Tiny-Tricera Troubles Page 4

  “Don’t take another step,” she said. “It’s the door to the stadium, and people are starting to come out.”

  “How many?” I asked.

  “It just looks like all the festival workers, so not that many, but does it really matter?” she asked.

  “Uh, I guess not. Should we just make a run for it?” I asked.

  Lin looked around as I felt the jitters creep up and down my back. This whole day had been a mess, and I was about to pull out my phone and call Professor Penrod for advice when Lin had an idea.

  “Quick. Follow me,” she said, bolting off in the opposite direction from the stadium. I didn’t even bother asking where we were going. I just grabbed Bruno by the horn and ran.

  Lin and the twins were much faster than the two of us, and I watched as they ran toward a strange-looking building with warped walls and hundreds of tiny squares covering it that reflected the sun and sky.

  “The Hall of Mirrors?” I asked in my Invisible Communicator. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “Are you kidding? It’s not only a shortcut to Vicky’s hideaway semitruck, it’s going to be fun, too,” Lin said, then led the twins into the strange-looking building.

  CHAPTER 8

  THINGS ARE NOT HOW THEY APPEAR

  “I can’t see anything,” Lin said as we fumbled around in the dark.

  “Our eyes will adjust,” I said. “I can see better already.”

  Compared to the bright summer sun outside, the Hall of Mirrors felt like entering an underground cave. It was cool and a little damp from the air cooler on the roof, and being packed in there with three large dinos certainly made it feel cramped.

  “Oh yeah. There are tiny lights in the ceiling. They almost look like stars,” Lin said. “This place is pretty cool.”

  “We don’t have time for cool. We have to find the back door and get out of here,” I said.

  “If there is a back door. I didn’t even think of that,” Lin said. Lin led the way, walking through a door so short the twins had to duck to go in. I had to tilt Bruno’s head one way, then the next to make our way through, and I started to panic as the white lights in the ceiling revealed that the floor and walls were painted bright red.

  And if walking in a totally red hallway wasn’t challenging enough, there were loads of things for Bruno to smash if he got a peek. At the end of the little hallway there was a trick mirror that made us look like we were squatty and short.

  “We have to hurry and get out. This place makes me nervous,” I said.

  Lin started laughing. She puffed out her cheeks to make her reflection look even funnier, and the twins got into the act as well. “Oh man. I wish we could hang out here all day. This is hilarious,” she said as she rubbed her chubby belly in the mirror and laughed again.

  “We can come back when we aren’t outnumbered by previously extinct, supersecret Microsaurs.”

  “Deal,” Lin said, before turning the corner into the next hallway.

  The little yellow lights in the ceiling changed in the next room, and there were more mirrors. Fastened to taller frames that reached all the way to the ceiling were two long mirrors. As we walked past, we first looked really tall then really short. The twins were a little spooked by the tall mirrors at first, but when they saw Lin laughing at herself they decided it was okay.

  “I need mirrors like this at my house. I feel so powerful,” Lin said as she flexed her muscles in the mirror.

  “Just wait until you try this one. You won’t want one in your room anymore,” I said as I pulled Bruno past the short reflection. “Come on. Let’s keep going.”

  “This room is so yellow,” Lin said. “I feel like I’m swimming in lemonade.” She made swimming motions over to the next mirror, laughed at being so short, then swam on to the next room.

  The lights in the ceiling turned green, and the mirrors made us look either super skinny or really fat. I’ll admit, seeing a thin, blindfolded triceratops almost made me forget we were in so much trouble. I smiled, and almost laughed, then noticed something that clicked an idea spark in my brain.

  “Hang on a second. Wasn’t the floor painted red in the other rooms?” I asked.

  Lin looked down between her feet. “Yeah. It’s gray in here. It’s no big deal, Danny.”

  “It might be. It might be a very big deal. Do you have anything that is red?” I asked Lin. She thought for a second, and then an idea spark clicked in her mind as well. She pulled something out of her back pocket and showed it to me. It was the tomato lollipop she had purchased before our wild adventures began for the day.

  She was grinning at first, but when she got a look at the color of her candy treat, her face turned angry. “What? I was saving this for later, but now it’s ruined. It isn’t red anymore. It’s all gray!” she said.

  “Actually, it isn’t gray at all. It’s still bright red,” I said. For the first time in a while I was starting to feel some hope. Sure, we weren’t much better than we were a few seconds ago, but I’d learned something pretty neat.

  “Danny. This is not bright red,” Lin said.

  “Trust me, it is. But the even better news is that I figured out the solution to the Bruno-charging-red-stuff problem,” I said.

  Lin tilted her head at me. She looked totally confused, so I let her in on the plan.

  “Come on, Lin. We need to get out of here and make a pair of triceratops-sized green goggles,” I said.

  “Great. And how is that going to fix my lollipop?” Lin asked.

  “Follow me. Your lollipop will be fine,” I said, feeling the tiniest bit better.

  We made our way through a few more rooms, traveled through a hallway or two so narrow Bruno’s crest scraped on each side, and then finally I found what I was searching for.

  “Look. Under that door. It’s sunlight trying to sneak in,” I said.

  “Oh good. I’m mad at this lollipop ruining the Hall of Mirrors anyway,” Lin said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I hurried to the door, then pried it open. I heard the roar of the crowd before my eyes adjusted to the light again and they came into view. I shut the door as fast as I could. Lin and the Microsaurs were staring at me like I had lost my mind.

  “Um. We cannot go out there. We’re too late,” I said.

  “Crowds?” Lin asked.

  “More like a mob,” I said.

  Lin reached up as calm as could be and tapped her ear. “Hey, Vicky. Can you hear us?” she asked. I didn’t turn mine on. I wanted silence to think for a bit. Lin continued her one-sided conversation.

  “Yeah. We’re almost to the trailer, but we’re stuck. There is a mob behind the stadium blocking our way,” Lin said. “Uh-huh. Yes. Oh, I know. He tends to panic from time to time. What can you do?”

  I had a feeling Lin and Vicky were talking about me, but I didn’t have time to think about that. I was trying to get us out of the Hall of Mirrors before people joined us in the odd-shaped building.

  “Yeah. A distraction is exactly what we need,” Lin said. She listened for a while, nodding along with what Vicky was saying. “Oh yeah. That’s perfect. Oh, I bet. You’re so lucky.”

  Lin walked between the twins, scooted under Bruno, and smooshed her way between me and the big troublemaking triceratops. She motioned for me to move over, and I stepped away from the door.

  “Okay. Sounds good. In three, two…” Lin started counting down, then opened the door wide and walked out confidently. “One. Thanks, Vicky. You’re right. All this crowd needed was the Ruby Girls. A perfect distraction if I’ve ever seen one. See you in the semitruck in a few. Thanks again,” Lin said.

  She turned and looked over her shoulder at me. “What are you waiting for?” she asked.

  “A miracle,” I said. “And I guess the Ruby Girls just gave us one.” I looked at the mob again. They were all crowding around five shiny, glittery singers as they waved pink and purple pads of paper, hoping for an autograph. Then, right in the middle of the Ruby Girls,
I made eye contact with the glitteriest of all the girls, and she gave me a little wave. I don’t know what was going on, but it was Vicky, right there with her favorite band, signing autographs along with them.

  CHAPTER 9

  COSTUMES FOR EVERYONE

  The crowd wasn’t just distracted by Vicky and the Ruby Girls, it was like they were hypnotized zombies. And it was a good thing, since we were walking three Microsaurs behind them, one of them blindfolded and led by his nose horn, without a single one of them spotting us.

  “That was a total rush!” Lin said as we made our way to the big tour semitrucks parked behind the stadium.

  “Which one do we go in?” I asked as we looked around.

  “I have no idea,” Lin said. “But it’s not that one.” She pointed to a large tour bus with a picture of the Ruby Girls on it.

  “Let’s go check that one,” I said, pointing to a big black truck with a gray trailer the size of a house on it.

  “That would be a bad idea,” a voice said behind us, and I felt my heart thumping in my chest. Heck, it was thumping so hard I could feel it in my eyeballs.

  Lin, Bruno, Pizza, Cornelia, and I turned around slowly. The little man standing behind us was dressed in a pair of overalls. He had a tool belt around his waist, a big mustache that looked like a push broom, and he was wearing a little red hat.

  “I swear, if you tell me your name is Mario, I’m going to pass out,” Lin said.

  “Ha. I get that a lot actually. Sorry to disappoint you. I’m just Gino,” he said. A wide grin spread across his face, showing a gap between his front teeth. Then his eyes opened wide, and I thought he was going to run.

  “Wait. Vicky told us to find you. We can explain everything,” I said in a hurry.

  “Oh. It’s okay. Miss Van-Varbles already explained, but I have to admit: When she said the robotic puppet dinosaurs were realistic, I thought she was exaggerating. These are amazing,” he said. He reached out a hand and touched Pizza’s nose. The Microsaurus rex bared his teeth and growled at Gino.

  “That’s enough, Pizza,” Lin said in a calm voice.

  “Oh my. His name is Pizza? That’s wonderful. Pizza is my favorite food,” Gino said. “But for now, follow me. We need to hide you guys before everyone sees you. We don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

  “What surprise?” Lin asked.

  “Ha ha. You two are as funny as Miss Van-Varbles promised as well. What surprise? What surprise?”

  We followed Gino to the back of the correct semitruck, and he knocked on the door three times. RAP-RAP-RAP! Someone from inside returned the knock, and then the back door swung wide open. Gino pulled a small metal staircase down from the back of the truck and motioned for us to enter.

  “After you, my new friends,” he said.

  We climbed inside the truck. It fit all of us, but just barely. It wasn’t that it wasn’t big enough. It was plenty big. It was that it was filled with glittery, feathery, leathery costumes. Bolts and bolts of fancy material lined one wall, and mirrors, normal mirrors, not strange ones like in the Hall of Mirrors, lined the others.

  It looked like we were alone in the strange place until I heard someone humming to herself from behind an army of half-bodied mannequins dressed in fancy rock concert clothes. An older woman, no taller than Lin, emerged. She pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, saw the creatures standing in her costume closet, and dropped a bag of snacks she’d been holding.

  “Oh my. You startled me,” the woman said.

  “Kathleen, this is, well, I don’t know who it is actually, but they are guests of Miss Van-Varbles,” Gino said.

  “I’m Lin and this is Danny,” Lin said. “Nice to meet you.”

  “And you. And you’ve brought some friends,” Kathleen said. “Some large friends.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about those. They are just puppets,” Gino said.

  “Nonsense. I know a puppet when I see one,” the costume lady said. She turned and started looking through the cloth. “Too blue, I think,” she said, talking her way through the images in her mind. “And not enough of this, although I believe pink is your color,” she said to Cornelia, and the T. rex grinned.

  “Um, are you all right?” Gino asked. “Because I need to check on the hitch for the parade float. Want to make sure it’s in tip-top shape for the girls.”

  “Oh, quite, Gino. Honestly, I’m not sure how you could help if you did stay. Run along, we’ll get our guests costumed in no time,” Kathleen said.

  “Costumed?” I asked.

  “Of course. If you go to a baker, don’t you expect bread?” the little woman said as she pulled a massive swatch of purple cloth down from a shelf. “This will do nicely.”

  “Yeah, but,” Lin started in. Gino jumped out of the back of the truck and Kathleen turned to watch him leave. He closed the door and Kathleen smiled at us with a knowing grin.

  “What? Did we do something wrong?” I asked.

  “On the contrary. In fact, you’ve just made me a very happy woman,” she said, then did something I did not expect. Kathleen flipped up the collar of her shirt, and a shiny silver pin reflected in the overhead lights of the traveling costume shop. It was round, had a drawing of Bruno on it, and had the letters IMPA stamped around its edge.

  “Holy moly. You’re a member of the International Microsaur Protection Agency?” I asked, my mind blown.

  “Charter member number one hundred and eleven,” she said proudly. “And I’ve been expecting your visit for some time now. In fact, we all have.”

  “Who? Is Gino a member of the IMPA, too?” Lin asked.

  “Oh no. Not Gino. But he’s helpful and a really good mechanic. He can build anything you can dream up. Handy, and kind of cute if you ask me,” she said. She winked at Lin, and it made her giggle.

  “Then who is ‘we’?” I asked. “You said ‘we’ were waiting for us to arrive.”

  Kathleen motioned for us to follow her back farther into the costume room. We wound our way past sewing machines, flat tables, and more cloth than I’d seen in my life, until we reached her drawing table. There, sitting on a small tripod, was none other than Professor Penrod. Okay, it was a cell phone, but on the other end of the camera phone, the good professor was looking into the camera, waving right at us.

  “Well, are you going to say hello, you two, or are you just going to hang around and visit with my sister, Kathleen? The finest seamstress in the entire world. And a peach of a Microsaur explorer as well,” Professor Penrod said.

  “I may be freaking out here a little,” I said.

  “Well, make sure you pick out a nice hat before you do. I’m fond of the feathered ones, myself,” Professor Penrod said.

  “That’s odd. I seem to remember you being fond of the grass hats, Penny,” Kathleen said. “In fact, I remember making you a full grass suit or two in my time.”

  “Okay. Now I’m freaking out,” Lin said. “You made his grass suit?”

  “Oh, and you should see his tree bark swimming suit. Now, that is a sight to behold,” Kathleen said. “Isn’t that right, Penny?”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said, but I could tell by the look on his face that he knew exactly what his sister was talking about, and now I couldn’t get the picture out of my mind.

  CHAPTER 10

  SEEING THINGS IN A NEW SHADE

  While Kathleen took every measurement imaginable of Lin, the Microsaurs, and me, we told Dr. Carlyle and Penrod about our close calls. Now that we were in the safety of the costume truck, it was kind of fun to think about how the day had gone.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t get caught,” Dr. Carlyle said.

  “Fine thinking on your feet to cover Bruno’s eyes,” Professor Penrod said.

  “And who would have thought that sneaking through a Hall of Mirrors with three Microsaurs was even possible?” Kathleen said.

  “I know, right? And then Danny told me he had an idea of how to get Bruno out of
here without him charging red. Right, Danny?” Lin said.

  “Well, yes, but we don’t need that anymore,” I said.

  “Why not?” Lin asked.

  “Because we’re safe in the truck. They can just drive us out of here and drop us off at the Microterium. We’ll shrink them back to size and we’re back to normal,” I said.

  “Oh, but that’s not the plan at all,” Professor Penrod said.

  “Why not? That actually sounds like a great idea,” Lin said.

  “Penny and I already discussed it, and it just seems too risky. Gino isn’t a problem. He’ll believe just about anything he hears. But if we need to get the truck driver and the Ruby Girls’ manager involved so we can borrow the truck, then we’d probably need the Ruby Girls themselves. Well, you can see that before long there would be a pretty big group involved, and before long our secret wouldn’t be so secret anymore,” Kathleen said.

  “Yeah. I guess that makes sense,” I said. “But how are we going to get out of here, then? We’re still stuck!”

  “Yeah, do we just wait in here until the whole festival is over?” Lin asked.

  “We could do that, but then this would go to waste,” Kathleen said as she stood up from her sewing machine. She was carrying something that looked like a blanket, made of the glitteriest fabric I’d ever seen. She walked past me and right up to Cornelia, and she tickled the Microsaurus rex’s chin. “Bring your head down here, pretty girl,” she said, then, as Cornelia obeyed, the tiny costume lady flung the cloth over the T. rex’s back. Then she pulled on two strings, and one edge of the costume pulled up over Cornelia’s head and eyes, and turned her into a sparkly, masked superhero dinosaur.

  “Oh my goodness. It’s ADORABLE!” Lin said.

  “Thank you. I’ll admit, I’m pretty proud of this one. I’m thinking her brother here should have a matching costume, but he’d look dashing in emerald green,” Kathleen said.