CHAPTER NINETEEN

For the rest of the bus ride, the Jersey Devil made his way through Elliot’s lunch, and then moved on to Uchenna’s, while the two children whispered furiously to each other about what they should do.

Uchenna suggested helping the creature crawl back out the window.

“Everyone would see him. And then he would just fall into traffic,” Elliot replied.

“He wouldn’t fall. He can fly!”

“We know he can jump. Can he fly?”

“Well, he has wings.”

“Yeah, so do chickens. You wanna toss the Jersey Devil into traffic and hope he uses his wings better than a chicken?”

“Well, no . . .”

The bus rumbled by the towering smokestacks of the Schmoke brothers’ power plant, off the exit ramp, and into the school parking lot. The brakes screamed, the big yellow bus rocked forward and then back. Miss Vole rose to her feet—shakily—and said, “Now, children, go back to the classroom quietly, please. There’s just half an hour before dismissa—” They didn’t let her finish. The children burst from their seats and shoved past her off the bus. Miss Vole looked like she was about ready to quit. And it wasn’t even the end of September.

Meanwhile, Elliot and Uchenna began whispering furiously.

“How do we get him off the bus?”

“He’s invisible! Just carry him!”

“I’m not carrying him!” This was Elliot.

“Then let’s put him in a backpack.”

“That’s a terrible idea!”

“Do you have a better one?”

“No . . . but he’s not going in my backpack!”

Uchenna glared at Elliot. She looked under the seat. The Jersey Devil was nowhere to be seen.

Elliot leaned down beside Uchenna. He held very still. At last, he murmured, “Listen . . .” They heard a quiet whistling of breath, in and out, in and out. “I think he’s asleep.”

Uchenna took her books from her backpack and handed them to Elliot. Then, very gently, she reached out and touched the soft coat of the Jersey Devil. She found his side and slid her fingers down under it, until they were under his belly. The Jersey Devil snorted. Then Uchenna lifted the little creature and lowered him into her backpack.

Suddenly, there he was, staring at them, eyes open. Elliot and Uchenna nearly leaped out of their seat.

The Jersey Devil reached out his long tongue—it was as blue as his body. Elliot recoiled in horror. Uchenna froze. The Jersey Devil licked Uchenna’s hand.

Then he curled up in the backpack, closed his eyes, and disappeared again.

Uchenna was trembling, but she zipped her bag and hefted it onto her shoulder. Elliot picked up his own backpack—which was now twice as heavy, since it contained Uchenna’s books as well. They made their way to the front of the bus.

Professor Fauna was waiting.

He rose from his seat as they approached. He glared down from his full, towering height, his eyes like spotlights under his mad, bushy eyebrows. The children stopped, like travelers at the foot of a cliff, and peered up.

“Well?” he intoned, in his rich bass voice. “Do you children have something you want to tell me?”

Elliot’s hands grew damp.

Uchenna bit her lip. “Like . . . what?”

Professor Fauna’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead like two hairy caterpillars.

“Oh,” Uchenna said. “Right. We’re sorry we got lost.”

Fauna eyed her, not moving from the narrow bus aisle.

“Yes,” Elliot added, “very sorry.”

Still, the professor did not move. His dark eyes roved over them suspiciously.

And then he stepped aside.

“Remember, children, secrets can be dangerous.”

Without missing a beat, Uchenna replied, “But danger is the greatest teacher.”

The professor frowned at her. His black eyes looked like pits. “Unless,” he said, “it kills you.”

As they walked away from the bus, Elliot leaned over to Uchenna. “He actually has a torture chamber under the school?”

From the side of her mouth, Uchenna muttered, “That’s what they say.”

“I believe it.”