Unplugged by Gordon Korman

Author:Gordon Korman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: 2020-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

14

Tyrell Karrigan

If this keeps up, Jett is going to be even richer than his dad.

We sell seventeen candy bars in the first three days. That proves there’s a healthy demand for unhealthy food—at least among the kids at the Oasis.

When I say kids, I exclude Grace, because she’s more like a forty-year-old in a kid’s body. In her opinion, Jett’s secret candy business is about the same level of crime as murder.

“Bad enough he’s ripping everybody off by charging more than five times what those things are really worth,” she complains. “He’s also undoing all the good nutrition Evangeline works so hard to give us. How can you achieve wholeness when one of the three pillars of mind and body wellness is messed up?”

“Why are you talking about me like I’m not standing right next to you?” Jett asks irritably.

“Because when I talk right to you, you ignore me!” Grace accuses.

The four members of Team Lizard are in the shed, cleaning the paint tray and refreshing the water. This is turning into a bigger job than it used to be. Now that Needles is eating real meat, the poop situation means the water needs to be changed every day.

As gross as it is, I can handle it better than the others. Who has more experience than me dealing with strange lotions, ointments, and medicines for my latest rash—usually on a body part most people don’t even know they have. I’m not asking for sympathy or anything. I’m just saying that if you think a little lizard poop will make me queasy, think again.

By trial and error, we’ve worked out a pretty good system. Grace serves as lizard handler. I’m the designated tray scraper. The older Needles gets, the more he nips at people, so Jett’s in charge of pinching his jaw shut.

While I set down the clean tray filled with fresh water, Brooklynne tries to measure Needles with a ruler. The way he’s eating, he should be five hundred pounds by now.

“Keep him still,” she urges. “I can’t get a good reading.”

Jett maintains a grip on the snout between his thumb and forefinger. “Shouldn’t Needles trust us by now? We’ve been looking after him kind of a long time.”

Grace shakes her head. “Reptiles are cold-blooded. You can’t expect them to warm up to people like a cat or a dog would.”

At last, Grace and Jett drop Needles back in the paint tray and he assumes his usual position with his nostrils just above the water line. Now he’s so still that Brooklynne has all the time in the world to measure him from nose to tail.

“Half an inch longer,” she reports. “Maybe a little less.”

“He’s a shrimp,” I comment. “He’s going to get beaten up in lizard middle school.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Jett puts in. “That’s why I have to sell those candy bars. Meat isn’t cheap, you know. And if we run out of money, where does that leave Needles?”

“Yeah, and it has absolutely nothing to do with gorging yourself on fried chicken and pulled pork,” Grace snaps back.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.