A Trip to the Country for Marvin & James Read online

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  For my friend Jill Lepore, who loves the country as much as I do

  —E. B.

  For my friend Jasper, who is full of great stories

  —K. M.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Riding the Train

  Marvin and Elaine cannot believe how lucky they are. They are going on a trip with James! James’s father, Karl, and his wife, Christina, have a house in the country, and James is going to see it for the first time. He will have a sleepover.

  So many new things at once! It’s very exciting.

  Yesterday, James asked Marvin, “Do you want to come? Would you like to bring your friend?” Of course Marvin did want to go, and of course his cousin, Elaine, wanted to go too. To their great surprise, Mama, Papa, Uncle Albert, and Aunt Edith said yes.

  Nobody in Marvin’s family has ever been to the country. They’ve lived in the city all their lives. But they have heard wonderful stories about the country from other beetles, like the ladybugs that sometimes visit the Pompadays’ apartment. The country has fields of grass and corn and strawberries. There is so much to see, and do, and eat. Marvin and Elaine can hardly wait.

  So today, here they are, hurrying through the train station with Mrs. Pompaday. Marvin and Elaine are in James’s shirt pocket, peeking out.

  “Marvin, this place is huge!” Elaine cries. “I have never been anywhere this big in my entire life. And there are so many people.” She grabs one of Marvin’s legs. “Be careful you don’t fall out or you will be smashed flat as a pancake.”

  “I won’t,” Marvin says, annoyed. Elaine always thinks about bad things that can happen, especially bad things that can happen to Marvin.

  Mrs. Pompaday stops suddenly. “James, here’s your train,” she says, pointing to a sign.

  They go through a tall, dark doorway, and straight ahead of them is the train. It is long and silver.

  “Let’s find you a good seat,” Mrs.

  Pompaday says. “You must be very

  careful, James. Don’t talk to strangers. Just sit and look out the window, and when the conductor comes, give him this.” She holds out a little piece of paper. “This is your ticket. Don’t lose it! Let’s put it in your shirt pocket.”

  Wait, what?! Marvin and Elaine duck down. What if Mrs. Pompaday sees them?

  “That’s okay, Mom,” James says quickly. He grabs the ticket just as Mrs. Pompaday is tucking it in his pocket, poking Marvin and Elaine. “I’ll put it in my pants pocket.”

  Phew!

  Marvin and Elaine are too afraid to climb back to the top of the shirt pocket, so they can only hear bits of what Mrs. Pompaday is saying. She is talking a lot. They hear her say, “Hold on to your ticket … Karl and Christina will be waiting for you … It’s the eighth stop.”

  Finally, they see James’s eyes, big above them. “Are you okay, little guy?” he whispers. “Is your friend okay?”

  Marvin and Elaine crawl to the top of the pocket.

  “That was close!” James says. He smiles. “Look, I’m on the train. All by myself. Well, except for you guys.”

  Marvin looks around. James is sitting by the window, with his backpack next to him, and now the train is starting to move. It bumps and rumbles through the darkness.

  “Why is it so dark outside?” Elaine asks.

  “We must be underground,” Marvin says. “In a tunnel below the city.” Beetles know all about tunnels. They make tunnels inside walls and beneath floors.

  “Do you think it will be like this all the way to the country?” Elaine asks. She sounds disappointed.

  Marvin hopes not … even though beetles can see well at night, much better than humans. In the tunnel, he notices pipes and cables along the train tracks.

  “Look! There’s a rat,” Elaine cries. And Marvin sees it too, a big rat sniffing some garbage on a nearby track.

  Elaine shivers. “Oh Marvin, thank goodness we’re inside this train. Remember Aunt Lulu?”

  How could Marvin forget poor Aunt Lulu, who was collecting crumbs under the Pompadays’ kitchen table one night when she was surprised by a mouse.

  “Isn’t it strange to think that we could be FOOD?” Elaine says. “Why, a rat could probably eat a whole family of beetles! I wonder what we taste like.”

  “Stop, Elaine,” Marvin says. He is not enjoying this talk one bit. He is very glad when there’s a burst of sunlight and the train roars outside.

  Marvin sees sky and streets and tall buildings.

  James sits up to look out the window. “Wow, cool!” he says.

  And then something bad happens. As James kneels on the seat, the ticket in his pants pocket falls out!

  It drops into the tiny space between the seat and the wall of the train, out of sight.

  James does not notice. He is busy looking out the window.

  “James lost his ticket!” Marvin tells Elaine. “It fell down there.”

  “Oh no!” Elaine says. “What if they make him get off the train?”

  That would be terrible. They are still in the city, but far from home.

  “Then we won’t get to see the country,” Elaine says sadly. Marvin thinks that is the least of their problems.

  “Maybe I can get it,” he tells her.

  “Do you think you can? Be careful, Marvin. There’s not much room for you. What if you get stuck?”

  “I won’t get stuck,” Marvin says.

  “You might. And what if you’re trapped there, riding this train forever?”

  Marvin crawls out of the pocket and down James’s shirt.

  “Well,” Elaine calls to him, “don’t worry. If something happens to you, I will be friends with James.”

  Marvin ignores her. He leaps onto the seat and slips into the tiny space between the seat and the wall.

  Where’s the ticket?

  At first he doesn’t see it. It is so thin …

  Did it fall all the way to the floor?

  No. There it is, pressed against the wall.

  Marvin crawls to it and grabs it with his front legs.

  He tugs.

  He can move it, but it is heavier than he thought. The paper slips out of his grasp. He tries to drag it up to the seat cushion.

  “I can’t see you,” Elaine calls. “Are you stuck?”

  “No,” Marvin says. “I’ve got the ticket, but I can’t pull it up.”

  “Well, you’d better hurry,” Elaine says. “I see a man coming and he’s taking everyone’s tickets.”

  Marvin hears a loud voice. “Tickets! Have your tickets ready, please.”

  And then James says, “Uh–oh. Where’s my ticket?”

  Marvin doesn’t know what to do.

  He tugs and tugs, but the ticket is stuck.

  Then he has an idea. If he can�
�t pull the ticket, maybe he can push it down to the floor.

  With all his strength, Marvin pushes the ticket. It slides out and falls to the floor.

  Marvin quickly crawls back up to the seat cushion. James is turning around in his seat, looking everywhere. For a minute, Marvin is afraid James might kneel on him by accident.

  But then James sees Marvin.

  “Little guy, what are you doing down there?” He picks Marvin up. “I lost my ticket! I must have dropped it.”

  Marvin races to the end of James’s finger and dangles off the tip, waving his front legs at the floor.

  “There it is!” James says with a rush of relief. “You found it.”

  The man taking tickets is standing next to James’s seat. “Ticket, please,” he says.

  James quickly puts Marvin back in his shirt pocket.

  “Here it is,” he says, picking the ticket up off the floor.

  The man takes the ticket and does something that makes a clicking noise. Then he gives it back to James.

  “Look, he made a little hole in it,” Elaine says.

  “Be careful with your ticket,” the man says. “You’ll need it for the ride back.”

  “Okay,” James says. When the man leaves, James whispers to Marvin, “Thanks, little guy. You were a big help.”

  It makes Marvin happy to help James. That’s what friends are for. And Marvin has learned that even someone small can be a big help. In fact, being small can sometimes be the best way to help someone big.

  “It’s a good thing we found that ticket,” Elaine says. “What would James have done without us?”

  Marvin sighs. He settles into the pocket with Elaine as the train rumbles toward the country.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Country House

  They have been riding a long time. Outside the train window, the tall buildings are gone. The sky is wide and blue. There are lots of trees, and sometimes there’s water. Is that a river? A lake? Marvin isn’t sure.

  “Oh, Marvin, look how pretty it is!” Elaine says. “Is this the country? Are we here?”

  “I don’t know,” Marvin says. “But it doesn’t look like the city.”

  Finally, James says, “Okay, it’s the next stop.” He sounds excited, and a little nervous. He grabs his backpack.

  The train groans and rolls to a stop. James checks his pocket to make sure Marvin and Elaine are safe, then he gets up. When the doors of the train open, he steps off.

  “James! James!” Karl and Christina are waiting there, just like Mrs. Pompaday said they would be.

  They rush over and hug James.

  “Let me carry that,” Karl says, taking James’s backpack. “Our car is right here.”

  “We’re so happy you came! How was the ride?” Christina asks.

  “It was fun,” James says.

  Marvin is not surprised that James doesn’t tell them about the lost ticket. Grown–ups worry about that kind of thing, even when the trouble has passed.

  They all get in the car and now they are riding on a road with trees and fields on either side. Marvin and Elaine can’t stop looking out the window. They see a barn, and then a fence with sheep behind it. Marvin has never seen real sheep before.

  “This is the country, Marvin!” Elaine says. “Did you know it would be like this?”

  “No,” Marvin says. He has seen pictures of the country in books James reads, and he has seen the country on TV. But here, in front of them, it is so big and green and full of new things. Already, Marvin is very happy they came. He can’t wait for the ride to be over so he can crawl around and explore.

  After a while, the car turns off the road, and Karl drives slowly over bumpy dirt. Up ahead, Marvin can see a white house. There are yellow and blue flowers growing by the porch.

  “Look, buddy, we’re here,” Karl says. “Isn’t it great?”

  “Cool!” James says. He opens the window and leans his head out. Marvin feels the warm, fresh breeze. It smells sweet and grassy, nothing like the city.

  The car stops.

  “You must be tired of sitting, James,” Christina says. “Why don’t you have a look around while your dad and I make lunch?”

  “Okay,” James says. He opens the car door and races into the house.

  Marvin and Elaine hold tight to the edge of his pocket. “I wish he would slow down,” Elaine says. “I’m getting an upset stomach.”

  James runs around the house, opening doors, climbing the stairs. Marvin and Elaine bounce back and forth in his pocket. “Hey,” he yells. “Is this my room? The green one?”

  “Yes!” Karl calls. “It’s all ready for you.”

  Marvin can see that the room is freshly painted. There’s a bed with two puffy pillows, a desk with a lamp, and a shelf with books and toys and games on it. Marvin sees a little car, a toy sailboat, and a tractor with a wagon.

  And then he sees something that makes him happiest of all. On the desk is a stack of paper, and a new pen–and–ink set!

  “Wow, Dad, you got me another ink set!” James yells.

  “I sure did,” Karl calls up the stairs. “So you can draw when you come stay with us.”

  Marvin can’t believe it. Whenever James comes to the country, he can draw pictures—which means Marvin can draw pictures too!

  James gently takes Marvin and Elaine out of his pocket. “Look, you guys,” he whispers. “This is my new bedroom. Let’s make a sign for the door.”

  He sets Marvin and Elaine on the desk and opens the bottle of ink. “Here, little guy, you can help me,” he says, putting the cap in front of Marvin.

  Yay! The first thing Marvin will get to do in the country is draw a picture.

  James uses the pen to write J–A–M–E–S across a sheet of paper. Marvin dips his front legs in the tiny pool of ink in the cap. What should he draw?

  Something new.

  A sheep!

  Carefully, in the corner of the paper, Marvin draws the fluffy body of a sheep, and its four skinny legs.

  “Oh, look!” Elaine cries. “That’s the sheep we saw. Marvin, you are such a good drawer. You can draw anything.”

  James looks at the picture. “I like that,” he says. “Maybe I’ll draw a horse to go with it.”

  Karl and Christina appear in the bedroom doorway. Marvin and Elaine quickly duck behind the lamp.

  “Time for lunch,” Karl says.

  “How do you like your room?” Christina asks.

  “I love it,” James tells her.

  “Oh, look at your great sign,” Karl says. “We’ll get some tape and put it on your door.”

  “Yeah,” says James, “so everybody knows this is my room.”

  He follows them downstairs to lunch.

  Marvin and Elaine crawl out from behind the lamp.

  “Drat,” says Elaine. “I wanted to go outside and explore. Now James is going to forget about us.”

  “No, he won’t,” Marvin says. “James never forgets about us. He’ll be back soon … and we can explore in here while we wait.”

  Elaine sighs. “Okay, I guess. Let’s see what’s on this shelf.”

  She crawls across the desk and onto the bookcase next to it. Marvin follows her.

  “What’s this?” she asks, pointing to something hard and round, with a long string coming out of it.

  Marvin has never seen anything like it before. “I don’t know,” he says. “Maybe it’s a toy?”

  “What do you think it does?” Elaine asks.

  The string dangles over the edge of the bookshelf.

  “Let’s swing on it,” Elaine decides.

  Marvin is afraid they might fall. “I don’t know.”

  “Oh, come on. It will be fun.” Elaine grabs the string and pulls it up to where they are standing. “Watch me,” she says.

  She holds on to the string and before Marvin can stop her, she jumps off the shelf.

  “Wheeeeeeeee!” she cries.

  She swings back and forth through the air.
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  “Marvin, I’m flying!”

  Secretly, Marvin has always wished he could fly. Whenever he sees a flying bug—a gnat, or a moth, or a bee—he imagines how free he would feel, sailing through the air. The closest he has come to that feeling is the time he made a parachute out of a tissue, in the Pompadays’ bathroom.

  Elaine swings wildly through the air.

  “Marvin, you have to try it,” she calls. “This is so much fun.”

  When the rope stops swinging, Marvin pulls her back up to the shelf.

  She hands him the string. “Now hold on tight, and jump,” she orders.

  Marvin looks down. The floor is far below. “Are you sure that thing won’t roll off the shelf?”

  “Don’t be silly,” Elaine says. “It didn’t when I jumped. You’re barely bigger than I am.”

  “Well, make sure it doesn’t fall on me,” he says. He grabs the string and peers down.

  “Do you want me to give you a little push?” Elaine asks.

  “No!” Marvin says.

  He takes a deep breath.

  Then he jumps into the air.

  Marvin is falling …

  … and then the string snaps tight, and he is flying!

  Back and forth, back and forth, he whizzes through the air.

  “Look at me!” he shouts. “I’m flying!”

  The books and toys on the bookcase blur past him as he swings.

  “See?” Elaine yells. “Isn’t it fun?”