Chapter 5: The Discovery

          Mist hardly remembered the walk home.  His mind was too busy mulling over what had just happened at the toy store.  He wondered if there even was a toy store.  Mist walked up the steps to Agnes’ house and listened to the now familiar creaking of the front stoop.  Agnes was sitting in her living room reading as Mist walked into the door.  She barely lifted her eyes from her book as Mist walked straight for his room. 

            “The soup will be ready in a couple minutes,” said Agnes.

            “Not hungry tonight.” Replied Mist, in an unusually crabby tone.

            Mist didn’t even hear what Agnes mumbled as he charged down the stairs.  He was in no mood to eat bland soup again for dinner.  He plopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling.  Mist pulled out the little black bag that held his new treasures; the carved animals.  He wondered if the eyes of the animals looked just as alive here at home as they did in the neat little box in the toy store.  He put his hand into the bag and pulled out the animals, laying them on the bed spread next to him. 

            The animals were amazing.  The carved details of each one were perfect.  Mist pushed them around looking at each one.  What a find they had been!  Mist rested his head on his pillow and stared off with sleepy eyes.

            The next thing Mist knew, there was a crazed hiss right behind his head!  He had fallen asleep, but now ChaiTea was standing at the top of the little cat stairs leading up to the bed.  ChaiTea’s eyes were locked onto the toys that were spread across the bed.  Her claws dug into the bed, her giant fluffy tail was puffed out and looked like a snow-covered Christmas tree.  Mist couldn’t move.  He feared that each muscle twitch might lead ChaiTea into a fit of rage.  In one swift move, Mist rolled over his toys and put his back against the wall.  As he rolled, he saw his Tiger’s Eye coin fall out of his pocket.  It was almost as if he could see the coin flipping in the air in slow motion.  The coin spun in the air, landed right next to the carved giraffe and tipped over on top of it.

            All of a sudden there was a burst of light from the gold side of the coin that was leaning against the giraffe.  Mist plastered his back against the wall with his eyes locked on to the coin.  The legs of the giraffe began to move!  They burst out from under the coin and grew and grew.  The now-giant hooves on the bottom of the spotted legs tipped the nightstand.  ChaiTea spun around and tried to escape from the growing giraffe, but the neck started to grow.  The long neck arced up to the ceiling, and was forced to bend as it grew toward the stairway.  The knobby horns on the giraffe bumped ChaiTea away from the stairs and back toward the bed.  Her voice was choked and she wasn’t even able to hiss at the African giant that was now essentially filling the entire basement.

            Mist couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing.  He didn’t know whether to run away or to try to shrink into the wall.  The giraffe spun its head around and looked straight into Mist’s eyes.  All of a sudden, Mist’s eyes were forced shut and in his heart leapt in his chest.  When he opened his eyes, his mind spun with a feeling he had never felt before.  He felt cramped and scared.  It was as though he could feel the roof pressing on the back of his neck.  Mist was feeling exactly what the giraffe felt!  Mist suddenly felt adventurous.  He focused his mind on the giraffe’s head and mentally forced it to look to the left.  The giraffe did just that.  He thought about lifting up the hind left leg.  The leg obeyed!  Mist caused the giraffe’s long neck to come back around toward ChaiTea.  With a mischievious smile on his face, Mist made the giraffe lean over, grab ChaiTea’s tail with its mouth and lift her up to the ceiling.  The cat yowled and thrashed around trying to escape.  The giraffe swung the furious cat over to the bed, where Mist looked straight at the evil cat and said, “Leave me alone,” and then he added, “or else.”

            “What is going on down there?”  It was Agnes and she sounded mad.  Mist’s mind spun.  How was he going to hide a giraffe?  He thought back to the flash of light that had come from the coin.

            Mist heard Agnes start coming down the stairs.

            The old man in the toy store had said that the gold side of the coin had the inscription that meant “Time to grow.”

            The stairs creaked as Agnes slowly leaned on the rail.  “If you are breaking something down there, so help me…”

            The old man had something about the inscription on the silver side too.  But what was it?  Mist thought and thought.  “Smaller is better!”  Mist could see Agnes’ shoes on the steps as she came down the stairs.  Quick as a flash, Mist grabbed the coin, flipped it to the silver side, caused the giraffe’s head to spin around and drop ChaiTea to the floor.  Mist placed the coin right on the forehead of the giraffe.  If this didn’t work, Mist was in so much trouble.  Mist could feel the heat of the head of the nervous giraffe, and smell its animal breath.  He closed his eyes and hoped.

            Instantly the giraffe shrunk all the way back to one inch tall.  The nightstand rocked back and forth and the light nearly fell just as Agnes peeked down the stairs. 

            “What is going on down here?” shouted Agnes as ChaiTea bolted up the stairs with her head down and giraffe drool coating her tail. 

            “Oh, uh, nothing.  ChaiTea just startled me and I bumped the table,” lied Mist. 

            Agnes’ sharp eyes looked around the room for trouble.  Seeing none, she spun on her heel and started back up the stairs.  “And ChaiTea doesn’t come down stairs anyway.”

            Mist smiled.  He was sure that she never would again.