by Sheila Grau
Once safely in the shadows behind the pot, he leaned on his knees and waited for his body to stop needing air so fast.
“Why did you stop?” Bonip said. “I see food in there!”
It was true; there were long yellow food sticks on the floor next to a red box, and the aroma coming out of the restaurant nearly knocked Jaq over.
He was so hungry. But he was looking at something else—a sticky blob on the ground next to him. He bent down to investigate. He gasped.
“What?”
“It’s glug! The letter was right—there are big blobs of glug all over!” Jaq’s heart leaped with excitement. “Do you know what this means?”
“It means I have to wait here while you tell me, instead of going in there and sticking my face in that red box of delicious-smelling food.”
“It means my troubles are over,” said Jaq, who was pulled out of his daydream of riches by smells so delicious, so enticing, so real that his mouth started to water. They drifted out of the store’s doorway and tiptoed right up his nose. “Okay—I’m heading for that table. We can hide behind that silver pole holding it up.”
He ran, and when he got there, he gasped again. “Look up, Bonip! It’s a glug mine. Look at all that glug!”
Stuck to the underside of the table were at least ten huge globs of glug.
“If every table has this much glug, imagine . . .”
Bonip didn’t say anything. In fact, Jaq realized that his shoulder felt lighter. He turned around and saw Bonip out in the open, eating a pale yellow stick he’d found on the floor. Jaq ran over and grabbed him by the tail, pulling him back under the table, where he wouldn’t be seen. Bonip tried to cling to his food, but it was too big for him.
“It’s delicious,” Bonip said, his face covered in crumbs.
Jaq’s growling stomach overruled his cautious brain, and he sprinted out to grab the food stick. Back under the table, he pulled off a part of the edge and sniffed it. It was a little warm, and it smelled salty. He licked it with his tongue. It tasted round. Symmetrical curves of flavor floated into each other and caressed his mouth. He took a bite, and then another. He sighed loudly. Eating was such a delightful sensation.
Together they finished off the fluffy-crunchy-salty log. They looked around for more.
“Great Smolders, I was hungry,” Jaq said.
Bonip found another log and moaned with pleasure as he ate.
But then the floor shook with tiny trembles, and a voice boomed above them. “Fiona!”
Jaq and Bonip hid behind the circular beam that held up the table. Jaq watched giant legs stride over to the entrance. He edged around the beam to keep his body out of sight. The giant pulled the glass door closed and locked it with a click.
Jaq looked at Bonip. “How are we going to get out?” he whispered.
Bonip, busy chewing, just shrugged.
“Fiona!” the giant bellowed again.
“I’m over here,” a gentler, higher voice said from the back of the restaurant.
“Fiona, it’s closing time. Quit reading and clean the tables,” the giant said. “Then mop the floor and take out the garbage.”
“Child labor laws, Uncle Gunther,” Jaq heard the giant named Fiona mutter under her breath. “I’m only twelve.”
“What did you say?” the bigger giant asked.
“Nothing.” She walked over to the counter, where the bigger giant stood. Jaq, peeking around the table support, could see both giants now.
“Listen, if your mother is going to dump you on me after school, then you’re gonna work—get it? I don’t run a day-care center here.”
“I know.”
“You should be more grateful. Without me, you and your mom would be living on the street.”
“Thank you, Uncle Gunther,” Fiona said as the other giant handed her a spray bottle and a sponge. She walked right by Jaq and Bonip and muttered, “We’re so grateful that you make us do all your chores, and charge us rent, and insult us every day.”
Jaq watched as she squirted and cleaned table after table, starting at the far end and working her way toward the long counter in front of the cooking area. She wore an apron that held some salty sticks, and every now and then she’d reach in and eat one. Two white cords dangled from her ears, and she hummed along to some music playing very faintly.
“How are we going to get out of here, Bonip?” Jaq asked.
Bonip lay in a heap. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Feel sick.”
Jaq felt panic rising inside him again. He looked from one giant to the other, trying to figure out what to do. The girl giant was coming closer and closer. The other giant stood behind the long counter at the front of the restaurant, opening the metal boxes on top of the counter and pulling out green pieces of paper. Jaq felt exposed, with only the table support to duck behind. He looked around for another hiding place.
The room was filled with tables like the one he and Bonip were under, with some booths next to the far wall. A trash-collecting receptacle with plastic trays on top stood by the door. He might be able to hide behind it, but the giants would see him if he moved.
“Hey, Fiona,” the man giant called. “Come here and look at this.”
Jaq ducked behind the support post as Fiona walked by. The man giant, Jaq could see now, was taller and much stockier than Fiona, who was neat and slender. The man looked scruffy and powerful.
“Check this out. I got it for my girlfriend’s kid at the toy shop upstairs.” He held up a fat white bird. Only it wasn’t a real bird. It was smooth and frozen, like a statue, but shiny. Jaq listened as the giant twisted something on the bottom of the animal and then set it on the counter. The bird started walking, its rigid legs making a spinning sound. And then it laid an egg. A bright blue egg.
The wonders of this planet!
The male giant thought it was hilarious.
The egg fell off the edge of the counter, bounced on the floor, and rolled toward Jaq and Bonip. Jaq’s heart hammered in fear as the girl giant walked over to get the egg.
“Leave it. It’s dirty now,” the big giant said. The girl giant shrugged and turned back to the counter.
Jaq looked at the egg. It was so close. He could tell by its expensive and beautiful smell that it was something special. The giants weren’t looking his way, so he tiptoed out and grabbed the egg.
“I knew it! It’s glug,” he whispered. “The bird laid a ball of glug. And it’s fresh glug, too.”
Bonip wasn’t listening. He had eaten too much. He leaned away from Jaq and threw up.
Jaq stuffed the giant blue glugball into his backpack. He hoped the bird would lay another one.
A shrill ring sounded, making Jaq jump. Was it an alarm? Had he triggered something when he touched the valuable egg?
The ringing stopped, but after a few seconds it started again, which distracted the man giant. He left the bird on the counter and turned toward the sound.
Jaq wondered if there were more birds like the glug-laying one on the counter. Imagine! Plenthy hadn’t been lying when he called this a land of riches.
As Jaq was thinking, the giant Fiona reached for the bird and wound it up. The bird started walking again.
“Fiona, it’s your mom,” the other giant said. “Don’t tell her you’re working, okay?”
“But I am working.”
The man giant came around the counter and grabbed Fiona by the arm. He yanked her, hard, his face boiling with anger. “I don’t need any more of your back talk, Fiona. I swear, if you don’t behave, I’ll tell my dad that your mom is stealing from me and I’m kicking you guys out of my apartment.”
“You wouldn’t,” Fiona said. “She’s your sister.”
“Stepsister. We’re not blood. I’m doing my dad a favor letting you live with me. So you’ll do what I tell you to do and not tell your mom. Got it?”
Fiona tried to pull her arm away, but that just made the bigger giant angry, and he squeezed harder. “Got it?” he repeated.
“Got it,” Fiona answered. There was so much sadness in her voice that the sound swirled like dejected brown confetti before drifting to the ground. She left the bird and walked around the edge of the counter, disappearing from Jaq’s sight. The man giant followed her.
The bird kept walking. It walked right off the counter and hit the floor.
Jaq didn’t hesitate. He ran for the bird. It came up to his waist and was very heavy, but he dragged it back under the table where they’d been hiding.
Bonip had followed him out, but then he spotted another salty stick on the floor and sat down to eat it. That stupid wipper! Jaq cursed. He left the bird behind the post and ran out to grab Bonip, dragging him back toward the safety of the table support.
“What’s this?” the man giant said. “Another rat! Fiona! Get the foam fumigator!”
“What?” Fiona called from behind the counter.
“I saw a rat scurry over there.”
“I’m on the phone, Uncle Gunther.”
“Just tell me where you left the fumigator—the foamy one. Hurry!”
“Hold on, I’m on the phone.”
“Fiona! Find the foam fumigator!” the giant bellowed. “Hey, that’s alliteration, you know.”
Fiona appeared behind the counter. “I know what alliteration is, Uncle Gunther.”
“Fiona, find the foam fumigator,” Gunther repeated. “Fee-fi-fo-fum. HA!”
“You can’t use that stuff again,” Fiona said. “It leaves a stinky film over everything. It’ll scare away the customers.”
“So do rats!” Gunther shouted. “Where is it?”
“You put it on the high shelf, remember? I can’t reach it.”
“Fine.” Gunther disappeared from Jaq’s view.
Fiona came around the counter and got down on her hands and knees. She peered under tables and behind chairs. She was coming closer. Jaq pressed himself as flat as he could behind the pole, but she was going to find him. She would see the bright white bird and find him. He looked for a place to run, wondering if he could outrun a giant. Just as he was about to make a dash for the trash receptacle, a hand reached down and closed around him, squeezing him tight.
15
VICTORY IS A GIANT PLASTIC CHICKEN FILLED WITH GLUG
Jaq felt himself raised up, up, up in the air until he was face-to-face with the girl giant. She examined him with eyes that seemed as big as his head. Jaq was sure that she was going to eat him. “You’re back! I knew you’d come back,” she said. He felt himself turned around in her grasp. “Wait—you’re not Plenthy.”
“Eeep,” Jaq squeaked.
“You’re younger,” she said. “And so skinny. Aww, you’re just a kid.”
“Eeep.”
“FEE-FI-FO-FUM!” the man giant roared. “Fiona! I can’t find it!” Jaq felt the ground rumble as the man giant searched behind the long counter. Metal smashed against metal. Jaq shook like the number 25, which is a very cowardly number.
Fiona looked at Jaq. “Where’s Plenthy? I was beginning to think I’d just imagined him.”
“Arp,” Jaq said. “Urp.”
“Hey, relax,” Fiona said. “I won’t hurt you. I’m just excited, I guess. When I told my mom I’d met a tiny little alien, she said I was making it up. Like I haven’t heard that before. And then Plenthy disappeared, and I thought, Maybe I am crazy. But you’re here now. I can show you to Mom, and then at least she’ll know I was telling the truth.”
Jaq’s head shook no while his mouth said, “Nerp.”
“You’re shaking like a leaf.”
“Home.”
“You want to go home?”
Jaq nodded.
“Well, all right, little fella, I’ll take you to your hidey-hole. Hey, you grabbed the plastic chicken. Do you want that?”
Jaq nodded.
“I don’t care if you take it. My step-uncle Gunther is the worst.” She wiped her eyes. “I hate him so much.”
Jaq pointed to the half-eaten salty stick.
“You want some fries, too?”
Jaq nodded.
“Here, have some that haven’t been on the floor.”
Jaq held his backpack open, and Fiona filled it with fries. Then she scooped up the plastic bird. Jaq was relieved that she hadn’t noticed Bonip clinging to the bird’s legs. She unlocked the front door and walked out of the restaurant and across the open area, and placed Jaq on the edge of the indoor garden. “This is where Plenthy always went after exploring in the mall. Do you know him?”
Jaq shook his head. She was so big. Terrifyingly big. Even though she sounded nice, there was no getting around that bigness.
“You’re still scared, aren’t you?” Fiona asked.
Jaq nodded. She handed him the bird and smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Jaq smiled.
Fiona smiled back. “What’s your name?”
“Jaq,” he said. “I’m Jaq.”
“FIONA!” The man giant had spotted her. He was coming toward them.
“Go!” Fiona said. “But come back and visit again, okay?”
Jaq, still stunned, managed to say, “Maybe?”
“I’ll keep an eye out for you. Be careful next time. Bye!”
Jaq rushed into the bushes and disappeared.
Squish! Yank! Spin! They zipped through the wormhole and popped back out in the cave behind the waterfall. The glow from the wormhole faintly lit the space. Jaq stumbled forward, dropping the huge bird. What did she call it? A plastic chicken? He fell to his knees and kissed the ground.
“Home,” he said. “We’re home. And safe.”
Bonip lay beside him, completely still.
“Are you okay, Bonip?” he asked.
Bonip nodded. His belly was hugely distended. “But I still feel sick.”
Oh, the relief to be back on Yipsmix! Jaq’s head immediately felt clear and sharp and focused. Unfortunately, the first thought that came to him was that he hadn’t even tried to find that Plenthy fellow who needed help. He’d just grabbed the glug and left.
“That was really scary!” he said to Bonip, but he was really saying it to himself. It had been scary, and there wasn’t anything more he could do—or was there? The girl giant knew Plenthy. She probably had a clue to his whereabouts. Maybe Jaq should go back and ask her. He looked at Bonip, still unmoving. If the little wipper was injured, maybe Jaq should take him home. Yes, that was what he should do. He would take Bonip home and then think about going back for Plenthy.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Bonip burped. “So full. Arg.”
“We have to get out of here,” Jaq said. Just being next to the wormhole was making him nervous, like it might suck him back in. He glanced at it again. Was it dimmer than when he first went through? The electric shimmer of the wormhole seemed a bit less charged. “Can you lead me past the waterfall again?”
“I’ll try. Just plop me on your shoulder.”
They edged slowly out from behind the waterfall and down the path. Soon Jaq was able to walk with his eyes open and fingers in his ears, and then they were far enough away that he could pull them out.
“Bonip, I’m really glad you came with me,” Jaq said. “I never would have gone through that wormhole if it weren’t for you. And I would have jumped right back out of there, too. The things we saw! Can you believe it? A land of giants.”
“This here is a land of giants,” Bonip replied. “Dummy.”
“You know, with all this glug, I’ll be able to buy so much food for my mom and Grandpa. They’re going to be so happy. I’ll even buy you some worms, Bonip. A whole stinking bucket of worms.”
“Don’t talk about food,” Bonip said, rubbing his belly.
“Giant pink wiggly worms.” Jaq started walking down the path. “Squishy, melt-in-your-mouth worms. Meaty, juicy, delicious . . .”
Bonip moaned, then covered his ears.
It was a long walk home, and the day was almost over. The
two moons rose over the hill as if they were glaring at the exhausted explorers. Jaq felt like they were the eyes of the sky god Smolders, judging him. Look at you with your ill-gotten riches, those eyes seemed to say, while poor Plenthy is stuck somewhere on that loud and terrifying planet.
At home, Jaq swung the gate open, and Bonip peeked out of the backpack. “Let me out here,” he said. Jaq lowered him to the ground, and Bonip ran off into the fields without looking back.
Even after his long day, Jaq got home before his mother, who was working longer hours at the hushware factory, hoping to earn the money they needed for food, now that the fields were dead. She looked so tired when she walked through the door. She just plopped right down in her chair next to Grandpa, who was asleep, and closed her eyes. Jaq got her a footstool and took off her shoes.
“Mom?” he said. “I have something to show you. Remember that key I traded Klingdux for? Well, it had a secret note inside, and a map. I followed the map, and look what I found.”
He pulled out the blue egg. It took two hands to hold it. His mother opened her eyes a crack—she was too tired to open them all the way—but when she saw what Jaq was holding, her eyes went wide.
“It’s glug,” Jaq said. “I’m sure it’s glug. And there’s more inside a giant bird I left outside.”
Jaq’s mom gasped. “Where did you find that?”
“Up by the waterfall.” Jaq wasn’t sure how much of the story he wanted to share with his mom, so he changed the subject. “Do you think we can sell it?”
His mother stood up and took the egg from Jaq. She held it carefully, turning it to examine every surface. Then she hugged it. “I can hardly believe it. It’s fantastic. Oh, Jaq, this could save us!”
“I’ll take it to the market tomorrow,” Jaq said.
“This time take your grandfather,” his mom said. “Make sure you get what it’s worth.”
