Professor Gargoyle

TWELVE





Robert stepped through the front door of his house and called out to his mother. “Mom, are you here?”

“In the kitchen,” she called back.

“I brought a friend for dinner, is that okay?”

“You brought a what?”

Glenn lingered in the doorway, as if he hadn’t made up his mind to stay or go. “Maybe I should just leave,” he whispered. “We could talk tomorrow—”

Mrs. Arthur came out to the living room, wiping her wet hands on a dish towel. “Come in, come in!” she exclaimed warmly, as if the governor of Massachusetts had just arrived in her living room.

“Mom, this is Glenn.”

“You’re one of Robert’s classmates? You go to Lovecraft Middle School?”

Glenn shrugged. “I guess.”

“It’s very nice to meet you. We’d love to have you stay for dinner. Does your mom know you’re here? Do you want me to call her?”

“She lives in Arizona.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Arthur said. “How about your father?”

“You don’t need to call anyone, Mrs. Arthur.”

“Well, dinner will be ready at five. Let me fix you a snack in the meantime.”

The boys carried bowls of pretzels and potato chips up to Robert’s bedroom. Once the door was closed, Robert unzipped his backpack and the rats scampered out onto the carpet.

“This is Pip and Squeak. We’ll need to swipe some food for them at dinner. Whatever you can drop in your lap without my mother noticing. They eat pretty much anything.”

Glenn stared at the creature, fascinated. Pip and Squeak seemed to relish the attention. They smiled, chattered their teeth, and purred.

“Which one controls the body?”

“I’m not sure. They might take turns.”

“I thought Professor Goyle got rid of them.”

“He tried,” Robert said. “But last night I snuck into his classroom and took them back.”

“You did not!”

“I sure did. And that’s not the worst part.”

Robert told Glenn the whole story. He started with Karina and the attic above the library. Then he explained how he and Karina hid in the supply closet and saw Goyle swallow the hamster. Then he described how he tried to return to the attic but couldn’t find it.

“I’ve been dying to talk about this stuff all day. But who’s going to believe we saw a giant squid come out of my locker? Who’s going to believe any of it?”

Glenn chewed thoughtfully on a potato chip. “Nobody.”

They sat across from each other on the floor, with Pip and Squeak between them gnawing on the corner of an old Monopoly game box. Robert didn’t stop them; he was too caught up in the weirdness of the moment. Glenn Torkells, his least favorite person in the world, was sitting in his bedroom. Hanging out and munching on potato chips. Like they were old pals.

“And by the way,” Robert continued, “when those tentacles grabbed you? I was pretty tempted to let them carry you away. Just so you know.”

Glenn stared down at his lap, and his dirty blond hair fell over his face. “I know.”

“That’s all you’re going to say?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“You’ve been a real jerk to me, Glenn. All the name-calling, the pushing, the shoving, the gummy worms. I used to wish that a giant monster would come out of nowhere and swallow you whole. I never thought it would actually happen.”

Glenn didn’t respond. He just sat there watching Pip and Squeak as they gnawed through the Monopoly box. Finally he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of wrinkled bills. “Here.”

Robert counted the money. “Three bucks? That’s your apology? Three lousy bucks?”

“It’s dweeb tax,” Glenn explained. “How much have I taken from you since I started? A hundred? Two hundred?”

“More like five hundred,” Robert said.

“Then I’ll pay back five hundred,” Glenn said, wincing as he made the promise. “It’ll probably take me a while. But I’ll give you a little every week. I swear I’ll pay you the whole five hundred bucks, all right?”

All Robert really wanted was for Glenn to say he was sorry, but he’d be happy to take the five hundred bucks instead. He supposed that, to a kid like Glenn, five hundred bucks probably meant the same thing.

“Apology accepted,” he said.

“So what now?” Glenn asked. “What happens when we go to school tomorrow?”

Robert didn’t know the answer to that question. Part of him wanted to find a trustworthy adult—probably Mr. Loomis—and describe everything he’d seen. But what he’d seen was impossible. In real life, tentacles didn’t come wriggling out of school lockers. In real life, science teachers didn’t eat the classroom pets. How could he expect anyone to believe him?

And what if Professor Goyle wasn’t acting alone? What if other teachers at Lovecraft were just like him? What if Principal Slater ate hamsters every morning for breakfast? If Robert told the truth to the wrong person, he could end up in bigger trouble than he was now.

“We need to find Karina,” he said. “She watched Goyle swallow that hamster and she didn’t even flinch. I think she knows more about Lovecraft than she’s letting on.”

“So where do we look for her?” Glenn asked.

Before Robert could answer, he heard his mother calling. “Boys, come quick! You need to see this!”

Robert and Glenn hurried downstairs to the living room. Mrs. Arthur had the television tuned to the evening news. On the screen, a reporter was standing outside the main entrance of Lovecraft Middle School.

“… live coverage with more disturbing developments at the new Lovecraft Middle School in Dunwich, Massachusetts. Just yesterday morning, we reported that seventh-grader Sylvia Price was missing, and her whereabouts are still unknown. This afternoon, we learned that Sylvia’s twin sister, Sarah, has also disappeared. Two missing children in forty-eight hours. Should we expect more?”

The news anchor turned to the chief of the Dunwich Police Department, who gave all the usual warnings about avoiding strangers and staying out of unfamiliar automobiles.

Robert and Glenn exchanged uneasy glances. They both understood that they had narrowly escaped becoming the third and fourth missing students from Lovecraft Middle School.

And there would almost definitely be more.