by Peter Nelson
“Oh, no, he preferred his freaky little creature friends, didn’t he? Hee-hee. But he never had a head for business. Never capitalized on what he had, tsk tsk . . .” The old man’s eyes suddenly lit up. “I’ve got it! If you’re palling around with Eldon, you must know his creature, no?” Jordan hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he should answer this truthfully, but the old man raised a hand. “Come, come, or I start pressing buttons!”
“Yes, yes, okay!” Jordan shouted. “The Skunk Ape! I think I may have met him.”
“Good. All you have to do is find that smelly creature and get him to take you to the Puddle of Ripeness. Legend has it the Skunk Ape is the guardian of its source. He’ll refuse, of course. But you tell him if he doesn’t cooperate, his beloved young Keeper will die a horrible death, blah, blah, blah.” He looked down at his buttons. “I don’t know which of these it is, but one of them will do the job, I’m sure. Any questions?”
Jordan tried to think of what Eldon would want him to do. He tried to think like a real Creature Keeper. And that led him to only one question.
“Yes,” he said. “Tell me where the Loch Ness Monster is.”
“Oopsie! Wrong question! You have exactly twelve hours to bring me the Puddle of Ripeness. Good luck!”
The old man covered his eyes and hit a button. The ceiling opened above Jordan’s head as a panel beneath Jordan’s feet suddenly catapulted him into the air.
“Aaaaaaahhhh!” Jordan flew far out over the bay, landing in the water with a SPLASH! Eager to find Eldon, he resurfaced and immediately swam toward the building he’d just been ejected from. As he got closer, he heard something off in the distance and stopped swimming. A horrible thrashing sound was coming from the nearby shore. The giant bunny balloon was lying lopsided in the shallows. It had obviously slipped off the roof of the dome, and was now being violently torn to shreds. Jordan assumed they were alligators, but as he treaded water in the twilight, he got a terrible sense that it was something worse.
Suddenly, the mauling stopped. A tall, dark silhouette popped up amid the torn material. This was definitely no alligator. It stood on two hind legs and lifted its thin head up, sniffing the moonlit air. It snapped its head in Jordan’s direction, and Jordan plunged his head under the murky water, but not before he caught a glimpse of two shining red eyes, glowing in the darkness.
Jordan swam under the pitch-black water for as long as he could hold his breath, toward the opposite shore. Once safely on land, he looked back across the bay. The creature was gone, leaving the shards of white bunny balloon floating in the shallows. He turned to go, when a voice suddenly got his attention.
“WHERE IS HE?”
The voice barked from inside the camouflaged dome building. It was strong and deep, with a Latino accent. “Grimsley. Tell me where he is!”
The old man’s answer drifted clearly across the still, humid air. “There was a Grimsley here! George Grimsley’s grandson! But he’s gone now! I sent him away to bring back the Puddle of Ripeness! I thought that’s what you would’ve wanted, Señor Gusto!”
The old man isn’t Señor Areck Gusto, Jordan thought to himself.
“Please tell me my zookeeper didn’t just release a Grimsley back into the wild. . . .” The man’s voice sounded calmer now, steadier. But somehow even more dangerous.
The old man’s voice trembled as he spoke. “I—I just sent him to the Skunk Ape, to get us what we need! I ordered him to bring it directly to us. I thought it would save us the trouble—”
“You thought,” Gusto snarled. “And as a retired brain-dead bunny sitter, tell me—what made you think you could think?” There was a long silence. “You’d better hope for your sake that Grimsley’s ‘grandson’ does bring us the true Puddle of Ripeness,” Gusto said. “In fact, we’ll make sure it’s real by testing it on him first.”
“B-but, señor . . . I don’t see what good that would do. . . . Besides, you promised we’d use it on her, so I could open my crypto-zoo. We had a deal, remember?”
“That was before you let Grimsley escape. We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”
The dark, domed building went silent. Jordan replayed everything he’d just heard in his head, but couldn’t figure out what it meant. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. And his friend was caught in the middle of it. Jordan looked down, where Eldon was being held captive. He now owed it to him to get back to the great lemon tree as fast as he could, to ask Bernard and Creature Keeper central command for help, just like Eldon had suggested from the very start.
Jordan only wished he’d listened to his friend earlier.
25
Jordan slogged through the dark, mucky swamp for what felt like hours. He was exhausted, but didn’t dare stop to rest. For one thing, he didn’t want to waste a second while his friend was holed up in that horrible place. There was also the thought that wherever Nessie was, she might be in danger. Lastly, he couldn’t shake the creepy feeling that if he stopped, even for a moment, there was a very good chance something might slink, slide, or slither up his leg. Or bite it clean off.
He knew if he kept the moon on his right, he’d eventually reach Ponce de Leon Bay, where he’d find the Creature Keepers’ hidden dock and boathouse. From there he could make his way inland to the great lemon tree. The moon was playing peekaboo with him from behind the clouds—disappearing for a bit and casting him in darkness and then poking out again to splash the Okeeyuckachokee Swamp with silvery light, illuminating the stems, stumps, roots, and rocks that threatened to trip him underfoot.
He ran faster and more recklessly in the moonlight, leaping over logs and puddles of muck, ducking under low-hanging vines and briars. Only when the moon went back into hiding, casting darkness over the swamp, did he slow down, jogging along more carefully and catching his breath.
This went on for some time, until something struck him as odd. So odd, in fact, that Jordan stopped running altogether, just to stand in the darkness and listen. The swamp noises, all of them, had suddenly gone completely silent.
Jordan peered around in the darkness. The only sound was his own heart, which was beating faster than when he’d been running. He wished more than anything to hear the creepy swamp noises again. This silence was much worse.
CRACK!
A loud splintering of wood broke the silence, startling him. The moon came back out from behind the clouds, and Jordan spotted something moving far off in the distance. It lurched from shadow to shadow but was headed toward him very fast.
Jordan wasn’t going to stick around to find out what it was. He broke into a sprint, with little regard for where he was going.
CRACK! CRUNCH! Another sound of splitting wood, louder and closer. A tree crashed to his left. He glanced back and caught a glimpse of the thing leaping from tree to tree like they were monkey bars. Terrified, Jordan suddenly thought of something. He managed to reach into his pocket as he ran, and slipped the ring Eldon had given him onto his finger. He glanced down as the glass object caught the moonlight, and pressed the ruby-red bead as hard as he could. He felt it sink into the ring, then something popped. It emitted a blast of vapor with a pungent odor. Jordan’s eyes watered up at the awful, stinky mist that shot out of his ring. He wiped his eyes so he could see. What he saw, too late, was a large, thick branch, right in his path. CRACK! The sound of his head hitting solid wood was the last thing he heard before everything went black.
Jordan opened his eyes to see the sky through the treetops. He was lying flat on his back on the damp floor of the swamp, watching clouds catching and then releasing the moon, until its silver light was completely eclipsed—not by a cloud, but by something looming directly over him. It was the creature that had been chasing him. The same one he saw by the bay. The shape of its long muzzle and pointy ears was sharply outlined against the moonlit sky, and its eyes glowed red as they stared into his. It was panting through a mouthful of sharp, white teeth, and it seemed to be studying him. It noticed the thick glass ring on his finger and lifted hi
s hand in its claws. Its jowls pulled back into a horrible grin and it opened its terrible jaws. Just as it lowered its hungry mouth toward Jordan’s neck, a heavy, thundering noise approached.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-WHAM!
A hulking shadow flew into Jordan’s blurry field of vision, knocking the creature off him. Jordan heard snarling and grunting, snapped branches, and finally a loud YELP! It took all the strength Jordan could muster to lift his head and catch a glimpse of the doglike creature limping away, climbing back into the shadow of the trees. Jordan lowered his head onto the moss, and smiled. He recognized the sloppily shaven face looming over him, as well as the stinky smell that loomed with it. He shut his eyes and drifted off as he felt Bernard gather him up in his arms.
26
Jordan awoke to find himself in a cozy little bed. For a moment he thought he’d had a horrible nightmare. With some effort, he lifted his head and looked past his feet. He was in the library room, and it was packed with kids in their Badger Runt uniforms. They crowded around his bed, staring silently at him. Doris stepped forward, gently reached out toward his face—and jammed her thumb into his eye.
“Ow! Hey!” Jordan tried to pull his head away as Doris forced his eyelid open with her thumb and forefinger, but was stopped by a sharp, sudden throbbing pain behind his eyes. He suddenly remembered slamming his skull into a tree branch, and he lowered his head back onto the pillow. It hurt too much for it to have been nightmare.
“Help me up. I need to see Bernard.”
Doris didn’t help him up. She reached down and placed a large, rubber hot-water bottle over his head. It smothered him in warmth, and felt nice for a second. But he tossed it off.
“Cut that out! Did you hear me? We need to save Eldon! Where’s Bernard?”
Doris turned to the crowd. “He’ll be okay.”
“YEAAAAAAAHHHHH!” The entire Creature Keeper central-command crew erupted into cheers, hugging one another and enthusiastically shaking Doris’s hand.
“All right, everyone. Back to your stations,” Bernard’s voice sounded from behind him. “Local team, keep eyes and ears on the perimeter and inner swamp. International team, keep me posted on the water levels of the Celtic Seas in the UK.”
Everyone exited, smacking Jordan on the legs and giving thumbs-ups as they passed. Doris was the last to leave, but not before awkwardly leaning down and giving Jordan a peck on the cheek. “Glad you’re feeling better, dearie.” Then she ran out of the room.
Bernard stepped up to Jordan’s bedside. He’d shed his tight-fitting Badger Ranger uniform, and his natty, black fur was already growing back in many places. He looked awful, and yet Jordan had never seen a more welcome sight.
“Bernard,” he said. “Eldon’s okay. He’s being held hostage, but I don’t think he’s badly hurt—”
“I know,” the Skunk Ape said. “You mumbled all about it on our walk home.”
“Thank you for saving me from— What was that thing?”
“You can thank me by telling me how we can save Eldon—and what happened in Scotland.”
“Nessie’s gone. We’re not sure where. Loch Ness is going crazy.”
“Not just Loch Ness. It’s spreading to surrounding waters, too. The Irish and Celtic Seas. Without her keeping things in balance, it could spread through the English Channel, out to the North Sea, even to the North Atlantic. By then, even she might not be able to make things right.” Bernard sighed. He looked more worried and serious than Jordan had ever seen him. “There’s not much time. We need to get Eldon back. He’ll know what to do.”
“They’ll give him to us, but only in exchange for something called the Puddle of Ripeness. They said you’d know where I could find it.”
Bernard’s expression changed. “Who? Who asked you for this?”
“There’s a mystery guy,” Jordan said. “Gusto. Señor Areck Gusto. I never saw him, but he’s clearly the leader. They’re building a zoo, just up Ponce de Leon Bay. A zoo for cryptids.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad. I’d love to be able to visit a zoo.”
“No, Bernard. Not a zoo for cryptids to visit—a zoo for cryptids to be visited.”
“Oh. That’s different. And explains why they’d take Nessie.”
“The intruder who visited her cave the night she went missing, this crazy old man, left clues that led us back to the burrow of the giant jackalope. It seems Peggy’s keeper, Harvey Quisling, has abandoned her. We don’t know where he is, either.”
“Quisling. I never liked that kid.”
“We didn’t find him. At this zoo it seems to be just the old man and this Gusto guy, along with some nasty creature they keep, probably for protection. As for Nessie, Eldon says the zoo is far too small to hold her. But it’s a tricky place, with lots of surprises.”
Jordan thought back to the look of fear on Eldon’s face as he was engulfed in that brown smoke. “We’re losing time. Can you get this Puddle of Ripeness they want or not?”
Bernard seemed lost in thought. Finally he said, “I can. But I can’t.”
“What does that mean? What are you talking about? Think about Eldon!”
“I am thinking about Eldon,” Bernard said slowly. “I’m thinking about what he would do in this situation. We have to find another way.”
Jordan couldn’t believe his ears. But Bernard seemed conflicted and very worried suddenly. Jordan thought for a moment. “What was that thing that attacked me?”
The Skunk Ape got up and pulled A Field Guide to Cryptids from the bookshelf. He opened it to the very first page and handed it to Jordan. There it was again—the Latin American Chupacabra, snarling at the camera. Jordan recognized its face instantly. He slammed it shut.
Bernard took the book and set it aside. “Remember how I told you your grandfather hadn’t befriended all the cryptids he’d met over his lifetime?”
Jordan nodded.
“Well, there was only one that he actually feared. He never told me why, but after spending his whole life tracking cryptids, it seems that one of them was also hunting him.”
“But my Grampa Grimsley is dead. What would the Chupacabra want now?”
“I don’t know. But I know what it isn’t going to get.” Bernard put the book back on the shelf and pressed a panel, opening the bookcase door. “Rest up. When I return, we’ll pull together a strike force. You’re going to lead us—all of us—back to where this Gusto is holding Eldon hostage. There’ll be no exchanges. We’re going to break him out of there, and you’re going to lead us into battle.” The Florida Skunk Ape turned and lumbered out.
Jordan’s mind was reeling, but one thing was perfectly clear to him—it was his fault that Eldon had been captured, and so it was his responsibility to free him, without putting anyone else’s life in danger. To do that, he’d need this Puddle of Ripeness. And he had a feeling Bernard might lead him to it.
He threw off his covers and stood up. His head was throbbing. He looked down at the huge, rubber hot-water bottle on the floor. He squeezed the water out of it, folded it up, and walked to the bookcase. He thumped the panel and the bookcase opened.
Jordan snuck out of the Creature Keeper lair, finding his way up a winding staircase, through the knothole tree door, and finally out into the cool, swampy night air. He stopped and felt his finger. His grandfather’s ring was gone. He thought about the last place he had it and shuddered. He closed his eyes, swallowed his fear, and breathed in deeply.
Sniff. Sniff-sniff.
Standing at the base of the great lemon tree, Jordan picked up a trace of—
“Skunk Ape.” Jordan’s nose pointed him in the direction of the boathouse and Ponce de Leon Bay. With the empty rubber hot-water bottle under his arm, he began walking very carefully and very quietly, keeping his eyes on the lookout for the Chupacabra, and his nostrils on the sniffout for Bernard.
Jordan followed the Skunk Ape’s odoriferous trail toward Ponce de Leon Bay, then farther inland. As the sky began to lighten, so did
the scent, until it suddenly disappeared. Jordan stopped and sniffed in every direction, but couldn’t pick it up again. All he could smell was the warm, woodsy fragrance of a nearby cypress-tree grove growing in a tight, circular cluster.
He tried to ignore the thick, piney smell the trees gave off as he sniffed around to pick up Bernard’s scent. He was very tired and his head was still aching. He sat down at the base of one of the larger cypress trees. They were clustered together so tightly they formed a round wall. It reminded him of the base of the crypto-zoo.
He was about to stand and keep moving when he felt something shift behind him. The tree trunk he’d been leaning on was rotating. Jordan rolled behind a nearby bush and peeked out. The rotating tree turned to reveal a large, cutout doorway. Out of that doorway stepped Bernard. The Skunk Ape looked around, then lumbered off, back toward the Creature Keeper lair.
As the cypress-tree doorway began to rotate closed, Jordan had no time to think. He scurried over to the narrowing cutout and jumped through just before it disappeared. Once inside, the hollowed-out tree moved around him. When it stopped, the cutout was open again, but now facing the inner circle of the grove. There was a clear, circular path leading out from the doorway, walled by the clustered trees. The fragrant smell of cypress was overwhelming as he followed the coiled path. It led him farther and farther inward, until he came to a clearing in the hub of the cluster. He kneeled down at the edge of a small, green puddle of very stinky goo. “The Puddle of Ripeness,” Jordan uttered. He studied the thick liquid. It looked perfectly still and harmless. He dabbed it with his fingertip. It felt oddly cool to the touch. Then he lifted his finger to his nose.
“Ugh!” He flung the nasty-smelling sample off like a booger.
Thanks to the cathedral-like ceiling of cypress branches intertwined above, both the Puddle of Ripeness and its awful odor were perfectly disguised to anyone walking by outside. But up close the puddle definitely earned its name.
