Monster Lake

“Oh, I’m sorry, Terri, but Patricia can’t come to the phone now,” Patricia’s mother said. “She’s not feeling well.”

Terri’s eyes thinned as she held the phone to her ear. She’d dialed Patricia’s number right after breakfast, remembering their plans to go to the town library.

“What’s wrong?” Terri asked. “Is it her knee?”

“No, we don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Patricia’s mother worriedly replied. “We couldn’t get her out of bed this morning. We think she may have come down with the flu. The doctor’s coming over shortly. Why don’t you call back this afternoon? Maybe she’ll be feeling better then.”

“Okay,” Terri said. “’Bye.”

Terri hung up, raising an eyebrow. That’s funny, she thought. Yesterday Patricia had had to go to the hospital to get stitches in her knee, and today she’d caught the flu. She didn’t look sick when I saw her last night. She looked fine.

Oh, well. There was nothing Terri could do about it. She hoped Patricia would get better soon, but it was still disappointing because Terri was looking forward to going to the library with her today, to find out more about those words. Now, she’d have to go by herself.

“Hi, honey,” her mother said, walking into the kitchen.

“Hi, Mom,” Terri replied but then paused. Her mother was dressed in jeans and an old blouse, not one of the usual dresses she wore to work. “How come you’re dressed like that, Mom?”

“Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you, but I won’t be going to work today.”

“Your mother’s taking the day off, Terri,” her Uncle Chuck said, coming into the kitchen himself. “But we’ll both be working down in the boathouse most of the day.”

As usual, Terri thought.

“It’s for that special project I’ve told you about,” her mother added.

Yeah, right, Terri thought sarcastically. “What kind of project is it, exactly?” she asked.

Uncle Chuck and her mother looked at each other, as they had many times in the past.

Like they were hiding something.

“Never you mind about that,” her uncle cut in. “It’s complicated stuff that you wouldn’t understand. Say, aren’t you going to the library with Patricia today?”

“No, I’ll have to go by myself,” Terri said. “Patricia’s got the flu.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” her mother said. “We’ll get pizza tonight for sure, okay?”

“Great!” Terri said enthusiastically. It would be the first time in months that they’d had dinner together.

“Well, have fun at the library,” Uncle Chuck said. “Remember to be home before dinner time.”

“Okay,” Terri said.

Then her mother and uncle, both toting the familiar black briefcases, went out the back sliding door and walked down to the boathouse.

Terri frowned after them. Why would her mother be taking a day off work only to spend the entire day working with Uncle Chuck in the boathouse? And it was weird the way Uncle Chuck had cut Terri off when she’d asked about this “special project.”

Things are just getting weirder and weirder, Terri thought. But at least there was one good thing: they’d be having pizza together tonight, and that was something they hadn’t done in a long time. It would make things feel more like a family for a change.

She took her piece of notebook paper and left the house, walking down the street. The day was so beautiful —bright, warm, and sunny—it was hard to believe how weird things seemed at night, how unreal and scary.

It didn’t take her long to get to the town library; it was just a short walk. The air-conditioning momentarily chilled her when she entered the narrow-windowed, gray-brick building. It didn’t look like many people were here right now, probably because it was still pretty early. Mr. Seymour, the librarian, said hello to her when she passed by the check-out desk. Terri returned the greeting and went on her way. One of the library’s wings, called the Natural Science Wing, was devoted completely to science, zoology, and biology books, and this was definitely where she’d be able to find out more about the words she’d found in her uncle’s briefcase. She walked directly to the wing, but then stopped in her tracks.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she moaned out loud.

The wing’s doors were locked, and there was a sign which read: WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE BUT THE NATURAL SCIENCE WING IS CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS. THE WING WILL REOPEN IN TWO WEEKS.

Terri couldn’t believe her luck—it just got worse and worse, didn’t it?

I can’t wait two weeks! she thought. She had to find these things out now. Mumbling to herself, she walked back to the check-out desk. Maybe Mr. Seymour could help her.

“Excuse me, Mr. Seymour,” she asked. “But I need to know about these words, and the Natural Science wing is closed.”

Mr. Seymour was sort of tubby, and he was always reading poetry books behind the desk. He was nice to all the town kids, and he always went out of his way to help people out with their school assignments or whatever they needed to look up. He wore glasses and had long brown hair in front that sometimes hung in his eyes. “Yeah, I’m afraid so, Terri,” he said. “Each year we have one section of the library repainted and recarpeted, and this year, the Natural Science section was on the list. They always do it late in the summer because that’s when we have the fewest people in.” He leaned over the desk, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and took the piece of paper from her. “Hmmm, what have we got here?” he said and began reading the words on the paper. His forehead seemed to crunch up as he read. Then he said, “Well, these are some mighty sophisticated words for a twelve-year-old. Do you know what genetics are?”

“Not really,” Terri answered. “Just that it has something to do with genes, and all living cells have these things in them called genes.”

“Right,” Mr. Seymour agreed. “Genes are like little codes in our cells which give us the special traits that make each person different. And animals and plants too. For instance, a tomato has different genes than a banana, and you have different genes from me.”

“Because you’re a man and I’m a girl?” Terri figured.

“Exactly, and because of lots of other things too. Like because you have blue eyes and I have brown, and I wear glasses and you don’t. And today there’s a special science called genetics, which involves changing the way genes are arranged in living cells.”

“Changing,” Terri said, “like that one word there, mutation. That means change, doesn’t it?”

“Right again,” Mr. Seymour said. “And this word here, transmission, refers to how this mutation, or change, is transferred from one type of cell to another.”

Hmmm, Terri thought. “Can genetics change how big things get?”

“Why, sure, and that’s why genetics are good for the world. Today, genetic scientists can change all kinds of genes, so farmers can grow rice that’s more nutritious, they can grow wheat that grows faster in different climates, they can grow bigger ears of corn, bigger heads of lettuce, things like that, so that food is cheaper and more plentiful. There are a lot of countries in the world where people don’t have as much to eat as we do, and it’s the science of genetics that will help those poorer countries.”

This sounded like a truly great thing to Terri, helping feed poorer countries that didn’t have as much food as America. She’d seen commercials on TV advertizing for charity money for a lot of these poor countries, to help feed kids that didn’t have any food to eat, or running water, or medicine when they got sick. Or anything, for that matter.

Mr. Seymour went on, “And not only will we have more food to give to people who don’t have enough to eat, genetic scientists can make better seeds too, so people in countries with less food can grown their own vegetables. See, some countries can’t grow many vegetables because they don’t have good soil, or enough water, but now, with genetically changed seeds, they’ll be able to grow vegetables that don’t need as much water or fertilizer, and vegetables that can grow in different kinds of soil. Plus, all these vegetables grow better and bigger.”

“What about bigger animals?” Terri asked the next logical question.

“Well, sure, the same goes for livestock, too, like cows and chickens. With genetics, we can grow cows and