Fly Frenzy Read Online Free Page A

behind him, yelling, “GO! GO! GO! GO!”
    A second later, they were in the hallway. Then Josh turned left. He flew into the front room. “Look!” he yelled, angrily, pointing with one of his front legs. There on the vast field of swirly red carpet lay three leafy, twiggy birds, cut from Mom’s hedge.

    Now Tarquin was marching into the room with Mrs. Sharpe at his heels. She still held the flyswatter. Tarquin had a trash bag in his hand.
    â€œPick them up then,” said Mrs. Sharpe. “No—wait. We’ll have to pull them to pieces first. Just in case the garbagemen spot them.”
    And she went to pick up Mom’s favorite hedge bird creation.
    â€œNOOOOOOOOOOOO!” yelled Josh and dive-bombed Mrs. Sharpe’s face. He aimed for her nose—a huge pink outcrop on the massive pink slab of her face. Before he could rethink the idea, he had shot right up her left nostril.

    It certainly distracted her. As Josh rolled over in the nasty, windy, hairy cavern, Mrs. Sharpe shrieked and spluttered and sneezed. Josh hurtled back out again in a blast of nose goo.
    He ended up stuck to the leather sofa in a green globule. Danny, meanwhile, flew down and shot under the sofa. He zoomed low over the thick clumps of dust and hair and the twisted sculptures of candy wrappers on the shadowy carpet. He aimed for the line of light at the far side. He planned to shoot quickly up the back of the sofa and get ahold of Josh from behind. He didn’t want to attract the flyswatter that Tarquin was now twitching about in the air. But just a few inches up the back of the sofa, something pushed hard against Danny’s head. It stopped him in flight.

    It felt as if he’d flown into the goal during a soccer game. Like a big net. A big, sticky, net. A big, sticky, shivering net. Danny shouted and tried to get back down off the net, but it stuck to him like . . . like . . . like . . . A WEB!
    In the dusty darkness, eight red eyes suddenly lit up. Eight long, hairy legs began to pick their way down the silken ropes toward Danny.
    Danny didn’t know as much about wildlife as Josh did. But he knew this much—the spider was coming to meet him for lunch.
    And Danny was on the menu!

Josh had just managed to slither out of the giant booger. He was edging away over the back of the sofa when he heard Danny scream. He could only just hear it over Mrs. Sharpe. She was still sneezing and gasping and blowing her nose noisily. Josh peered down from the top of the sofa and saw a terrifying sight.
    A huge hairy spider was flipping Danny over and over with its legs and wrapping him up in silk. Danny was struggling hard. But he was no match for the spider. A female, judging by her size and skinny palps, thought Josh.
    â€œLook!” he shouted down. “This is all a mistake! He’s not actually a fly at all, and neither am I!” The spider paused, looked up at Josh, and narrowed all eight eyes. Then she came running for him, obviously wanting him for dessert.

    â€œFly away!” called up Danny, in a rather muffled way. Several bands of silk were across his face. Josh did, whizzing up out of reach. Then the spider scuttled back down to her main course.
    â€œIt’s all right, Danny,” yelled down Josh, hovering above. “She won’t kill you right away . . . she’ll just . . . um . . . bite you . . . a bit . . . ”
    â€œA bit?” squawked Danny.
    â€œYeah . . . and paralyze you with her venom . . . and . . . ”
    â€œAnd?” mumbled Danny, through a mouthful of silk. “And what?”
    â€œMake you runny before eating you.”
    â€œWell—thanks for that!” called back Danny. “Knowing exactly what to expect makes me feel so much better!”
    â€œDon’t worry—I’ll rescue you!” called back Josh.
    â€œWill you?” asked Danny. The lady spider lowered her brown and grey speckly face toward him. She slid a pair of