The Visitor by K. A. Applegate Read Free Book Online Page A

joking. I guess I felt a little embarrassed about having let the shrew take control of me.
    â€œUh-huh,” Marco said dryly. “Cat versus mouse. Who would you bet on?”
    â€œHaven’t you ever seen
Itchy and Scratchy?”
Cassie asked. “Mouse, definitely. Besides, she’s not a mouse.”
    Let me tell you something: It is no fun sitting around in a shrew’s tiny body, waiting to see whether a huge cat is going to decide to climb down and kill you. It is one of the least fun things I’ve ever done.I had the shrew brain under control, but that didn’t change the fact that the shrew was about as scared as a shrew can be. Between being snatched up by a hawk and now waiting to see if the shrew’s other deadly enemy was going to attack … I mean, the shrew was definitely in a state of panic.
    She was not a happy shrew.
    I was so preoccupied thinking about the shrew’s hunger that I missed what happened next. I didn’t even notice until I heard the sound of scraping tree bark just an inch over my head. Fluffer was dropping through the air right on top of me!
    I froze!
    Jake and Marco did not freeze.
    Marco grabbed Fluffer in mid-pounce. Fluffer rewarded him with a nasty slash of his claws. Marco yelled and almost dropped the cat. Jake grabbed Fluffer by the nape of the neck and Cassie ran up with the animal carrier.
    The three of them managed to stuff the squalling, hissing, slashing Fluffer into the carrier and close the door.
    I was already morphing out of the shrew body as fast as I could.
    â€œI’m bleeding!” Marco cried.
    â€œWe’re all bleeding,” Cassie said matter-of-factly.“I told you guys: Kitties can be nasty when you get on their nerves.”
    I was shooting up from the ground, regaining my normal body.
    â€œUgh! Ugh! I’m never doing that morph again,” I said, as soon as I had a normal tongue and lips. I looked over my shoulder to make sure I didn’t still have that creepy tail. Nothing. I was me again. I was in my morphing outfit and with no shoes on, but I was human again.
    I shuddered. The memory of the shrew’s brain and its fear and hunger made my flesh creep. I was fighting a powerful urge to throw up. I felt sick in a way that is mostly in your head.
    Jake looked at me and shook his head. “I should have done it. I should have used my lizard morph to lure the cat down from the tree.”
    I shook my head. “No. That freaked you out.”
    â€œAnd now you’re the one who’s freaked out,” Jake said. “But don’t worry, you’ll get over it. Mostly. At least
you
didn’t eat a spider.”
    â€œYeah. Look, I’m just tired, okay? Let me acquire this pain-in-the-butt cat and get on with this.”
    â€œAre you still up for it?” Cassie asked. “Acquiring two new morphs in one night?”
    â€œI shouldn’t have let you do the mouse. Shrew. Whatever,” Jake said. He was still looking guilty.
    â€œLook, it was my idea, right? Besides, since when do you
let
me do things? What are you, my master? I don’t think so. Come on.” I squared my shoulders and put on a brave smile. “Let me see how Fluffer likes me, now that I’m bigger than he is.”
    I guess Fluffer was tired of causing trouble. He was actually asleep in the cat carrier. Sleeping like nothing at all was going on. A typical cat. He even purred as I acquired him.
    When I was done, I noticed Cassie smiling at me.
    â€œWhat?” I asked her.
    â€œI was just thinking how you look like the same old Rachel, but now you also have an elephant, a shrew, an eagle, and a cat inside you. That’s four morphs. That’s more than any of us.” She looked thoughtful. “We don’t really know very much about this morphing thing still. I wonder if there is a limit to how many morphs you can do.”
    â€œI guess we’ll find out,” Marco said darkly.