9 What’s Up

Chapter 9 WHAT'S UP? Harley started to scratch—and scratch and scratch! With every scratch, the daisy shook as if there were an earthquake. Thudd pressed the button that made his Goggle Scope flop down over his face screen. The Goggle Scope made faraway things look near, like a telescope. meep… "Drewd! Oody!" squeaked Thudd, pointing below. "Look!" "I don't see anything," said Andrew. meep… "Helicopter!" said Thudd. "Are you sure?" asked Judy. "Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!" said Thudd.

"We've got to get down there and find it," said Andrew. He looked at the Drastic Elastic, tangled between the daisy and the lily. "I guess we'll have to leave the Drastic Elastic behind," he said. They hopped off the petal and floated down to the dirt. meep… "That way!" said Thudd, pointing left as they landed. Next to a huge, round pit, Andrew and Judy saw a glint of silver. "THE HELICOPTER!" Judy screamed. Judy and Andrew scrambled over boulders of dirt. They crept among the squirmy, wormy things wriggling through the soil. When they got to the helicopter, Judy looked it over carefully. There were just a few scratches and a dent on the door. "It looks okay," said Andrew. "But will it fly?" said Judy.

She got into the pilot's seat. Underneath the seat was a little magnetic box where her parents kept the key. "Fasten your seat belt," said Judy. She turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. She checked the fuel. There was enough. As Judy tried to start the helicopter again, something shook beneath them. It felt like they were on top of a huge egg about to hatch! meep… "Cicadas comin'!" said Thudd. Judy tried the ignition again. This time she turned the key farther. Yaketta yaketta yakketta, the engine sputtered. Something enormous was coming out of the pit! A huge brown buggy head with bright round red eyes reared up in front of the helicopter.

Andrew turned to see a herd of red-eyed cicadas behind them! ROARRRRRRRRR! The helicopter engine came to life! The helicopter wobbled. Then it began to rise up between the leaves! It rose above the daisies! It

rose above the roses! Down below, cicadas were covering the ground! Cicadas were crawling up trees! Cicadas were crawling up legs! "Erf!" "Eeeeeyiiiii!!" "Noooooooo!" From high above the garden, it looked like Mrs. Scuttle's guests were dancing. But they were frantically shaking off bugs. Judy steered the helicopter over the fence and into her own yard. "There's the Atom Sucker!" Andrew yelled. He pointed to the porcupine-shaped machine bouncing under a tree. Long, skinny copper tubes stuck out all over it. There was a fat iron pipe in the front. That was where the shrinking happened. That was where the un-shrinking was supposed to happen, too. KAPOCKETA POCKETA POCKETA! clattered the Atom Sucker.

The copper tubes were twirling and the whole thing was shaking like a washing machine on spin cycle. "So how can we push the SHRINK lever to UN- SHRINK?" yelled Judy. "This helicopter is lighter than a ladybug." She checked the clock on the control panel. "It's 7:59," she said. "We've got two minutes left to un-shrink." Andrew scratched his nose. "Um, fly us to the back of the Atom Sucker," he said. "Get us just above the red switch." The warm June evening was beginning to get dark. Tiny lights flickered on and off in the yard. meep… "Fireflies!" said Thudd. "Got lights in behind! Fireflies blink to find mate!" "Put a sock in it, Thudd!" yelled Judy. They were hovering above the back of the Atom Sucker. They could see the big red switch. Beside the switch were two marks. The top one was labeled SHRINK. The bottom one was labeled UN- SHRINK. The switch was pushed up to SHRINK.