CHAPTER TWENTY

FROM STINKY TO INKY

Amazingly, life returned to normal on Bunny Island. All the people who had once been somebunny were now their former selves. The rest of the Purple Pow carrots and concentrate were collected and put away someplace safe. Zeke wouldn’t tell me where that safe place was. The only clue he gave me was that I would “dig the hiding space.”

So I’m pretty certain the carrots were buried somewhere.

All the locals were happy about me helping to make things right. And the Bunny Mooners were also happy with me because with the mayor out, Bunny Island was still a really health-foodie place, but now there were more things to eat. Things that actually tasted good. Flower added a chocolate chip smoothie to her menu. One vending machine even had caramel-covered cookie dough balls in it.

Well, it did until I got to it.

Mayor Erwin Lapin and his staff were arrested and held in Bunny Island’s tiny jail until they could be moved off the island and prosecuted in Florida.

Now, however, my stay on Bunny Island had come to an end. It had been a squidtastic couple of weeks, but it was time to return home to Ohio. Juliet and Rain came over to help me pack.

“This is a lot different from how I packed to come here,” I told them as I gathered things to put into my suitcase.

My snacks were long gone, and this time I was filling my bags with things that really mattered. I wrapped up the seashells my uncle and I had found on the beach while searching the sand for newt-tail tracks. I packed the cool blue rock I had found in the clearing when all of us had gone there for a celebratory squid-fest. I put in the piece of driftwood that was shaped like an ink blaster. I had discovered it on the other side of the island, when we were hiking through the jungle and searching for newt nests.

“Here,” Rain said. “Don’t forget this.”

Rain handed me my own Rain Train tank top. It was green and exactly like the ones he wore all the time.

“It’s to remind you of your first day here.”

“I’m glad I survived that.”

I put the shirt into my suitcase, along with some shorts my uncle had bought me, and a couple of souvenirs I had bought for my dad.

“And this is from me,” Juliet said.

She handed me her headphones.

“But these are yours.”

“I know, but maybe you can put them on when you’re in Ohio and think of us. Besides, I owe you.”

“I’ll wear them all the time.”

I put the headphones around my neck and plugged the loose end into one of my pockets.

“Thanks, you guys. I don’t think I’ll ever forget you.”

“I’m pretty memorable,” Rain admitted.

“I think Admiral Uli put it best in Ocean Blasterzoids Issue #35 when he had to go to the town of Dorsal to catch the Mahi-Mob. He said, ‘Today might be sad, but tomorrow is always salty.’”

Juliet and Rain nodded like they understood. Uncle Zeke came into the house smiling and holding something behind his back.

“Are you ready?”

I nodded and zipped up my suitcases.

“Wait,” he said. “One last thing.” From behind his back, he pulled out a rolled-up shirt. “I was afraid it wouldn’t get here in time, but like I told you, we have really good mail carriers.”

He handed me the shirt, and I carefully unrolled it. On the front were Admiral Uli, Stacy Horse, Commander Cod, and even Benedict Cucumber, who looked shifty.

“I got it on eBay. I just wish they had one in my size.”

“Zeke! Thank you so much!”

I wanted to rip off the Admiral Uli shirt I was wearing and put on the new one, but I didn’t feel like changing in front of company. So I tucked the shirt into my suitcase and zipped it up again.

“Should we go?” Zeke asked.

I looked at all three of them and wished I didn’t have to.