The Miniature World of Marvin and James Read online

  Mr. Pompaday hangs up the phone and sits down.

  Elaine tugs at Marvin’s leg. “Come on,” she whispers. “He’s busy now. Let’s go home.”

  But Marvin can’t move. James has made new friends? New friends?

  “Marvin,” Elaine says, tugging his leg again. “Time to go.”

  Marvin follows her, but he can’t stop thinking about James. He has been missing James for days now. What if James has not been missing him?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Homecoming!

  Safe at home, Marvin and Elaine tell the rest of the family about the black box.

  “A pencil sharpener!” Papa says. “That is NO PLACE FOR BEETLES.”

  “No, indeed,” Uncle Albert adds.

  “Marvin, you are lucky you and Elaine didn’t get hurt!” Mama cries. She hugs him close. “Promise me you won’t do that again.”

  “I won’t, Mama,” Marvin promises. But he feels a little sad. It was fun to jump and roll in the wood shavings.

  The rest of the week passes by slowly. Finally, it is Saturday. James is coming home!

  Marvin is still thinking about the phone call. James is his best friend. But what if James has a new best friend? A best friend who isn’t Marvin?

  What if James is having so much fun, he doesn’t even want to come home?

  Well, there is nothing Marvin can do about that.

  Mama can see that he’s upset. “What is it, darling?” she asks. “Why are you sad?”

  Marvin tries to tell her. “James loves the beach, Mama. He likes to swim and play in the sand. He’s having a good time without me. What if he doesn’t even miss me?”

  “Now, Marvin,” Mama says. “I’m sure James misses you. He can miss you AND have a good time at the beach.”

  Marvin tells her about the phone call and says gloomily, “James has new friends now.”

  “But that’s nice, darling,” Mama says. “James needs more friends … people friends. He can have new friends and still be friends with you. You know that, right?”

  Marvin is not sure he does know that. But he nods his head.

  Then he has an idea. He will make a picture for James. He will make a picture of the beach. Then James can look at it and remember how much fun he had.

  Marvin goes to his art studio. He finds a small scrap of paper. He dips his legs in ink. He has seen the beach in books that James has, and on television. He knows just what to draw.

  He draws waves.

  He makes tiny dots for sand.

  He draws a bird.

  At last, he draws the sun, big in the sky, shining over everything.

  It’s a nice picture. Marvin hopes James will like it.

  He lets it dry. Then he folds it under one leg so he can take it to James’s room. He crawls all the way there and up onto the desk, where he waits for James to get home.

  Around three o’clock, there is a noise in the hall. Marvin has been dozing, but now he’s awake. He hears the door open. He hears William, the baby, say “Ya ya!”

  James is here!

  James runs into the room. He’s smiling. He looks exactly the same, but his skin is a little brown. He has more freckles.

  He comes right to the desk and looks for Marvin.

  “There you are, little guy!” he says.

  He scoops Marvin onto his finger.

  “What’s that? A picture? Is it for me?”

  James takes the paper and unfolds it.

  “Wow! This is GREAT! It looks just like the beach!”

  Marvin beams.

  “I’ll put it somewhere safe, so my mom won’t find it,” James says. He looks at it some more. “I wish you could have gone with me.”

  Marvin’s heart swells. James wished he had been at the beach! Even with his new friends, he had still been thinking about Marvin.

  “You would have loved the beach,” James says. “Oh, wait … I have something for you!”

  James sets Marvin on the desk and reaches into his pocket.

  “Here,” he says. “It’s your present.”

  It’s a shell—a delicate white seashell, with stripes of pink, blue, and yellow curling all around it. James puts it on the desk.

  Marvin crawls over to look at it. It is beautiful.

  “You can go inside,” James tells him. “It can be like a secret hideout for you.”

  Marvin crawls into the shell. Inside is a smooth, curving tunnel. Marvin goes deeper and deeper.

  Pink light comes through the walls.

  The shell smells of salt.

  There is no sound.

  It is like being in another world.

  “Do you like it?” James asks, his voice far away.

  Marvin loves it. He thinks about how James found this shell on the beach and carried it all the way home, just for him.

  Marvin crawls out of the shell.

  James smiles at him. “I missed you,” he says.

  And even though Marvin is so happy that James is home, it is a good feeling to be missed. It’s like the feeling of being someone’s best friend … because it means nobody can take your place. There is nobody else in the whole world as special as you are.

  And then Marvin smiles. Because now he knows something. You can only be missed when someone goes away!

  Henry Holt and Company, LLC

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  Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

  Text copyright © 2014 by Elise Broach

  Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Kelly Murphy

  All rights reserved.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Broach, Elise.

  The miniature world of Marvin & James / Elise Broach; illustrated by Kelly Murphy. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (The masterpiece adventures; book 1)

  “Christy Ottaviano Books.”

  Summary: When his best friend, a human boy named James, goes away on vacation, Marvin the beetle worries that their friendship may end.

  ISBN 978-0-8050-9190-8 (hardback)

  [1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Beetles—Fiction. 3. Human-animal relationships—Fiction.] I. Murphy, Kelly, illustrator. II. Title. III. Title: The miniature world of Marvin and James.

  PZ7.B78083Mg 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2013036081

  First Edition—2014

  The artist used pen and ink on Coventry Rag paper to create the illustrations for this book.

  eISBN 9781627792042