Josh turned and started running for his life.

“Stop!” a girl’s voice shouted.

Josh stopped so suddenly he lost his balance. He fell forward, rolling onto the scratchy brown grass. Before he could scramble to his feet, the massive beast was there, its head right in front of Josh’s trembling face. It glared at Josh through small, glowing yellow-brown eyes. Josh braced himself for the crunch of his nose being ripped from his face. He closed his eyes and held his breath.

One second passed. Two.

Fffffffttttt!

Something soft brushed against his cheek. Josh opened one eye.

Ffffftttt!

A long skinny tongue — bubble-gum pink and forked at the end — came shooting out of the beast’s mouth.

The tongue felt surprisingly soft on Josh’s skin, like a feather.

The lizard batted its eyes at Josh.

Hello, friend, it seemed to say.

A girl with a curly brown hair came running up to Josh. He recognized Holly from the photo Mom had shown him. She was barefoot and wearing faded cutoff shorts and a T-shirt with a panda on it. A little red feather poked up from her hair.

Definitely a different type than Josh.

“Sorry,” she said, smiling, as she caught her breath. “I doubt she would have bitten you. Savannah monitor lizards are usually pretty calm. But you never know.”

Josh eyed the creature as he slowly stood up.

“I’m Holly.” She grinned. “In case you hadn’t figured that out.” She pushed a curl away from her bright green eyes and pointed to the lizard. “And this beauty is Bubbles.”

Bubbles?

And it dawned on Josh.

“That’s … your … pet?”

COOL!

Wait until Greg and the guys heard about this. Dad had to buy Josh one! He’d name his giant lizard LeBron and take it on walks. Everyone at home would freak! Maybe Holly was cooler than he’d thought.

“No, no, no,” Holly said, shaking her head. “Bubbles is not my pet. Nobody should be allowed to keep these amazing wild creatures as pets.”

“So … where did you get her?” Josh asked.

“Someone bought her as a pet, then probably abandoned her in the forest,” Holly said, looking sadly at Bubbles. “She would have died — lizards can’t survive the winters here. But luckily someone found her and knew to call us. We run a little reptile shelter here, with a few of our friends.”

A reptile shelter in their home?

Josh couldn’t imagine that happening back in New Jersey.

“The animal shelter in town accepts dogs and cats, but not reptiles,” Holly explained. “So we take them in — as long as they’re not venomous or aggressive. We take care of them until we can find them good homes, like a wildlife refuge, or a zoo where they treat the reptiles really well.”

That’s a little … weird, Josh thought, but pretty nice, too.

Holly told Josh that monitor lizards like Bubbles were native to Africa and Indonesia. “They shouldn’t be living anywhere near here,” she said. “But you can buy pretty much anything online these days. Pythons, monitor lizards, anacondas. It’s crazy. People don’t realize that little pythons can grow to be twenty feet long, and cute baby lizards grow up to look … like Bubbles.”

Bubbles lifted her head a little higher.

Aren’t I gorgeous? she seemed to say.

Josh brushed his fingers across Bubbles’s head, expecting it to be all slick and slimy. But her skin felt warm and surprisingly smooth, like an old football.

Fffffffttttt! She gave Josh another kiss, this time on his calf.

They walked toward the shade as Holly chattered away about different kinds of monitor lizards. This girl could talk. At least what she was saying was pretty interesting.

“Some monitor lizards are really aggressive,” she went on. “But savannahs like Bubbles are calm. And super smart.”

“Do you have other reptiles here right now?” Josh asked, looking around hopefully.

“Right now just Bubbles … and King Kong. He’s a Burmese python.”

“Those giant snakes?” Josh said.

Holly nodded. “He’s about twelve feet long. Do you want to meet him?”

“Yes!” Josh said.

Bubbles scuttled behind them on her stubby legs, sticking close to Josh like a golden retriever. A golden retriever with scales. And a forked tongue. She was kind of … cute?

“She likes you,” Holly said.

Pretty cool, Josh thought. Nobody would mess with a kid with a giant lizard as a friend.

They walked past a big vegetable garden and into a small garage.

Holly pointed out Bubbles’s enclosure in the back. It was a fenced-in area covered with sand, with branches and rocks and one of those plastic kiddie pools in the corner.

Across the garage was another enclosure, blocked off by a tall plexiglass gate.

“This is King Kong,” Holly said, waving to the huge green-and-gold snake stretched across a log.

Josh took one look and nearly puked. Half the snake’s skin was peeling off, like an old sock!

“What’s the matter with him?” Josh gasped.

“Oh, he’s just shedding his skin,” Holy said. “All reptiles do it. Soon the old skin will come completely off. The skin underneath will be nice and healthy.” She looked at the snake like she understood exactly how it felt. “It’s not easy, though.”

Josh made a face. He was glad he didn’t have to shed his skin.

A minute later, Mom appeared with a tall woman wearing purple glasses. She had curly hair like Holly’s, except with a few streaks of gray. Nicole, Josh realized.

“There you are!” Nicole said, rushing over to Josh. She put an arm around him and grinned like they’d known each other forever. Mom was smiling, too — for the first time in days.

“Nice to meet you, Nic — Aunt Nicole,” Josh decided. He knew they were technically cousins. But Nicole was pretty old, like Mom. At least forty. “Aunt Nicole” seemed right.

Josh’s stomach let out a loud gurgle.

“Oh! You must be hungry!” Aunt Nicole said.

“Which is good,” Holly said. “Because my mom’s been baking for you for two days.” She rolled her eyes and Josh laughed.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d like brownies or muffins or chocolate chip cookies,” Aunt Nicole said to Josh. “So I made them all.”

“Awesome,” Josh said. “Thanks!”

Josh looked around. This place was definitely a little … different.

But for the middle of nowhere, it didn’t seem so bad.