Nod's Limbs

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"Nod's bods!" cried Edgar, throwing down his shovel. "We can't dig all this ourselves. We'll never reach the balm spring!"

His twin sister, Ellen, who had long since tossed her shovel aside, was clawing the dirt with her bare hands.

"We must...keep digging...or Pet...dies."

Edgar turned to look at the one-eyed hairball sitting on a nearby pile of rock. A hazy film coated its yellow eye, and its hair, though greasy and tangled as ever, now showed strands of gray. A poisonous bite from Ellen's carnivorous plant, Morella, and the subsequent destruction of the remaining balm (the mysterious, earthy goop Pet needed to survive) had left the creature hovering near death. The only cure lay in finding the source of the balm, which was beneath layers and layers of dirt.

"Sorry, Pet," said Edgar, plopping down beside the ailing creature. "This is all our fault."

Ellen glanced back at her brother. "We can't quit," she muttered. "We never quit."

But in the faint light of the lantern, Ellen could see the torn fingernails, scrapes, and blisters that told of their vain effort so far: Despite hours of digging, the twins had managed only a six-foot deep hole. Before the cave-in, the tunnel had dropped at least thirty feet.

"Bite your tongue, Sister." Edgar sighed. "No quitting. Just better planning."

"Planning?"

"Yes!" Edgar sat up a little. "Time to take advantage of our strategic strengths."

Ellen faced her brother and crossed her arms. "Shall we recap ourstrategic strengths, Brother? Hmm. Let's see. First, we plotted to collapse the Knightlorian Hotel and ended up securing its eternal purple existence."

"A minor setback."

"Then, we blew up Augustus Nod's laboratory and burned his journal to ashes."

"Words, words, words."

"And if memory serves," Ellen remarked, pointing to the mountain of dirt, "Icaused this little cave-in."

"Now, Ellen, the ground was already unstable when you stomped your foot."

"And then when that crazy circus blew into town," Ellen continued, leaning into her sibling, "yougot us suckered out of our own house!"

"It was a lousy sham," growled Edgar.

"Oh! Let's don't forget that we betrayed Heimertz and Dahlia and they've been imprisoned in a gorilla cage for life!"

The ever-smiling Ronan Heimertz, the former caretaker of the twins' house and grounds, had lived in a shed in the backyard. For years he had been the only person the twins feared, and they were relieved when his circus family had carted him and his girlfriend away on charges of attempted murder. Edgar and Ellen had discovered too late that Heimertz was innocent -- the one person protecting both them and Pet.

At the mention of their loyal groundskeeper, Pet slipped off its perch and slunk dolefully toward the twins.

"We've spent years scheming against that vile Stephanie Knightleigh and her crooked family...and in the end,they'regoing to get the last laugh!"

Edgar stood up and took a deep breath. "So we regroup. We go back up to our house -- "

"Theirhouse, Edgar," Ellen interrupted. "The Knightleighs own it, remember? And by this time tomorrow, Eugenia Smithy and her crew will be swinging a wrecking ball at it. That's where ourstrengthshave gotten us." Ellen plopped down on a pile of earth and scowled. Pet snuggled against her, and Ellen reached down to stroke its thinning hair. She winced as a few strands fell away but didn't say anything.

Edgar stared for a long moment at the rubble. Then he narrowed his eyes and cracked his knuckles.

"Don't say it, Brother. Don't you dare..."

"I have a plan, Sister."

"I knew you were going to say that."

Copyright © 2006 by Star Farm Productions, LLC

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Excerpted from Nod's Limbs by Charles Ogden
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.