2 WHAT WAS THAT

CHAPTER 2 WHAT WAS THAT? "Did you make some neat bug houses?" Mom asked as Sassafras and I burst through the back door. "Yes… well, no… well, one, yeah." I plonked down in a chair. "Mom, can tiny rain clouds come down to the ground and rain?" Mom pulled up a chair. "What makes you ask that?" "We were building a really great bug house when it started sounding like rain. There was no rain falling on us, but we spotted a little gray

cloud moving through the forest. It freaked Sassafras out." "Rain clouds don't quite work like that." Mom thought for a minute. "Do you think maybe it could have been a swarm of bugs? Sometimes a group of beating insect wings can sound like rain. When the conditions are just right, you can get several new bugs hatching all at once. And if it was a group of smaller bugs, like gnats, it might have looked like a cloud from far away." "Oh, that makes sense. Maybe that's what it

was," I said as she got up and handed me a snack. "Thanks, Mom." I felt a cat head bump my leg and looked down to see Sassafras staring up at me with big round eyes. "Oh, whoops! I promised you tuna!" I popped up and grabbed a can and started to open it while Sassafras pranced in circles around his cat dish. The opener stopped, and I turned to give Sassafras his tuna, but he was gone! "Really, again?" I muttered, but then I heard it. The magic doorbell was ringing!