Crane Fly Crash by Ali Sparkes Page A

on. “Now get out of my room, both of you. I’ve got to get ready to go out.” And she flounced to her mirror and started to brush her hair with the deadly weapon. She rummaged through all the bottles and pots of hair and makeup stuff. “MOM!” she bellowed, ignoring them. “Where’s my hair spray?”
    Mom didn’t answer. She was singing along to the radio in the kitchen. The doorbell rang as Josh and Danny mooched out of Jenny’s room. They shrugged at each other. Jenny was such a teenager.
    Danny slid down the banister. He leaped off at the bottom step, landing with a thud by the front door and opening it a second later.
    Standing on the doorstep was Petty Potts. As soon as she saw Danny and Josh stepping up behind him, she darted her eyes left and right behind her thick glasses. She hissed, “Excellent! The very people I was hoping for!” Her tweedy old hat was pulled down low over her face. The collar of her old trench coat was turned up. She looked as if she was pretending to be a spy.

    â€œShhhhhh!” said Petty, not coming into the house but leaning closer to them. “Now listen. This is very important. Very important.”
    â€œWhat is?” said Danny.
    â€œHush! Shhhh!” Petty pulled her coat tight across her chest and frowned at Danny. “I need your help. But only you two must know!”
    Josh sighed. Sometimes he thought Petty didn’t even realize that she was a senior citizen and he and Danny were still in elementary school. She behaved as if they were all the same age. “What is it, Petty?” he asked, warily. Whenever they got involved with Petty Potts, they always seemed to end up uncomfortably close to being dead.
    Petty glanced around again. “I am going away to a conference in Berlin,” she said, in a low voice. “A very important conference.”
    â€œAre you going to show off your S.W.I.T.C.H. spray?” asked Danny.
    â€œNo! No! Not yet.” Petty looked quite alarmed.
    â€œThe world of science is not ready. I can’t reveal my secrets now! Not yet. But—if something were to happen to me… ” She peered at them, slowly nodding her head. “Oh yes—something
could
happen to me. Then my work might never ever be known! And that—
that
—would be a tragedy!”
    â€œDo you think someone’s after you then?” whispered Josh.
    Petty squinted at him. “What?”
    â€œYou know,” said Josh. “I mean—you’ve said before that you think people are spying on you. But do you think they’re actually out to get you? Like in movies?”
    â€œGood grief, no,” said Petty, as if she thought Josh was simple-minded. “I just mean that I might get run over by a bus or something. And of course, that could happen at any time! Anyway, just in case it does, while I am away, I want you to keep this!” And she pulled a plastic spray bottle out of her coat, the kind with a squirty button on the top and a little plastic cap over the button.
    â€œWe don’t want that!” gasped Danny, backing away.
    â€œOh for heaven’s sake! It’s perfectly safe—all sealed tight,” said Petty. “Just pop it under your bed or something and keep it until I get back. Then if I
don’t
come back for any reason, you can take it to
New Scientist
magazine and reveal my genius to the world.”
    â€œPetty,” said Josh, “have you ever noticed that we’re not grown-ups? I mean … you do realize that we’re only eight, don’t you?”
    â€œWhat’s that got to do with anything?” said Petty, thrusting the bottle into Josh’s hands. She turned and walked back down the path. “See you next week, all being well! Take care, now. And keep searching for the cubes!”
    Josh and Danny closed the door and stared at the bottle. “Wonder which type of spray it is,” muttered Danny. “Maybe