James, Anna-Maria and the Giant Peach Chapter 8

Chapter 8

In time, nearly everyone was down in the peach. Earthworm, with the bell tied around his neck, had his head poking out of the hatch, and was lying on the peach. Mr. Centipede and James were directly under him, the former on the ladder and holding the earthworm's middle in eight of his arms, and the latter in a hollow in the tunnel. Down in the peach pit, Mr. Grasshopper and Mrs. Ladybug had hold of Earthworm's tail, waiting for James to yell to pull him down.

Anna-Maria had wanted to help. Of course, the others told her she had to stay in the pit. She threw a mini-tantrum—stomping her feet, screaming she wanted to help, and crying—before James said she could help Mr. Grasshopper and Mrs. Ladybug to pull Earthworm. Wiping her tears away, Anna-Maria agreed; and so ended her tantrum.

"They've lost their minds!" Earthworm cried out, barely moving his head. "Anything but birds!"

"Don't worry," James said from the tunnel, holding a string to grab a seagull and tie it to the peach stem. "I'm right here. Now wiggle."

"No!"

"But they won't come if you don't wiggle." James protested.

"Exactly, and you can't make me." Earthworm said stubbornly.

"Oh, yeah?" Mr. Centipede grinned. He began tickling the worm, making him squirm around something fierce and laugh. This made the bell ring loudly.

"Hey, no fair!" He laughed, even though he was growing nervous. "Mocking birds munched me mother!"

From the opening, James could see a lone seagull come flying down. "Here comes the first one," James whispered, patting Earthworm's abdomen. He then said to the others, "Get ready to pull down there."

As the bird flew down closer, it could hear Earthworm crying out between laughs, "My sisters were swallowed by swallows!"

"Pull!" James yelled.

"Pull! Pull! Pull!" Anna-Maria sang, jumping around, forgetting her "job".

Not paying her any mind, Mr. Grasshopper and Mrs. Ladybug pulled sharply on Earthworm's tail, pulling him down the hatch so quickly, he seemed to disappear. James managed to loop the string around the seagull's neck, and tie the opposite end to the stem. The seagull was pulled to a stop once the string ended, and squawked in surprised.

"It worked!" James exclaimed happily. "I got one!"

"Shh! I hear teeth!" Earthworm hissed, down in the tunnel. "Great. Big. Gnashing. Teeth!"

James looked out to see a whirlpool in the water, a great distance away. "Sounds like a rhinoceros!" He exclaimed in fright.

"In the ocean?" Mr. Grasshopper said, having come out of the hatch beside the boy. "Uh, scientifically impossible." He concluded as Mr. Centipede came out as well.

"I hear something too." Ms. Spider said nervously in her web. Anna-Maria whimpered in fright, huddling close to Mrs. Ladybug.

Glancing nervously at Mr. Centipede, Mr. Grasshopper looked through his monocle like a telescope to see fish trying to jump straight out of the whirlpool, only to fall and get sucked in. "It's a school of Tuna," He said. "They're being sucked into some sort of machine."

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"Take a look." The insect offered him his monocle. Through it, James saw a giant, mechanical shark heave up out of the whirlpool, and flop down into the water, floating like a boat. The whirlpool, caused by the machine, had stopped.

"It's a giant shark!" James exclaimed as the tip of its dorsal fin opened, and plates with two fish heads each flew out and onto the ocean, floating about. Its tail extended to twice its length as a sort of alarm began blaring, and smoke came from a pipe poking out the back of its dorsal fin.

Mr. Centipede took the monocle and looked through it too. "It's seemed to have spotted us!" He exclaimed nervously, making Mr. Grasshopper gasp.

Indeed, the shark turned and began swimming towards the peach. "What do we do?" He cried, dropping the monocle and grabbing James' head from behind in fright. "What do we do?"

"The seagulls; it's our only chance!" The boy said, prying the centipede's arms off of his face.

"It would take the whole flock, and then some." Mr. Grasshopper said, recovering his monocle. "We'll never do it in time."

This made Mr. Centipede hug his hat instead of James' head. "We'll need Ms. Spider's web for a net," James said quickly. "Hurry!"

Hearing that, Ms. Spider began taking down her web and bundling it up. "Throw it here, dearie!" Mrs. Ladybug yelled, catching the bundle and tossing it up to James. He hid near the stem while Mr. Centipede stepped behind the open hatch lid.

"Wiggle, Mr. Earthworm!" James pleaded. "Our lives depend on it!"

"I can't, I'm all wiggled out." He said wearily, ducking into the tunnel.

Groaning in frustration, Mr. Centipede grabbed him and pulled him back out. "Here, let me help you." He grinned sinisterly. Deaf to the earthworm's frightened screams, he tossed him up, grabbed his tail, and began swinging him around as much as he could, making the bell ring loudly. "Come and get it!" He yelled to the seagulls. "Get your fresh, hot wienie!"

The seagulls, hearing the bell and Mr. Centipede's yells, and seeing the worm, began to fly down. Meanwhile, the shark continued to swim closer.

"Come on, baby!" Mr. Centipede muttered. Once the flock got close enough, he jumped back down the hatch. At the same time, James through the net out, catching the seagulls like a school of fish.

"I got 'em!" He exclaimed. "Hand me the loops!"

Ms. Spider and Mrs. Ladybug threw up long strings the former had been spinning. James tie them to the stem, and he, Mr. Grasshopper, and Centipede began tying the opposite ends on the seagulls' necks, one neck and string at a time. "Hurry!"

"Shake a leg there!" Mr. Grasshopper snapped.

"Keep your pants on!" Mr. Centipede exclaimed. "I've only got twelve hands."

As they worked, the shark kept swimming, nearing the peach second by second. "It's getting closer!" Earthworm cried out from in the tunnel.

Once the seagulls were all harnessed to the peach stem, they pulled the net off of them, letting them fly into the air. "Seagulls away!" Mr. Centipede yelled.

With the whole flock of hundreds of seagulls, the peach slowly began to rise out of the water. As if sensing this, a mini cannon protruded from the shark's throat. From this cannon, a little mechanical shark with a harpoon nose, connected to the bigger shark with a strong, metal cable, flew to the peach. It flew so fast and strong, it shoved its way through the peach flesh and pit. Ms. Spider and Mrs. Ladybug gasped when the harpoon tip appeared; Anna-Maria screamed and hid behind both of them.

"Oh, no!" James cried.

"Oh, dear!" Mr. Grasshopper exclaimed.

Now the peach was tethered to the shark. The giant fruit was pulled sharply to a stop. Mr. Centipede toppled over the edge, yelling. He landed on the cable on his back, then bounced up and nearly fell into the ocean. He managed to grab the cable, and then nabbed his hat.

Out of the shark's nostril popped a little shark with chomping jaw. It flew over the centipede, who had hooked one leg over the cable, and flew towards the peach, chomping through some of the strings holding the seagulls to the stem. "They're getting away!" James cried as five birds began flying away, with the strings trailing behind them.

"Hop on, James!" Mr. Grasshopper exclaimed. Once James was on his back—like his birthday candle, he later realized—the insect jumped as hard as he could. He was able to make it to where they could grab the strings. "Now, nab them!" He grabbed four of them with all four of his hands, and James grabbed the last one. The seagulls squawked in surprise at being tugged back down.

Two more chomping sharks came out from the shark's nose. This time, they were headed for James and Mr. Grasshopper. "Help!" They cried.

Mrs. Ladybug crawled out of the tunnel in the peach and flew up beside the grasshopper, sounding like a plane. When the sharks came up, she smacked them aside with her purse, yelling, "Hooligans! Ruffians!" The sharks fell away with crumpled noses. "Degenerates!" She huffed.

Quickly handing James his four strings, Mr. Grasshopper landed on the peach and bent forward, throwing James off of his back. He landed on his feet with a grunt, and tied the strings back on the stem. The seagulls returned to their flock. "Come on, seagulls!" James cried.

"Put your backs into it!" Mr. Grasshopper yelled, pushing Earthworm, who had crawled out by now, down.

"Shake your bloomin' tail feathers!" Mrs. Ladybug screamed, unknowingly in the poor grasshopper's ears. He covered them with his hands as his antennae were blown aside as if he was standing next to a fan.

The shark began pulling the cable back down his throat, pulling the peach towards it. Mr. Centipede inched up the cable, eyeing the machine. "Good sharky," He muttered nervously. "Nice sharky,"

Inside the peach pit, Ms. Spider grabbed a mallet and approached the shark harpoon. "Stay back!" She snapped to Anna-Maria. The toddler nodded, staying against the opposite wall. She didn't want to be anywhere near that scary thing.

The cable jerked, making Mr. Centipede lose his grip slightly. He yelled in surprise; as he began sliding towards the shark, he screamed, "Sharky!" He removed his hat and grabbed at the wire with his mandibles—the pincers on his head he used to cut the peach stem with—making sparks fly from it. When he slowed to a stop, he relaxed, sighing in relief. Then he yelled in fright when he realized he was practically in the shark's mouth.

Making sure Anna-Maria was far away from her, Ms. Spider began pounding at the harpoon like it was a nail. Only instead of driving it into something, she was driving it out; out of the peach, that is.

Mr. Centipede stood on the wire like a trapeze artist, and began running up it and towards the peach. The harpoon was hammered out, and he spun in midair, barely grabbing the boards in the peach. He pulled himself up, shoved his hat back on his head, and began running up the path to the top of the peach.

The harpoon had swung back and around the shark's dorsal fin while it was still pulling the wire in. It stalled for a minute, then its teeth were knocked out by the wire, and the machinery inside began tangling up. In a few seconds, BOOM! The shark exploded in a bright, orange light.

The bugs and James cheered from the rising peach. "All right!" Mr. Centipede yelled, jumping back on the board. "Teach ya to mess with me, ya overgrown sardine!" He yelled at the remaining pieces of the shark. "I'm from Brooklyn!"

Mr. Grasshopper sat back next to Earthworm, laughing, "Oh, ho-ho! Pure twaddle!" Mr. Centipede gave him a funny look as he continued, "Every bug onboard displayed extraordinary courage. Why, did you see Miss Ladybug risk life and wing, to bash those brutes on the snoot?" He punched the air in emphasis, accidentally hitting Earthworm on the nose.

"Well, they were being very rude." Mrs. Ladybug sniffed. "I can't abide rudeness."

Ms. Spider had come out by now, carrying Anna-Maria, who ran and hugged her brother. "We are all forgetting something," The spider said. "Everything we did was part of the brilliant plan of James."

"It really did work, didn't it?" He grinned.

Mr. Centipede and Earthworm both nodded. "I say three cheers for James!" Mr. Grasshopper said. "Hip-hip,"

"Hooray!" The centipede and earthworm cheered.

"Hip-hip,"

"Hooray!" Mrs. Ladybug and Glowworm, who had popped out of the hatch, cheered as well.

"Hip-hip,"

"Hooray!" Everyone cheered this time; including little Anna-Maria, who cried out, "Hooway!"

Mr. Centipede stood beside the peach stem, taking place as captain. "New York," He spat into three of his hands and rubbed them together before pushing the stem around to steer the seagulls. "Here we come!"