By that night, Daniel and Talia were no closer to coming up with a plan, and things were looking more desperate—not to mention drippy. Star Wars Episodes V and VI kept Megabat busy all afternoon, but as soon as it got dark he hung upside down from the rafter and rocked back and forth, crying big, splashy tears.
Daniel dumped out a bin of stuffed animals and placed the empty container under Megabat, then he crawled into bed, feeling almost as sad.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
It took Daniel hours to get to sleep, and just after he finally had—“Daniel?”
Both his parents were standing at the top of the stairs, squinting into the darkness.
“Mmhmm?” he said blearily.
“I’m turning on the light, okay?” said Daniel’s dad.
Daniel blinked, then he gasped. His parents were standing directly underneath Megabat’s perch, staring up into the rafters.
“Has the roof been leaking for a while?” his mom asked, looking down at the stuffed animal bucket, which Daniel saw was overflowing with bat tears.
Daniel nodded.
“It’s good you put a bucket there, but, Daniel, you should have come down to tell us. It’s coming right through the floor,” his mom said.
From where Daniel was sitting in bed, he could just make out the sheen of Megabat’s eyes. When his parents weren’t looking, he raised one finger to his lips. “Shhhhhh,” he said.
“Yours said what?” came a voice.
“What was that?” Daniel’s mom asked.
“Um. Oh.” Daniel reached into the big pile of stuffed animals on the floor and pulled out a walrus. “That was Wally the Talking Walrus. It’s got batteries.”
“It does?” his mother asked. She gave her head a little shake. “Anyway. I’ll get the mop,” she said, then she turned to his dad. “Could you empty this bucket?”
“Megabat!” Daniel whispered furiously, as soon as his parents had left. “Come here this second.”
“Shouty, shouty,” Megabat complained, but he came to roost on Daniel’s outstretched finger all the same.
“You need to hide,” Daniel said. “My parents will be back any minute.” Then he did the only thing he could think of that was guaranteed to keep Megabat silent and out of sight. He opened one of his windows and placed him on the outer ledge. “Wait there,” he said, sliding the window shut.
Between mopping the puddle, cleaning up what had spilled down the stairs and replacing the container with a bigger bucket, half an hour passed before Daniel’s family was ready to go back to bed.
As soon as his parents left, Daniel ran to the window and opened it. “They’re gone,” he whispered. “You can come back in.”
But there was no answer—because there was no Megabat, just the big, dark night sky with the thinnest sliver of moon.
For more than an hour, Daniel sat by the window whispering Megabat’s name into the darkness, but the bat didn’t return. First thing the next morning, he asked his mom if he could go to Talia’s house. “Of course,” she answered, grinning into her toast.
“Megabat’s lost,” Daniel blurted the second Talia opened the door.
He told her how the bat had run away.
“He’s a wild animal,” Talia said. “It’s normal that he’d want to explore.”
“I guess,” Daniel agreed. “But we need to find him. He doesn’t know this country. He could get lost or hurt.”
They started their search for Megabat in Daniel’s backyard and covered the whole street, but there was no sign of their friend. They were just on their way home for lunch when they heard the commotion.
“You little monster!” It was Jamie, shouting.
“Stay back! Or mine will poke yours to the death!”
In less than a heartbeat, Daniel and Talia were running down the path and into Talia’s yard. They found Jamie, sprawled on the grass in front of his homemade pigeon trap, rubbing at his eye…and Megabat, behind the bars. His fur was ruffled and he was ferociously wielding his juice-box-straw lightsaber.