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"But where did they come from?" I asked.
"I was lying in bed reading when all of a sudden — it was about ten o'clock?"
"Go on."
"All of a sudden a little box popped out of nowhere. I knew that you and Harry were up to something, so I thought it might have jewels or something precious in it. When I opened it, there were just a bunch of seeds. I was in a bad mood, so I threw them out the window and kept reading. But then a few minutes ago I heard leaves rustling and I came out here to see what it was. It's food plants, Joey! It's the solution to world hunger, just like you promised me. You're wonderful!"
"Don't you want to hear about my trip?"
"Just taste one of these porkchops!"
I felt around on the porkchop bush till I found something fat. I snapped it off at the stem, a perfect little porkchop, grilled to a turn. I got myself another fritter and filled my stomach. Each fritter had a seed like a cherry pit in its center. The porkchops bore their seeds nestled against their bony stems. I pocketed several seeds of each type.
"This really is good, Nancy. And they grew in just two hours?" I looked around the yard. There were five or six of the bushes and three of the trees. "I'm glad our trip did some good after all."
"What do you mean?"
I told Nancy about our trip to the looking-glass world, about Gary Herber, and about the parasite that had made it back to Earth. She made me show her the spot where the brain had bitten me, and she said that she hoped I wouldn't have to get blunzed. I agreed — the idea of a big needle in the skull didn't sound too appealing — and told her how I was worried the slugs might come after us tonight.
Just then Serena appeared in the back door. "Wet."
"You wet your bed, honey?"
"Bed wet."
Nancy and I went in, changed Serena, looked at our five million dollars, made sure the front door was locked, then took Serena out back for a fritter. "Taste this, Serena."
"Yes," urged Nancy. "Mommy used to like them when she was little."
Serena bit, chewed, swallowed, and approved. "More."
Just then I heard the sound I'd been half waiting for. A police siren.
"Nancy, I think that might be the slugs coming to get us. We better run."
"That's just the police, Joe."
"But they might have been taken over by Garybrains. Quick, let's head for the woods."
"There's bugs in there, Joe, and snakes."
"Please." The siren was drawing closer.
"Oh, all right."
I picked up Serena, and we ran for the woods.
Thick and viny, the woods came right up to the edge of our housing development. It was kind of swampy in there, and the built-up land the tract houses were on sloped down at the edge. We slid down the slope and stared back at our house.
Sure enough, a motorcycle and two squad cars with flashing lights were pulling right into our driveway. Five cops with riot guns — they all had round shoulders. Serena started to ask a question; Nancy stuffed another fritter in her mouth. We crouched lower, barely daring to watch.
Bang, bang, bang. Pounding our door. One of the cops circled around to our backyard and noticed the kitchen door open. He went right in and opened the front. They stomped around in there for a while, shouting my name. I wondered if they'd gotten Harry yet. This was bad, this was very bad.
"You think they have those brains on their backs?" whispered Nancy.
"Yeah."
"What can we do?"
"Shhhhh."
One of the police cars was driving around on the grass now, shining its lights this way and that. We pressed ourselves down into the underbrush. Serena started to whimper. I got my mouth against her and whispered to her. "Be quiet, honey. The bad men are after us. Be quiet like Mommy and Daddy. Real quiet."
She obeyed. The police tried pounding on some of our neighbors' doors. No one knew where we were. An hour went by before they finally gave up. The cop with the motorcycle stayed in our house and the others all left.
"Why don't you shoot him through the window," suggested Nancy. She'd noticed my flare ray.
"Killing a cop is a pretty serious crime. If people don't understand about the Gary-brains, I could end up in jail."
"Couldn't you focus it to just kill the slug? I don't want to stay in the woods all night. The mosquitoes are eating me alive."
A plan occurred to me. "Okay, Nancy, let's try this."
A few minutes later we were at our back door. Nancy laid the sleeping Serena down under a porkchop bush. I peered in the kitchen window. There was a tired cop with a sawed-off shotgun in his lap. He had a big bump on his back under his police shirt, and he was staring blankly at the front door.
"Excuse me," I said, walking right in. "We'd better have a conference." Nancy had stuffed a lot of leaves under my shirt, so it looked as if I too had a spine-rider.
The policeman whirled and started to raise his gun.
"Take it easy," I said, smiling and walking forward. "I got my Gary-brain already." I would have been scared to chance this if I hadn't known that Nancy was right outside the window with our flare ray aimed at the cop's head. "Come on, slide your shirt up and we'll let the masters talk."
The policeman nodded and began pulling his shirt up. He had to set his gun down to do it. I came closer, pulling at my own shirt. Now the cop's back was exposed, a big, strong back with the parasitic brain nestled between the shoulder blades. I made my move.
With one swift gesture, I slid my hand up under the brain, caught hold of the soft probes where they sank into the policeman's spine, and ripped the thing free. The policeman screamed and slumped forward. The loose Gary-brain twisted and tried to sink its tendrils into my arm. Surprisingly strong, it was more than just a brain; it had muscles. I tried to fling it across the room, but couldn't get it free of my arm. It began slithering up toward my shoulder and I cried for help.
Then Nancy was in the kitchen with me. Aiming carefully, she sizzled the Gary-brain with our flare ray. It released its grip on me and fell to the floor.
"Is he going to be all right?" Nancy asked, jerking her head at the policeman. There was a raw, bloody patch on his naked back.
"I don't know." I got some water and poured it over the man's head.
He moaned a little and then sat up. "What happened?"
"You've been under the control of a mindparasite. How did it happen?"
"I — I haven't been myself. We were chasing a gray car, and when we stopped it, Muldoon started acting fu
"That's right. They're after me and Harry Gerber, I think."
"Gerber, yeah. Some other guys went off after him. What are we going to do, Mr. Fletcher?"
"If I can think of a way to get to Gerber, I can fix the whole thing. Right now I'm going to hide. Meanwhile, why don't you go to the state police, officer? The parasites can't have spread very far yet. Go get in touch with some higher-ups."
"But what shall I tell them?"
"We're being invaded by an alien life form. If they don't believe you, show them your back and this dead spine-rider. We don't have a minute to lose."
The policeman sped off on his motorcycle. I filled a shopping bag with money from under the bed and locked up the house. Then Nancy and Serena and I got in the Buick and took off. The main thing I wanted right now was a chance to sleep.