Free Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins Page A

used paper baggie, instead of on the big high bed with the fluffy pillows!” continues StingRay.
    There is a noise outside the backpack. Not a big noise, but a rumbly one. “Did you hear that?” asks StingRay. “Ithink it is the X-ray machine. The vet is going to X-ray us one by one
    and look into our insides with an enormous
magnifying glass,
and then poke us with the giant carrot!”
    “I’m sure it’s not an X-ray,” says Plastic calmly, although she isn’t sure at all. “An X-ray would be squeakier.”
    “Then I think it is a lion,” cries StingRay. “A lion at the zoo who does not want to be on display with any small creatures like you and me.
    A lion who doesn’t like sharing her swing set,
and wants all the quarters for herself.
She is roaring because she hasn’t had any
lunch yet,
and her favorite food is stingrays.”
    “A lion would be fiercer,” says Plastic, a bit uncertainly. “It would sound hungrier, I bet.”
    “Maybe it is a giant buffalo,” suggests Lumphy.
    “Maybe it is a dump truck!” squeals StingRay. “A big orange dump truck tipping out piles of rotten groceries on top of us,
    and trapping us with the garbage-eating
sharks
and the throw-up smell!”
    “Wouldn’t a dump truck be louder?” asks Plastic, though she is starting to think StingRay might have a point. “I’m sure it’s not a dump truck.”
    … …
    The backpack thumps down again with a bang. “I would like to be warned,” moans Lumphy. “Sudden bumps make everything worse than it already is.”
    “The Girl doesn’t love us and she’s trying to get rid of us!” cries StingRay in a panic.
    The backpack opens. The rumbly noise gets louder,and the light is very bright—so bright that StingRay, Plastic, and Lumphy have to squinch up their eyes and take deep breaths before they can see where they are. A pair of warm arms takes them all out of the dark, wet-bathing-suit smell together.
    The three toys look around. There are small chairs, a sunny window, and a circle of fidgety faces.
    It is not the vet.
    It is not the zoo.
    It is not the dump. (They are pretty sure.)
    But where is it?
    The rumbly noise surges up. A grown-up asks everyone to Please Be Quiet Now. And then comes a familiar voice.
    “These are my best friends,” says the Little Girl who owns the backpack and sleeps in the high bed with the fluffy pillows. “My best friends in the world. That’s why I brought them to show-and-tell.”
    “Welcome,” says the teacher.
    Sticky, unfamiliar fingers pat Lumphy’s head and StingRay’s plush tail.
    Plastic is held up for all to admire. “We are here to be shown and told,” she whispers to StingRay and Lumphy, feeling quite bouncy as she looks around at the schoolroom. “Not to be thrown away or put under the X-ray machine!”
    The teacher says Lumphy looks a lot like a real buffalo. (Lumphy wonders what the teacher means by “real,” but he is too happy to worry much about it.)
    “We’re special!” whispers StingRay. “We’re her best friends!”
    “I knew it would be something nice,” says Plastic.
    … …
    Funny, but the ride home is not so uncomfortable. The smell is still there, but the backpack seems rather cozy. Plastic has herself a nap.
    StingRay isn’t worried about vets and zoos and garbage dumps anymore; she curls herself into a ball by Lumphy’s buffalo stomach. “The Little Girl loves us,” she tells him. “I knew it all along, really. I just didn’t want to say.”
    Lumphy licks StingRay’s head once, and settles down to wait. When he knows where he is going, traveling isn’t so bad. And right now, he is going home.

CHAPTER TWO

The Serious Problem of Plastic-ness
    T he room with the high bed and the fluffy pillows has bookshelves. Plastic never paid much attention to them before, but now she thinks they are interesting. Most of the shelves hold storybooks, but the bottom one has schoolbooks on it: books about animals, the meanings of words, the size of oceans, and