Chapter 8: Meeting the Bugs
Then the room was lit up with normal light from the lantern. Inside the lantern was a Glowworm, she sat there and sighed. She had pale-blue skin, white hair, and wore a plain brown dress, a gray twisted shawl with a sun button, and ruby earrings. She had a light bulb on her tail and a pair of spectacles on a stick in one of her hands.
With the light on, James, Penelope, and Jaelle could clearly see what the inhabitants were. They weren't monsters, they were bugs. GIANT human-sized bugs to be exact! As the children and goat looked at them, they didn't look evil or dangerous, they seemed to be harmless and friendly.
The first bug with the British accent was a towering, elderly green grasshopper. He was dressed in a black coat, a white dress shirt, light grey pants, and white shoes with a monocle on his right eye.
The tall creature with wings was a slender, muscular dragonfly. He had blue-green skin, hazel eyes, four light blue wings outlined in green, four arms, short red hair with a beard, sideburns, and mustache and a green tail with a dark blue tip. He wore a white dress shirt, a dark blue coat, a black belt with a gold buckle, a plaid kilt, a cap with a green feather, and tunic with the colors: blue, green, red, and yellow. Two golden broaches, a grey sporran with black tassels, white knee length socks, dark blue garters at the socks, and black shoes.
The snake creature was a blind light brown earthworm. He wore thick black glasses over his eyes, with a white collar, and a red bow.
The bug with the Brooklyn accent is a yellow-orange centipede with blue eyes and a cigar in his mouth. He wore a white shirt, a flat green cap, brown overalls, and he has brown boots on his feet.
The female ladybug was wearing a bright red hat with a black ribbon with white dots and a flower, short black hair, a black blouse with white polka dots, and a light blue skirt. She also had pale blue skin with black dress shoes, and a red purse.
The female spider with the French accent had a white face with four golden eyes with her short black hair in a bob, a white and black striped abdomen with a roll of thread, tall black boots at the end of her six legs, black gloves on her hands, with a light green bandana around her neck and a dark blue beret.
"I'm a vegetarian," Mr. Grasshopper replied.
"Same here," Dragonfly added. "But I tend have fish, maggots, and flies once in a while."
"I eat dirt," Earthworm added.
"No one will be eating you, James, Penelope, and Jaelle," Miss Spider said kindly with a warm smile.
Then Centipede appeared and bumped the arachnid aside, causing her to swing around.
"Yeah, she'll just puncture your heads and suck out the brains," he said.
Miss Spider swung back to him with a glare, "That, I am saving for you." She attempted to hit him, but Centipede slipped underneath her and end up behind her.
"Whoa! Pretty fast, long legs!" he grinned, chuckling. Miss Spider spun around and hissed at him, causing Centipede to back up on a ladder making him shudder in fright.
"Oh! Such rude behavior!" Mrs. Ladybug said, frowning at the two. She turned to the children, took out her handkerchief, and wiped off James and Penelope's faces, smiling. "There's no need to be frightened, dearies."
"But you're enormous bugs!" the boy cried out with astonishment, finding his voice.
"Very big indeed!" the gypsy girl added.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Mr. Grasshopper asked, standing next to the ladybug.
"We've all changed," Mrs. Ladybug said, digging into her purse. "And so did you James, Penelope, and Jaelle." She pulled out a mirror and the children gasped at their reflections. Their appearances looked like china dolls, but instead of white pale porcelain, they still had their colors.
"The old man," James said, taking the mirror and looked at his reflection. "Who gave us the green things, he said marvelous things will happen."
"Maybe he was right all along," Penelope said as she looked in the mirror. Jaelle hopped out to look at the mirror.
"Did he say, 'Marvelous pigs in satin'?" Glowworm asked.
"No, my dear lady," Mr. Grasshopper said, shaking his head. Mrs. Ladybug handed him a megaphone and called to her, "Marvelous things will happen."
"Is she all right?" Penelope asked Mr. Grasshopper. He handed back the megaphone to Mrs. Ladybug, looked at her and her brother sighing, "Poor Glowworm. She's a little deaf."
"Me hearin's fine," Dragonfly said.
"I, however, have exquisite hearing," Earthworm said proudly.
"Yeah?" Centipede grinned mischievously. "Well, listen to this." He made flatulent sounds with some of his twelve arms, sounding like a fanfare, and shouted in the megaphone, "LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!"
Everyone covered their ears, and Penelope felt that her ears were about to pop!
"Good Lord Centipede!" Dragonfly said, covering his ears. "Must ye be so loud?"
"You mean leave the hill?" James asked once everyone's ears stopped ringing. "We can't! The rhino will get us!"
"Rhino?" Earthworm got scared and hid himself in a giant glove with his long tail sticking out.
"I say, dear boy," Mr. Grasshopper said. "I lived on this miserable hill for decades. There are no rhinoceri here."
"Except for Sponge," Centipede said to them. "She's twice as big as a rhino, eh, kids?"
The children laughed at that funny joke from the rascally Centipede, feeling a lot better to hear some genuine laughter from grown-ups, instead of the evil chuckling from the aunts. Penelope had to admit it was true that Sponge is like a rhino.
It was the first time they ever felt safe. Jaelle, however, still did not trust the bugs, thinking they would trick her mistress and master, she stood behind Centipede and started to chew on his pants with her teeth.
"What the?" Centipede felt his pants moving. He turned around to see Jaelle nibbling on his pants. "Hey! Let go of my pants kid!"
The gypsy girl pulled the goat back by her horns and collar. She firmly scolded, "Jaelle! Naughty goat, that wasn't very nice."
The goat listened to her mistress and backed away, keeping up her defense. Centipede checked the back of his pants and grew relieved that Jaelle didn't rip it. Oh, so that's the one who kicked me earlier, he thought.
"Huh? Didn't know ya had a kid," Centipede said.
"Oh, she doesn't trust strangers immediately."
Jaelle snuck behind Dragonfly and kicked his butt with her hind legs.
"Ow!" Dragonfly rubbed his butt where he was kicked. "Your goat is tough lass."
"Thanks, Jaelle always wants to head butt Sponge and Spiker, she definitely hates them too."
"And twice as dangerous," Miss Spider said crawling on her web. "My life hangs by a thread every day."
"I've had to send all 300 hundred of me children to safer pastures," Mrs. Ladybug said, sadly.
"I made sure to hide meself in tall grass and upper tree branches to avoid the swatter," Dragonfly added, swinging his fists. "If only I was a ten-foot dragonfly, I'd show 'em!"
"Hah!" Earthworm laughed bitterly, popping his head out of the glove. "You think hiding in solid rock is fun?"
Jaelle came up to Earthworm and sniffed his nose. Earthworm flinched back from the goat sniffing and licking his nose.
"I can't even remember what fun is," James said as Mr. Grasshopper knelt next to him.
"Me too," Penelope added.
"Well, it's just 'cause you two've been stuck here for too long," Centipede said, circling around the siblings. "Listen to me, kids, I know of a place that'll refresh your memory."
Centipede ran up on the hand of a giant sundial in the middle of the floor, jumped onto Glowworm's lantern and began to swing around. Glowworm's tail began to glow pink as Centipede began singing:
(Centipede):
Bright lights, big city
That's where we gotta go!
He jumped down and slide on his knees towards Mrs. Ladybug, James, Penelope, Jaelle, and Mr. Grasshopper.
(Centipede):
Where the food is great
And the bugs are so pretty
He went up to Penelope and gave her dip. The gypsy girl gasped, but she gave a giddy laugh. Centipede took Mrs. Ladybug's hands and pulled her into the middle of the sundial. Then he swung her around in a dance, making her spin.
(Centipede):
I'd like to get my arms around a hundred or so!
I'd hug 'em, squeeze 'em, hold 'em tight!
Sleep all day, dance all night!
He threw Earthworm onto Mrs. Ladybug's shoulders as she stopped spinning. Mrs. Ladybug teetered a bit and was regaining her balance, as Earthworm was on her shoulders like a feather boa. Then Centipede ran up the wall and did a back flip.
(Centipede):
I want the bright lights and the big city,
That's the life for me, yeah!
Centipede ran up the sundial and did another back flip, accidentally landing in Miss Spider's web.
(Centipede):
That's the life for…"
Miss Spider appeared and the lights turned dark blue. She took Centipede's cigar, struck a match on his face, and lit the cigar.
(Miss Spider):
"You little maggot!
Have you never seen the moon,
Gliding 'cross the western sky?
The arachnid waved the cigar, drawing shapes of a crescent moon and a dead tree.
(Miss Spider):
A dead oak tree by the waterside?
Putrid vapors rising…
She inhaled the cigar and blew out the smoke and it floated in the air. Mrs. Ladybug coughed from the smoke, used her fan to fan it away, and spoke up.
(Mrs. Ladybug):
That sounds lovely, dear,
I'm sure we all agree.
But I prefer the sunshine,
A little park right in the center of the town…
Glowworm's tail lit up like the sun and vocalized softly. Mrs. Ladybug took out some bouquets of flowers from her purse and threw them up in the air.
(Mrs. Ladybug):
Flowers everywhere, Children all around me,
I'd love it!
Landing a baby's cheek so warm…
She held onto two flowers, one red and another white. She held out the white one for the little boy to sniff. She placed the red one in the gypsy girl's black hair. James and Penelope dance together and Jaelle pranced around, enjoying the show.
(Mrs. Ladybug):
It's wonderful, wonderful!
That's the life for me,
That's the life for me,
That's the life, that's the life for me!
Mrs. Ladybug threw a cane and a tall hat to Mr. Grasshopper, and he caught them. He put the hat down and held the cane in his lower hands. He walked down the ladder, singing;
(Mr. Grasshopper):
Elegant conversation,
Centipede popped in and said, "Bright lights, big city." Mr. Grasshopper kicked him away.
(Mr. Grasshopper):
An elevated point of view...
Centipede popped in again. "That's where I'd go." Mr. Grasshopper hits him on the head with his cane, making him retreat.
(Mr. Grasshopper):
Intellectual stimulation…
"Yeah, maybe for you," scoffed Centipede, before he scurried away to not get hit or kicked by Mr. Grasshopper.
(Mr. Grasshopper):
And someone you love to share it with you!
Mr. Grasshopper hands his hat over to James and joins in with Mrs. Ladybug and Centipede; they all danced around the sundial as the lights turned blue again. James and Penelope smiled, feeling happy to see others passionate about their dreams.
(Mr. Grasshopper, Centipede, Mrs. Ladybug):
It would be wonderful! Wonderful!
That's the life for me!
"You call that a life?" Earthworm asked.
"Earthworm," Dragonfly said, poking his nose. "T'ere must be more fer us!"
(Mr. Grasshopper, Centipede, Mrs. Ladybug):
That's the life for me!
"It's no pile of dirt."
Each bug took turns from singing up the spotlight as it changed colors from yellow to blue to red.
(Mrs. Ladybug):
That's the life…"
(Mr. Grasshopper):
That's the life…
(Centipede):
That's the life…
(All, Except James and Penelope):
That's the life for…
"Where are you hiding little brats?" Aunt Sponge yelled outside.