8 Good-bye!

Chapter 8 GOOD-BYE! The beam glinted off something shiny and brown. Andrew made out a sandwich-sized head with long, twitchy antennas. Below them, sharp jaws opened like scissors. Lots of spiny legs stuck out from a long, armored body. The beam of light made the creature zigzag quickly toward the back of the log. "Yowzers!" said Andrew. Beeper grinned. "It's a gigunda centipede," he said. "He's six feet long! Isn't he beautiful? Did you see those fangs? He's real venomous!

"But I don't have a cage for him. You've gotta help me carry this log back to your time machine." "No way!" said Judy. "You can't just take these things back to our time! What if they got loose?" meep… "Our time not good for them," said Thudd. "Food different. Air different. Future time got less oxygen." Beeper looked at his collection of cages. "Gee," he said. "I don't want them to get sick or anything. But can't I take something back? How about a couple of cockroaches?" "Oh great!" said Judy. "Wouldn't those be nice in the kitchen?" Andrew smiled. "Remember when that cockroach dragged us up through the kitchen

drain?" "What?" said Beeper. "Puh-leeeze!" said Judy, kicking a tree. "I'm still trying to forget it. These cockroaches are so big, you could hitch them up like sled dogs!" meep… "Mother cockroach lay fifty eggs every month," said Thudd. "In one year, mother cockroach and her babies make thirty thousand cockroaches." Judy shuddered. "Beeper," she said, "it's you or your zoo. You can come with us or you can stay with them." "Tum tee dum tee dum," muttered Beeper, walking up to the scorpion cage. "My uncle never told me how to take care of these guys. The scorpion looks kinda hungry." Andrew nodded. "So let them go, and come with us." Beeper tapped the centipede's log and looked inside. "I guess it's good-bye, big guy," he said. "Finally!" said Judy. "But before you let them out, give us a head start. I don't want to be around

when you open those cages." "Fraidy-cat!" chuckled Beeper, pulling up the latch on the scorpion's cage. "Don't you dare!" said Judy. "You're no fun," said Beeper. "But I'll count to twenty before I let them go." "I'll stay with Beeper and help him," said Andrew. "One… two… three…," counted Beeper. Judy clambered off through the muck. By the time Beeper got to twenty, Judy was waving at them from a rock on the edge of the pond. Andrew opened the dragonfly cage. In a moment, their rainbow wings were flitting above the pond. Beeper opened the cockroach cage. The cockroaches didn't seem to know they were free. "We'll have to pick them up and take them out," said Beeper. He reached in and grabbed the biggest one. Its legs scrambled madly in the air.

Andrew wrapped both hands around the next biggest one. It felt like plastic. He put it down on the mossy ground and it scuttled away. The last two cockroaches skittered out on their own. Beeper went to the scorpion cage. "I'd better do this myself," said Beeper. "She trusts me."

Beeper lifted the door. "Good-bye, girl!" he said. "Good luck." As the mother scorpion crawled away, two of the scorpion babies fell off her back. Andrew and Beeper gently picked them up and put them back on. The scorpion crept off into the forest. Next, Beeper jumped on top of the giant centipede's log. "Better get up here," said Beeper to Andrew. "I don't know what this guy will do." Andrew hopped up behind Beeper. When Beeper pulled up the screen, the centipede waggled out—and started to creep onto the log! Beeper reached behind him. There was a backpack on the ground. He grabbed it and shoved it between him and the centipede. The centipede skittered off in the opposite direction. "Bye, guys!" shouted Beeper. "Maybe some of you will turn into fossils and I'll find you someday!" Beeper hitched his backpack over his shoulder. He and Andrew sloshed along the muddy edge of