Free Nanny X Returns by Madelyn Rosenberg Page A

honors,” she said.
    I dangled the line in the water.
    Chomp
.
    I wondered what Ethan would think if I brought Eliza’s coloring book with us the next time we went fishing. Nanny X didn’t cut the fish open when I reeled it in, which made Eliza happy. Instead, our nanny poked the fish right in the eye. The tail stopped moving.
    â€œI found an off switch!” she said. “That was almost too easy. The fish just doesn’t seem as smart as that squirrel.”
    â€œFish have smaller brains,” I said.
    Her eyebrows came together. “Maybe the fish were a prototype. An early version. Maybe they really aren’t as smart.”
    Nanny X stuck the fish in her diaper bag. While we waited for Ali to meet us, we walked across the garden to see her painting, which was on display with a bunch ofother artwork by fifth graders. Ali’s portrait of Yeti was set up on an easel. His paws were on a screen door. I thought he looked like he was waiting for us to get home from school. I also thought he looked hungry.
    Wait a minute:
I thought
he looked hungry. I
thought
.
    What about the squirrel? Was it thinking, too? Or was somebody else doing the thinking for it? Somebody who was programming it, or maybe even using a remote control, like with Nanny X’s drone?
    An image of the video-game-playing lady sneaked into my brain again. She hadn’t looked up when Stinky was yelling at the art museum. She hadn’t looked up when we went running to the Castle. Maybe she hadn’t looked up because she was busy trying to make a squirrel destroy the world.
    â€œI think I know where Ursula is,” I said.
    We rushed back to the Mall, but the video-game lady had moved on. Nanny X grabbed her baby-powder spyglass. She looked both ways. Finally she focused on a giant building with a green dome on it: the National Museum of Natural History—my dad’s museum.
    â€œThere she is,” she said. She handed the glass to me and I peeked through it in time to see Ursula—or the lady we thought was Ursula—on the museum steps. The lens was so powerful, I could even make out a small beetle on the step beside her.

17. Alison
Nanny X Sets the Trap

    We met Boris in the lobby and headed outside. Stinky held on to the fishing line with the squirrel dangling from the end of it. It swung back and forth when he walked. Its sad squirrel eyes looked even sadder. Anybody watching us would think it was dead.
    We’d just started walking across the Mall when a park ranger stopped us.
    â€œWhat in the Sam Hill do you think you’re doing?” he said.
    â€œGoing to the Castle,” said Stinky. He added a “sir” for extra politeness.
    â€œI’m not even going to ask if you have a hunting permit,” the ranger said. “Even with a permit, there’s no hunting allowed.”
    â€œHunting?” Stinky’s mouth dropped open a little. The only thing he had ever hunted for was litter to pick up, and maybe some worms for compost. “We weren’t hunting.”
    â€œNo trapping,” added the ranger. “No fishing.”
    Stinky held the squirrel right in front of the ranger’s face, which got all scrunched up, like he smelled something bad. I guess I’d make a face like that, too, if I thought someone was waving a dead squirrel at me.
    â€œIt’s mechanical,” Stinky explained. “It isn’t real.”
    The ranger reached out and flicked the squirrel. Even with the fur, it made a dull clanging sound. It swung back and forth, like a pendulum. I wanted to point out that the ranger could be getting fingerprints all over our evidence, but he took his fingers away.
    He looked at Yeti for a minute, and then his eyes went to Howard. “Do you have a license for that?” he said.
    â€œWe do,” Boris said. He pulled out his own badge. I hoped it would be enough, since Nanny X seemed to have everybody else’s.
    â€œWell,” said