Horrible Harry and the Mud Gremlins (2 page)

Harry raised one eyebrow. “Want to see
green
hairs? Just look at the bread mold we're growing.”

Song Lee looked through the hexagonal magnifying glass into the closest plastic Baggie. “Ooooh neato! It looks like green fuzz growing out of craters.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “But it's not as cool as what I saw this morning on the way to school.”

“What did you see?” Mary demanded.

“You mean,
What did I discover?”
Harry corrected. “I
discovered
a kingdom of mushrooms.”

“A kingdom of mushrooms?” we replied.

“Hey, what's up?” Sid interrupted. He had returned to the science corner wearing a yellow yarn necklace. Three paper clips were hanging from it like silver jewels.

No one made a comment. We were too interested in Harry's discovery.

Harry lowered his voice. “Just wait till recess. I'll show you some wicked looking fungi. And you can look at it with my new magnifying necklace.”

“What's fun gee?” Sid blurted out.

“Fun
guy,”
Harry corrected. “Don't you pay attention in science? Mushrooms are a part of the fungus kingdom, like the bread mold we're growing. My grandma told me we use fungi to make detergent, penicillin for antibiotics, blue cheese, and ...” Harry flashed his white teeth “... salami.”

“Aaauugh!” Sid gasped clutching his throat. “Mom made me a salami sandwich today. I'm eating fungi for lunch!”

“We're all eating it for lunch, Sid,” Harry replied. “Yeast is a fungus that's inside bread. But when it's between our toes, it's called athlete's foot. You gotta be tough, Sid!”

Sidney's face turned as green as the mold in our experiment. Harry patted him on the back. “Today's your lucky day, Sid. You get to eat a double fungus sandwich. Salami
and
bread!”

Song Lee giggled. “Can you show us the kingdom of mushrooms at recess?”

“At recess,” Harry said holding up a finger. “But first, anyone who wants to see it has to promise not to tell where it is. It's a secret place.”

Everyone watched Harry make a small circle with his index finger and thumb. “Put your fingers in here.”

One by one we put our index fingers inside. It was a tight fit!

“Now repeat after me,” Harry said, lowering his voice and squeezing our fingers. We huddled together on the moon rug and listened.

“I promise ...” Harry began.

“I promise ...” we repeated.

“To follow Harry to the kingdom of mushrooms ...”

“To follow Harry to the kingdom of mushrooms ...” we answered.

“And never tell anyone where we go.”

“And never tell anyone where we go,” we repeated.

“Good,” Harry said, breaking up our circle of fingers. “At recess, you're going to have the mushroom treat of a lifetime!” Then he tucked his microscope necklace inside his sweater and gave us a toothy smile.

I
t was a bummer being stuck in class all morning. We had to wait three hours until lunch recess. All we really wanted to do was visit the kingdom of mushrooms!

Miss Mackle noticed our long faces.

And frowns.

She immediately wrote “Writing Workshop” on the blackboard, then turned around with a big smile. “Sometimes, when we're having a bad day, it's the best day to write!”

Harry and I exchanged a look.

Mary rolled her eyes.

“I want you to write about something that bugs you, and then illustrate it. I'll display your stories and pictures up on a Writing Wall out in the hall.”

“Can I make bugs for the wall?” Harry asked.

“Sure! That sounds like fun,” Miss Mackle replied. “Just as soon as you finish your story.”

Harry's face got longer. He wanted to make bugs first.

“I know what I'm writing about—my brother!” Ida groaned. “He really bugs me.”

Miss Mackle smiled. “No names please. But you can write about what a person does that bugs you ... like teasing or yelling or—”

“Smoking,” Dexter interrupted. “I hate smoke.”

“I'm writing about
lice,”
Sidney yelled. “I got them last year. That really
bugged
me.”

“What good ideas!” the teacher exclaimed. “Anybody else?”

Song Lee raised her hand. “I remember once my family got dressed up and went to a nice restaurant. There was sticky gum under the table. I hated that!”

Miss Mackle put her hand over her heart.

“I've got the worst one,” Harry bragged. “Tick bites. My grandma found one on her back last summer after we came back from a hike. That hairy bugger was half in and half out of her skin. As soon as I finish writing about it, I'll make ticks and lice for the writing wall.”

While everyone cringed, Ida raised her hand. “I've got another one now. Black ice. My mom and I nearly got in an accident last winter. Our car swerved all over the road!”

Miss Mackle gasped. “Oh no! Let's begin writing now!”

Mary scowled. She couldn't think of anything. I couldn't either.

Then Mary started tapping her pencil.

That's it, I thought. Tapping bugged me. Finger tapping, pencil tapping, foot tapping ... I got busy writing.

Thirty minutes later, we shared our stories. One by one we used Miss Mackle's microphone in the front of the room. Even the teacher read her story aloud. She hated long meetings.

Mary was the only one who didn't share. “I have writers' block,” she complained. “All the things I hate have been taken. I don't want to write on the same thing that someone else did. I want to hate something different.”

Miss Mackle smiled. “Maybe something will come to you later in the day. I'll call on you then.”

Everyone who finished their writing got to look at the green bread mold under the microscopes. Song Lee and I even made slides of the green fuzz.

Finally, at twelve o'clock, the bell rang. We all hurried to the cafeteria and gobbled down our lunches. Sidney traded his salami sandwich for Harry's peanut butter and jelly. Sid said he wanted to eat just a single fungus sandwich. Not a double. When everyone finished, we hustled outside for recess!

A
s soon as we got outside on the playground, the six of us gathered around Harry.

“Take us to the kingdom of mushrooms!” Mary demanded.

Harry took his necklace out of his sweater and grinned. “Follow me.”

We did. Harry took us to the far end of the playground, the side that faced an empty lot, not the street. “This is it.”

Song Lee shrugged. “Where?”

Harry pointed to the other side of the fence.

We all looked at the vacant lot. There was scattered grass, a few bushes, and one white oak tree. The ground was covered with lots of dirt, leaves, and pebbles. A couple of candy wrappers and one crumpled potato chip bag floated in a puddle of water next to a chewed-up tennis ball.