Creature Keepers and the Hijacked Hydro-Hide by Peter Nelson

Author:Peter Nelson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

22

“Abbie! Come in for dinner!” Mrs. Grimsley shouted down the sloping front yard, from the re-bricked front steps of the house. She turned and went back inside to set the table, shutting the freshly painted front door behind her. On the edge of the newly sodded lawn, Abbie sat with Mrs. Fritzler, watching the other residents finish their stickball game as the sun began to set over Waning Acres.

“That eyesore of a house is looking less like a lump of crud every day,” Mrs. Fritzler said through a wrinkled frown. “I would’ve just bulldozed the dump, but if your fool parents wanna throw away good money, whatever toots in their boots, I suppose.”

Abbie smiled. “Mrs. Fritzler, I wanna be just like you when I get old and ugly.”

She smiled back. “I’ll be dead and gone by then, so knock yourself out, kid. Tell ya what, I’ll leave you the house your grandpa gave me. That should get you started. You can have my slippers and my dryer-lint collection, too. You’ll be on your way to Fritzville.”

“What house? My grampa gave you a house?”

Mrs. Fritzler stood and cracked her back. “Sure. He gave us all houses. Least he could do, disappearing on us like he did.” She began shuffling off.

“What? When was this?”

She stopped and turned. “Open your ears. I just told you. Soon after he disappeared from the old folks’ home, there.”

Abbie looked up at her grandfather’s house. “That was an old folks’ home?”

“Sure. That dump was the original Waning Acres.” She pointed from the old house to the newer neighborhood with its manicured lawns and smoothly paved road. “Long before any of this. He had all this built, just for us. Like I said, least he could do.”

“So you, all of you, lived there together?”

“Most miserable I’ve ever been. And for me, that’s sayin’ something. Your grandpa was fruitier than a jelly donut, always gabbin’ about weird creatures. But he did one good thing—left us this land and plans for this community. So I guess his life wasn’t a total waste.” She mumbled to herself as she started shuffling away again. “Although what kind of fool wanders into a swamp in his pajamas to get eaten by an alligator, I’ll never understand. . . .”

“Wait, how’d you get the houses after he disappeared and died?”

Mrs. Fritzler stopped once again. This was getting irritating. “You writing a book or something? I don’t remember, some lawyer. Needlepine, Nosenpooper . . . Noodlepen . . . C. E. Noodlepen. Sent us the letters, deeds, and keys, easy as you please. Well, not all of us, mind you. Just the lucky ones, I guess. Although standing here getting harassed by you, I’m starting to wish I lived somewhere far away.”

She glared at Abbie, who was suddenly lost in thought. Mrs. Fritzler shrugged and turned away again. “I see you’re working on a new life plan. Well, it was flattering while it lasted. See ya tomorrow, kid. Unless I don’t.”

Abbie stood staring at the neat row of identical houses lining Waning Acres.

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