The Backpack Aquarium Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Michael Rex

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC,

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Rex, Michael, author, illustrator.

  The backpack aquarium / written & illustrated by Michael Rex.

  p. cm. — (Icky Ricky; 6)

  “A Stepping Stone Book”

  Summary: “Icky Ricky gets into plenty of trouble, including fish swimming in his backpack, wearing a disguise made out of trash, and playing soccer with a snake in his pocket.”

  —Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37562-7 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-385-37563-4 (lib. bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-385-37564-1 (ebook)

  [1. Humorous stories. 2. Behavior—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.R32875Bac 2015 [E]—dc23 2015008227

  eBook ISBN 9780385375641

  This book has been officially leveled by the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  a

  To Simon and Richard, for their vision…

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  1. The Amazing Alley Chase!

  2. The Glue Shoe

  3. The Great Garbage Mouth Challenge (Part 1)

  4. The Backpack Aquarium

  5. The Great Garbage Mouth Challenge (Part 2)

  About the Author

  “Ricky!” cried Ricky’s mom as he ran straight into her on the sidewalk. “Why are you covered in white powder, and why is there a box on your head?”

  “Because I couldn’t live forever in a Dumpster!” said Ricky.

  Ricky’s mom crossed her arms and then gave Ricky her best mom stare. He could never resist the mom stare. He had to slow down and start the story from the beginning. Ricky took a deep breath.…

  It all started when you asked me and Gus and Stew to walk down to the post office and mail your letter while you went to the grocery store. At the post office, we were looking for the right slot to put the letter in when we saw something excellent!

  There were these really cool “Wanted” posters on the wall. I’d never seen real “Wanted” posters. I thought that they only existed in cowboy movies. We started reading the crimes that the guys were wanted for.

  “This one says ‘Breaking and Entering,’ ” said Gus.

  “I wonder what he broke,” said Stew.

  “I wonder what he entered,” I said.

  “Maybe he snuck into a supermarket and broke all the eggs!” said Gus.

  We all studied the Breaking and Entering guy’s face closely. He was kind of scary-looking. Stew pointed at another poster.

  “This guy’s wanted for ‘Grand Larceny,’ ” said Gus.

  “What’s that?” asked Stew.

  “I think he stole one thousand dollars,” I said. “Crooks call one thousand dollars a grand.”

  “That’s a lot of money,” said Gus. “I wouldn’t even know what to do with that much money.”

  “But you’d have to hide it so that this guy wouldn’t steal it,” said Stew.

  “I know how I’d hide my money!” I said. “I’d get a little box and write ‘My Best Boogers Ever’ on it and put the money in there. No one would ever open that.”

  “But where would you put your boogers?” asked Stew.

  “Duh. They go in my pocket,” I said.

  We stared at the picture of the Grand Larceny guy. He was kind of scary, too.

  “This one did ‘Fraud’ and ‘Disturbing the Peace,’ ” said Gus, pointing at the last poster.

  “What’s fraud?” I asked.

  “It’s like when you fake someone out,” said Gus. “Like if you sell someone a painting for a million dollars and say that it was painted by Picasso, but it was really painted by your baby brother at day care.”

  “I wonder what disturbing the peace is,” I said. “That sounds like almost anything.”

  “Yeah, like shooting off fireworks,” said Gus.

  “Or driving a hot rod around late at night,” said Stew.

  “Or shooting off fireworks from the back of a hot rod and screaming ‘YOLO!’ ” I said.

  We all started laughing. The post office workers glared at us.

  We inspected the picture of the last guy and saw that he was scary, too. It seemed that to be a crook, you had to look mean and tough.

  “I wonder if any of these guys are around here,” said Gus.

  That’s when I had my best idea of the day.

  “We should go searching for these guys and turn them in to the police!” I said.

  We each chose one crook and memorized his face. We remembered the way the guys had their hair cut and if they had scars or beards or eye patches or anything. None of them had eye patches, but you know what I mean.

  We left the post office and tried to figure out where to hunt first.

  “If we go that way,” I said as I pointed away from the post office, “it’s just back to houses, but the other way goes down to stores and stuff.”

  “There’re some alleys, too,” said Gus. “Crooks always hang out in alleys.”

  We walked off toward the center of town, where all the shops and alleys were. Every time we saw a man, we checked him out closely to see if he was one of the criminals.

  We were staring at this one guy and he glared at us and was like, “Can I help you?”

  “No,” we said.

  He seemed kind of annoyed.

  We didn’t see anyone who looked scary or like they could commit a crime. Just some moms, some old people, and a few men who weren’t the crooks.

  Then I peeked into the little shoe store. There was a man in there, and he was helping a lady and her kids.

  “Hey! You see that guy?” I said.

  We all pressed our faces up to the glass.

  “He looks like Breaking and Entering Guy,” I said.

  “Except his hair is dark. The guy in the picture had light hair,” said Stew.

  “Maybe he dyed it,” said Gus.

  “Yeah!” I said. “He’s in disguise!”

  Just then, the man saw us. He seemed angry.

  We ran from the shop and down the street. We hid behind a garbage can. We looked down the street, and he was coming toward us! We could hear him shouting.

  “Follow me!” I shouted to Stew and Gus.

  We ran into the hardware store. Once inside, we walked quickly through the aisles.

  “Why are we here?” asked Gus.

  “We have to lose him,” I said. We ran to the rear of the store and out the back door.

  We snuck down a skinny alley and out onto the sidewalk again. We couldn’t see him anywhere.

  “We lost him,” said Gus.

  “Hey, kids!” we heard a man yell. “Come here!”

  We spun around and ran into the alley. We saw a big Dumpster and jumped into it. We closed the lid and hid from Breaking and Entering Guy.

  “What are we going to do?” aske
d Gus.

  “We can stay here,” I said.

  “How long?” asked Gus.

  “As long as we need to. Maybe forever,” I said.

  “I bet we could live here if we needed to,” said Stew.

  We dug through the stuff in the Dumpster. Even though it was behind the hardware store, there wasn’t anything really good in it. There were a bunch of cardboard boxes, a few pieces of wood, a broken shovel, and some big ripped bags of plaster powder.

  “I don’t know how long we’d last here. There’s no food and no water,” I said. “One of us is going to have to go for help.”

  The guys agreed.

  “Since I was the one who suggested we look for bad guys, I’ll go for help,” I said. “I’ll find my mom or a cop.”

  “You need a disguise,” said Stew.

  “Yeah,” said Gus. “That way Breaking and Entering Guy won’t know that it’s you.”

  “Excellent idea!” I said. “Let’s switch shirts, Stew! That will confuse him.”

  Stew and I took our shirts off and traded them. Gus took off his sneakers, and I gave him mine. I looked like a totally different kid. But my hair was still the same.

  “What are we going to do about your hair?” asked Gus.

  Searching around the Dumpster, we noticed we were getting covered with the white plaster powder.

  “What about this?” said Gus. He took a big handful of the powder and started rubbing it in my hair. It got all caked in my curls and was clumpy, but soon it made my hair look just about white.

  “Ta-da!” said Stew. “You’re a really old kid.”

  “Or a really short old man,” said Gus.

  “Yeah!” I said. “I’ll be an old man, and Breaking and Entering Guy won’t even recognize me! I could walk right past him!”

  I pulled my pants up really high and tucked my shirt into them. Stew grabbed a small, flat box and put it on my head. “Here, use this as a hat.”

  “It doesn’t really look like a hat,” said Gus.

  “Yeah, but maybe the old guy lost his glasses, and he put this box on his head and thinks it’s a hat,” said Stew.

  “Old people can get away with being really strange and no one cares,” said Gus. He handed me the busted shovel.

  “A cane!” I said. “Perfect.” I was ready to go get help.

  We opened the Dumpster just a tiny bit. We were alone in the alley.

  As I climbed out of the Dumpster, it occurred to me that I might never see Gus and Stew again.

  “Gus,” I said, “if I don’t come back, you can have all my sports stuff. Even the string from the baseball that I unwound.”

  “Thanks,” said Gus.

  “Stew, you can have all my art and building stuff. Including the five-gallon bucket of black paint that’s hidden in my parents’ closet.”

  “Thanks,” said Stew.

  “What about all of your experiments?” asked Gus.

  “I want you to make sure they go to a scientist or some sort of a museum,” I said. “The world needs to know how long a tomato wrapped in a scarf can last between two mattresses.”

  “Sure,” said Gus and Stew.

  “It’s been an honor serving with you!” I said, and I gave Gus and Stew a military salute.

  They both saluted back and said, “Yessir! You too, sir!”

  I pulled my pants up even higher, leaned on the stick, and slowly walked out of the alley. I was kind of nervous, so I started running.

  “Old guys can’t run!” shouted Gus from the Dumpster.

  That’s when I came out of the alley and bumped into you.

  “I see,” said Ricky’s mom.

  “Excuse me,” said a voice. Ricky and his mom both turned around. It was Breaking and Entering Guy.

  “Hi, Jack!” said Ricky’s mom.

  “Hello, Teresa,” said Jack. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine, thanks. How about you?” asked Ricky’s mom.

  “Well, I was having a pretty good day,” he said. “Until I had to chase this kid and his friends all over town.” He looked at Ricky.

  Ricky was frozen with fear.

  Ricky stared at the man’s face carefully. He wasn’t scary-looking at all. Ricky had the wrong guy.

  “For some reason,” said Jack, “you and your friends were leaning on my store window, getting it smudged up. It will take me all afternoon to clean it.”

  “S-s-s-sorry,” said Ricky. “How did you recognize me in my old man disguise?”

  Ricky’s mom and Jack laughed.

  “Then when you ran away, you dropped this,” said Jack. “I’ve been trying to give it back to you.” He held up the letter Ricky had promised to mail for his mom.

  “Ricky!” said his mom. “I told you to mail this.”

  “Well,” said Ricky, “I guess I’ve gotten a little forgetful in my old age!”

  Adults always ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. Most of them say stuff like doctor, teacher, or fireman. I don’t want to be any of those. I’ve got my own list of what I call “dream jobs”!

  Tire Factory Tire Bouncer

  Nacho Inspector

  Private Stench Investigator

  “Ricky!” said Coach Ron as he quickly tapped Ricky’s shin to make sure he was wearing shin guards. “Why the heck are you so late?”

  “Because Dr. Fangenstein was deejaying an awesome party!” said Ricky.

  “I can’t even begin to figure out what that means,” said Coach Ron. He looked closely at Ricky’s right foot. “What’s this goop coming out of your cleat?”

  “It’s glue!” said Ricky.

  “Why is your cleat glued on?” asked the coach. “Did Dr. Whatever-stein do that, too?”

  “Of course not!” said Ricky. “I did! Let me explain.…”

  It all started this morning.

  I went out to my backyard looking for something, but when I got out there, I couldn’t remember what I needed to find. I started goofing around and digging under a bush, looking for some worms or something, and I found a little green snake!

  It was really friendly and didn’t mind me holding it. First I let it slip through my fingers, then I let it crawl on my arms.

  I got down on my back and let it wiggle all over my stomach. It went in the neck of my shirt and came out the sleeve. It even crawled through my hair. It was really cool.

  I wanted to find a place for it to live. I looked around in my garage. I found a few cardboard boxes, but they all had holes that he could escape out of. Then I found something excellent.

  It was an old glass aquarium that we used to keep fish in. It was perfect for a snake. It was empty except for a statue of a scuba diver guy in a shark cage.

  I filled the aquarium with some dirt, leaves, grass, and rocks, and I put the shark cage guy back in. The little snake crawled right up on top of the cage and hung out there. It looked like he had caught the guy and put him in a jail. He seemed kind of evil, but I knew he was nice.

  I decided to name the snake Dr. Fangenstein, even though he didn’t have fangs. I had a really cool idea to make a super-villain’s lair for him. That’s when I remembered that I had come outside looking for something. But I still couldn’t remember what. I searched around the garage. Whatever it was, it wasn’t there.

  I found a box of old, broken toys from when I was a little kid. First, I put a toy car in the villain’s lair so Dr. Fangenstein would have a getaway car if the good guys ever found him. Next, I jammed an old squirt gun into the dirt so it was pointing at the sky like some sort of death ray. Every super-villain needs a death ray.

  I tried to make him a little computer with some other junk. I put two bottle caps on a little block of wood. It didn’t look at all like a computer. But it did look like a totally cool turntable! I picked up Dr. Fangenstein and draped him over the turntable. His tail swooshed across one of the bottle caps, and it looked like he was at an excellent party, scratchin’ records.

  I looked in the garage again to see
if there was anything else I could use in the lair. I moved a skateboard and found my soccer cleats. That’s what I had been looking for.

  I totally forgot! It was Saturday morning, and I have soccer games on Saturday mornings.

  I grabbed the cleats and ran up to my room as fast as possible. I found my soccer uniform. It was still in a ball at the foot of my bed from last week. Just where it was supposed to be. I put on the shirt, shorts, and socks.

  I found the shin guards and shoved them in my socks. I put my first cleat on and laced it up. I grabbed the second one, but the lace was gone.

  Duh! During the week I had made a survival kit for my bike. I had put a bottle of water, a piece of fried chicken, a cleanish pair of underwear, a harmonica, a hockey puck, three rubber bands, a button, and a plastic army man with no head into a bag. I had used the lace from my cleat to tie the bag closed and hang it on my bike. That way if I ever got lost, I’d have all that stuff to survive.

  I thought about getting the lace from the survival kit, but I knew it would be knotted up too tight. I frantically searched my room for something to use as a lace. I yanked a string from a yo-yo and tried that. It snapped in half when I tried to tie it.