Shoebag Returns by M. E. Kerr

Author:M. E. Kerr [Kerr, M. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-5584-9
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-11-19T17:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

THERE WAS NOTHING AS exhausting as a session with a shrink!

Shoebag longed to head for Josephine Jiminez’s room, where he could curl up for a brief nap in the ear of Monroe, the masked Kewpie doll.

But first, he must stop by the Macintosh, for a brief game of hide-and-seek with Radio and Garbage Pail.

As concerned as he was about his human friends, he was not one to forget his roach family.

His human clothes were hidden in the Changing Room. That night after dark, he would become Bagg again. He would meet with Stanley, and tell him Josephine had not told the shrink anything about the underground Butters.

Trudging past the Music Room, he saw the Butters heading in for their first meeting. And he saw Butter, the cat, sprawled on the piano top, licking his paws contentedly.

But as he went down the steps leading to the kitchen, his antennae lifted, and his cerci shuddered.

There was something in the air: something familiar and foul.

He could hear Cook telling someone, “Don’t get that stuff in my kitchen! Hear me?”

A man’s voice answered her, “Just tell me where the roaches were.”

“I told you!” Cook was in her usual bad mood. “They were in the computer, but the computer is gone!”

Gone? With his entire family inside?

Shoebag’s reflexes quickened with the panic he felt throbbing under his shell.

Not only was his family gone, but in an instant he knew the source of the foul odor.

It was Zap! Cooks’s conversation was with the Zap man, the much feared world-class fumigator.

ZAP ZAPS COCKROACHES DEAD!

ZAP … FOR THINGS THAT DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE!

Shoebag would never forget those heartless slogans.

As fast as his six legs could carry him, he fled under the door of the Changing Room.

He must try to become Bagg again, only suddenly Shoebag felt himself falter. His tiny legs collapsed under him. He struggled for breath. With great effort he dragged himself back under the door to the hall.

“Just do that little room where the computer was!” Cook was shouting at the Zap man.

“I did the little room!”

“What you did was the Changing Room!” the cook answered.

Shoebag fastened himself against the light socket near the hall floor. He fell off it immediately, dizzy from the poisonous dose of Zap he had been exposed to in the Changing Room.

Shell-side down, legs up, he struggled for the strength to flip over, and flee.

“Close the kitchen door, Cook!” the Zap man called out. “I’m getting ready to zap the varmints!”

“I just step on them!” Shoebag heard Cook say, and he wiggled his antennae weakly, in protest.

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.