Bunnicula Strikes Again! Read Online Free PDF Page B

pointed out.
    â€œSo?” said Chester. “You’re waterproof. If Bunnicula’s mother is out there, who knows how many more vampire rabbits are on the loose?”
    â€œOkay, okay, I’ll go with you,” I said. “Just give me a minute to look for my mind, will you? I seem to have lost it.”
    Luckily—at least, luckily for Chester andHowie—the Monroes were all in other parts of the house, so they didn’t see us sneaking out the pet door into the rain.
    â€œThis is so cool,” Howie yipped excitedly as we rounded the corner at the end of the block. “It’s just like FleshCrawlers number twenty-four, My
Parents Are Aliens from the Planet Zorg.
See, there’s this girl named Tiffani-Sue Tribellini, and she’s trying to find her mother because the person she thinks is her mother is really an alien. How the girl knows is that every time her mother goes near the microwave she glows. Which is not your normal mother thing to do. So one day—”
    â€œWill you two get a move on?” Chester scolded.
    â€œChester!” I shouted back. “Do you have a clue where you’re leading us?”
    â€œMore than a clue! We’re going to the last place Bunnicula saw his mother and where I believe we will now find her, waiting for her sonny boy! The movie theater!”
    â€œOh, goody!” Howie cried out. “Can we get popcorn? Can I sit on the aisle? Will there be coming attractions?”
    I didn’t have the heart to tell Howie we weren’t actually going to see a movie. As it turned out, we never even got to the theater. With the disaster that would soon befall us, I couldn’t help thinking I’d been right in the first place. It was a perfect day for napping.

[ FIVE ]

Surprise Encounters
    A BIT of an explanation may be useful here. Those of you whose memory, like mine, is as full of holes as a garden hose after Howie’s played Let’s-Pretend-This-Long-Green-Thing’s-a-Snake with it may not recall the exact circumstances of Bunnicula’s coming to live with us. One night a couple of years ago, the Monroes went to the movies and on one of the seats discovered a dirt-filled shoebox holding a tiny white-and-black bunny. A note in a foreign language read TAKE GOOD CARE OF MY BABY. Because the movie
Dracula
was playing there that night, Mrs. Monroe had the bright idea of combining “bunny” and “Dracula” to come up with the rabbit’s name: Bunnicula. This was after she’d had theanything-but-bright ideas of naming him Fluffy or Bun-Bun. She means well, Mrs. Monroe, but sometimes her taste is decidedly
Brady Bunch.
    Now I was not convinced, as Chester clearly was, that Bunnicula’s mother—if she in fact had been the one to leave him at the movie theater in the first place—would still be hanging around there. After all, how long could anybody take a diet of stale popcorn and gummy bears? And if she had not stayed there, what would make her want to return? Remorse? But I did find his argument compelling that Bunnicula, for whatever reason, seemed to miss his mother and had gone on his recent rampage out of excitement over Mother’s Day. So perhaps it was worth trying to find her. I didn’t let on that my motives were different from his. He may have been out to undo some vague grand plan he imagined was under way. He may have been determined to destroy vampire rabbits. J was intent on reuniting them.
    Luckily, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and soon the sweet smell of spring blossoms and fresh earth permeated the air. Not to mention certain other aromas of infinitely greater interest to dogs.
    â€œDo you two have to stop at every hydrant?” Chester snapped at one point.
    â€œWe’re investigating,” I explained.
    â€œYeah,” said Howie, “maybe we’ll pick up Bunnicula’s mother’s scent.”
    â€œUnless she’s a volunteer