9 Smarter and Smarterer

CHAPTER 9 Smarter and Smarterer Hi, readers, it's Jill here. As you know, something's gone wrong with Andy and Terry so I'm going to narrate for a little while until we can fix them… Oh, look at that amazing butterfly—it's a brush-footed, gossamer-winged loop-the-looper, if I'm not

mistaken. Yep, look at those loops! It's the loopiest insect in the whole animal kingdom—capable of up to one million loops per day! The only other insect to come close to that is the somersaulting silverfish of Soweto— which reminds me of a funny story— 'Jill,' says Alice. 'You're supposed to be narrating the book, not talking about animals.' 'Oh, sorry,' I say. 'I got completely distracted by the loop-the-looper.'

Now where was I? Oh, that's right. At the end of the last chapter, I rescued Andy, Terry, Alice, Albert and the baby from the giant spider web in the treehouse. Silky and her flying cat friends helped to bring everybody back to my house, which is where we are now. 'What's wrong with Andy and Terry?' says Albert. 'Well,' I say, 'let's see, shall we?' I shine a torch into Andy's right ear.

The beam of light passes through his head and comes out his left ear and then travels into Terry's right ear, through his head, and out the other side. 'Ah, I see the problem,' I say. 'Their heads are completely empty. It's as if their brains have been drained of all knowledge.'

'Oh no!' says Alice. 'What are you going to do?' 'Fill them up again, of course!' I say. 'Luckily I have an early learning centre for animals. I opened it just last week.' 'But Andy and Terry aren't animals!' says Alice. 'Yes they are,' I say. 'They're human animals… we all are! And right now I need you both to be human animal teachers. You're going to help me re-educate

Andy and Terry. Let's take them to the early learning centre.'