“You gave it a gift?”
Rho, Walter, and Alan came sprinting down the slot canyon. The Auran girl at the lead saw the Thingamajunk and instantly started trash-talking.
“Get out of here, you clumsy pile of scrap! You’re a disgrace to garbage!”
The Thingamajunk started growling. The pink retainer, clipped between two stubby pencils, started rattling as the garbage figure drew itself up to full height and roared.
“That’s right!” Rho carried on. “I’m not afraid of you or your smelly excuse for a body! You can go—”
“Stop it!” Daisy screamed, stepping between the Auran and the Thingamajunk. Rho backed up, surprised that Daisy would stand so close to the dangerous creature. Daisy reached back and put a steadying hand on the Thingamajunk’s arm.
“He’s not hurting us,” Daisy explained. “Bookworm saved my life.”
“Bookworm?” Alan asked.
“That’s what I’m calling him,” said Daisy. In response, the Thingamajunk bent low and flashed its wormy imitation of a smile. The Rebels all pulled back in disgust.
Just then, Penny and V drifted down from the mattresses, landing skillfully with brooms in hand. Instinctively, V began a strain of loudmouthed trash-talking when she saw the Thingamajunk, but Daisy quickly cut her off.
“What’s going on here?” the Auran demanded.
“Looks to me like Daisy made a friend,” Bernard said.
V shook her head. “Impossible. You can’t make friends with a Thingamajunk. It’s got to be a trap. This one must be smarter than the others. It’s going to wait until we turn our backs and then attack when we’re least prepared. We should destroy it now while it’s outnumbered!”
The Thingamajunk began slinking away from V as her voice rose. Daisy reached out a hand for the garbage being.
“Don’t listen to them,” she said. “Nobody’s going to hurt you.” Daisy took a step closer. “Do you speak English?”
The Thingamajunk shook its lunch-box head, grunting a few times in response.
“I don’t think that was English,” Daisy said, looking to her companions for affirmation.
“Definitely not,” Bernard said.
Spencer stepped forward to ask Bookworm another question. “Do you understand us when we speak to you?”
The Thingamajunk nodded, grunting something that sounded like “garblar.”
“Garblar,” Daisy said. “Maybe that means ‘yes.’”
“Why did you save Daisy from that vacuum hose?” Spencer asked.
The Thingamajunk reached up to its mouth and plucked out the pink retainer. It held the object for all to see, nodding excitedly.
“You liked my gift?” Daisy asked.
“Oh, please!” V rolled her eyes. “You gave it a gift?”
Bookworm popped the retainer back into its mouth and gave another smile.
“Has anything like this ever happened before with a Thingamajunk?” Walter asked the Aurans.
“Never,” Rho answered. “We’re always fighting them off. Thingamajunks don’t help people.”
“Maybe that’s because you trash-talk them all the time,” Daisy said. “Maybe you hurt their feelings and that makes them mad.”
V shrugged incredulously. “They’re made of garbage. Garbage doesn’t have feelings.”
Daisy was going red in the face, trying to mount some defense for her rescuer. Whether Bookworm had feelings or not, Daisy had changed something about the Thingamajunk. She’d shown it a bit of kindness, given it a simple gift, and now the garbage figure was standing behind her like a bodyguard.
“Whatever,” Rho said, diffusing the tension. “We should keep moving.”
Daisy glared at V and then looked once more at the Thingamajunk. “I have to go now, Bookworm. Thanks for saving me.” She held out her hand again, and this time the garbage figure accepted it. The Thingamajunk shook her hand so hard that she nearly came off the ground.
“Will I see you again?” Daisy asked.
“Garblar,” grunted Bookworm. Then he leapt backward, his body losing cohesion and falling into loose pieces of trash on the trail.
“Daisy,” Spencer said. “Good job.”
She looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I think you just got yourself a guardian Thingamajunk.”