Deep Trouble II (2 page)

Dr. D. gripped my shoulder as he stared down at the photo with me. “No!” he
cried. “It can’t be!”

We crowded around the book, staring at the photo. It showed a fish exactly
like the one in the tank. Thin, silvery… but there was one huge difference.

“It’s a minnow!” Dr. D. exclaimed. “But that’s impossible!”

I read the words under the picture. “‘Tropical minnow, one inch long.’”

I glanced at the fish in the tank. It was more like four feet long!

Dr. D.’s eyes narrowed as he studied the fish. “How could a minnow get so
huge?” he wondered out loud. “I must examine it more closely.”

Sheena and I stood behind him, watching. He studied the picture of the minnow
through a magnifying glass. Then he turned to the giant minnow, staring at its
scales, checking every mark.

“The markings are exactly the same,” Dr. D. murmured.

“Can I look through the magnifying glass?” Sheena asked.

“Sure.” Dr. D. passed the glass to her.

“A minnow
…”
Dr. D. murmured. “How can this giant fish be a minnow?
It’s supposed to be as small as your goldfish, Billy.”

My goldfish! “Whoops,” I cried. “I forgot to feed my goldfish this morning.”

“Better go do it,” Dr. D. said.

I started toward the lab door. On my way, I spotted a cabinet filled with
glass bottles. “What’s in these, Dr. D.?” I asked.

He turned away from the monster minnow to look. “Oh, that’s plankton,” he
replied. “It’s made of tiny little plants and animals that clump together and
float around in the water. Lots of fish eat it. I gathered these samples from
the waters around here.”

I picked up a bottle. All I could see was murky brown water with
greenish-brown gunk floating on top.

Sheena turned the magnifying glass on the plankton. “Gross,” she said.

“Go ahead and take a bottle, Billy,” Dr. D. suggested. “Feed some to your
goldfish. They’ll love it.”

“Thanks, Dr. D.” Clutching the bottle, I headed down the passageway to my
cabin.

As I pushed open the door, I said, “Hello, little fish faces. I’ve got a
delicious surprise for you!”

But the fish had a bigger surprise for me. Way bigger.

I stared at the fishbowl. And nearly dropped the bottle of plankton.

Then I screamed, “NO!”

I burst out of my cabin. “Help! Help! Dr. D.!” I cried.

“There’s a head—
someone’s head
—in my fishbowl!”

Dr. D. and Sheena hurried out of the lab. I glanced back at my cabin door,
and—
oof!
—slammed right into Sheena.

“Ow!” she whined. “Watch it, Billy!”

“Billy, what’s wrong?” asked Dr. D.

“A head!” I gasped, pointing frantically to my cabin.

I struggled to breathe. My stomach lurched. “Oh, wow. Oh, wow. There—there’s a human head in my fishbowl!”

Dr. D. frowned and charged into my room. Sheena and I followed.

He pushed open the door… and stopped short with a gasp.

“See!” I shouted.

The head stared at us, eyes open, through the glass.

How could Dr. D. and Sheena stand to look at it? It was making me sick. I
gulped and turned away.

Sheena giggled.

Giggled?

“What’s the matter with you, Sheena?” I demanded. “What’s so funny?”

She crossed the room and reached into the fishbowl.

“Sheena, no!” I warned. “Don’t touch it!”

Sheena laughed—and lifted the head out by the hair. Then she waved the
head, dripping with water.

“Oh, nooooo!” I groaned. I stared at the head in horror.

I could see it clearly now. I could see that it wasn’t a human head after
all.

It was a large doll’s head.

“Got you back!” Sheena taunted. “Got you back for all the tricks you’ve been
playing on me all summer!”

Dr. D. grinned. “You almost fooled me too,” he confessed. “The water in the
fishbowl made the doll’s head look bigger than it really is. Good one, Sheena.”

“Thanks, Dr. D.” Sheena took a little bow.

My face felt hot. I knew I was blushing. I was so embarrassed. It just isn’t
like me to fall for such a stupid joke!

Besides,
I’m
supposed to be the joker. Not Sheena.

I stared into the tank. Something was missing.

“Hey!” I said. “Where are my goldfish? And where’s my snail?”

Sheena shrugged. I grabbed her by the neck. “What did you do with them?”

“Okay, okay, don’t worry,” she said. She pushed me away. “I put them in a
smaller bowl and left them in the bathroom.”

“Well, get them!” I insisted. I was really angry.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Sheena said. She brought my fish and my snail back,
and I gently returned them to their bowl.

“Don’t ever touch them again!” I told my sister. “I don’t want anything to
happen to them.”

I watched the fish swim around for a minute. They didn’t look right. I shook
my head. “Something’s the matter with them,” I said.

“Give them a little plankton, Billy,” Dr. D. suggested. “That ought to perk
them right up.”

I grabbed the glass bottle and pulled off the stopper. I poured a little of
the slimy gunk into the bowl.

The fish darted to the surface and started eating. They looked much happier.

“Wow,” I said. “They love it!”

“I thought they would.” Dr. D. smiled, but his eyes clouded over with worry.
“Now, kids, no more jokes, please. I’m going back to the lab to examine that
giant minnow. And I don’t want to be disturbed.”

“We’ll be quiet,” Sheena promised.

Dr. D. hardly seemed to hear her. “There’s something strange going on here,”
he murmured. “Something very, very strange…”

Little did we know that things were about to get much stranger.

I paced the deck, thinking hard. I was dying to get Sheena back for that
stupid doll trick.

She seemed nervous the rest of the afternoon. Waiting for me to strike.

But I hadn’t thought of anything good enough. I’d spent all night thinking,
until I fell asleep.

Now it was the next day. Sheena’s guard was down. Maybe she’d forgotten—forgotten that
she’d
been the last one to play a trick on me.

And now it was her turn to be fooled.

What would make her hair stand on end? I wondered. What would scare her so
much, she’d scream her head off?

The shark trick with the pillow had backfired. So I really owed her
two
tricks.

Maybe I could leave something gross in her bed?

The morning sun beat down on me. Summer days were hot in the Caribbean. I started to get a headache.

But I finally thought of something good to do to Sheena.

I grabbed my snorkeling gear and pulled it on. I decided to sneak off and
explore a little.

Dr. D. wanted us to stay close to the boat. But he didn’t want to be
disturbed. So snorkeling seemed like a good idea.

Mask and snorkel in place, I started down the boat ladder.

“Caught you!”

Sheena’s squeaky voice pierced my eardrums. She was always catching me doing
something.

“Where are you going?” she demanded. “Dr. D. said to stay close.”

“I won’t go far,” I insisted. “I’m hot and I’m bored. I can’t sit on deck
another second.”

“Then I’m coming with you.” She snatched up her gear and started tugging it
on.

I dropped off the ladder and into the water. She slipped in beside me.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she whispered. “What if that shark comes back?”

“The shark is gone,” I said. “Don’t worry. Nothing bad will happen.”

“Promise?” she asked, pulling down her mask.

“Yeah. Sure. I promise,” I said.

It was a peaceful, sunny day. The waves were as gentle as a lake. What could
happen?

Sheena and I swam out over the sunlit, gleaming water. We thought we’d see
lots of pretty little fish.

We found something else. Something we never expected in a million years.

I dunked Sheena’s head under the water. When she popped back up for air, I
shouted, “Shark! Shark!”

Sheena clonked me on the head with her fist. “Don’t even joke about it,
Billy.” Still, I caught her glancing around nervously.

I scanned the horizon too. No signs of a fin anywhere.

A school of lemon-yellow fish drifted by, glowing like little suns in the
water. Swimming slowly, I followed them to the coral reef.

Wow, I thought. The coral made a cool shape at that spot. The fish swam
through a big pink ring of coral and around a pointy coral peak.

Sunlight filtered down on it through the water. It looked like the tower of a
magic sand castle.

A tiny crab popped out of one of the holes in the coral tower. It saw me
coming and disappeared.

The yellow fish suddenly rose to the surface, up to a plankton bed that
floated on top of the water.

The plankton looked just like the stuff Dr. D. kept in those bottles in his
lab.

I watched the fish nip at the plankton, just as my goldfish did.

I surfaced and spit my snorkel out.

“Sheena, check this out,” I called.

No answer.

“Sheena?”

I saw a splash on the other side of the reef. Another splash.

I glimpsed Sheena’s flippers as they slapped the water.

I swam after her. She had her head down, snorkeling. She must have been
watching something very closely. She swam fast, kicking her fins in a rapid,
steady rhythm.

“Sheena!” I called again. She couldn’t hear me.

She wouldn’t hear me if I swam up beside her and screamed. She’s like that
sometimes. Like when she does her homework. She gets so into it, she blocks
everything else out.

Of course she gets straight A’s. My mom and dad are constantly bragging about
it.

I sighed and paddled after her. I had to go get her. She was swimming out to
sea without even realizing it.

I watched her through my mask as I swam. What was that up ahead of her? A
patch of cloudy water?

Whoa. No. Not water. I’d never seen anything like it before.

Sheena didn’t seem to see it. She was swimming steadily, straight for it.

And, to my horror, it began to move!

I blew water from my snorkel tube and squinted hard through my mask. The
thing drifted closer. It was pink and rubbery. Like a soft blob of bubblegum.

It billowed toward Sheena.

And as I stared at it, it appeared to stretch.

It billowed and stretched, billowed out like a pink parachute. Until it was
bigger than Sheena.

What is that thing? I wondered. Sheena, turn around! Didn’t she see it?
Didn’t she see it expanding, curling out, stretching in front of her?

“Sheena! Turn around! Turn around!”

I wanted to shout. But I couldn’t shout underwater.

I thrashed hard. Kicked. Spun around. Desperate to get her attention.

Sheena!—turn around! I thought. Get away from that thing! Get away—now!

But she kept her head down. And swam straight into the billowy pink blob.

And as I stared on helplessly, it wrapped itself around her. Like an enormous
pink clam, it opened wide… wider… and slipped itself around her.

Held her. Held her tight. Pulled her inside.

And swallowed her.

For a moment, I froze in terror.

Then I pulled myself to the surface. Tossed off the mask. And started to swim
toward her.

I splashed across the water, racing toward the pink blob. It writhed and
wriggled with my sister inside it.

What is it? I wondered. What can it be?

And then, as I pulled myself closer, I knew what it was.

I was staring at a jellyfish!

A jellyfish bigger than a human.

Whoa!

I could see through it. I saw the white, filmy slime and the red veins that
made it look pink.

And Sheena—trapped inside!

Poor Sheena. Squirming. Kicking. Slapping at the gooey pink sides of the
creature.

Her face pushed up against the veiny jellyfish skin! Through her mask, I saw her eyes wide with terror.

The ugly creature wrapped around her like a slimy blanket, covering her whole
body.

She pushed both fists against the filmy, pink curtain.

I knew she didn’t have much air left in her lungs.

I had to do something. But what?

Sheena’s face twisted in panic.

I’ll have to pry it open somehow, I decided.

I swam up to the wriggling blob. I tried to grab its side.

Ugh! My hands slid right off.

I grabbed for it again. No way. I couldn’t get a grip on it. It was like
squeezing Jell-O.

Its skin slapped against me, so slimy and sticky.

Sheena stared out at me, eyes bulging with terror.

I tried to wrestle the ugly creature. I dug my fingernails into it.

It wriggled and throbbed. But it didn’t open.

Then I realized what I had to do.

The thought made me want to puke. But I knew I had no other choice.

Sheena couldn’t hold out much longer.

I had to slide inside the jellyfish myself. I had to get in there somehow and
pull Sheena out.

I swallowed.

My stomach lurched.

I lowered my head and dove for the seam, the opening where the disgusting
pink blob had folded itself in half.

Here goes! I told myself.

I’m going inside….

I worked my hands inside first. Then I lowered my head and pulled myself in.

The slime oozed across my face. The red veins rubbed my skin raw.

I held my breath and worked my way toward Sheena’s feet. If I could make it
halfway in and grab her feet, maybe I could yank her out.

The blob pulsed, sucking me deep inside. I inched in, stretching toward
Sheena’s foot.