James, Anna-Maria and the Giant Peach Chapter 5

Chapter 5

That night, when the aunts came in and were counting their money, James and Anna-Maria heard their Aunt Sponge call in a sing-song voice, "Yoo-hoo! Come down here!"

James stepped down, holding Anna-Maria's hand as she toddled alongside him. "Yes, Auntie Sponge?" They both said.

"Oo-ooh! You two are all spiffed up." She said.

Indeed, James and Anna-Maria were dressed in their best clothes. James had a black suit, tan pants that ended between his knees and ankles, black shoes and socks, a white dress shirt, and a patchwork tie. Anna-Maria wore a little dress that flowed around her knees; ironically, it was peach-colored. She also had white socks and black shoes.

"We wanted to pway with the childwen." Anna-Maria explained.

The aunts glanced at each other, saying, "Awww." The Aunt Spiker told the toddler, "The children have gone."

Anna-Maria looked up at her brother, her lip quivering. "But the two of you can play with their garbage." She said, taking the bristles off of a broom, and handing the wooden stick to James. Aunt Sponge chuckled, muttering, "Garbage. Heh-heh-heh."

James wordlessly picked up a large wooden bucket and slung the strings on it over his shoulders. "And don't either of you think of going near our peach." Aunt Spiker said before they went out.

"'Cause if you do," Aunt Sponge said slyly. "Remember, they never did catch that rhino." Both aunts chuckled at this. James just sighed as he and his little sister left the house.

"James?" Anna-Maria asked as James began picking up the garbage with his stick and putting it in the bucket.

"What?"

"Will the whino eat us?"

James patted her shoulder. "No, Anna-Maria, it won't." But even he wasn't sure. He stabbed a piece of garbage repeatedly, but he couldn't get it with the stick. When Anna-Maria picked it up, she squealed, "Cwocodile tongue bag!" She handed it to her brother.

It was indeed the bag the old man gave them. Wondering if there was at least one or two tongues left, leaning the broomstick against the fence surrounding the peach, James ripped it open. Two tongues glowed bright green, hopped to the ground, and bounced like a spring towards the peach. "No!" James exclaimed, dropping the bag and running after them. "Wait a minute! Wait!" Anna-Maria toddled after him.

He knelt by the peach and tried to grab the tongues, but they had disappeared. He sighed disappointed, but noticed he and Anna-Maria were near the peach. They stood up and inhaled its sweet scent deeply. "Smells good." Anna-Maria whispered.

James nodded. Then, looking to see that no one was watching them, he took a big handful of the slimy flesh from the peach, broke a small piece from it, and gave it to Anna-Maria. They both took big bites; Anna-Maria simply put her piece into her mouth. None of them noticed the tongues hop and burrow into the peach bits they ate.

The peach tasted wet and delicious. But they both noticed once they swallowed their bites, they began to feel funny. They forgot about it when there was a noise behind them. Looking, they saw a large hole had formed in the peach; it looked like a tunnel. James pulled the basket off of his back and put it on the ground, then crouched by the hole. It looked big enough for both to crawl in. He lifted Anna-Maria into it, and she crawled in first; James climbed in after her. Behind them, the hole in the peach closed up. It was as if the peach had healed itself.

The tunnel was wet and slippery, and it went up gently. They soon came upon a large piece of paper covering a hole in the pit of the peach. A green light was shining through it. "'Ere, now." A high-pitched female voice sounded. "Where do you think you're goin', Yank?"

"I'm goin' stir-crazy!" A gruff male voice with a sort of accent answered. "I gotta take a look around. Plan our escape from Spiker and Sponge."

"Escape? To where?" Another male voice—this one sounding worried—cried out. "We'll all be squashed…swatted…smooshed!"

A silhouette of what looked like a grasshopper appeared, startling James and Anna-Maria. "No one's going to 'smoosh' you, my dear boy." It said in a British accent. "You're six feet long now."

It disappeared. Then a silhouette of what looked to be a snake with glasses appeared. "Bigger target." It said in the worried voice.

"Let the biddies come!" Now a tall, thin silhouette—this one having multiple arms, antennae, and a hat—appeared, scaring off the previous shadow, snapping claws. "I'll take 'em both on! I'm indefeatable! I'm indivisible! I'm—"

Anna-Maria had been holding out her hand to the shadows. James lunged forward to grab her, and both siblings fell through the paper, screaming. "In trouble!" They landed on the tall, thin, multi-armed creature, were thrown onto the grasshopper, who kicked them onto the snake, and slid off of that and landed on the ground. "It's Spiker and Sponge!" The snake exclaimed in fright. "They've found us!"

James stood up, with Anna-Maria hugging him, but was knocked to the ground by a lantern swinging by. Something in the lantern yelled out, "Helloo!"

"Oh, no," The grasshopper said, holding what looked like a monocle. But James and Anna-Maria couldn't tell because in the dim green light, they could only see silhouettes and glowing eyes and mouths. "It's the children from the house. What were their names?"

"Miserable Ticks!" The multi-armed creature said, popping up suddenly, holding a lit cigar in the corner of his wide mouth.

"I thought it was Rotten Little Grubs." The snake spoke up.

"No, that's what those horrible aunts call them." A huge, round creature resembling a ladybug flew by and landed by the siblings, scaring them. "Their real names are…well it's, eh, eh…"

A huge spider popped down from the ceiling. "It's James and Anna-Maria." It said in a female voice with a French accent. James and Anna-Maria fell back, screaming.

"Look what you've done now, miss," The ladybug chided in a female voice, coming over. "Scared them to death."

"Please!" James pleaded hiding away. "Don't eat us!"

"Eat you?" They all laughed. "Hey, Glowworm!" One of them yelled. "Turn up your lights!" He clapped two hands. The room lit up with normal light as the Glowworm sighed. She was sitting in the lantern, and was wearing an old brown dress, and had glasses on a stick in one of her four fingers.

Now seeing properly, James and Anna-Maria could see the inhabitants of the peach were insects; huge, human-sized insects. There was a tall, old, green grasshopper dressed in a black suit, a white dress shirt, beige pants, and brown shoes, and was indeed wearing a monocle.

The snake was an earthworm, wearing black glasses, as he was blind, a white collar, and a red bow.

The multi-armed creature was a centipede. He had an off-white shirt, a flat, green hat, brown pants held up by suspenders, and brown boots. He had a cigar in his mouth.

There was also a ladybug, wearing a red sun hat with black spots, a black band with white spots, and a flower. She also had a black blouse with white spots, a short skirt, white petticoats and socks, black shoes, and was carrying a red purse.

The spider had a black and white striped abdomen, black boots at the end of six of her eight legs, a green bandana around her neck and a green beret. Her eyes had two green eyeballs in each.

"I'm a vegetarian." Mr. Grasshopper said.

"I eat dirt." Earthworm spoke up.

"No one will be eating you or your sister, James." Ms. Spider said kindly before Mr. Centipede hit her aside.

"Yeah, she'll just puncture your heads and suck out the brains!" He said.

Ms. Spider came down in front of him, frowning. "That, I am saving for you." She went to grab him, but he slid down under and behind her.

"Whoa! Pretty fast, long legs." He grinned. She spun around and hissed at him, scaring him up a ladder.

Anna-Maria giggled at the funny sight, feeling a little better. Mrs. Ladybug, however, frowned at the two. "Oh, such rude behavior!" She took a handkerchief out of her purse and wiped off James' face. "There's no need to be frightened, dearies."

"But, you're enormous bugs!" James exclaimed, finally finding his voice.

"Huge!" Anna-Maria added, standing and holding out her arms.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Mr. Grasshopper asked, standing beside the ladybug.

"We've all changed," Mrs. Ladybug said, searching through her purse before pulling out a red mirror and holding it to James. "And so have you and your sister, James."

They both gasped at their reflections. They looked like china dolls, but unlike the white dolls, they themselves were still colored. James had an oval-shaped head that was bigger than normal, scruffy brown hair, and round, black eyes. Anna-Maria's face was heart-shaped, her light brown hair was in little ringlets, and her eyes were big, round and black as well.

"The old man," James said, standing and taking the mirror, looking at his reflection. "The one who gave us the green things—he said marvelous things will happen."

"Cwododile tongues." Anna-Maria said.

"Did he say, 'Marvelous pigs in satin'?" The Glowworm asked.

"No, dear lady." Mr. Grasshopper shook his head, and took a megaphone Mrs. Ladybug handed him. "'Marvelous things will happen.'" He said through the megaphone, then handed it back and said, "Poor Glowworm. She's a little deaf."

"I, however, have exquisite hearing." Earthworm said proudly, puffing out his chest, or where his chest would be.

"Yeah?" Mr. Centipede grinned mischievously. "Well, listen to this," He made flatulent noises with some of his twelve arms, sounding like a fanfare, then screamed in the megaphone, "Let's get outta here!"

Everyone covered their ears; Anna-Maria yelled, "Too loud!"

"You mean leave the hill?" James asked once everyone's ears stopped ringing. "We can't! The rhino will get us."

"Rhino?" Earthworm exclaimed, frightened, and hid in a large glove with only his tail sticking out.

"I say, dear boy," Mr. Grasshopper chuckled. "I've lived on this miserable hill for decades. There are no rhinoceri here."

"Except for Sponge." Mr. Centipede spoke up, coming up behind Mrs. Ladybug and jumping around her so he was in front of the children. "She's twice as big as a rhino, eh, kid?" He chuckled, ruffling Anna-Maria's hair. Both children giggled. They were feeling better around the bugs, and both took a liking to the rascally centipede. And it was good to hear genuine laughter, and not the evil chuckling they heard around their aunts.

"And twice as dangerous." Ms. Spider sighed. "My life hangs by a thread every day."

"I've had to send all 300 of me children to safer pastures." Mrs. Ladybug said sadly.

"Hah!" Earthworm laughed bitterly, crawling out of the glove. "You think hiding in solid rock is fun?"

"We can't even remember what fun is." James said, hugging Anna-Maria. Mr. Grasshopper crouched down beside them.

"Well, it's because you and your sister've been stuck here too long." Mr. Centipede said, circling the siblings. "Listen to me, kids, I know a place that'll refresh your memories." He ran on the hand on a giant sundial in the middle of the floor, leapt up and grabbed the Glowworm's lantern, and began swinging around on it. The Glowworm's tail began glowing pink as the centipede began singing,

Bright lights, big city,
That's where we gotta go.

He jumped down and slid on his knees to Mrs. Ladybug, James, Anna-Maria, and Mr. Grasshopper.

Where the food is great, and the bugs are so pretty,

He tilted Anna-Maria's chin up a little, making her giggle, and took Mrs. Ladybug's hands, pulling her into the middle of the sundial. He swung her around in a dance, making her spin.

I'd like to get my arms around a hundred or so.
I'd hug 'em, squeeze 'em, hold 'em tight.
Sleep all day, dance all night,

He tossed Earthworm onto Mrs. Ladybug's shoulders. When she stopped spinning, and was teetering a little, dizzily, the earthworm was on her shoulders like a feather boa. Then he ran up the wall and did a back flip, still singing.

I want the bright lights, and the big city.
That's the life for me, yeah.

He ran up the sundial hand and did another back flip, accidentally landing in Ms. Spider's web.

That's the life for-

Ms. Spider approached him as the lights turned blue. She took his cigar, lit a match on his face, and lit the cigar with it.

You little maggot,
Have you never seen the moon,
Gliding 'cross the western sky?

She waved the cigar, making a crescent moon-shaped smoke shape. Then she made another shape; this one looked like an old tree.

A dead oak tree by the waterside?

She inhaled the cigar, then blew out smoke, making it billow into the air.

Putrid vapors rising…

Coughing, Mrs. Ladybug fanned away the smoke, and spoke up,

That sounds lovely, dear,
I'm sure we all agree,
But I prefer the sunshine,
A little park right in the center of the town.

The Glowworm's tail lit like the sun as she vocalized softly. Mrs. Ladybug took flowers out of her purse and threw them up into the air.

Flowers everywhere, children all around me,
I'd love it!
Landing on a baby's cheek, so warm,

She let James smell one white flower, and gave a red one to Anna-Maria, who giggled and danced around with her brother, both enjoying the whole show.

It's wonderful, wonderful,
That's the life for me.
That's the life for me.
That's the life, that's the life for me.

Mrs. Ladybug took out a top hat and cane from her purse, and threw them to Mr. Grasshopper, who was standing on the ladder. He caught them, put the hat on, and held the cane in his lower hands. Then he started down the ladder, singing,

Elegant conversation,

Mr. Centipede popped in and said, "Bright lights, big city." Mr. Grasshopper kicked him away.

An elevated point of view,

Mr. Centipede popped up again. "That's where I'd go," Mr. Grasshopper hit him on the head with his cane, making him retreat.

Intellectual stimulation,

"Yeah, maybe for you." Mr. Centipede scoffed before scurrying away to not be hit or kicked again.

And someone you love to share it with you.

Mr. Grasshopper handed James his hat as he, Mr. Centipede, and Mrs. Ladybug danced around on the sundial, the lights turning blue again.

It would be wonderful, wonderful,
That's the life for me.

"You call that a life?" Earthworm asked.

That's the life for me.

"It's no pile of dirt."

That's the life,
That's the life,
That's the life,
That's the life for-

"Where are you two brats hiding at?" Aunt Sponge yelled outside.