How I Got My Shrunken Head Read Online Free PDF Page A

might fall into the wrong hands. So she gave it to you.”
    “Don’t you remember?” Carolyn asked.
    “I was so little,” I told them. “I was only four. I don’t remember. I don’t think she gave me anything.”
    “But she
did,”
Carolyn insisted. “We know you have Jungle Magic. We know that you —” “How?” I interrupted. “How do you know I have it?”
    “Because you saw the shrunken head glow,” Carolyn replied. “The head will only glow for people who have the magic. We read that in Benna’s notebooks.”
    I swallowed hard. My throat suddenly felt dry again. My heart began to race.
    “You’re telling me I have some special kind of magic powers?” I asked in a tiny voice. “But Idon’t feel strange or anything. I’ve never done anything magic!”
    “You have the magic,” Dr. Hawlings said softly. “The magic is hundreds of years old. It belonged to the Oloyan people. They used to live on this island.”
    “They were headshrinkers,” Carolyn added. “Hundreds of years ago. That head I brought you — it was Oloyan. We have uncovered many others.”
    “But your aunt uncovered the secret of their ancient magic,” Dr. Hawlings said. “And she gave it to you.”
    “You’ve
got
to help us find her!” Kareen declared. “You’ve got to use the magic. We’ve got to find poor Benna — before it’s too late.”
    “I — I’ll try,” I told them.
    But secretly, I thought,
They’ve made a big mistake.
    Maybe they mixed me up with someone else.
    I don’t have any Jungle Magic. None at all.
    What am I going to do?

10
    I spent the day exploring the edge of the jungle with Kareen. We uncovered some amazing yellow spiders that were nearly as big as my fist. And Kareen showed me a plant that can snap its leaves closed around an insect and keep it trapped for days until the plant has digested it all.
    Pretty cool.
    We climbed low, smooth-barked trees. We sat in the tree limbs and talked.
    Kareen is okay, I think. She’s very serious. She doesn’t laugh a whole lot. And she doesn’t like the jungle at all.
    Kareen’s mom died when she was a little kid. She wants to go back to New Jersey and live with her grandmother. But her father won’t let her.
    As I talked with her, I kept thinking about Jungle Magic. And I kept thinking about how — whatever it was — I didn’t have it.
    Sure, I’ve always liked jungle movies. And jungle books and jungle games. I’ve always thoughtjungles are really awesome. But that doesn’t mean I have any special powers or anything.
    And now Aunt Benna was missing. And her friends on Baladora were so desperate to find her, they had brought me here.
    But what could I do?
    What?
    As I lay in bed that night, the questions didn’t go away.
    I stared up at the low ceiling of the small wooden shack, wide-awake. There were six or seven flat-roofed shacks in a row behind the main building. We each had our own little shack to sleep in.
    My little cabin had a narrow bed with a flat, lumpy mattress. A low bedside table where I placed my shrunken head. A small dresser with all the drawers stuck except the bottom one. A narrow closet, just big enough for the clothes I’d brought. And a tiny bathroom in the back.
    Through the netting over the open window, I could hear the chirp of insects. And in the distance, I heard a
caww caww cawww.
Some sort of bird cry.
    How can I help find Aunt Benna?
I wondered as I stared up at the dark ceiling and listened to the strange sounds.
    What can I do?
    I tried to remember her. I tried to remember her visit to my house when I was four.
    I pictured a short, dark-haired woman. Chubby like me. A round pink face. Intense dark eyes.
    I remembered that she talked very fast. She had sort of a chirpy voice, and she always seemed excited. Very enthusiastic.
    And I remembered …
    Nothing else.
    That’s all I could remember about my aunt.
    Did she give me Jungle Magic? No. I didn’t remember anything about that.
    I mean, how do you give