“Hold him steady while I take a blood sample,” said Dr. Hartley.
I didn’t like the sound of that. I’d had shots before, but never with a needle that long.
"This won't hurt a bit, old buddy," said Tim. The vet took blood from my tail. I didn’t even feel it.
“This Komodo has red scales on the top of his head,” said the vet.
Tim frowned. “No, he doesn’t. He’s all gray.”
“Look.” The vet gently touched my head.
Tim bent over to have a closer look. “You’re right. He never had those red scales before. Maybe he got injured when we moved him onto the wagon.”
I studied my reflection in the glass. I couldn’t see the top of my head. All I could see was my ugly Komodo face and my scaly gray legs with claws.
Another man was staring at me through the outside window of the Komodo pen. It was Gramps! I was so glad to see him I almost yelled. Luckily, I closed my mouth just in time. If Tim and the vet heard me talking, they’d probably put me in an animal hospital and do experiments on me. Then I’d never get out.
Tim was still watching me. I put my head down and tried not to appear too excited. After a few minutes, Tim and the vet left. The front door of the Reptile House opened and Gramps entered the room.
I crawled up and pushed my snout against the glass. Gramps bent down and put his hand against the window.
He whispered, “Luke, is that you?”
“It’s me, Gramps!”
“I figured you were here.” Gramps rubbed his neck. He looked very tired. He’d probably been up all night waiting for zoo security to find us.
Before they left, Mom and Dad told us not to upset Gramps. They said he was old and couldn’t handle the stress. I hoped he wouldn’t have a heart attack from seeing his grandsons turned into zoo creatures.
“Gramps, did you see Austin? Is he all right? Did they feed him?”
“He’s in the bear cage, eating berries. What did they give you?”
“Frozen rats. Today they gave me a rabbit. The fur is still on it.”
“Yuk.” Gramps made a face. “I’ll bet you’ll never complain about my cooking again.”
“I’ll never complain about anything again.”
I swished my tail back and forth on the concrete floor. I was glad Tim was gone, because I needed to talk to Gramps. I had a lot of questions.
“What happened to us, Gramps?”
He shook his head and sighed. “It’s a long story. I’d better get a chair.”
He found a metal one nearby and pulled it close to the Komodo enclosure. He looked around to make sure no one else could hear us. Bending his head down to the glass, he whispered, “You were cursed, Luke.”
I flicked my forked tongue at him. “Cursed? What do you mean?”
Gramps scratched his head. He started to speak, and then stopped. He seemed to be having trouble finding the right words. After a minute, he went on.
“This curse has been in our family for years. No one has been changed in a long time, and I thought it had died out. Somehow you two activated it again.”
I shook my head and flicked my forked tongue. “What curse? You never said anything about that.”
“I don’t like to talk about it. I don’t want people to think I’m crazy.”
“You’re sitting on a chair talking to a Komodo dragon. If anybody sees you, they’ll definitely think you’re crazy.”
Gramps rested his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor. His face was sad.
I tapped my thick nails on the glass. “So what about this curse? Is it like turning into a werewolf or something?”
He sat up and peered at me over his half-glasses. “When the conditions are right, metamorphoses like this can take place at the sub-atomic level.”
“Speak English, Gramps. I don’t understand.”
He gestured with his arm back and forth across the room. “Everything is made of energy—people, animals, trees, even rocks. We are all part of one big energy field.” He made a circling motion with his hand. “The energy vibrates at various rates of speed. Thought energy vibrates very fast and transforms easily. The energy in living things vibrates pretty fast too. The energy in rocks is much slower, so you can’t see them change.”
I paced back and forth inside the glass enclosure, watching him. “I still don’t get it. How did we become animals?”
Gramps tried again to explain, speaking more slowly. “Remember when you two were fighting yesterday morning?”
I blinked. Was that only yesterday? It seemed like ages ago.
Gramps went on. “Austin said he’d rather have a Komodo dragon for a brother. You said you’d rather have a grizzly bear. Remember that? You wished each other to be different.”
I nodded. We’d yelled that at each other in the car on the way to school.
Gramps pointed to the sky. “The electromagnetic field is all around us. When the lightning struck, it altered the electromagnetic field. That caused the energy waves to scramble. The energy from your thoughts created what you both wanted.” He sat back, shaking his head. “That’s what the curse does. During a certain kind of storm, you get what you wish.”
It seemed too weird to be true. “I wished for a pepperoni pizza, too, Gramps. Why didn’t I get that wish?”
Gramps shrugged. “You and Austin were really angry. Anger carries a lot of energy. It’s partly my fault, too. I said you were both acting like you belonged in a zoo. So I added the force of my energy to yours.”
He bent down, looking at me closely. “Did you know you have red scales on top of your head? I wonder if that’s because you have red hair. When you’re a human, I mean.”
I flicked my forked tongue at him. “I don’t care about the red scales. What can we do now? How do we get out of this?”
“We have to wait until the conditions are right again.”
“You mean we can’t change back until there’s another storm? We could be here for weeks!”
“The weather is going to be bad again in a couple of days. We might be able to attract lightning to strike the water tower and alter the electromagnetic field again.”
“Is that all?”
“Not quite. You and Austin have to do your part, too. You have to be thinking the right thoughts when lightning strikes. Otherwise it might not work.”
“You mean we might not become boys again?” My words came out in a terrified shriek.
Gramps shook his head. “Calm down. That’s not what I said.”
He took a deep breath. “You have to wish to be your old self again. To be human. You have to want your brother to be his old self, just the way he was. He has to wish the same about you. You both have to give the thought all your energy.”
“We can do that. I know we can. Just be sure to tell Austin.” I flopped down in the straw. I was tired of pacing around my glass enclosure.
“I have to do my part, too,” said Gramps. “I have to say you belong at home, with me. That won’t be hard, because that is what I think.”
“I want Austin to be home and safe, Gramps. I want that more than anything.”
Gramps smiled. “Good.”
I