12

Pearl slept so deeply she barely moved.

But she dreamed.

Mostly of fairies—pretty little things that danced in the air and made music with their wings. They invited her to a tea party, where she sat on a gumdrop stool and ate sugar crystals from a tiny buttercup bowl. The fairies smiled sweetly at her. They offered her more sugar and put flowers in her hair. But then, just as Pearl was about to grow her own wings and start flying, the fairies began biting her all over! And they began to wail in a strange way. Wailing and biting, wailing and biting!

Pearl bolted upright, waving her arms to ward off the attacking beasts. But as the fog of sleep faded, she realized it had only been a dream. She was safe in her room. No biting.

But the wailing sound was coming from outside.

Pearl scrambled out of bed and threw back the curtains. Sunlight nearly blinded her. It’s the middle of the day, she realized. As she opened her bedroom window, the wailing sound grew louder. She leaned out to get a better view. A police car drove down Main Street, its siren blaring, and stopped outside the Buttonville Cinema. Pearl’s aunt, Officer Milly, got out of the squad car and ran into the theater. Pearl glanced at her bedside clock. 4:10 PM. The special matinee of Invasion of the Killer Bees would be playing.

“Pearl!” Ben stood on the sidewalk below.

“What’s going on?” Pearl called down to him.

“I don’t know,” he yelled. “I was sleeping, and the siren woke me up.”

“I’ll be right down.”

Ben had changed out of his pajamas, and even though Pearl didn’t want to miss a moment of excitement, she grabbed a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt from her dresser. Why was her aunt at the movie theater? And why had her parents let her sleep so long? She had work to do. She had fairies to catch!

By the time she’d dressed and run downstairs, Mr. and Mrs. Petal were standing on the sidewalk next to Ben. They both wore their Dollar Store aprons.

“Hello, sweetie,” Mrs. Petal said. “How was your nap?”

“Fine.” Pearl looked down the street. Although the siren had stopped, the red light on the police car was still flashing. “What’s Aunt Milly doing?”

“There’s been some sort of disturbance at the cinema,” Mr. Petal said. “We heard screaming.”

“Maybe the movie is too scary,” Mrs. Petal suggested.

The cinema’s front door flung open, and Mr. Bumfrickle hobbled out, moving as fast as his arthritic legs could carry him. “Killer bees!” he hollered, a wild look on his face.

He was followed by Maybell, a frequent visitor at the senior center. As she bounded down the stairs, she spilled her jumbo-sized tub of popcorn. “Outta my way!”

Mr. Dill and Mrs. Dill raced out the door, as did Mr. Filbert. “We’ve been stung!”

And then came Ben’s grandfather. He raised his cane in the air and hollered, “Oy gevalt! We’re under attack!”

“I think you’re right,” Mr. Petal told his wife. “That movie is definitely too scary.”

Pearl pulled Ben aside. “There’s a lot of sugar in a movie theater,” she whispered.

He nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

Pearl was about to suggest that they get some jelly beans, jars, and butterfly nets from the Dollar Store when she suddenly saw red. Victoria Mulberry and her mother, wearing their red overalls and red baseball caps, barreled out the cinema’s door and pushed past the elderly patrons.

“My daughter’s been stung! She’s allergic to bees! Call an ambulance! Call the National Guard!” Mrs. Mulberry exclaimed. Victoria, looking a bit dazed, rubbed both earlobes.

“Uh-oh,” Pearl said. Just a few weeks ago, Victoria had caught Troll Tonsillitis, and her entire head had swelled up like a balloon. If she was allergic to fairy bites, then her eyeballs would start to itch, and who knew what else might happen? Pearl and Ben would have to run and get an antivenom shot from Mr. Tabby. What a nuisance that would be!

“Mom, I’m not having a reaction,” Victoria said. “I’m fine. I must not be allergic to killer bees.”

Mrs. Mulberry examined her daughter’s earlobes. “Well, I still think we should call for help. This could be a matter of national security. Does anyone have the telephone number for the president?”

While Victoria and her mother argued about what should be done and who should be called, Pearl nudged Ben with her elbow. “Let’s go see if we can find the fairies,” she said.

“Okay.”

“Sweetie, I don’t want you watching that movie!” Mrs. Petal called as Pearl and Ben dashed across the street. “It will give you nightmares!” But they didn’t stop running. They passed Grandpa Abe. They passed Maybell and Mr. Bumfrickle. They didn’t even glance at the Mulberrys as they bounded up the stairs and into the cinema.

“Pearl, Ben, stay back!” Officer Milly leaped in front of the kids, blocking them with her arms. “It’s too dangerous in here. Get outside!”

Pearl peered over and under her aunt’s arm, trying to get a full view of the lobby. Ms. Wartwell, who sold the movie tickets and refreshments, was cowering behind the popcorn machine. Shredded candy boxes lay on the floor and all over the counter, as if they’d been torn by a hundred tiny hands and teeth. Which, as Pearl and Ben knew, was exactly what had happened.

“Help,” Ms. Wartwell said in a small, timid voice. “The killer bees are going to eat me. Help me, please.” She pointed to a churning cloud that was attacking a box of caramel corn.

“Don’t worry, Marilyn. We’ll get you out of here,” Officer Milly told her. “Walk slowly toward me.” But Ms. Wartwell wouldn’t budge. “You can do it. Walk over here, to the door. Come on.” It was like trying to coax a cat into a bathtub. Ms. Wartwell wasn’t going anywhere.

Pearl wasn’t worried about Ms. Wartwell. The fairies wouldn’t eat her. But they sure had made a mess. And now that the police department was involved, catching the fairies in secret was going to be difficult. The swarm, having finished the caramel corn, swooped round and round, high-pitched whining bouncing off the lobby walls.

“Twanabeth,” Pearl called. “Twanabeth, stop doing this. You’re scaring everyone!”

“Who’s Twanabeth?” Officer Milly asked. Then she yelled, “Duck!”

With a swoosh, the swarm flew over their heads and out the lobby door. Pearl and Ben turned on their heels and ran outside.

In a matter of minutes, Buttonville had transformed from a sleepy little town into a hub of chaos. Such mayhem hadn’t been seen in the town since the great water main break of ’79, when the streets had flooded so quickly people had to swim to safety.

Onlookers screamed and pointed to the humming swarm. A car honked. Another crashed into a streetlamp. The fairies flew through the diner’s open window. More screaming arose as Lucy and Lionel rushed out.

“Help!” they both cried. The gathering crowd watched through the picture windows as the fairies turned bottles upside down and poured syrup all over the counter. The syrup was lapped up almost instantaneously, and the swarm was on the move again, heading into the Food 4 Less Market.

The Food 4 Less cashier ran out. “Help, help! There are bugs in the store!” Pearl and Ben ran to the window, and, sure enough, the fairies were tearing into bags of brown sugar.

“Unbelievable!” Ben said. “How much sugar can those things eat?”

“What are we going to do?” Pearl asked. “This is terrible!”

“Attention, everyone!” Officer Milly stood on the roof of her squad car, a megaphone in her hand. “Attention!” People stopped screaming and turned to listen. “It’s important that we don’t panic. Clearly we’ve been invaded by some sort of insect. We don’t know what kind, exactly, or why—”

“They followed their queen,” Ms. Bee said. She stepped out of the crowd. “Yesterday morning, the queen bee was inside the diner. Pearl Petal caught her. I advised Pearl to get rid of her. But if she didn’t, and if the queen has begun to nest, then that would explain why the swarm has arrived.”