Scott turned toward it. I should just get up and turn it off, he thought. But before he could even throw back the covers, the light blinked off by itself again.
Then on.
Then off.
It continued to blink on and off until Scott slid out of bed. The moment his feet hit the floor, the light in the tank flared on and stayed on.
He walked toward the desk slowly. Cautiously. As he stepped closer, he noticed that the black crystal at the bottom of the tank was bubbling furiously. The water began churning. It turned from clear to murky. Then dark.
Scott reached out to turn off the light in the tank. But before his finger touched the switch, he jerked his hand away. What if he got another shock?
The light clicked on and off again. Scott stood by the tank. Waiting. But this time it didn’t flash on again.
Scott stood in total darkness. He wanted a light on in his room—now.
He stumbled over to the wall. As he felt his way toward the switch for the ceiling light, a short burst of light flooded the room—as bright and as quick as a streak of lightning. And then a loud bang exploded in the room—as loud as a clap of thunder.
Scott whirled around to face the tank. He could hear the water churning.
Another flash of lightning shot through the water.
Then the lid began to rumble. And before Scott could move, the lid blasted from the tank and shot up to the ceiling with a crash!
5
Where is it? Where is it? Scott ran his hands up and down the wall, feeling for the light switch. Glen was right, he thought. Using the water from Fear Lake was a big mistake.
Scott’s fingers finally hit the light switch. He snapped it on.
He scanned the room. The lid of the tank lay on the floor. But from where he stood, everything else seemed normal. The water in the tank appeared calm and clear again. Nothing was out of place.
Scott stooped to pick up the lid. There had to be a logical explanation for what had happened.
Maybe something was wrong with the batteries, Scott thought. He pried open the lid of the tank to check. Sure enough, the batteries were oozing an oily liquid.
Scott crossed over to his desk to check on his aqua apes. The little creatures seemed to be alive and well. Only they were all huddled together at one end of the tank—as if they were trying to hide.
And the black crystal that had been bubbling and fizzing all day was gone.
Scott stared into the water. Searching for it.
He sat up for what seemed like hours, waiting for it to reappear. But it never did. And so, finally, Scott turned off his light and went to sleep.
* * *
“Scott! Wake up!” His mother nudged him hard.
Scott rolled over and pulled the blankets tighter around himself. He couldn’t wake up. Not yet. He felt as if he’d just closed his eyes.
“Come on, Scott.” His mother nudged him again. “You’re going to be late for school if you don’t get a move on.”
“I’m up,” he mumbled. “I’m up.”
“Your eyes aren’t even open,” she scolded.
Scott rolled over and opened them for her. “Happy?” he grumbled.
“No,” she answered. “I want to see you up.”
Scott pulled himself to a sitting position.
That seemed to satisfy his mother.
“Good,” she said as she headed for the door. “Now hurry up and get dressed so you can have a decent breakfast before you leave.”
The moment Scott’s mother left the room, Scott plopped back down and closed his eyes again.
“Mommy said move it, you little twerp,” Kelly growled as she passed his open door. “Ma,” Kelly screamed loudly over her shoulder. “The little twerp is still in bed.”
“I am not!” Scott screamed back as he jumped out from under the covers. He stumbled over to check on the aqua apes.
They were still really small. But they didn’t look like tiny little white dust specks anymore. They looked like bigger little white dust specks!
They’re growing. Cool! Scott grabbed a sweatshirt from his dresser. When he had it halfway over his head, he heard a faint tapping sound. What is that? he wondered. He yanked the sweatshirt down.
Probably just some tree branches blowing against the side of the house, he figured. He peeked out the window next to his desk. The tree outside was still.
But Scott kept hearing the sound. Tap, tap, tap.
He listened to it carefully—and realized it wasn’t coming from outside.
It was coming from inside.
Right next to him.
Scott leaped away from his desk. Then he stared into the tank. And he couldn’t believe what he saw.
An aqua ape was pressed against the side of the tank. And it was tapping on the plastic!
This aqua ape was big—bigger than all the little white dust speck aqua apes put together. Scott figured it was about the size of a tadpole.
Scott grabbed the magnifying glass and studied the creature. Up close, it looked even better than the picture in the ad. And it really did look like a monkey, too—all brown and kind of fuzzy. It even had arms and legs.
It stood there, at the bottom of the tank, staring back at Scott. Without a doubt this was the coolest thing that Scott had ever seen!
“Scott! Now!”
Scott could tell by the tone of his mother’s voice that she meant business.
“I’ve got to go,” Scott explained to his brand-new pet. “But I’ll see you later. Okay, little guy?”
The minute the words came out of his mouth, the most amazing thing happened.
I’m imagining it, Scott thought. This just can’t be.
Scott blinked hard. Then looked again.
No. He wasn’t seeing things.
The brand-new aqua ape was waving at him.
* * *
“I’m telling you, he was waving at me,” Scott insisted for the ten thousandth time as he and Glen parked their bikes in Scott’s garage after school. “And he really does look like a monkey.”
“Yeah, right.” Glen laughed. “The whole tank exploded last night, and now we have a giant swimming monkey who waves.”
“I didn’t say he was a giant,” Scott protested. He climbed off his bike and shoved the kickstand down.
“You did too,” Glen shot back. “In the cafeteria you told Randy and Zack he was a giant aqua ape.”
“Oh, right,” Scott agreed as he headed toward the door that opened into the house. “Well, he is a giant compared to all the other aqua apes in the tank.”
The moment they reached Scott’s room, Glen pushed past Scott to get to the tank first. “Whoa!” Glen gasped.
“I told you he was big,” Scott said smugly.
“Big? He’s like the size of King Kong!”
Scott laughed. He knew Glen was exaggerating, but he was happy that Glen finally believed him. “Is he waving at you?”
“Yeah,” Glen answered as he picked up the tank. “He’s waving like crazy.”
“Let me see,” Scott demanded.
“Wait a minute,” Glen whispered. He put the tank to his ear. “Hey! You’re not going to believe this.”
“What?” Scott asked excitedly.
“I think he’s singing to me, too!”
“You’re such a jerk,” Scott replied.
“No, you’re the jerk,” Glen shot back as he returned the tank to the desk. “There’s no giant monkey in here.”
Scott stared into the tank. It was true. The waving aqua ape was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be? Scott wondered. I know he was there. I know what I saw.
“I’m telling you, Glen. He was in there this morning.”
“All right, all right,” Glen muttered. “I believe you, okay?”
Scott could tell Glen wasn’t really paying attention to him. He was studying one of the little aqua apes.
“Check this one out,” Glen told Scott. “This little guy is pretty neat.”
“Yeah,” Scott said grudgingly, glancing over Glen’s shoulder. “He’s okay.”
“Look! He’s got teeny, tiny little flipper arms,” Glen said.
“Yeah, kind of.”
“Hey, cheer up. This is much better than I thought it would be,” Glen declared. “At least it’s not a total rip-off.”
“But the little guy I saw this morning was really cool.”
“This one is, too. Only he’s more like some kind of fish thing than a monkey,” Glen pointed out.
“Watch how he swims,” Glen continued. “See him there?”
Scott nodded.
“He’s almost at the top of the water. Now watch this. The minute he reaches the top, he’s going to turn around and go all the way back to the bottom again, right next to the crater. And then, after he touches the bottom, he’s going to turn around and swim all the way back to the top. It’s like he’s doing laps or something,” Glen explained.
“Maybe he’s training for the Aqua Apes Olympics,” Scott joked. Scott watched the tiny little aqua ape turn around at the top of the tank, just the way Glen said he would. But he couldn’t stop wondering what had happened to the giant aqua ape he had seen that morning.
Scott didn’t have to wonder for long. Because just as the little guy reached the bottom of the tank, Scott saw a big brown hairy fist shoot out from inside the crater and grab it.
Then it tightened its grip around the little creature.
And crushed it.
6
“Did you see that?” Scott asked excitedly. “That was him!”
“Him?” Glen asked, staring at Scott like he was crazy or something. “You mean it, don’t you?”
“No,” Scott answered as he stood up straighter. “I mean him! I told you we had a giant swimming monkey who waves!”
“Yeah, well he wasn’t swimming,” Glen pointed out. “And I don’t think he was trying to wave at us either. All I saw was a hairy arm that creamed the little guy.”
“I’m telling you. It was him,” Scott insisted.
“Maybe he just wanted to play with him or something.”
“Play with him?” Glen gasped. “He crushed him!”
Scott studied the tank. But all he could see was some of the other tiny little aqua apes swimming around. “He must be hiding down in the crater,” Scott decided.
“Maybe he’s planning another attack,” Glen shot back.
“Uh-oh,” Scott said, a horrible thought coming to mind. “What if he’s hungry? And what if he thinks that little guy was his food or something? I mean, he’s so big compared to the rest of them—maybe he thinks they’re all his food.”
“Oh, gross!” Glen exclaimed.
“Well, let’s see if he’s hungry,” Scott suggested.
Scott lifted the package of aqua ape food from his desk drawer and poured a little into the tank. It looked exactly like fish food, only the flakes were a whole lot smaller.
“He’s not coming out,” Glen observed. “Maybe you should dump a little more in.”
Scott poured more than half the packet into the tank.
“Not that much!” Glen cried. He grabbed the packet away from Scott.
Scott stared into the tank. He couldn’t even see the tiny little aqua apes anymore. There was too much food floating around.
Then something big and dark and hairy shot straight up from the center of the crater.
The water in the tank started swirling. Swirling like a whirlpool. And splashing out onto Scott’s desk.
“Get the lid!” Scott shouted as they both jumped away from the desk. “And hurry! He’s climbing out of the water!”
7
Scott and Glen stared in horror as a brown furry arm shot out of the bowl.
The water churned and splashed as the animal hauled itself to the rim of the tank. The creature had sharp nails, and they screeched against the glass.
Scott and Glen backed away.
Suddenly the churning stopped. And the aqua ape slid back into the water.
Scott approached the tank. Slowly. He peeked inside.
All the food was gone.
All the aqua apes were gone, too.
All . . . but one.
The hairy brown aqua ape floated lazily in the water. He was much bigger now—the size of a goldfish.
“This guy is like three times the size he was this morning,” Scott told Glen.
“Yeah, well maybe that’s because he just ate twenty pounds of food,” Glen answered. “And everybody else in the tank along with it!”
“I really don’t think he wanted to eat all those other little guys.” Scott hoped that was the truth. “With all that food floating around the tank, how was he supposed to tell which ones were the flakes and which ones were the apes?”
“Yeah, well, I don’t care if he didn’t mean to do it,” Glen declared. “He still ate everybody in there. And that makes him a disgusting little pig-monkey.”
“A pig-monkey?” Scott laughed.
“Yeah.” Glen started laughing, too. “We’ve got a swimming, waving, disgusting little pig-monkey for a pet. And all for three dollars and ninety-five cents!”
“Plus shipping and handling!” Scott reminded him. Then they both cracked up.
“So what are we going to call him?” Glen asked.
“Well, we can’t call him pig-monkey,” Scott said. “That sounds too dumb.”
“How about Oinker,” Glen suggested.
Scott rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so.”
“What about Hercules?” Glen asked.
“That’s stupid,” Scott told him.
“Well, what do you want to name him?” Glen asked, sounding a little annoyed.
Scott thought about it for a minute. He didn’t really have a good name for a swimming, waving monkey who ate like a pig. But he did have a really good name for a dog. Only his creepy sister Kelly was allergic to dogs. So he was never going to be allowed to have one. I might as well give my dog name to this aqua ape, he thought.
“Mac,” Scott told Glen. “We’ll name him Mac.”
Just then, Kelly passed by his bedroom door.
Yes! Kelly would have to take back every mean thing she had said to Scott about the aqua apes—and how stupid he was to order them.
“Hey Kel,” Scott called out, trying to sound nice. “You want to see something really cool?”
Kelly popped her head in the doorway. “There couldn’t possibly be anything really cool in this room,” she answered.
“Obnoxious as always,” Scott mumbled under his breath.
“Oh yeah,” Glen jumped in. “Have you ever seen a giant, swimming, waving pig-monkey before?”
“Yeah,” Kelly shot back. “I’m looking at one right now.”
“Whoa, Kel,” Glen taunted. “You’re almost as funny as you are ugly!”
Scott watched as Kelly strutted across the room. She sneered at Glen as she walked by. Then she leaned over the tank. Yeah, even Kelly would have to admit that Mac was about the coolest thing on earth.
“So what is it?” Kelly sounded bored. “An imaginary cool thing?”
“No,” Scott said. “It’s Mac, the giant swimming monkey!”
“Not in this tank,” Kelly declared. “What jerks!” Then she turned away and headed for the door.
Scott quickly peered into the tank. Mac was nowhere in sight.
“I’m telling you, he really is in here. If you just wait a minute, I’m sure he’ll come out!”
“I don’t have time to sit here and wait for your imaginary friend.” Kelly laughed her squeaky, mean, horrible laugh. “I’ve got real friends waiting for me.”
Scott could hear Kelly laughing all the way down the stairs. He stared into the water again, searching for any sign of Mac. Glen moved around the desk, studying the tank from different angles.
Finally Scott spotted a tiny little air bubble rising from deep inside the crater. Then he saw another bubble rise. Only this one was a whole lot bigger, and it w
as rising a whole lot faster.
“Hey, Glen, look over here,” Scott said, pointing.
Glen stared down at the crater, too. The water started bubbling so fast and so hard that it looked like it was boiling.
Scott reached out and touched the side of the tank with the tip of his finger to see if it was hot. It wasn’t. In fact, it felt icy cold.
The crater at the bottom of the tank started pulsating and vibrating.
Scott’s pulse began to race. What was happening now?
As Scott stared into the tank, the crater cracked right down the middle. Right in half. And there was Mac. Standing between the broken halves.
“Wow!” Glen exclaimed. “It’s Mac! And look at the size of him!”
“He’s the size of a mouse now!” Scott exclaimed.
“Do you think he is going to grow any bigger?” Glen asked.
“How should I know?” Scott answered. “But this tank is too small for him now. We’ve got to find a bigger place for him.”
“How about that aquarium you used to keep turtles in? Do you still have it?”
Scott hurried over to the closet and checked the shelves. Yep. There it was! He brought it over to the desk.
Then Scott stretched out on the floor and felt around under the bed. He pulled out a bag of blue gravel, a little plastic treasure chest, a plastic skeleton, and a plastic palm tree.
Glen grabbed the gravel and poured it into the aquarium. Then he carefully arranged the toys, planting them firmly in the gravel.
“Don’t be afraid,” Scott told Mac. He slowly poured the water from the tank into the aquarium.
Mac plopped into his new home and instantly began swimming around.
“Hey, great!” Glen cheered. “I think he likes it!”
“Let’s go fill up one of the big pitchers my mom has in the kitchen,” Scott said. “Mac needs more water.”
They headed out of the room. “We’ll be right back, Mac,” Scott called.
Scott led the way into the kitchen and found a pitcher.
“You know what Mac looks like?” Scott asked as he filled the pitcher with water. “He looks like one of those monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. He’s even got little wings on his back.”
“Yeah, water wings,” Glen joked.