Toad Away Read Free Page A

building.”
    Limpy peered into the distance. Up ahead was a building that sprawled the length of a big car park. It was the biggest building they'd seen yet.
    “That must be the human leader's house,” said Limpy.
    Goliath was heading for it, waving a sharp stick.
    “Come on,” said Limpy. “We've got to stop him.”
    The human leader's house had hundreds of cars parked around it.
    “He must be very important,” said Limpy. “To have so many visitors.”
    Plastic bags were blowing around in the car park. Limpy and Charm hopped into one for disguise and crinkled their way toward the building, weaving and zigzagging to avoid the cars and other vehicles, which were mostly big wire baskets on wheels.
    “These baskets must be so visitors can wheel their gifts over to the human leader's place,” said Limpy.
    “Must be big gifts. Makes ours seem a bit small.”
    “It's the quality of a gift that counts,” said Charm.
    “We could have brought a giant dung beetle, but we didn't 'cause they're all gristle.”
    “Good point,” said Limpy.
    When they got to the entrance, they both stopped, peering through a split in the plastic bag.
    The bag sagged. So did Limpy.
    The big glass doors that slid open each time a human approached must be security doors. Even if Limpy could find out the password, he knew he'd never be able to say it.
    “Only one thing to do,” he whispered to Charm.“Get a human to take us in.”
    Limpy and Charm clung to each other and tried to make themselves as small as they could.
    It wasn't easy for Limpy, because he had a big lump in his throat. Pride, mostly, and love. How many cane toads had little sisters who would hop into a human's handbag without a croak of complaint, and could do it in the tiny amount of time it took the human to lock her car, drop her keys, pick them up, and check her hair in the side mirror?
    And that was as well as Charm being a crack shot with her poison pus.
    “You're incredible,” Limpy whispered.
    “No, I'm not,” said Charm. “I'm just trying to be like you. I always have.”
    The feelings inside Limpy were so big he was amazed there was enough room in the handbag for him and the presents and Charm and all the used tissues crumpled up around them.
    He gave Charm a grateful hug. Then he listened carefully, trying not to be distracted by the clattering noise of the wire-basket wheels underneath him.
    There it was.
    The hiss of the automatic doors opening.
    Limpy grabbed Charm's hand and they struggled up through the damp tissues and peeked out of the handbag.
    Stack me, thought Limpy. The human leader's house is full of food.
    They were in the biggest room Limpy had everseen. Shelves loaded with packets and tins stretched away into the distance. Between them were shiny strips of floor as big as highways.
    Limpy stared, amazed. Even the newspapers that picnickers sometimes wiped their bottoms on didn't have pictures of this many grocery items.
    Charm was staring too.
    “Limpy,” she whispered. “I don't think this is the human leader's house. I think we've come to the wrong place.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Limpy.
    “I met a weevil once who used to go to places like this for his holidays,” said Charm, eyes wide with concern. “We're in a supermarket.”

L impy had a powerful urge to stay in the human's handbag for the rest of his life, or at least until they were out of the supermarket.
    As he peeked out, the lights were so bright they hurt his eyes, and the air was colder than swamp mist on a winter morning. He wanted to grab Charm and snuggle back down into the tissues, where he was pretty sure there were interesting morsels to eat.
    But he knew they couldn't.
    The human was studying some bottles on a shelf. At any moment she could be reaching into her bag for a tissue or a bottle opener.
    “Come on,” Limpy whispered to Charm. “Hop for it.”
    They clambered out of the handbag, leapt onto the nearest shelf, and hid behind a row of boxes.