Maybe it was hearing Stuart Little that did it.
Or maybe it was the New Librarian with his kind brown eyes and his shiny green vest.
Or maybe it was the big, ripe blueberry that fell from a ziplock bag in the pocket of a kindergarten boy who arrived after recess in the Library. It bounced and rolled under the desk.
“WOW!” said Alfie.
One of these things—or maybe all three—made Eddie stand a bit straighter. It made him breathe more deeply and relax.
And that’s when he got his idea for Aunt Min. It formed in his mind so suddenly, he felt almost dizzy.
Would it work? Would he have enough time? He wanted to try it now, right away. Would it work?
He was shaky with tension and hope.
As he gathered his tools, Alfie badgered him with questions. “Whatcha DOING, Eddie? What’s GOING ON?”
No time to explain! Fortunately, Eddie had everything he needed, right there under the desk. He got to work.
Somewhere in the room he could hear the New Librarian talking to kindergarten about dinosaur feathers. Interesting as that was, Eddie blocked it out. Then he heard some kind of game, with the kindergarteners chanting and stomping. He ignored that, too. And finally there was Alfie, with his nonstop chatter. Eddie barely heard.
“Concentrate!” he told himself.
He worked harder and faster than he’d ever worked before. When lunchtime came, he was ready. The bell rang. The children bustled out to play. The New Librarian shelved books and left.
Eddie started his climb up the desk. This was the dangerous part.
KA-BANG!
He flinched at the sound. Someone was at the door. He could hear voices.
If anyone spotted Eddie—if anyone took a good look—it was all over.
Up he climbed as quickly as he could manage, not daring to look around or down or anywhere at all—
Until he reached the drawer.
“Hey, EDDIE!” said Alfie. “Can I HELP now? PLEEEASE!”
He had followed right behind. Brave Alfie! Together the two brothers finished the job.
Staring at the results, Eddie knew they had done everything they could. The rest was up to fate. They scooted back down and hid under the desk. Eddie crossed his antennae. Hoping . . .
Third grade was creating a play about pioneers. The New Librarian wandered among them, helping with research.
“Please,” whispered Eddie. “Please come over here and look at the desk.”
But Mr. B wandered away. Eddie tried to will him over.
“Heeeeere,” he whispered. “Pleeeeeease.”
Alfie whispered, too. “Heeeeere.”
The minutes dragged past. Eddie paced restlessly back and forth beneath the desk. Finally he saw what he’d been longing to see—the New Librarian’s gray-and-tan running shoes, coming his way. A pair of smaller shoes ran behind. Pink with curly laces.
“Let’s see,” said the New Librarian. “I’m sure there’s some tape here somewhere.”
Eddie tingled with anticipation.
“Hey!” said a girl’s voice. “Look! A yellow sticky.” Her curly-laced feet ran around the desk.
“Wow!” she said. “It’s one of those stickies with the funny writing. It’s stuck to the drawer. Is this Miss Cavendish again? Ooh!”
The New Librarian laughed. “It’s only an ordinary sticky. Let’s have a look.”
There were more shoes around the desk now as other children noticed what was happening.
“Hey!” said a voice. “Over here, everyone! Sophie found a new sticky.”
More shoes. And more.
The chatter rose, along with the excitement. “Is it her?” asked the children. “Is it the ghost?”
“No ghost,” said the New Librarian. “Just this little sticky that says . . . well, what does it say?”
“It says ‘ope-u,’” said Sophie.
Eddie was so annoyed, he almost dashed out to say so. He had written it very clearly in blueberry juice:
open
“Open,” said the New Librarian. “It says ‘Open.’”
“Open what?” someone asked.
Curious, the children pushed forward. Within seconds the desk was surrounded. The huge Squisher legs blocked out the light, causing the area under the desk to grow dark. Alfie backed nervously into the center, making the kind of twitchy movements you might make if you were surrounded by titanosaurs.
“Well,” said Mr. B, “Sophie found this message stuck to the desk drawer. Right, Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“So do you think we should try opening the drawer?”
There was a buzz of voices. A pair of sneakers at the front of the crowd ran to the back, accompanied by a shriek.
“Don’t be scared,” whispered Eddie. “It’s just me! And blueberry juice.”
“Let’s give it a try,” said the New Librarian. He pulled on the drawer handle. “Stuck.”
“Pull harder,” said a girl beside the drawer. Eddie liked the sound of her.
There was a noisy scraaawwwkkkk, and—
“There!” said the Librarian. “It’s open. What do you see?”
Eddie held his breath.
“Nothing,” said the brave girl. “It’s empty.”
“Exactly. Does anyone see a ghost in here?”
Silence.
“All right then,” said the Librarian. “So that’s the end of that.”
He started to close the drawer.
“Oh, no,” thought Eddie. “Don’t!”
Scraawwkk.
“It’s stuck,” said Sophie. “Again!”
Eddie held his breath. . . .
But Mr. B just laughed and walked away, as if a stuck drawer was the last thing on a busy librarian’s mind. “Oh, good!” he said. “Malcolm’s found that tape we were looking for. Back to work, everyone.”
Eddie couldn’t help himself. As the children left, he started leaping about with excitement.
“It’s open!” he told Alfie. “The drawer’s open!”
Alfie hopped, too. He started to yell, “YAA—”
You will understand, of course, why Eddie had to put a stop to that!
When his brother calmed down, Eddie released him and stepped into the open. He stared up at the desk. Remembering his first day in the Library, he half expected to see a small dark head with waving antennae. He could almost hear Min’s voice. “Up here, Eddie. Look up!”
But that was then.
“Where’s Auntie Min?” asked Alfie. He was as subdued as Eddie had ever seen him. That’s when Eddie realized—Alfie was worried, too.
What might they find in the drawer?
“We should wait till the Squishers are gone,” said Eddie.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when he changed his mind. “I can’t wait!” he said. “I just can’t!”
“Me NEITHER!” said Alfie. “Let’s GO!”
So right then and there, with the Library full of children, the bug brothers attempted a climb. Within seconds, footsteps approached. They scurried back down.
Again, they tried. More thudding footsteps.
On their third try, a child strolled up and leaned her stomach against the desk—right beside the crawling bugs. She didn’t see them. She didn’t touch them. But she was far too close for Eddie.
“We have to wait,” he told Alfie.
“AAWWW,” said Alfie.
A new group of children arrived—first grade. It seemed they would never leave. Three of them dawdled at the end, checking out books. Eddie felt a powerful urge to bite them!
Finally, the Library was empty.
Eddie and Alfie clambered up the desk. They leaped into the open drawer and raced to the back corner.
Aunt Min lay there, curled up and still.
Seeing her, Eddie went cold all over. She looked like . . .
The Spider. She looked just like the Spider the last time Eddie had seen it, propped up against the baseboard. Shriveled. Dry. Dull. Eyes glazed.
“Is Auntie Min DEAD?” asked Alfie in his shrill voice.
“Hush,” replied Eddie. He spoke in the gentlest of whispers. “Aunt Min?”
And that was when Alfie lost it. He was, after all, very young, and he could no longer contain himself.
“AUNTIE MIN!” he screeched. “WAKE UP!”
Eddie was about to scold Alfie. But then . . . he thought he saw Min move.
“Do that again,” he told his brother.
“AUNTIE MIN! IT’S US! ALFIE AND EDDIE. SAAAY SOMETHING!”
Min stirred weakly. A leg jerked.
“Ooh,” she moaned.
“Go get some of that blueberry,” Eddie told Alfie. “Run! She loves blueberry, and it’s full of juice.”
Moments later, the brothers were feeding their aunt fresh blueberry. It was a long time before she could speak.
In the meantime, Alfie talked enough for everyone.
“Everything’s OKAY now, Auntie Min. The Grischer is GONE, and the LIBRARY’S SAVED, and we have a NEW LIBRARIAN named MR. B.”
“What . . . ,” said Min. “What is . . . Mr. B . . . like?”
Alfie answered immediately. “He looks like Eddie.”
“Eddie?”
“YES, Auntie Min. He’s the very same color of GREEN!”
Min smiled. “Then he must be . . . unusually handsome.” She turned to Eddie. “Is everything . . . truly . . . okay?”
This was his chance to tell her the whole story, all the parts she had missed—the buttons, the posters, the parents, the niece, the reporter. It took a long time.
When he finished, Min’s eyes were glowing. “You . . . did it,” she said slowly. “You . . . saved the Library, Eddie . . . so proud.”
Eddie tried to take this in. “Did I? Did I really? Wow, Aunt Min, I can hardly believe it. The stickies worked!”
“They . . . certainly did,” said Min. “Excellent . . . writing. Bravo, Eddie!”