an ice cream,” Libby said.
“MONEY DOESN’T GROW ON TREES,”
I told her.
“Maybe it grows under them,” Derwin
said.
“Let’s see.” Mouse lifted up an oak tree
and looked under it.
“Hey, I found a dollar bill,” said Derwin.
I felt a small tingle of excitement. My
words had caused the strangeness. Could I
learn to control my strange new power?
Derwin scooped up the dollar and held it
out. When the ice-cream truck drove past
us, the driver handed
Derwin a cone. He took
the dollar without even
stopping.
“Your cone looks
like a rocket ship,”
Sarah Beth said.
She grabbed the
ice-cream cone from
Derwin and turned it
upside down. It shot
up into the air. I felt
another tingle. I guess
I’d helped make her
imagination do strange
things.
“I’ll get it,” Mouse said. He took off,
running so fast his feet didn’t touch the
ground.
Quentin Three chased after him. The
wheels fell off his skateboard, but he kept on
going.
“Read me a story?” Libby asked.
“Sure,” I told her. “Go pick a good one.
No mice, this time. And no snakes or giant
spiders, either. Okay?”
“Okay.” She ran toward the house. Halfway
there, she stopped and asked, “Dragons?”
“Only if they’re small and friendly,” I
called back. I spotted Mr.
Sage across the street. I
held up the coin in one
hand, and then pointed at
myself with the other.
Mr. Sage nodded and
smiled. Then he walked
off. But I was sure I’d be
seeing him again.
“I am the Stranger,” I whispered to
myself. I liked the way that sounded. I
thought about how I’d had to give the coin
to myself. I guess it made sense that the
Stranger would have a strange start.
It felt good to be standing in the center
of my very own Looniverse — with strange
and amazing adventures ahead of me.
Check out
the next
LOONIVERSE book!
DAVID LUBAR
is no stranger
to strangeness, having written all
sorts of weirdly funny books such
as Beware the Ninja Weenies and
Other Warped and Creepy Tales. He
has a girl cat with a boy’s name,
a left-handed guitar, and a small
collection of plush arachnids. He sometimes uses
a big word like “arachnid” when a small word like
“spider” would work just fine, but he’s basically a nice
guy otherwise. Though he grew up in Morristown, NJ,
and now lives in Nazareth, PA, he makes frequent visits
to the Looniverse to snatch ideas from Ed and the gang.
MATT LOVERIDGE
and strange are
old friends — they go way back. Right
from birth there have been strange
coincidences in his life. When he was
born he weighed 13 pounds, he wears
size 13 shoes, and to top it all off he’s 13 feet
tall. Okay, maybe he’s not 13 feet tall, but he is the tallest
little brother in his family. Now that he’s all grown up, he
likes hiking, biking, and drinking milk from the carton.
He lives in the mountains of Utah with his wife and kids,
and their black dog named Blue.
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