The Terrible Mr. Tooey

By Elaine Marie Graves

"When four friends hear that the crazy old inventor in their neighborhood has left town, they decide to sneak into his house to see for themselves if all the stories about him are true. Rumors about fingers, eyeballs, brains, and dead mice preserved in glass jars are impossible for them to ignore. Unfortunately for them and without their knowing it, he comes backwhile they are in his house. And thats when the story gets exciting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450055956

Elaine Marie Graves

Ms. Graves grew up in the Midwest in the fifties like the children in this book. She hopes the book gives her readers a sense of when childhood meant playing with friends until dark, reading comic books, riding bikes, and watching Saturday morning cartoons on TV. And an eccentric neighbor could bring a summer full of adventure to kids with plenty of carefree time. Ms. Graves is not an accomplished artist, but thoroughly enjoys drawing the pictures as much as writing the stories. She wants to encourage children to draw for the fun of it, even if it’s not perfect.

Book preview

Contents

CHAPTER 1

DEAD MICE AND EYEBALLS

CHAPTER 2

MEET THE MONSTER

CHAPTER 3

THANKS A LOT, MR. COX

CHAPTER 4

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK

CHAPTER 5

A TEENY TINY TOOEY

CHAPTER 6

RAT’S RESCUE

CHAPTER 7

MR. BONES

CHAPTER 8

THE SECRET TUNNEL

CHAPTER 9

THE TIME MACHINE

CHAPTER 10

THE TERRIBLE MR. TOOEY

To

My little sister, Martha Lou, for generously giving me so much of her time, talents, and patience. She is the real reason this book came to life. She is a ball of energy and a genuine angel.

Scott and Sara for being the first to hear this story, chapter by chapter as it was being written, and asking for more.

Barbara, who offered to turn my handwritten pages into a beautifully typed first draft.

My friend Janice, whose faith in me means more than she’ll ever know.

Billie, the one who gave me that one little nudge to finally contact a publisher. Thank you, thank you!

The approximately 440 second and third graders who listened to this story and let me know I had written a story children really enjoy.

CHAPTER 1

DEAD MICE AND EYEBALLS

Go in that house and look around? Are you crazy? I wouldn’t go in there for a million dollars and you’re nuts if you even think about it!

The four children were standing on the corner looking at the huge, dark, run-down old house. It must have been very pretty when it was new, but now all the paint was worn off. Some of the windows were boarded up and some were broken. The side porch railings were leaning out like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the grass hadn’t been cut in weeks.

No, I mean it, said Blue. Let’s go inside and look around. Mom says old Mr. Tooey moved to Buffalo last month and he hasn’t come back.

Blue’s real name was Randolph, but everyone called him Blue because it was his favorite color. Everything he wore was blue. He wore a blue shirt, blue shorts, and blue socks. He had blue shoes and a blue baseball cap. He even wore blue underwear most of the time.

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"Well, my Aunt Mary says Mr. Tooey died and is buried in the basement. There’s no way I’m going in his house! said his friend, Ronald. Everyone called him Rat because when he was born, he was so tiny and wrinkled that when his sister first saw him, she said, Oooh, what’s wrong with it? It looks like a rat!" and the name stuck because he was still so small.

Sally was the only girl in the group. She was the only girl in the whole neighborhood. Everybody at school called her a tomboy, but she didn’t care. When her girl cousins came to play, she liked playing with dolls or coloring and skating, but they didn’t come very often, so most of the time she played with the boys. She had fun with them and could run faster than any of them. She was also the strongest at arm wrestling. The boys liked her because she was funny and never got mad.

Sally asked Blue, Where’d you ever get the crazy idea of going into Mr. Tooey’s house, Blue?

Well, Blue answered, as he looked around to be sure no one else could hear him. Then, in a whisper said, Steve Richards used to deliver groceries to Mr. Tooey. Steve says a few days ago he had to go upstairs into Mr. Tooey’s workroom to help him with something, and he saw all kinds of creepy stuff. He left as fast as he could and says he’ll never go back there, no matter what.

What kind of creepy stuff did he see? asked Sally.

Like mice in jars—dead mice in jars of alcohol so they won’t rot and smell. And some eyeballs were in another jar. He also saw some fingers and even a brain!

Oh, gross! That’s disgusting! yelled the other three kids.

The fourth kid was named Hank and Hank loved stuff like this. Right away he knew he had to see these things for himself.

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Okay, he said. I’ll go with you and Blue.

Rat couldn’t believe they meant it. "Look, you guys! Everyone knows old Mr. Tooey is crazy. My dad calls him ‘Screwy Tooey.’ One time he set the house on fire with one of his experiments and the fire department had to come put out the fire. Another time he blew out one corner of the house when something exploded! I’ve seen his lights on at night and I can see his shadow hurrying back and forth behind the shades. Sometimes there are bright flashes of light and puffs of yellow smoke that come out the windows.

"Sometimes I hear sounds that scare the pants off me! Screeches and growls and hisses and moans like something awful is going on in there. We all heard them last summer when we walked home late one night from a movie. Don’t you remember? I can’t believe you’re standing on this corner even thinking about going in there."

Hank said, Come on, Rat! Old Mr. Tooey’s gone and won’t ever be back. If that stuff is in there, I want to see it! This house is so old it’ll probably fall down soon or someone will tear it down and then we’ll never get to see it. Blue and I are going and if you and Sally don’t come with us, you’ll be sorry you missed it.

No, you’ll be the sorry ones, said Sally. "I wouldn’t be surprised if the place were haunted. It’s so scary looking. You guys don’t mean it. You’ll never really go in there! I don’t think you’re that brave or that crazy."

The four kids walked across the street and on to Hank’s house. They sat on the steps and talked about Mr. Tooey’s house until they had to go home for supper.

Blue asked his mom lots of questions about the old house. He asked how she knew Mr. Tooey had moved away. His mom said that a lady she works with saw him buy a ticket to Buffalo at the bus station. He had about six suitcases and lots of boxes with him and he only bought a one-way ticket.

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The next day the kids passed the house coming home from school. Blue and Hank were getting more excited all the time. Blue had seen Steve Richards on his way to school that morning and Blue asked him more about Mr. Tooey’s workroom. Steve told him the room was full of machines, wires, switches, and shelves full of those glass jars.

Blue asked what Mr. Tooey was like, and Steve just shook his head and whistled. Then he said that Mr. Tooey was the weirdest person he’d ever seen. It gave him the shivers just to go close to the house. He started sweating every time he had to take some groceries into the kitchen and left as fast as he could. He saw Mr. Tooey only that one time and never wants to see him again. His skin was so pale it looked like he’d never been outside. He had a short, white, prickly beard, and hair to match. His eyes looked like little black marbles that made him look like a mouse. But his glasses were so thick, his eyes looked sort of googly or hypnotized. His short hair stuck up every which way and his hands were bony and wrinkled. He had a vein on the side of his head that was as fat as a worm. When Mr. Tooey got excited, Steve thought the vein would pop and Mr. Tooey would drop dead right in front of him. Mr. Tooey had a dry scratchy voice, but a silly high laugh that made him sound as crazy as he looked.

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The kids listened to Blue as he told them everything that Steve had said. Rat was starting to get interested now. Rat usually had the most common sense of all the kids, and if he were thinking about going, then Sally thought they must be under Mr. Tooey’s spell. She even told them that Mr. Tooey must have shrunk their brains or they wouldn’t even be talking about it. But in the end, she went with them because she couldn’t stand to have them go and leave her out.

The next Saturday the boys spent the night at Hank’s house. They got up early and said they were going out. Then they went to Sally’s house together and they all went the long way to Mr. Tooey’s. They needed time to make a plan.

Blue had found a window at the back of the house that wasn’t locked. No one would see them go in. They all promised to stick together and not jump out or yell Boo! or try to scare the others in any way. First they’d look around the first floor and then they’d go up to Mr. Tooey’s workroom.

When they got closer to the house, Rat kept saying, I can’t believe we’re doing this, I can’t believe we’re doing this, over and over. They stopped at the corner and just looked at the house a minute. With the bright morning sun shining on it, it really didn’t look so creepy. It was just a big, run-down old house.

Blue was in front and walked down the street and turned in the alley behind the house. When they were right behind it, he stopped and looked up and down the alley. The other kids did, too. When they saw no one was coming, they ducked into a space between two bushes and crawled out into Mr. Tooey’s back yard. They were only about 20 steps from the house now. Except for Blue, they’d never been this close before. It looked huge!

Blue didn’t say anything but pointed to the window to the left of the back door. He started for the house with Hank, Sally, and Rat following him in a line. Blue slowly lifted the window and put a stick in it to hold it open. Then he crawled through