Night of the Giant Everything Read Online Free PDF

every bone in my body.
    I sat on the edge of the bed and turned to the bedpost. Could I slide down it like a fire pole?
    I might slide too fast and burn all the skin off my little hands.
    Could I lower myself slowly and carefully down the bedpost?
    That’s what I was thinking when the phone rang.
    The sound made me jump. I uttered a startled scream.
“AAAAAIIIIH!”
    And fell off the bed.

14
    I fell feetfirst. My back slid down the side of the bedspread.
    WHUMMP.
    I landed on my knees and fell face forward into the shag rug.
    My breath rushed out in a whoosh. I bounced once, then rolled onto my back, choking and wheezing.
    A few seconds later, I pulled myself to my feet. I moved my arms up and down and bent my knees. Testing everything out. No broken bones.
    The shag rug saved my life. Now I had pieces of white lint all over the front of my silvery jumpsuit. But I didn’t care. I was in one piece, ready for the next part of my journey.
    A difficult task—climbing down the stairs.
    I walked past my old sneakers in the middle of the hall. I wished I could wear them. My newplastic puppet shoes were too tight and really pinched my toes.
    I stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down. The stairs were steep and stretched straight down, like a deep cavern. At the bottom, I could see the mop and water pail I had tripped over before.
    No way I could step down the normal way. My feet just wouldn’t reach.
    I realized I had to turn around and lower myself down one step at a time.
    “No problem,” I said out loud. “It’s just like climbing down a ladder.”
    I was trying to psych myself up again.
    Steven, you perform all kinds of magic tricks. Pretend this is a new trick you are doing. Pretend you have an audience watching you, and you want to impress them.
    Sure, I could tell myself all kinds of stuff. I could pretend this was as easy as doing a card trick or juggling little red balls.
    But when I did magic tricks, I wasn’t exactly
risking my life.
    I turned my back to the front of the stairs. I lowered myself to my knees. Then I gripped the edge of the top step and slowly … carefully … lowered myself.
    I wasn’t tall enough. My feet wouldn’t touch the next step. I had to let go of the step above me and
drop
onto the lower step.
    “Ow.”
I landed hard on my plastic shoes and struggled to gain my balance.
    One stair down. Many more to go.
    I gripped the edge of the stair above me. The wood was slippery. Mom or Dad must have mopped and polished the stairs.
    I tightened my hands on it and carefully lowered myself to the next step.
    My heart was pounding. But I felt a little better. It was hard on my arm muscles. But this wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be.
    I could do this.
    I glanced down at the water bucket again. I moved far to the left. I wanted to make sure I didn’t come anywhere near that bucket.
    I took a deep breath and gripped the step above me.
    I lowered myself carefully, then dropped onto another step. And then another.
    A piece of cake. My arms ached. But I was halfway down the stairs.
    I lowered myself one more step.
    And then opened my mouth in a scream of horror as something grabbed me by the legs.
    A giant mouse!

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    “Let GO!” I screamed.
    The creature was
swallowing
me whole!
    No. Wait.
    I thrashed my arms and kicked at it.
    Wait. Not a mouse.
    A dust ball. A huge dust ball nearly as tall as me.
    Mom and Dad must not have mopped this far.
    The thick gray dust clung to my skin, my clothes. I’d dropped right into the middle of it. Now it was holding me prisoner.
    I brushed the sticky dry stuff away from my face. Pulled it off the front of my jumpsuit. Kicking and swinging my arms, I pushed out of it.
    It clung to my back. I swung around and slapped at it. I couldn’t get free.
    I swung my body around again, trying to slip away from it —
    —and fell off the step!
    I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
    I tumbled onto the next step. My head hit the hard wood with a