Chapter 6

Chapter six I poked my head out of my sleeping bag and whispered to Frankie. "Are you awake? Did you hear that?" "Yes, I did." "Do you think it's an animal?" "It's just a little wind in the trees," Frankie said. "Well, it doesn't sound like a little wind to me," I whispered back. "Go to sleep, Zip," Frankie said. "Your ears don't work when you're asleep." Frankie rolled over and pulled his sleeping bag up around his neck. I rolled over the other way and pulled my sleeping bag over my ears.

But that didn't block out the sound, which was growing louder by the minute. I could hear the wind blowing so hard, the branches on the trees were starting to creak. In the darkness, I heard Emily's voice. "Hank, it's really windy out there," she said. "Do you think one of those trees could fall down on us?" "Relax, Emily," I said. "It's just a little wind." I tried to sound like a calm older brother, but even to me, my voice sounded like a scared little kid. "I'll check to make sure our tent is tied down tight," my mom said, crawling out of her sleeping bag. "There could be a little storm coming. Nothing to worry about." As she unzipped the tent flap and stepped outside, a giant blast of wind came whistling into our tent. It blew so hard, it almost lifted Cheerio's ears off his head. But good old Cheerio slept

right through it. I think his bad pickle experience had worn him out. Through our flapping tent door, I could see my mom outside testing the cords that held our tent to the wooden platform. When she came back in, her hair looked like she hadn't combed it for a month. It looked like a lion's mane, but not in a good way. "Whoa," she said, trying to smooth down her hair with her hands. "It's really blowing hard out there. And I felt a few raindrops." "Is our tent waterproof?" Emily asked. "Sure it is," my mom said. "Besides, even if we get wet, a little rain never hurt anyone. We're not going to melt."

Without anyone saying anything, we all pulled our sleeping bags into a tighter circle. We listened to the raindrops pitter-patter on the top of our tent. It wasn't so bad, until the pitter-patter turned into ka-boom, ka-boom. I don't know how big those raindrops were—but they sounded like they were the size of soccer balls. And the wind was going crazy. It was like a train going through a tunnel. "Hey, kids," my mom said, sounding extremely fake cheerful. "This is even more of an adventure than we thought we'd have. Hank, I'll bet this rain is giving you all sorts of ideas for your poem."

"Yeah," Frankie said. "What rhymes with 'storm'?" "'Warm,'" I said with a shiver. "Which I'm definitely not." "I'm scared," Emily said. "Mommy, can I get in your sleeping bag?" "Of course you can," she said, sliding over to make room for Emily. "Can Cheerio come, too?" Emily asked. "I'll put him in my sleeping bag," I said. I picked up Cheerio and tucked him in right next to me. That was a mistake, because as soon as he got in my sleeping bag, he farted. I don't want to say it smelled bad, but let's just say it was like lying inside a jar of old pickles. I unzipped my sleeping bag a little to let in some fresh air. All of a sudden, a big gust of wind hit our tent so hard that the sides actually started to flutter. The sound of the tent flapping got really loud. It sounded like the tent was going to take off like a small plane. "Mrs. Z.!" Frankie shouted over the howling wind. "This doesn't seem like a little storm to

me. I'm kind of scared." I've known Frankie Townsend since preschool, and I've never heard him say he was scared. That was enough to scare me—even more than I already was. "Don't worry, kids. I'm sure this storm will blow over quickly. And besides, our tent is very secure." As soon as my mom said those words, a burst of wind attacked our tent and almost lifted it right off the wooden platform. Correct that. It DID lift it right off the wooden platform, like a helium balloon. Cheerio woke up and started to bark at the sky. I would have joined him if I thought it would do any good. Instead, the four of us sat there getting totally soaked and watched our tent tumble away toward the lake. "What do we do now?" I heard Emily scream. That was the best question I had ever heard her ask.