CHAPTER 8

SAVED BY THE BELLE

The eye quickly disappeared, but I could hear whatever it was moving around on the other side of the fence.

I flung my backpack over my shoulder and ran across the yard. With a tug, I yanked open the back door and raced through my house. I placed my backpack behind the couch and dashed out the front door.

I ran through my front yard toward Janae’s house.When I got to the side of her driveway, nobody was there.

I pretended for a second that it had just been Janae looking at me. I mean, maybe she likes me and just wants to get a secret glimpse.

Sadly, I knew that wasn’t the case—the eyeball had been much bigger than Janae’s. In fact, if she really were that big and scary, I don’t think I would feel the same way I do about her.

I ran over to Trevor’s house to tell him about the eye. As I was running up to his front door, Trevor sprang out and we collided.

We both went down hard. I twisted my right leg, and Trevor’s glasses flew off and hit the ground. To make things worse, as I was getting up, I stepped on them.

Trevor picked up his broken glasses, told me to hold on, and then went back inside. When he came out again, he was wearing his scratched and ugly backup pair.

I was familiar with Trevor’s backup glasses. He had worn them a short while last year after he had sneezed so hard that his regular glasses flew off and into the street, where a car drove over them.

The reason Trevor had been running out the door was because he thought he had figured out how to get Hairy to snap out of the spell. When Trevor asked me why I had been running, I told him about the strange eye staring at me through the wall.

The eye story made Trevor a little uneasy. Trevor liked mysteries and excitement, but he preferred them to come in book form. A strange peeper peeping into my backyard felt like the beginning of something sinister.

We returned to my backyard, and I showed him where the eye had been spying on me. As I was talking I heard the noise again.

I normally wouldn’t be freaked out because I don’t really believe in things like zombies, but it wasn’t very long ago that I didn’t believe in creatures like Wonkenstein and Potterwookiee either.

The sound of someone moving along the outside of the wall grew louder. The noise stopped, and both Trevor and I held our breath. We could hear a scraping noise and then a dark shadow rose up over the back wall and jumped down. It was Wilt.

Wilt loved to call me Dumbo. Years ago he discovered that my middle name was Columbo. And since Dumbo rhymed so well, that’s what he usually called me.

Wilt punched his fist into his palm and growled. Even though it was my yard, I felt like I had just been busted and now needed an excuse to be out there.

Even Wilt wasn’t dense enough to buy that excuse. Trevor told him we were playing hide-and-seek and then closed his eyes and began to count.

Unfortunately, when Trevor opened his eyes, Wilt was still there.

Wilt stepped closer to both of us and looked me in the eye. I tried not to shake, but I was so nervous my hands were sweating.

I looked over at Trevor in his backup glasses. Amazingly, he wasn’t frightened of Wilt. His mom and dad had taught him all sorts of things about personal safety and being cautious. If he were an action figure, he’d be something boring like …

Trevor didn’t fear bullies. His mom had always told him that they were nothing but …

So Trevor wasn’t scared, and he was now saying things to Wilt that sounded just like his mom.

I put my hands over my face and wished I were dead. I couldn’t even look because I was scared Trevor might be trying to hug Wilt.

Wilt said something about how I had actually “given” my bike to him. He then demanded to know what we were being so secretive about back here.

Once again, Trevor was messing things up. Plus, his backup glasses made it hard to take him seriously. Wilt stepped closer and punched his right fist into his left palm. For a second, I thought about just beating myself up to get it over with. Wilt opened his mouth, laughed, and then said to me …

I suddenly wished I had a lightsaber. Wilt probably would have made good on his threat if it hadn’t been for my sister. Libby came out into the yard to get her camera and pictures. She didn’t know Wilt, so naturally she assumed he was a thief who was there to steal the pictures she had taken of herself.

Wilt wanted nothing to do with Libby and her screaming. He scrambled back over the fence. Libby grabbed her stuff and stormed inside without saying another word. And just like that, Trevor and I were alone again.

We went inside, and I retrieved my backpack from behind the couch. Both of us then went into the garage. Trevor filled me in about the “undoing” spell he had found in Harry Potter. It was in the first book, and I was mad that I hadn’t spotted it myself. I propped Hairy up on my dad’s old golf clubs, took his wand from his hand, and repeated the words Trevor thought would work.

The tip of Hairy’s little wand burned red, and a small spark shot out. Hairy started to shake, and his eyes blinked and rolled back into his head. His feet jiggled and then, while belching, his body jerked upward. He jumped down off of the golf clubs and wiggled his arms.

Trevor and I clapped and cheered. I thought Hairy was going to thank us for freeing him, but instead he said …

Hairy also made a few remarks about how dumb a hiding place the beanbag had been. I apologized, and Hairy explained how he had accidentally put himself under the spell while trying to fight off that owl. I apologized a second time for not being a better reader and figuring out how to free him sooner.

The three of us hung out in my bedroom for the rest of the afternoon. Hairy really wanted to know what house he was in. When I told him “mine,” he laughed. It turned out he was talking about a different kind of house, the kind you’d find at Hogwarts. Well, that would take a sorting hat, and since I didn’t have a real sorting hat, I had to improvise.

Trevor was pretty pleased that Hairy was there. He had liked Wonkenstein, but he seemed even more fascinated with Hairy. There was something odd and almost hypnotizing about the creature. The way he moved and spoke was cool. While we were studying him, my mom knocked on my bedroom door. Trevor shoved Hairy up the front of his shirt to keep him hidden.

Mom opened the door and stared at Trevor. She seemed more interested in his ugly glasses than in what was under his shirt. She informed me she was taking Libby and Tuffin shopping.

My mom stared at us and looked like she wanted to say something, but instead just shook her head. Trevor’s stomach growled.

My mom told us there was bread in the bread box and suggested we make some sandwiches.

Trevor and I watched out my bedroom window until we saw her drive off with my brother and sister. Trevor took Hairy from under his shirt and handed him to me. Hairy hung on my arm smiling.

It was not the smartest question to ask, seeing as how I knew he hadn’t eaten anything for a while. Hairy made me feel better by asking Trevor something stupid.

Trevor explained his glasses as we all headed to the kitchen to make something to eat.

I had never met Trevor’s aunt, but if those had been her glasses, she probably wasn’t.