15
Pearl ran into the middle of the road. Half her brain said, “Don’t do it. You’ll get flattened like a pancake.” But the other half of her brain, the half with the louder voice, yelled, “Save the fairies!”
“Pearl!” Ben hollered. He reached out to grab her, but he wasn’t quick enough. Once she’d set her mind to something, Pearl operated on one hundred percent pure determination. Her goal—keep the exterminator from reaching Buttonville.
The truck barreled toward her. She couldn’t see the driver’s face through the dirty, bug-splotched windshield. Headlights flashed at her. A horn blasted its warning. Despite the looming danger, she stood her ground, waved her arms above her head, and shouted, “Stop!”
The truck veered around her. Ben and Victoria jumped aside as the truck careened over the sidewalk. Brakes screeched, and the scent of burning rubber polluted the air. The truck came to a dead stop just inches from the Buttonville welcome sign. The engine sputtered, then went quiet.
I did it, Pearl thought, smiling at her accomplishment. But when the driver’s head popped out the window and she saw the look on his face, she wanted to run in the other direction.
“Hey, kid, what are you doing? Are you crazy?” The door flew open, and the driver slid out. He was a very short man with thick arms like a weight lifter’s. His overalls were blue, and his name tag read BUG GUY. “Better not be any damage,” he grumbled, adjusting the pair of safety glasses that sat on his forehead. He stomped around the truck, kicking the tires and looking for dents. Then he climbed onto a rear wheel and began to inspect an odd contraption that sat in the truck’s bed. It looked like some kind of machine, with a barrel-sized clear canister, a bunch of switches and buttons, and a long vacuum tube.
“The Vacuumator,” Ben whispered to Pearl. She nodded.
“You have me to thank,” Victoria said proudly. “I’m the one who called him. I’m saving the day.”
Pearl wanted to tell Victoria that she wasn’t saving the day. She was totally ruining it. But Pearl kept that comment to herself. She still felt bad about having said those other mean words.
Bug Guy seemed satisfied that nothing had broken. He stepped off the wheel, wiped his hands on his overalls, and frowned at Pearl. “Do your parents know you’re playing in the middle of the road?”
“I wasn’t playing,” Pearl said. “I wanted to stop you. We don’t need your help anymore.”
“But I’m supposed to catch some killer bees,” Bug Guy said.
“The killer bees are gone,” Ben told him.
“Huh?” Victoria put her hands on her hips. Sunlight glinted off her blue braces as she spoke. “But we just saw them on Main Street. What makes you think they’re gone?”
“We saw them leave,” Pearl replied.
Bug Guy reached into his pocket. “Don’t be so sure. Killer bees are real good at hiding.” He pulled out a green licorice rope and took a bite.
Pearl’s legs stiffened. Would the fairies smell the candy and come swarming? That would be the absolute worst thing that could happen! “Uh, I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.”
“Why not?” Bug Guy asked.
“Candy’s not healthy,” Ben said, stepping closer to the man. “It can cause diabetes, and obesity, and…”
“And ringworm,” Pearl added.
Ben gave her a weird look. “Yeah, and ringworm. Also, it can make you hyper, so you shouldn’t eat it if you’re driving and operating heavy equipment.”
“What are you talking about?” Bug Guy spoke with his mouth full. “This is a special gluten-free, low-calorie licorice. It’s practically good for you.”
“Does it have sugar?” Pearl asked.
“Of course it has sugar. Wouldn’t taste good without sugar.” He took another bite. Pearl and Ben looked at the sky. Sunny and blue, with no signs of churning clouds. Not yet, anyway.
Victoria, in her usual snoopy way, had climbed onto the truck’s tailgate and was peering into the back. “How does this thing work?” she asked.
Bug Guy proudly puffed out his chest. “Well, the Vacuumator is my own invention. It’s patent pending.” He pointed to the glass barrel. “That’s for vermin containment and observation.” Then he pointed to the hose. “That’s what sucks up the vermin. I’ve got all different sizes of nozzles. Got one big enough for rats and bats. And got one small enough for fleas. I even got one big enough for burglars. I figure police departments all over the world will want one.” He showed her the end of the hose. “But I put on the medium-sized nozzle, which should be just right for killer bees. And this here starts the suction.” He pushed a button, and the Vacuumator started rumbling. “I’ll show you.” He aimed the hose at a pebble. In a flash, the pebble disappeared and reappeared inside the canister.
Pearl and Ben had inched forward to see what all the fuss was about. “What do the other buttons do?” Ben asked.
“That one is the off button. And that one spits the vermin back out, but that’s only for relocation. We wouldn’t want to relocate your swarm of killer bees. They’ll have to be destroyed, of course, to make the world a safer place.”
“Do you have a nozzle big enough for a dragon?” Victoria asked. She beamed a wicked smile at Pearl.
“Killer bees and dragons?” Bug Guy said with a snort. “What kind of town is this?” He took another bite of licorice. Pearl shuffled nervously. She’d never seen green licorice before. Although the sky was still clear, she was getting a very bad feeling.
“What flavor is that?” she inquired.
Both Ben and Pearl gasped.
“You want a piece?” Grasping both ends of the rope, he stretched it until it broke. A fruity scent filled the air, followed by high-pitched humming. A small cloud appeared above the tree line, swirling and churning and heading straight for them.
“Killer bees!” Victoria screamed.
Bug Guy dropped his licorice. “Push the button! Push the button!” he hollered as he pulled the vacuum hose out of the truck.
“No, don’t push the button!” Pearl and Ben cried.
But Victoria’s stubby fingers were already reaching for it, and before Pearl or Ben could stop her, the Vacuumator roared to life. Bug Guy slid his safety glasses over his eyes, raised the hose like a sword, and hollered, “Take cover!”
While Victoria crawled under the truck, Pearl lunged at the Vacuumator, and Ben lunged at Bug Guy. But their efforts were too late. The fairy swarm dive-bombed the kiwi-flavored licorice, and with swift aim, Bug Guy sucked them right out of the air.
“Got ’em!” he shouted, just as Pearl reached and pressed the off button. The engine shut down and the suction stopped. But it was too late. “Got every last one of them! Bye-bye, bugs!”
Ben climbed into the back of the truck and peered into the canister. Pearl didn’t want to look. What if the fairies were hurt? What if they were… dead? She couldn’t bear seeing such horror. She closed her eyes and grimaced, waiting for Ben to deliver the news. “Are they…?”
“It looks like they’re okay,” he reported.
Pearl almost burst into tears. She climbed in next to him. Indeed, the fairies were flying around inside the container. They seemed a bit dazed, because they kept bumping into one another, but that was to be expected after what they’d been through. “Do you see Twanabeth?”
“There she is,” Ben said, pressing a finger to the glass. Twanabeth had separated from the swarm and was waving and yelling at the apprentices. But without a creature calculator, they had no idea what she was saying.
“How do we get them out of there?” Pearl whispered. The glass container didn’t have a lid or an opening, other than the one for the vacuum hose, which was attached with a metal ring and bolts.
“If we push the relocation button, the fairies will shoot back out,” Ben suggested.
Pearl looked over her shoulder at Bug Guy, who was wiping dirt from his licorice pieces. “But if we let them out, he’ll go after them again.”
“Right. I wonder…” Ben rubbed the back of his neck. “The vacuum hose is pretty long. If we could get this truck to the hospital, we could push the relocation button and shoot the fairies through a window into the Fairy Lounge.”
“Brilliant,” Pearl said. “But how—?”
“What’s a fairy lounge?” Victoria interrupted. She’d crawled out from under the truck and was trying to squeeze between Ben and Pearl. Pearl tried to ward her off with some sharp elbow jabs, but Victoria threw her weight into the battle and broke through. “Those bees look weird.” She was about to press her face against the glass. Fortunately, Ben was quicker.
“Oh no, you don’t,” he said, snatching her glasses off her face.
“Hey, give those back!” she complained.
“If you want them, come and get them.” Ben jumped out of the truck. Then he waved the glasses, trying to entice her away from the fairies. It worked. Victoria chased him around the welcome sign. Pearl stood in the truck’s bed. What should she do? She glanced through the truck’s back window. The keys were still in the ignition. Could she drive the truck to the hospital? She’d never driven before, but how hard could it be?
“Okay, kids, time for you to run along.” With his mouth full of licorice, Bug Guy curled the hose into the truck. Then he grabbed the driver’s-side door. “Gotta take those nasty killer bees back to the shop to be exterminated.”
Pearl needed a distraction. Something that would lure Bug Guy away.
A yellow tennis ball rolled past the truck.
