Monster Blood IV

24

Evan grabbed two pot holders off the counter and handed one to Andy. Then they each grabbed a handle on the top of the big stew pot and lifted it carefully off the stove.

“It weighs a ton,” Andy groaned.

“Mom likes to make a lot of hot sauce,” Kermit explained. “She keeps the extra sauce in the freezer. For emergencies, I guess.”

He held the back door open. Evan and Andy, hoisting the steaming pot between them, carried it out the door.

Evan raised his eyes to the backyard and let out a cry. “We may be too late,” he moaned. “There are so many of them!”

Squinting into the sunlight, he thought he saw thousands of them! They bounced and rolled over the backyards. They growled and grunted.

They gulped water from the garden hose. Dozens of them were bouncing through a neighbor’s flower bed, drinking the plants dry.

Two houses down, Monster Blood creatures had gathered in a small, backyard goldfish pond. They were busily drinking the pond dry. Some of them were sucking the liquid out of the goldfish!

“Too late,” Evan murmured. “We’re just too late.”

“It might work,” Andy said, not very enthusiastically. “If we can get them to drink it.”

“I–I have to set it down,” Evan told her. “The handle is hot. My hand is burning.”

“Mine too,” Andy replied.

They set the steaming stew pot down on the grass in the center of the yard.

“Now how do we get them to try it?” Kermit asked. Without waiting for an answer, he cupped his hands around his mouth and began shouting, “Come and get it! Come and get it!”

Evan grabbed him and pulled him back. “I don’t think they speak English,” he told Kermit, rolling his eyes.

“Let’s back away from the pot and let them discover it on their own,” Andy suggested.

“Good idea,” Evan replied. He tugged Kermit back some more. “They haven’t had any trouble finding liquid everywhere. If we step back a bit, they’ll discover the hot sauce.”

The three of them backed toward the garage, keeping their eyes on the pot of hot sauce.

Monster Blood creatures bounced over three or four backyards, sucking up any liquid they could find. Flower beds lay wilted and dead. Large patches of grass were brown and dry.

Will they find the hot sauce? Evan wondered.

Will they try it? Will it destroy them?

It nearly destroyed me! he remembered. It burned my lips and took all the skin off the roof of my mouth!

Will it burn up the hairy blue blobs?

The spicy aroma of the hot sauce drifted to Evan’s nose. You can probably smell it all over the backyards, he guessed.

He stared without blinking at the aluminum pot gleaming in the sunlight. And he crossed his fingers, hoping his idea would work.

As he watched, a few Monster Blood creatures turned toward the pot. Their round eyes bulged. They began bobbing up and down, as if excited.

Then they started to bounce toward the hot sauce.

“Yesssss!” Evan whispered. “Yessss!”

But before the creatures could reach the pot, another figure came bounding into the backyard.

Evan was concentrating so hard, at first he didn’t recognize the big sheepdog. But Kermit’s cries made Evan realize what was happening.

“Dogface — get away!” Kermit cried frantically. “Dogface — no! Go home, boy! Dogface — go home!”

But the big dog ignored Kermit’s cries. Wagging his stub of a tail furiously, he trotted toward the shining hot sauce pot.