Johnny Buckethead, Page 3

as soon as school ended.

  Finally, the last class ended, and Edward took a few minutes to clean out his locker. He slammed his locker shut, happy school was over for the summer. All Edward could think of was how tomorrow morning he would be working at Mr. Gladstone’s pet shop. He would be surrounded by all kinds of animals, and every single one would be a true friend. Smiling, Edward turned around to leave and there was Willie, standing right in front of him.

  “Well, well. The one and only Johnny Buckethead.” Willie shoved Edward backwards against his locker. “Summertime, summertime, ain’t it the best? No school until September.”

  “Willie, please, leave me alone. I just want to go home,” Edward said.

  “Home? Home, you said?” Willie’s face turned a bright shade of red. “You better watch out this summer, Johnny Buckethead. When you least expect it, I’ll be there. And you won’t like it one bit. Because like I said, I don’t like bucketheads.”

  Willie stared into Edward’s eyes for a few seconds, then turned and walked away. Edward slumped down until he sat on the floor. He looked at his hands and he noticed they were shaking. Only a few minutes ago Edward was filled with such joyful feelings, looking forward to summer vacation and working in the pet shop. And now his only feeling was the sick, tingling sensation of being scared.

  The next two weeks turned out to be just about the happiest times Edward could ever remember. Being so busy at the pet shop Edward forgot about Willie and more importantly, he forgot about being scared.

  Every morning Edward would be at the pet shop as early as possible. Edward didn’t mind doing what most people would consider the dirty and disgusting job of cleaning out the pet cages. He knew if all the different animals lived in nice clean surroundings they would be happy. Edward also made sure every single animal had plenty of food and fresh water. Mr. Gladstone was also happy he hired Edward. He saw how much the animals loved Edward, and how much Edward loved them back.

  Among Edward’s favorite animals were the three large turtles that lived in a big cage in the front window. He named two of them Zig and Zag because they were always walking in front of each other. Zig would poke his little head into Zag’s side and gently push him away, and a few minutes later Zag would do the same to Zig. The third turtle Edward named Zoom because Edward couldn’t believe how fast Zoom would crawl around the cage. Sometimes it looked like he was even running. Whenever Edward had any free time during the day he would sit next to the cage and softly pet the turtles while feeding them small pieces of lettuce.

  There were also several puppies and kittens that Edward took special care of, since they were so young and helpless. He would hold and pet them for as long as he could. The older dogs and cats, who had nice comfortable cages in the large back room, were always excited to see him. The dogs would never bark, because they felt so loved and cared for whenever Edward was around, and every cat would rub up against their cage, waiting for Edward to gently stroke their backs. And whenever Edward walked by the large fish tank, every fish seemed to follow Edward’s every movement with their tiny, glassy fish eyes.

  The morning Edward started his third week at the pet shop, he had a nagging feeling that someone was following him. He hoped with all his heart it wasn’t Willie. Edward had found such happiness the last two weeks, and he certainly didn’t need Willie to come along and ruin everything. The whole time Edward walked to the pet shop he kept looking all around him, but he never saw any sign of Willie. Hopefully he was wrong and Willie was nowhere around. But didn’t Willie say he would show up when Edward least expected it?

  There were a lot of customers at the pet shop that day, and Mr. Gladstone was so busy he asked Edward to stay late and close the shop for him. Edward called his mother, telling her he would be working late and to please save him some dinner. His mother sounded a little worried at first, but after hearing his calm, relaxed voice she realized Edward was at the one place, besides home, where he was truly happy.

  Mr. Gladstone said goodnight and left the pet shop around five o’clock. Edward still had a few hours of cleaning up ahead of him. He was in no rush at all, and he made sure to spend extra time with each of the animals while he had the chance. The weight of his buckethead caused extra sharp stinging pains from time to time, but Edward ignored the pain the best he could while he kept on working.

  Around seven o’clock Edward laid down a fresh layer of clean newspaper in the front window turtle cage when all of a sudden the dogs in the back room started barking and howling. He thought it strange they would be so loud, especially since he had just fed them and cleaned their cages. There had to be a reason why the dogs were so upset. Edward ran towards the back room but stopped in the doorway. The lights were out. Edward was positive he left them on. He thought hard, and remembered very clearly leaving them on because he never shut the lights until he said goodbye to each animal.

  Edward’s heart started racing and his whole body trembled, and wild, scared thoughts flew through his mind. What was going on? Why were the lights out? Did someone break in through the back door? Was he about to be robbed? Or…could it be…Willie?

  He took a few small steps into the dark room, listening hard for any other sound over the dogs crazy barking. But the dogs were way too loud and Edward couldn’t hear anything else. Edward held his breath and inched towards the light switch on the wall just inside the doorway. With a shaking hand he flipped on the switch and stared into the now brightly lit room.

  It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, and when they did, the first thing he noticed was the back door. The door knob had been popped out and the door was slightly open. So did that mean someone did break in?

  Edward held his breath and stood as still as he possibly could just inside the doorway. From where he was standing he didn’t see any sign of there being any one else in the room. Some of the dogs nearer to him had stopped barking once he had turned the lights on, but in the last row of cages on the left side, one of the dogs was pacing back and forth, still barking loudly.

  On the right side of the room, across from the last row of cages, was a large sink. Underneath the sink was a large open area where Edward stored the cleaning supplies. Edward noticed that some of the supplies had been tossed out and now lay scattered across the floor. He wasn’t sure, but there seemed to be a large dark shape hiding underneath the sink.

  His first thought was to run back into the front of the pet shop and use the phone next to the cash register to call the police. He would report a burglary and a possible dangerous person. But before he could move he had a strange feeling the dark shape wasn’t a thief; it was Willie.

  Edward walked slowly towards the back of the room, always keeping his eyes on the dark shape. When he got about halfway through the room, Edward could see the shape was covered by a large towel he used to dry off the animals after he bathed them.

  The dog in the last cage, who Edward had named Sunny because he was a young Labrador Retriever with a beautiful coat of golden hair, kept on barking, never taking it's eyes off the dark shape underneath the sink. When Edward got a little closer he looked at Sunny and said “Shhh” in a calm voice. Sunny immediately stopped barking, but every few seconds he growled in a low voice, still keeping his eyes on the dark shape.

  After Edward took a few more steps he was only about ten feet away from the sink. The entire room was now so quiet that Edward felt a little scared. He could sense all of the animals watching his every move, almost like they were just as tense as he was, expecting something crazy to happen any second.

  Edward crept closer, and when he bent down to get a better look at the shape the towel was thrown into his face. From underneath the sink Willie rolled onto the floor and in one lazy motion he stood up.

  “Well, well, if it ishn’t the one and only Johnny Shbucketfled”, Willie said, slurring his words. Willie was holding a half full bottle of vodka in his right hand.

  “Willie, what are you doing here? Why on earth did you break in to the p
et shop?” Edward asked.

  Willie swayed a little from side to side and tried to focus his bloodshot eyes in Edward’s direction. His mouth was twisted into a crooked half smile, and when he tried to speak no words came out.

  “You're drunk, aren't you?” Edward said.

  Willie's face scrunched up in an effort to make the words come out. Finally Willie managed to say, “My's father’s bottle. He won’t misshh it, he’s got many bottles, plenty of bottles, for shhure.” Willie finished the sentence with a loud burp, and then he leaned his whole body to the left, looking like he was ready to fall over. Willie’s eyes were now half closed.

  Edward took a step towards Willie to try and catch him in case he passed out. But like a light switch being turned on Willie’s bleary eyes opened wide and he yelled out, “Don’t come near me, Johnny Shbucketwed!”

  Willie straightened up, then stumbled back and took the cap off the bottle of vodka. He lifted the bottle to his lips, bent his head back and the clear vodka poured out, some getting into his mouth, but most of it splashing onto his face and down the front of his shirt.

  “Wook at me, Shbucketmed! I’m a fire breathing dragon!” Willie’s mouth twisted into that crooked grin again and with his left hand he