Fly Frenzy (4 page)

Josh and Danny stared back at her. She wasn't really suggesting . . . ? She didn't really mean . . . ? Did she?

“Shall we go back inside, while your Mom phones the police?” asked Petty.

“Thanks, Miss Potts,” sighed Mom. “But I don't think the police can help now. The judging is tomorrow. It's not even as if I can cheat and wire the birds back on. They're gone! But if you could have Josh and Danny a little longer, I think I need to sit down and have a quiet cup of tea.”

“You didn't really mean that—did you?” demanded Danny as soon as they shut Petty's front door. “About being a fly on the wall?”

“Now remember,” said Petty, leading them through the kitchen and out into the back garden. “I told you that I would never spray you with BUGSWITCH again. Funnily enough, I do happen to have the bluebottle housefly variety all set up to go, right now. But I would never spray it on you.”

Josh and Danny followed her through waist-high weeds, across her garden, and into the shed. “Or ever make you press the time-delay button that enables you to start the spray. Then you could get yourself inside the special spray tent before it goes off.”

“Don't listen to her! Don't go into her shed!” said Danny. Josh got a glittery look in his eyes.

Petty stepped into the shed. She walked past the rarely used lawnmower, the spade, and the rake. She pushed aside the old sacking on the back wall to reveal a red metal door. She turned the handle. It opened on to a short flight of dark steps, leading down to a gloomy corridor. Danny couldn't stop Josh from following her through.

“But we could get over into Mrs. Sharpe's house, though—really easily!” said Josh. They went down the corridor. It smelled like old bricks and earth and other more peculiar scents from a room at the end. “Her garden backs onto ours. We could fly in through her window, have a look around for evidence, and then get back again in two minutes!”

“But . . . it's so dangerous!” gasped Danny.

“Well, you don't have to come,” said Josh. “But nobody messes with my mom's hedge and gets away with it! Not if I can help it!”

“Of course, I could never recommend that you come in here,” went on Petty. They arrived in her lab. It was full of odd machinery, gadgets, and a square tent of plastic sheeting right in the middle. “Or come into the control booth and hit any of the buttons. That would be the very last thing you would want to do.”

Josh went into the booth after her. It was the size of a large cupboard. It was lit with the green glow of three computer screens, covered in numbers. In front of the screens was a large control panel. The buttons on it were marked with various creepy-crawly shapes, like those in the BUGSWITCH cubes. He saw the spider button next to a beetle button, just down from an ant button. Below that was a button with a bluebottle shape on it. A fly. A fly on the wall . . .

Josh didn't waste any time. He hit the button.

There was a sudden humming noise. A blue light came on in the plastic tent. He ran across and pushed his way inside it through a narrow gap. The hissing started, and a fine yellow mist sprayed across his legs.

“Josh! What are you doing?” yelled Danny.

“It's OK—it won't take long. Back in two minutes,” said Josh.

Danny slapped his forehead and groaned. He knew he couldn't let Josh go on his own. “This is such a bad idea!” he muttered. He stepped into the tent with his brother.

“Oh my. What have you done?” said Petty, cheerfully. “Now, remember, it's only temporary. You'll need to get back fast. You don't want to revert to boys while you're still in Mrs. Sharpe's house.”

Josh began to feel peculiar. The plastic sheets around him swished into a whirly pattern. Then they shot upward, as if he was falling. Yet he could still feel the concrete floor under his two feet. Ah—no. Scratch that. Under his six feet.

“WAHAAY!” shouted Josh. Danny towered above him like a giant. His nearby foot, in its muddy sneaker, was the size of a truck. Josh seemed to be looking through thousands of little hexagonal lenses. And he could see all around him without even moving. He was bug-eyed!

“WHEEE-RRRE IIIIIzzzzz HEEEE?” he heard Danny bellow in a deep loud voice. It vibrated right through his highly tuned black body.

Josh felt his six feet move off the floor. He realized that the ticklish feeling on his back was coming from the whirring of his own two wings.

“WEEE-HEEE!” he gurgled, full of excitement. He rose up in the air like a Harrier Jump Jet. A moment later, he was staring, amazed, into Danny's huge face. His own blue-black body was reflected in the two gigantic shiny orbs of his brother's eyes. His new bluebottle head was almost triangular in shape. His immense bulging golden eyes softened the corners. Two tiny stubby feelers (called palps, he knew, from his wildlife books) wiggled where his nose used to be, with a little spiky antenna on each. Josh stuck out his tongue. What emerged from his chin area was a black sticklike thing that bent in the middle like an elbow. A spongy blob was on the end.

“Woo-hoo!” shouted Josh. “I've got a proboscis!”

“JOOOSH?” boomed Danny's humongous face, the fly's eyes crinkling up in wonder. And then Danny disappeared into a tiny dot, way down on the floor. A few seconds later, he was up in the air next to Josh.

“Josh! Josh!” he squeaked. His bug eyes bulged with amazement. “I can fly!”

“It's a buzz, isn't it?” giggled Josh. He flicked his peculiar mouthparts about with excitement.

“And I can see my own butt!” marveled Danny. “Without turning my head around!”

“Well, that makes it all worthwhile!” chortled Josh. “It's your special fly eyes! They're designed so you can see all the way around, in case of predators. Now! We have to hurry. Follow me. I know the way to Mrs. Sharpe's house.”

He could just make out Petty slowly waving a huge pink hand at them. He shot out through the gap in the plastic tent. He flew past the open lab door, back up the steps to the shed, and out into Petty's garden. Danny was just behind him. It didn't look so much like a garden now. More like an immense jungle with a tangled mass of exotic trees spreading below them as far as their bug eyes could see. The jungle sent up intense smells of greenery, flower pollen, and something gorgeously brown and sticky from the other side of the fence. It was near Piddle's basket.

Danny whirled about in astonishment. The sky was filled with aircraft, thundering, thudding, zooming, and whining past. “It's an air show!” he yelped. He dodged what looked like a small black and yellow helicopter with a terrifying face. Two blue jets darted past so fast he got spun around in midair.

“Where did all these aircraft come from?”

“They're not aircraft, you dingbat!” said Josh. He hovered up alongside Danny, his dangly black forelegs blowing in the breeze. “They're other insects. Look out for the black and yellow ones. They're wasps. They'd happily eat us if they could. The dragonflies—those blue jets—can be pretty fierce too. But I think they're just looking for girlfriends.”