Chicken Chicken (8 page)

The book fell from my hand and thudded loudly to the floor.

Egg-shaped spots sparkled in front of my eyes.

When the spots faded, the room turned purple and started to tilt.

“Hey—something is happening!” Cole cried in a tiny voice. He sounded far,
far away.

Yes, something is happening, I agreed, grabbing the window ledge to keep from
falling.

Something is happening.

But what?

I felt so dizzy. The room rocked and swayed.

The floor suddenly appeared so far away. I blinked. Once. Twice.

The floor still seemed a mile below.

“Cluck cluck, Cole—?” I turned to my brother. Then I let out a shrill squawk
of horror.

Now I knew why the floor seemed so far down. Cole and I had GROWN!

We weren’t chickens anymore. We were BIIIIIG chickens!

“I—I’m as big as a
horse!
” I cried.

I gazed up. The ceiling was only an inch or two above my head.

Cole uttered a startled moan. His whole body trembled. Enormous feathers
shook free and fell to the floor. He flapped his arms, and more feathers tumbled
off him.

I saw Vanessa’s black cat back into the hallway. Its yellow eyes were wide
with fear. It arched its back and raised its tail and hissed at us furiously.

I took a step toward Cole. My big, feathery body bobbed in front of me. “I—I must have bluuuuuck done something wrong!” I told my brother.

Cole hopped up and down, bobbing his head. He clicked his beak, but no sound
came out. Finally, he choked out, “Crystal—try again.”

Yes. He was right. I had to try to reverse the spell again.

Maybe I couldn’t turn us back into humans. But I might be able to shrink us
back to our normal size.

I bent over to find the book on the floor. It was hard to find. I was so
tall, the book looked about the size of a CD case!

It wasn’t easy to pick it up, either. It kept sliding out from my scraggly
chicken fingers.

It seemed like
hours
before I managed to find the spell again. Then I
raised the little book up close to my right eye and began to perform the spell
backwards once again.

Please, please,
I prayed.
Let me get it right this time. Please, let
Vanessa’s spell reverse itself.

I finished up with the final: “Cluck cluck chick cluck. Cluck chick cluck.”

Would it work?

I heard Cole let out a choked cluck from across the room.

Once again, I began to feel weird. The egg-shaped spots sparkled in front of
my eyes, blinding me with their brightness.

I shut my eyes.

I could feel the room tilting and swaying.

I tried to grab hold of something. But my hands grasped only air.

“Ooooh!” I let out a low moan as I felt myself start to fall. Yes. I was
falling… falling…

When I opened my eyes, I didn’t know where I was. The room had disappeared. I
was surrounded by darkness. Surrounded by…

Whoa!

I gazed up at the book. The book of spells—it rested beside me on the
floor. But it had grown! The book was taller than me!

“Cheep cheep!” I cried.

“Cheep cheep cheep,” I heard Cole’s tiny reply.

I spun around to find him. “Cheep?”

“Cheep cheep!”

He was a little yellow chick! I swallowed hard. I knew what that meant. That
meant that I was
also
a tiny yellow chick!

I had reversed the spell—too much!

I struggled to speak—but I could only make a tiny
cheep cheep
sound.
My tiny feet clicked on the wooden floor.

“Cheep cheep?” Cole asked. The poor little guy sounded so frightened.

My tiny heart was pounding in my feathery yellow chest. I suddenly felt so angry. Why was this happening to us? Why did
Vanessa think she had a right to do this to us?

I pecked my little beak furiously against the floor. I had no other way of
letting out my anger.

But I didn’t have much time to be angry.

A dark blur of motion made me raise my eyes.

I saw the giant shadow. No. It was Vanessa’s cat. The cat perched on the desk
next to an old-fashioned-looking typewriter.

Its tail smacked the typewriter as the cat dropped to the floor.

It crossed the room quickly, silently—and rose up over me, its eyes glowing
with excitement.

It pulled back its lips, revealing its enormous teeth.

“Cheep cheep!” I squeaked. I froze in fear.

The cat pounced.

I felt its front paws wrap around my tiny, soft body.

Then the paws began to squeeze.

I tried to kick. I tried to thrash my arms. Tried to wriggle free.

But I was helpless against the giant cat.

Its big paws squeezed me until I could barely breathe.

Then it grabbed my head in its paws.

And lifted me—up. Up.

The cat dangled me in the air for a few seconds.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to break free.

But I was helpless. Too weak and tiny to do anything.

The cat’s eyes flashed as it dangled me in front of its face. Then it opened
its mouth wide—and stuffed me inside.

Ohhhh. The cat’s hot breath roared over me. The inside of its mouth felt so
hot, so disgustingly sticky and wet.

“Cheep cheep cheeeep!” I squealed.

The cat bounced me around on its tongue.

And then—to my surprise—spit me out.

I fell hard onto my side on the floor. Behind me, I could hear Cole cheeping
weakly.

I scrambled to my feet. I wanted to run.

But the cat grabbed me again. Lifted me high off the floor in its rough paws.

I saw the cat’s head, tilted at an angle. I saw a gleam of silvery drool on
its fangs. Felt its hot, sour breath roll over me once again.

The cat raised me high. Higher.

Is it going to swallow me this time? I wondered.

Is it going to shove me into its mouth and swallow me?

No. The purring creature let me drop back to the floor.

I landed on my back. My tiny feet clawed the air.

Before I could scramble to my feet, the cat picked me up again—this time by
the foot. It swung me from side to side in front of its open mouth.

It’s
playing
with me, I realized.

The cat is playing with its food!

And when it’s finished playing…
then
it will eat me!

I could hear Cole cheeping down on the floor. The cat held me in one paw,
dangling me in front of its face. Then it began batting me with its other paw,
making me spin.

The spinning made me dizzy. I shut my eyes as the cat dropped me once again
to the floor.

I landed on my side and lay there. I felt so weak, so frightened. I didn’t
even try to move.

Panting hard, I waited for the cat to pounce again. Waited to feel its claws
wrap around me. Waited to be lifted into the air again.

Waited…

When it didn’t pounce, I lifted my head. I struggled to focus.

Where was it?

I could hear my brother cheeping in terror somewhere across the floor.

I climbed slowly to my feet. I ruffled my feathers, which were wet and sticky
from being inside the cat’s mouth.

Where was the cat? Why did it stop torturing me?

The lights flashed on.

“Eeeeep!” I uttered a shrill shriek as a big face lowered itself toward me.

Vanessa!

“Well, well!” her voice boomed in my tiny ears. “What have we here?”

Her hand swooped down and grabbed me off the floor.

She swooped me up, then picked up Cole, too. She perched us in the palm of
her hand and held us close to her pale face. A pleased smile spread across her
black-lipsticked lips.

“I see you found my spell book, little duckies,” she teased. “Let me guess.
You must be Crystal and Cole.”

Cole and I cheeped loudly and hopped up and down in protest.

Vanessa laughed. “You’re both so cute!” she exclaimed. “What a shame I had to
teach you a lesson.” She tsk-tsked.

“Cheep cheep!” I squeaked.

I wanted to ask why she had done this to Cole and me. I wanted to promise her
that no matter what it was we had done—we’d never do it again. I wanted to
demand that she change us back—now.

But all I could do was
cheep
!

“What should I do with you two?” Vanessa asked, her dark eyes flashing.
“Should I send you back out? It’s a long way to your house from here. You’d
probably be
eaten
before you got there.”

“Cheeeeep!” Cole and I pleaded.

How could we communicate with her? How could we talk to her? How?

I suddenly had an idea.

The old typewriter on the desk. Vanessa was holding Cole and me right above
it.

I glanced down. A sheet of white paper lay curled in the typewriter. Yes! I
thought. Yes! Our only chance.

I didn’t take another second to think about it.

I leaped from Vanessa’s palm. And landed with a hard
plop
on the
desktop.

“Hey, chickie—!” I heard Vanessa’s startled cry. She lowered her hand to
pick me up again.

But I jumped onto the typewriter keys. Lowered my head. And began pecking
away with my hard little beak.

I pecked a V Then I hopped up to the left and pecked an A. As Vanessa’s hand
swooped to grab me, I slid back down to the bottom row and pecked an N.

Vanessa’s hand stopped inches above me. Could she see what I was doing? Did
she figure out that I was typing her a message?

The E was nearly at the top of the keyboard. I stumbled on the keys and
nearly typed the wrong letter. But I hit the E, then backed up a step and pecked two S’s.

I glanced up. Yes! She was watching. She had Cole resting in her palm. She
leaned over the desk, and her dark eyes stared down at the sheet of paper.

I was gasping for breath by the time I finished. My little heart was
pounding. It was such hard work! But I typed the whole message:

VANESSA, WE’RE REALLY SORRY. WE DIDN’T MEAN TO SPILL YOUR GROCERIES. WE CAME
TO APOLOGIZE.

I dropped weakly onto the desktop. So exhausted, I could barely move.

I turned and raised my eyes to Vanessa.

Would she help us? Would she accept our apology? Would she change us back to
normal?

Vanessa brought her face down close to me. “Your apology is a little too
late,” she said coldly. “There’s nothing I can do.”

Cole uttered a pitiful “Cheep.”

I raised myself up with a sigh. Then I stumbled back wearily onto the
typewriter keys.

PLEAS, I pecked out.

I was so tired, I didn’t have the strength to push down the E at the end.

I gazed up hopefully at Vanessa. She stared down at the word I had typed. She
tapped her chin with her black fingernails.

“Well…” she said finally. “I like the way you say
‘please’
.” She lifted me up gently and set me down in her palm beside Cole.

“Politeness is so important,” Vanessa said, holding us up to her face.
“Especially for young people. That’s what I care about more than anything else
in the world. Good manners.”

Her dark eyes narrowed at us. “That day in front of the grocery,” she
scolded, “you didn’t apologize for crashing into me. So I had no choice. I had
to punish you.” She studied us, tsk-tsking.

So
that’s
why Anthony wasn’t turned into a chicken, too! I realized.
Before he ran away, Anthony had called out to Vanessa that he was sorry.

If only Cole and I had apologized then! We wouldn’t be peeping little chicks
today.

But how were we to know that Vanessa was such a manners freak?

She carried us over to a tall bookshelf and held us close to the books. “Do
you see my collection?” she asked. “All etiquette books. Dozens and dozens of
manners books. I have dedicated my life to manners.”

She gazed at us sternly. “If only kids today weren’t so rude. I wish I could
help you two. I really do. But your apology came too late. Far too late.”

She set us both down on the desk. I guess her hand was getting tired. She
rubbed it tenderly with her other hand.

Now what? I wondered.

Was she going to send us home like this? Vanessa was right. Cole and I would
never make it. Some dog or cat or raccoon would turn us into dinner before we
went a block or two.

I cheeped in panic. My tiny feathers stood straight up. What could we do?

I had one last, desperate idea.

One more time, I climbed onto the typewriter keyboard. And I began to type…

THANK YOU FOR EXPLAINING TO US. AND THANK YOU FOR TRYING TO TEACH US TO BE
POLITE. YOURS TRULY, COLE AND CRYSTAL

I
said
it was a desperate idea. About as desperate as a chicken can
get. But I stared up at Vanessa, watching her read it. Hoping… hoping…

“I don’t
believe
it!” Vanessa exclaimed. She tore the sheet of paper
from the typewriter and read it again. “A thank-you note!” she cried. “You wrote
me a thank-you note!”

She gazed down at Cole and me with a broad smile. “No kids today
ever
write thank-you notes!” she cried. “This is the politest thing I ever saw!”

She danced around with it. “A thank-you note! An actual thank-you note!”

And then she turned. Pointed a finger at Cole, then at me. Mumbled some
words. And pointed again.

“Whooooa!” I cried, feeling my body grow. I felt like a balloon inflating.
The little yellow feathers fell away. My hair grew back. My arms… my hands!

“YAAAAAY!” I cried. Cole joined my happy cheer.

We were back! Vanessa had changed us back—to
us
!

We pinched each other, just to make sure. Then we tossed back our heads and laughed. We were so happy!

Vanessa laughed, too. We all laughed gleefully together.