How I Got My Shrunken Head Read Free

the blanket, and I fell with a hard
thud
to the floor.
    “Nooooooo!” I cried. My body trembled so hard, I could barely scramble to my feet.
    Gazing up, I saw the grinning head float over the dresser. Float into the air. Float toward me like a glowing comet.
    No!
    I covered my face to shield myself.
    When I glanced back up, the shrunken head glowed on the dresser top.
    Had I imagined it floating up?
    I didn’t care. I ran out of the bedroom. “The head! The head!” I shrieked. “It’s glowing. The head is glowing!”
    Jessica jumped out as I ran past her bedroom. “Mark — what’s going on?” she called.
    I didn’t stop to answer. I kept on running down the hall to Mom and Dad’s room. “The head!” I wailed. “The head!” I was so terrified, I didn’t know
what
I was doing!
    The door was closed. But I shoved it open without knocking. Mom was lying on her back on her side of the bed. My dad was away this week on a business trip. But Mom still slept on her side of the bed.
    As I burst in, she sat up and uttered a startled cry. “Mark?”
    I ran up beside her. “Mom — the shrunken head — it started to glow!” I cried, my voice high and shrill. “It’s glowing, and it — it
grinned
at me!”
    Mom stood up and wrapped me in a hug. She felt so warm and soft. I was shaking all over. I suddenly felt as if I were a little boy again.
    “Mark, you had a nightmare,” Mom said softly. She ran her hand over the back of my hair, the way she used to do when I was little.
    “But, Mom —”
    “That’s all it was. A nightmare. Take a deep breath. Look how you’re shaking.”
    I pulled away from her. I knew it wasn’t a nightmare. I’d been wide-awake. “Come and see,” I insisted. “Hurry.”
    I pulled her out into the hall. A light clicked on in Carolyn’s room, and her door swung open. “What’s happening?” she asked sleepily. She was wearing a long black nightshirt.
    “Mark says his shrunken head glowed,” Mom reported. “I think he had a bad dream.”
    “No, I didn’t!” I shouted angrily. “Come on. I’ll show you!”
    I started to pull Mom down the hall. But I stopped when I saw the intense expression on Carolyn’s face. She had been sleepy a second ago. But now her eyes were wide, and she was staring at me hard. Staring at my face, studying me.
    I turned away from her and nearly bumped into Jessica. “Why did you wake me up?” Jessica demanded.
    I pushed past her and led everyone down the hall to my room. “The head glowed!” I cried. “And it smiled at me. Look. You’ll see!”
    I burst into my room and strode up to the dresser.
    The head was gone.

6
    I stared in shock at the bare dresser top.
    Behind me, someone clicked on the bedroom light. I blinked in the bright light, expecting the shrunken head to appear.
    Where was it?
    My eyes searched the floor. Had it fallen and rolled away? Had it floated out of the room?
    “Mark — is this some kind of joke?” Mom asked. She suddenly sounded very tired.
    “No —” I started. “Really, Mom. The head —”
    And then I saw the sly grin on Jessica’s face. And I saw that my sister had both hands behind her back.
    “Jessica — what are you hiding?” I demanded.
    Her grin grew wider. She never could keep a straight face. “Nothing,” she lied.
    “Let me see your hands,” I said sharply.
    “No way!” she replied. But she burst out laughing and brought her hands in front of her. And ofcourse she had the shrunken head gripped tightly in her right hand.
    “Jessica!” I let out an angry cry and snatched it away from her. “It’s not a toy,” I scolded her angrily. “You keep your paws off it. Hear?”
    “Well, it wasn’t glowing,” she sneered. “And it wasn’t smiling, either. You made that all up, Mark.”
    “Did not!” I cried.
    I examined the head. Its dry lips were pulled back in the toothless snarl it always had. The skin was green and leathery, not glowing at all.
    “Mark, you had a bad dream,” Mom