Inez held on tight to the fish bowl in her lap. Inside, Sunshine the Goldfish swam around, making short rounds back and forth and around his bowl. It served as a poor distraction from his hiccups.
Hic. Bubbles floated from Sunshine’s mouth to the top of the bowl.
Inez had been worrying over Sunshine ever since she came home from school yesterday and found the poor thing hiccuping. Inez tried all that she could, but it’s not like she could make Sunshine hold his breath. Or have him eat sugar. And she couldn’t scare him. So, she had sneaked him to this veterinary clinic with all her allowance money jangling in her pocket, which she hoped was enough.
Hic.
Even with Sunshine to keep her company, Inez was getting a little bored. The receptionist had ducked into the hallway to out help Dr. Moss with an emergency, but it had been fifteen minutes since she had left.
Hic.
Inez looked down at Sunshine. “Don’t worry! You’ll be all better soon. Just you watch.”
Sunshine seemed to perk up at that, and he did a few somersaults in the water. They continued to wait, Inez reading one of the chapter books from her school’s library and Sunshine doing laps around the bowl.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Inez looked at the closed door where the noise was coming from. It was silent for just a second, before she heard more thumping, and… was that squealing?
The door was obliterated as a pig crashed through it. Shards of the door went flying everywhere. Inez gasped and hurried herself and Sunshine behind the front desk where they could be at least a little safer from the pig.
The clinic’s bright lights bounced off the pink, porcelain skin of her body and brought to attention the name painted on her rump with delicate strokes: Peony. As Peony charged through the clinic in fright, Inez could hear how coins jangled against the hollow inside of her body. It sounded exactly like Inez’s piggy bank did earlier that day when she was collecting her allowance.
Inez dared to take a peek from her hiding place. Peony had overturned chairs and knocked over the display of outdated magazines.
Peony might have eventually ceased her destruction if not for the appearance of a terrier. The dog—Angus, according to the “handmade with love” tag sewn on his neck—took delight in chasing the pig around, even though Peony was much bigger. Angus yipped and yapped at the pig, wagging his tail. Peony was no longer frightened now that it was out of that oh-so-scary back room, and became just as eager to play with the friendly, little dog.
As Angus ran around and around, the folds of the tartan fabric of his body bounced and settled, showing snatches of more and more layers of intricate knit. His pink tongue of purl stitches wagged.
Maybe they were calm enough that Inez and Sunshine could sneak out. Or, she could crawl out of her hiding place in the desk’s leg space and dive to the phone. She knew never to call the emergency services for just anything, but this was too weird not to be an emergency!
But just then, three parrot burst through the same doorway and were a cacophony of squawks. They flew in a tangle, diving low to the ground and then swooping high enough that they brushed the ceiling.
From both sides of their blue bodies extended appendages that faded to white then transitioned to sunny yellow, next pale orange, and finally a deep, bloody orange at the tips—their wings. Waves of heat rolled off the flapping wings. The slightest brush of their wings scorched walls and threatened to set everything aflame… like those knocked-over magazines.
Inez could smell burning. The pig and the dog were not playing happily together anymore, but panicking in full, running to find somewhere safe, but having to turn away from the smoke-filled hallway.
Okay, now there was no hesitation. Inez snatched the office phone from where it sat on the desk, sunk low to the ground, and dialed 911 with shaky hands. She had just finished giving the dispatcher her location when a gust of wind rushed in from the hallway and hit the office.
“Are you alright?”
There offering his hand to her was Metropolis’s hero in most of his usual splendor. He had saved her sister before, and now he was saving Inez and Sunshine. He was Superman.
Except, Superman was a stoplight! His eyes were on the red light, his nose on the yellow light, and his mouth on the bottom light. He wore a reflective red safety vest instead of the usual cape. And hey! Why was that last light blue instead of green?
Even as she took his metal hand, Inez was dumbfounded. She had never met Superman before. Or a talking traffic light.
She heard the urgent voice of the dispatcher squeaking from the phone and remembered the call. “Superman put out the fire.”
The dispatcher asked to talk to Superman, who reassured the dispatcher that, yes, the fire was out and, yes, the girl and the animals were fine. Still, police and firefighters would be there promptly.
When Superman turned to her (and deprived her of the view of a reflective, neon version of his shield on the back of his vest), he said, “You were very brave today. It’s good you found somewhere to be safe.”
Inez raised the bowl. “Me and Sunshine.”
“Sunshine?”
“Sunshine was brave, too.”
The bottom light lit up blue as Superman smiled. He looked down at the little fish. Sunshine was looking a little more bug-eyed that usual, but seemed to be taking the afternoon in stride. “You were very brave today, too, Sunshine.” Superman then frowned at Inez, his nose glowing yellow as he remembered something. “Did you come here alone?”
Inez gulped. Busted.
At that moment, a man in a lab coat came bounding out of the hallway. He, unlike the fiery birds in a flint lighter cage or the re-corked porcelain pig or the knit dog resting in a basket with balls of yarn, was normal. Except for that ray gun he was pointing at Inez.
“You’re too late to stop what I’m going to do to this city, Superman. By the end of the day, you’ll have talking cars and barking beds and crying toys.” He stole a glance at Inez and Sunshine. “And even a girl with gills. What do you think, Superman? Two uncomplimentary living things forced together in the same body. That was always outside the purview of my experiments, but I must admit I’m curious to see how long it could survive.”
Superman’s red light blinked, on and off and on. “You’re sick, Moss.”
The doctor and Superman were facing off, each waiting for the other to make a mistake, but Inez was searching the walls. Superman doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, she knew, and wouldn’t take any risky action when she could be the one to get hurt. So maybe she would have to take the risk herself. After all, as much as she loved Sunshine, she didn’t want to live life as a mermaid stranded on land.
She finally found what she was looking for, saw that there were no eyes on her, and lunged for the light switch a few feet from her. They were plunged into darkness—except for the glow of Superman’s red light, which rushed at the doctor speedy-quick. There were sounds of a struggle, but Inez knew that Superman saw very well in the dark and would be able to overpower him.
Zzzzzap!
When Inez turned the light back on, the doctor was securely restrained by his own lab coat and looking very sour. Superman held the ray gun in one hand and a stoplight as tall as her in the other. He left them for less than a second to retrieve the receptionist, who’d been left tied up in one of the backrooms.
He held the doctor until the authorities came inside to take charge of the situation but personally fixed the mixed-up pig, dog, and birds (zap, zap, zap). As the half-burnt waiting room filled with firefighters, police officers, and frantic pet owners, Superman again turned to Inez. “What you did was very dangerous. I don’t want you doing anything like that again,” he scolded.
Inez looked at her shoes. “Should I just do nothing next time?”
Superman ran a hand through his hair. “You know, I have a friend that asks that same question. She also gets into a lot of trouble.” He studied the crowd that was forming outside the veterinary clinic, seemingly focused on a reporter arguing with an officer about getting inside the clinic. “I’m sorry that Sunshine didn’t get to see the doctor,” he said abruptly.
Inez noticed that Superman didn’t bother to answer her question. Why were grown-ups like all the time? Oh well…
“That’s okay, Superman.”
Sunshine, for his part, was recovering from being shocked into silence. He would be fine, Inez knew. She smiled. “Besides, I think we got our money’s worth anyway.”
