How I Got My Shrunken Head (6 page)

The tiger’s huge paws pounded over the grass. Its yellow eyes burned into mine.

I glimpsed two little cubs behind it, nestled in the shade of a tree.

“I’m not going to hurt your cubs!” I wanted to cry.

But of course there was no time.

The tiger let out a furious roar as it charged.

The roar drowned out my cry as I raised the shrunken head in front of me in a trembling hand. “Kah-lee-ah!”

My voice came out in a whimper.

I nearly dropped the head. My knees collapsed. I sank to the grass.

The tiger closed in for the kill. Its heavy paws thudded the dirt as it leaped toward me.

The ground felt as if it were shaking.

The ground
was
shaking!

To my horror, I heard a deafening
ripping
sound. Like Velcro being torn apart. Only a thousand times louder.

I let out a cry as the ground trembled. Shook.

Split apart.

The grass tore away. The dirt split in two.

The earth opened up.

And I started to fall. Down into an endless hole in the earth.

Down, down.

Screaming all the way.

“Owww!”

I landed hard on my elbows and knees. Pain shot through my body. I actually saw stars! Hundreds of them, all red and yellow.

Trying to blink them away, I raised myself to my knees.

The shrunken head had bounced out of my hand. I spotted it a few feet away in the dirt. I dove for it, grabbed it up in my shaking hand, and held on to it tightly.

I felt dizzy and shaken. I closed my eyes and waited for the dizziness to pass.

When I opened them, I realized I had fallen into a deep pit. Walls of dirt surrounded me. The blue sky was a small square high above my head.

Jungle Magic had saved me once again. The magic had caused the ground to split open so that I could fall to safety. So that I could escape the tiger.

I heard a low growl above me.

With a frightened cry, I gazed up to the top of the pit. And saw two yellow eyes glaring down at me.

The tiger snarled, baring its teeth.

I didn’t escape,
I realized.

I’m trapped down here. If the tiger leaps down into the pit, it will finish me off in seconds.

I have nowhere to run. No way to escape.

I fell back against the wall of dirt. I stared up at the snarling tiger. It eyed me hungrily, roaring again. Preparing to leap to the attack.

“Kah-lee-ah!” I cried. “Kah-lee-ah!”

The tiger roared in reply.

I pressed my back against the dirt. Tried to stop my whole body from shaking.

Please don’t come down here!
I begged silently.
Please don’t jump down into this pit!

The yellow eyes glowed in the sunlight. The silvery whiskers twitched as the tiger snarled its toothy warning.

And then I saw a little yellow-and-black cat face appear at the top of the pit. One of the tiger cubs. It peered down at me over the edge of the grass.

The other cub popped up beside it. It leaned over the pit edge. Leaned so far, it nearly fell in!

The tiger moved quickly. It lowered its head — and bumped the cub away from the edge. Then it picked up the other cub in its teeth and carried it away.

I swallowed hard. I didn’t move. My back pressed against the cool dirt, I stared up to the top. Watched the square of blue sky. And waited for the tiger to return.

Waited.

And waited. Holding my breath.

Silence now. So silent I could hear the wind rushing through the tall grass.

A chunk of dirt broke off the pit wall and toppled to the bottom, crumbling as it landed. I kept my gaze on the opening, listening hard, watching for the tiger.

After what seemed like hours, I let out a long whoosh of air. I stepped away from the dirt wall and stretched.

The tiger isn’t coming back,
I decided.

It only wanted to protect its cubs from me. By now, it has taken them away. Far away.

I stretched again. My heart was still thumping hard in my chest. But I was starting to feel a little more normal.

How do I get out of here?
I wondered, gazing at the steep dirt walls.
Can I climb out?

I tucked the shrunken head back into my pocket. Then I dug both hands into the soft, cool dirt and tried to climb.

I pulled myself up about a foot or two. But then the dirt broke off under my sneakers. It crumbled and fell, sending me sliding back to the bottom.

No. No way. I can’t climb out,
I realized.

I reached for the shrunken head.
I’ll have to use Jungle Magic,
I decided.

The magic got me down here. Now I can use it to get me out.

I raised the head in front of me. But before I could call out the word, darkness fell over the pit.

Is the sun setting already?
I wondered.

I gazed up to the top.

No. It wasn’t evening. The square of sky that I could see was still bright blue.

Someone stood up there, blocking the sunlight.

The tiger?

A human?

I squinted hard, struggling to see.

“Who — who’s there?” I called.

A face leaned over the edge, peering down at me. Squinting into the bright sunlight, I saw straight blond hair. Pale blue eyes.

“Kareen!” I shouted.

She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Mark — what are you doing down there?”

“What are
you
doing here?” I cried.

Her hair fell over her face. She brushed it back. “I — I followed you. I was so worried about you!”

“Get me out of here!” I shouted up to her. I tried climbing again. But the dirt slid out from under my sneakers.

“How?” she called down.

“I guess you didn’t bring a ladder with you?” I shouted.

“Uh — no, Mark,” Kareen sniped.

I guess she doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.

“Maybe I could drop a rope down or something,” she suggested.

“Rope isn’t too easy to find in the middle of the jungle,” I reminded her.

She shook her head. Her face tightened into a fretful frown.

“How about a vine?” I called up. “See if you can find a long vine. I could climb up a vine.”

Her expression brightened. She disappeared. I waited impatiently. And waited. “Please hurry,” I murmured out loud, my eyes on the square opening at the top. “Please hurry.”

I heard the squawk of birds somewhere up above. Fluttering wings. More squawking and cawing.

Are the birds frightened?
I wondered.
If they are,
why?
Has the tiger returned?

I pressed against the dirt wall, watching the sky.

Finally, Kareen reappeared. “I found a vine. But I don’t know if it’s long enough.”

“Lower it over the side,” I instructed her. “Quick. I have to get out of here. I feel like a trapped animal.”

“It was hard to pull it out of the ground,” she complained. She began lowering the vine. It looked like a long snake twining down the side of the pit.

It stopped a few feet above my head. “I’m going to jump up and grab it,” I told Kareen. “Then I’ll try to climb while you pull. Wrap the other end around your waist, okay? Just don’t let go of it!”

“Just don’t pull me down with you!” she called back.

I waited for her to tie the vine around herself. Then I bent my knees and jumped. I missed the end of the vine by a few inches.

This was one of those times I wished I were tall and thin instead of short and chubby.

But I grabbed the vine on my third try. I wrapped both hands around it.

Then I pressed the soles of my sneakers against the dirt wall. And started to pull myself up, like a mountain climber.

The dirt kept crumbling out from under me. And the vine grew more and more slippery as my hands started to sweat. But with Kareen cheering me on, I scrambled to the top.

I lay in the tall grass for a moment, breathing in the sweet fragrance. It felt so wonderful to be out of that deep hole.

“How did you fall down there anyway?” Kareen asked, tossing her end of the vine to the ground.

“It was easy,” I replied. I climbed to my feet and tried to brush the dirt off my clothes.

“But didn’t you see that big pit there?” she demanded.

“Not exactly,” I told her. I wanted to change the subject. “How did you find me? What are you doing here, Kareen?”

Her blue eyes locked on mine. “I told you: I was worried about you. I — I didn’t think you should
be all alone in the jungle. So I sneaked away. Daddy was working in his lab. I crept away from the headquarters, and I followed you.”

I brushed clumps of dirt from my hair. “Well, I’m glad,” I confessed. “But aren’t you going to be in major trouble with your dad and Carolyn?”

She bit her lower lip. “Probably. But it will be worth the risk — if we find your aunt.” Aunt Benna!

Trying to survive the quicksand and the tiger, I had nearly forgotten about her.

A shadow rolled over us. The air suddenly grew cooler. I glanced up at the sky. The sun was lowering itself behind the trees.

“It’s almost night,” I said quietly. “I — I hope we can find Aunt Benna before it gets really dark.”

I had already spent one night out in the jungle. I didn’t want to spend another.

“Do you know which way to go?” Kareen asked. “Are you just wandering around, hoping to get lucky?”

I pulled the head from my shirt pocket. “This little guy is showing me the way.”

“Excuse me?” Kareen’s face filled with surprise.

“The eyes light up when I go the right direction,” I explained. “At least, I
think
that’s why they light up.”

Kareen gasped. “You mean, you really
do
have Jungle Magic?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I have it. It’s so weird. There’s a word I’ve always said.
‘Kah-lee-ah.’
Just a crazy word. I thought I made it up when I was a little kid. But it’s the word that makes the Jungle Magic work.”

“Wow!” Kareen exclaimed. A grin spread across her face. “That’s
awesome,
Mark! That means we really will find Benna. That’s so great!”

The shadows over the ground grew longer as the sun dipped lower. I shivered as a cold gust of wind blew over us.

My stomach growled. I couldn’t remember when my last meal was. I tried not to think about food. I had to keep moving.

“Let’s get going,” I said softly. I raised the head in front of me. Then I turned slowly — one direction, then the next — until the eyes began to glow. “This way!” I cried, pointing across the clearing to the trees.

We started walking side by side. The tall grass swished, brushing our legs as we stepped through it. Insects chittered in the trees.

Kareen stared in amazement at the glowing eyes on the leathery head. “Do you really think it’s guiding us to Benna?”

“We’ll soon find out,” I said solemnly.

We stepped into the shifting darkness beneath the tangled trees.

As the sunlight faded, the jungle sounds changed. The birds in the trees stopped chirping. The shrill sawing of the insects grew louder. We heard strange animal howls and cries in the distance, the sound bouncing between the smooth trees.

I hoped the howls and cries
stayed
in the distance!

Dark creatures slithered through the tall weeds and low, fat ferns and shrubs. The shrubs appeared to tremble as night creatures scurried through them.

I heard the warning hiss of snakes. The eerie hoot of an owl. The soft flap of bat wings.

I moved closer to Kareen as we walked. The sounds were all so much more realistic than in my
Jungle King
game!

I’ll probably never play that game again after this,
I thought.
It will seem way too tame.

We pushed our way through a clump of tall, stiff reeds. The eyes on the shrunken head dimmed to black.

“Wrong way!” I whispered.

Kareen and I turned until the eyes glowed again. Then we moved forward, making our own path. We stepped over thick vines and pushed through tangles of weeds and low shrubs.

“Ow!” Kareen slapped at her forehead. “Stupid mosquito.”

The shrill scratching of insects grew louder, drowning out the crunch of our sneakers over the leaves and vines on the jungle floor.

As the darkness deepened, the eyes on the shrunken head appeared to glow brighter. Like twin flashlights, guiding us through the trees.

“I’m getting kind of tired,” Kareen complained. She ducked her head to avoid a low branch. “I hope your aunt is nearby. I don’t know how much longer I can walk.”

“I hope she’s nearby, too,” I murmured in reply. I’d had a pretty exhausting day myself!

As we walked, I couldn’t help thinking about Aunt Benna and her notebook. I didn’t want to make Kareen feel bad. But I had to say something.

“My aunt didn’t write very nice things about your dad and Carolyn in her notebook,” I said, keeping my eyes at my feet. “I was kind of surprised.”

Kareen was silent for a long moment. “That’s so horrible,” she said finally. “They worked together for so long. I knew they had an argument.”

“About what?” I asked.

Kareen let out a sigh. “Daddy has some plans to develop the jungle. He thinks there are valuable minerals here. Benna thinks the jungle should be preserved.”

She sighed again. “I think that’s what they fought about. I’m not sure.”

“The notebook made it seem like your dad is evil or something,” I muttered, avoiding her eyes.

“Evil? Daddy?” she cried. “No. No way. He’s very strong-minded. That’s all. He isn’t evil. And I know that Daddy still cares about Benna. He still respects her and cares about her. He’s really worried about her. He —”

“Whoa.” I grabbed Kareen’s arm, interrupting her. “Look.” I pointed through the trees.

I spotted a clearing up ahead. And against the gray sky, I could see the black outline of a small shack.

Kareen gasped. “That little house. Do you think —?”

We both crept to the edge of the clearing. Something scurried quickly over my sneakers, but I ignored it.

My eyes were on the tiny dark shack.

As we moved closer, I could see that it was built of tree limbs and sticks. Clumps of fat leaves made
the roof. It had no window. But there were narrow openings between the branches.

“Hey!” I whispered. I saw a pale light flicker in one of the openings.

A flashlight? A candle?

“Someone is in there,” Kareen whispered, narrowing her eyes at the shack.

I heard a cough.

A woman’s cough? Aunt Benna’s cough? I couldn’t tell.

“Do you think it’s my aunt?” I whispered, huddling close to Kareen.

“Only one way to find out,” she whispered back.

The shrunken head glowed brightly in my hand. The eerie yellow light splashed over the ground as Kareen and I crept closer.

Closer.

“Aunt Benna?” I called in a tiny voice. I cleared my throat. My heart pounded. “Aunt Benna? Is that you?”