21 - Go Eat Worms! by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page B

bedroom door.
    “Mom!” Todd wailed. “Mom—look!” He pointed frantically to the worms
crawling on his pillow and bedsheet.
    Mrs. Barstow raised both hands to her cheeks in surprise.
    “Mom—you’ve got to stop Regina!” Todd pleaded. “You’ve got to stop her!
Look what she did! Look what she put in my bed!”
    Mrs. Barstow moved quickly into the room and put an arm around Todd’s
trembling shoulders. “But Regina isn’t here, Todd,” she said gently.
    “Huh?” He gaped at her in shock.
    “Regina is at a sleepover at Beth’s,” his mother explained. “Regina isn’t
here!”

 
 
21
     
     
    “We’ll have to have a long discussion about this in the morning,” Mrs.
Barstow said, her arm still around Todd’s shoulders. “Maybe your worms are
escaping from the tank somehow.”
    “Maybe,” Todd replied doubtfully.
    His mother lowered her eyes to the bed. “Yuck. Take the worms back
downstairs, Todd, and I’ll change the sheets.”
    Todd obediently lifted the worms off the sheet and pillowcase. Two of them
were mashed. But the rest were wriggling and squirming.
    They’re taking their revenge, Todd thought with a shudder as he carried them
out of the room.
    Regina was right.
    The worms are paying me back.
    The worms dangled from his hand as he carried them down to the basement. He
dropped them into the tank. Then he leaned over it, staring down into the soft,
wet dirt.
    Most of the worms were below the surface. But a few crawled across the top.
    “Hey, guys,” Todd called down to them, lowering his face over the top of the
glass aquarium. “Hey, guys—can you hear me?”
    He had never talked to his worms before. And he felt very uncomfortable
talking to them now.
    But he was desperate.
    “Listen, guys, I’m really sorry,” Todd said, speaking softly. He didn’t want
his voice to carry upstairs. If his mom or dad heard him talking to the worms,
they’d know he was totally Looney Tunes.
    “I’m really sorry about what happened,” he told them. “I mean, about cutting
that one in half. It will never happen again. I promise.”
    Leaning over the tank, he stared down into the dirt. The worms didn’t seem to
be paying any attention to him. Two of them were crawling against one of the
glass walls. Another was burrowing into the dirt.
    “So do you think you can stop following me around?” Todd continued, giving it
one last try. “I mean, I don’t want to get rid of you all. I’ve been collecting
worms for a long time. But if you keep this up, well… you’ll all have to
go.”
    Todd lifted his head out and stood up straight. I can’t believe I just did
that, he thought.
    Maybe I am totally nuts.
    He glanced quickly around the basement, expecting Regina and his parents to
pop out from behind the furnace, crying, “April fool!”
    But no one else was down there. Luckily, no one had seen him actually
pleading with the worms!
    Feeling really foolish and confused, Todd trudged back up to his room. His
mother was waiting for him in the hall outside his room. “What took so long?”
    “Nothing,” Todd muttered, feeling himself blush.
    She swept a hand through his wavy, dark hair. “I never get to see your hair,”
she said, smiling. “It’s always under that awful cap.”
    “Yeah. I know.” Todd yawned.
    “Go change your pajamas,” she instructed him. “Those have worm juice all over
them. I’ll run you a hot bath.”
    “No. No bath,” Todd said sharply. “I’m too tired.”
    “You don’t want a bath after rolling around on worms?” Mrs. Barstow demanded.
    “Tomorrow. Okay?” he pleaded.
    “Okay,” she agreed. “But change your pajamas. Good night.”
    Todd watched her make her way downstairs. Then he returned to his room and
changed into clean pajamas. He inspected the bed carefully, even though the sheets were new. Then he examined the pillow.
    When he was certain there were no worms, he turned off the light and slipped
into bed.
    Lying on his back, he