Kermit’s mom had her back to them. She was stirring a long spoon in a big aluminum pot on the stove. She turned as the storm door slammed.
“What’s up, guys?” She smiled at them.
“We need help!” Kermit blurted out.
Aunt Dee’s smile faded. “Help? What’s wrong?” She turned back to the stove. “Keep talking. I just have to stir this. I’m mixing up a new batch of spaghetti with hot sauce for my reading club tonight.”
“We have a real problem. Andy found a can of Monster Blood, and Kermit opened it,” Evan told her, all in one breath.
“That’s nice,” Aunt Dee replied, frowning at her hot sauce. She sniffed and peered down into the steaming pot. “I think it needs more peppers.”
“Mom — you’ve got to listen!” Kermit pleaded.
“I am listening,” she insisted, stirring harder. “Go on with your story.”
“It’s not a story. It’s real,” Evan told her.
Still stirring, she glanced back at him. “I hope there isn’t any serious trouble, Evan. You are in charge, you know. Being out in the middle of the night and ruining my flower garden is enough trouble for one visit. When I tell your parents—”
“Mom, please!” Kermit begged.
“I’m afraid we do have more trouble,” Andy told her.
“The Monster Blood poured out and formed a little blob creature,” Evan continued, his voice trembling. “It was cute at first. But it drank a lot of water and exploded into two. Then the two exploded into four.”
Evan glanced out the kitchen window. The creatures were rolling and bouncing all over the backyard. Some of them had discovered the garden hose and were soaking up water, inflating rapidly.
Several of them were forcing their way into the big wooden doghouse in a corner of the yard.
Oh, no, Evan thought. That’s where I stashed the Super-Soakers. Plenty of water for them in Dogface’s house.
“Now there are hundreds of them, Mom,” Kermit continued the story. “And they’re not cute anymore. They’ve grown hair, and they’ve turned really fierce. They’re spreading out all over the neighborhood, and—”
“That’s nice,” Aunt Dee said absently, frowning at her hot sauce.
“Mom — just take a look at them!” Kermit pleaded. “Look out the window. Now!”
“I can’t right now,” she replied. “I have to stir—”
The phone rang.
She handed the long wooden spoon to Evan. “I’ve been waiting for that call. Stir for me till I get back, okay?”
Before Evan could reply, she ran from the kitchen.
“I don’t think she heard us,” Kermit said, shaking his head unhappily. “If only she would take one look out the window. Then maybe…” His voice drifted off.
Evan sighed and stirred the sauce. The steam rising up from the pot burned his eyes. “This stuff is deadly!” he declared.
And that gave him an idea.
He glanced out the window in time to see a wet explosion of slime from the doghouse. The creatures had found the Super-Soakers. More of them had clustered around the little wooden structure.
He turned to Kermit and Andy. “Let’s try Aunt Dee’s hot sauce,” he whispered.
“Excuse me?” Kermit and Andy stared at him, confused.
“You want to eat now?” Kermit asked. “I thought you hated Mom’s hot sauce.”
“I do,” Evan admitted, still whispering. “Because it kills!”
“I get it!” Andy declared, her dark eyes widening in excitement. “You think maybe the hot sauce will kill the Monster Blood creatures.”
Evan nodded. “It’s liquid. So they’ll try to drink it. And maybe it will be too hot for them to handle.”
“Maybe it will blow them up for good!” Andy exclaimed.
“Worth a try, I guess,” Kermit said softly.
Evan glanced to the door. No sign of Aunt Dee.
“Quick—” he whispered. “Help me carry the pot outside.”
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.
25
“Dogface — get away!” Kermit cried, frantically waving the big sheepdog back.
Panting hard, his pink tongue hanging down from his furry face, Dogface bounded up to the hot sauce pot. Ignoring Kermit’s desperate cries, he lowered his head to the pot and sniffed it.
“No! Go away! Go away!” Evan joined in on Kermit’s cries. “Get him away from there!”
They couldn’t move fast enough.
The big dog bumped the pot over. The orange hot sauce poured out over the grass.