CHAPTER 9

WHOA

After what seemed like forever, but was actually only about three hours, Mom said I could take a peek in the cooler.

“But don’t be disappointed if there’s no bacteria yet,” she reminded me.

I squinched my eyes closed, made a silent wish, and then opened the cooler. “WHOAAAAA.”

Mom squished in right beside me.

“Whooooaaa,” she said.

For a full minute we just stared. The new petri dishes were covered with shiny red dots that glowed red. It was pretty … and also kind of creepy.

“ACK! I’m wasting time!” I said, bouncing on my toes. “I need to get started on my second experiment NOW!”

“How can I help?” Mom asked.

“Can you start another batch?” I asked. “I’ll get some more unicorn fur and grab the onions, garlic, oregano, and thyme from our garden.”

“Let’s make it happen!” Mom said, turning to the stove.

I ran out the back door. Tiny was sleeping and Sassafras paced around him. I quickly clipped some fur. I figured Tiny wouldn’t mind, and I didn’t want to wake him.

Next I ran to the garden. While I worked, Sassafras chattered at me and kept glancing back at Tiny. I could tell from how upset he was that Tiny was getting worse. “Don’t worry, Sassafras. We’re hurrying!” I promised. I kissed his head and dashed back to the house with my supplies.

I burst into the kitchen. “Tiny’s getting worse, Mom. Sassafras is really upset!”

Mom frowned. “I know, baby. But we’re doing everything we can. The agar mixture is ready. What next?”

“I’ll wash all the plants. After that, I think chopping them up will help them mix into the agar. It’ll also make them easier to measure. Can you get the food chopper out for me?”

Mom helped me chop the onion, garlic, oregano, and thyme. I added the soap and disinfecting wipes to the lineup and grabbed a tablespoon to measure each ingredient to add to the petri dishes.

“Wait!” Mom slid a permanent marker toward me. “Don’t forget to label them.”

“That was a close one! Thanks, Mom.” I labeled each of the seven dishes:

After they were labeled, I spooned a tablespoon of each ingredient into the correctly labeled dish, washing my spoon in between each ingredient. For the dish with the disinfecting wipes, I decided to add a tablespoon of the liquid from the bottom of the container.

I left one dish with nothing added. I needed to see how much bacteria grew without anything there. If any of the petri dishes with an added ingredient grew less bacteria, then I’d know that ingredient was working.

Mom carefully poured the same amount of hot agar mixture into each of the petri dishes. I used a clean spoon to stir each ingredient in, and we left them to cool.

We both paced the kitchen as we waited for the timer to let us know that the agar had cooled and was ready for the next step. When it buzzed, we jumped, then grabbed all the supplies and ran to the backyard.

Tiny’s cut was even more red and swollen than just a few hours earlier. I had to take a few breaths so I didn’t start crying. This experiment had to work.

He must have been feeling really awful because he kept sleeping as I used the cotton swab to get bacteria to put on the new petri dishes. Mom sealed them all up and handed the ziplock bags to me.

I took the ziplock bags inside the house and put them in the cooler while Mom added new hot water to the jars. We then washed our hands and tapped our legs nervously as we sat waiting.

“Hey, why don’t you write down your procedure while we wait,” Mom suggested.

“Good idea,” I said and got to work.

“Do you think it’s time yet?” I asked Mom.

“I’m not sure it’s been long enough, but it won’t hurt to check.”

We both walked over to the cooler. I held my breath as we opened it.

“YESSSSSSS!” we cheered at the same time. We had an answer.