فصل 10

Monster Blood 2 - Chapter 10

Evan swung the paper bag behind his back.

Conan lumbered toward them over the tall grass. His eyes were narrowed menacingly at Evan.

How long has he been hiding there? Evan wondered. Did he hear us talk about the Monster Blood? Is that why he wants the bag?

“Hi, I’m Andy,” Andy chirped brightly. She stepped in between the two boys and flashed Conan a smile.

“Andy is a boy’s name,” Conan said, making a disgusted face. He turned his hard stare on her, challenging her.

“And what kind of a name is Conan?” Andy shot back, returning his stare.

“You know me?” Conan asked, sounding surprised.

“You’re famous,” Andy replied dryly.

Conan suddenly remembered Evan. He stuck out his big paw. “I’ll take the bag now.” “Why should I give it to you?” Evan demanded, trying to keep his voice calm and steady.

“Because it’s mine,” Conan lied. “I dropped it here.”

“You dropped an empty bag here?” Evan asked.

Conan swatted a fly from his blond hair. “It isn’t empty. I saw you put something in it. Hand it over. Now.” “Well… okay.” Evan handed him the paper bag. Conan eagerly reached inside.

His hand came out empty.

He peered inside the bag. Empty.

He stared hard at Andy, then at Evan.

“I told you it was empty,” Evan said.

“Guess I made a mistake,” Conan muttered. “Hey, no hard feelings. Shake.” Conan reached out his big right hand to Evan.

Evan reluctantly stuck out his hand.

Conan slid his hand over Evan’s and began to tighten his grip. Harder. Harder.

Evan’s fingers cracked so loudly, they sounded like a tree falling!

Conan squeezed Evan’s hand harder and harder until Evan screamed in pain. When Conan finally let go, the hand looked like a slab of raw hamburger.

“Nice handshake you got there!” Conan exclaimed, grinning.

He snapped his finger against Andy’s nose, then headed off quickly toward the street, taking long strides, laughing to himself.

“Great guy,” Andy muttered, rubbing her nose.

Evan blew on his hand, as if trying to put out a fire. “Maybe I can learn to be left-handed,” he murmured.

“Hey—where’s the Monster Blood?” Andy demanded.

“I—I dropped it,” Evan replied, still examining his hand.

“Huh?” She kicked away a clump of weeds and stepped over to him.

“I thought I could shove the can into my back jeans pocket while Conan was talking to you,” Evan explained. “But it slipped out of my hand. I dropped it.” He turned, bent over, and picked it up from the tall grass. “Good thing it didn’t roll or anything. Conan would have seen it.” “He wouldn’t know what to do with it if he had it,” Andy said.

“What are we going to do with it?” Evan demanded. “It’s already caused us trouble. We’ve got to hide it, or throw it away, or—or—” He pulled open the lid. “Oh, wow! Look!” He held the can up to Andy’s face. The green goo had grown nearly to the top of the can. “It’s starting to grow a lot faster. I guess because we exposed it to the air.” Evan slammed the lid on tight.

“Let’s bury it,” Andy suggested. “Here. Right under this tree. We’ll dig a deep hole and bury it.” Evan liked the idea. It was simple and quick.

They squatted down and began digging with their hands. The dirt beneath the tree was soft. The hole grew deep before they had worked up a sweat.

Evan dropped the blue can of Monster Blood into the hole. Then they quickly covered it with dirt, smoothing it out until it was impossible to tell a hole had been dug.

“This was a good plan,” Andy said, climbing to her feet, playfully wiping the dirt off her hands on the back of Evan’s T-shirt. “If we need it, we’ll know where it is.” Evan’s red hair was matted to his forehead with sweat. He had a wide smear of dirt across his freckled forehead. “Huh? Why would we need it?” he demanded.

Andy shrugged. “You never know.”

“We won’t need it,” Evan told her firmly. “We won’t.”

He was very, very wrong.