The Mysterious Growing Gum

By Katherine Whitehead

Lively, curious James creates a stinky, scary concoction from spices, juices, and hand lotion. He has no idea how much trouble hes caused.

Some of the mixture spills on his purple chewed gum. The gum grows and James cant stop it. Much adventure follows. He watches his family and neighborhood become frantic.

Newspaper and television reporters disrupt their lives. James friends add to the humorous action in their pursuit of fame. James does not want to be famous. Hes upset because hes not sure what he did.

When the growing gum becomes local news, James is kidnapped. His dog, Chip, and his sister, Ann, become heroes. James worries hes started something dangerous that is unstoppable. He gains a new understanding and appreciation for responsibility and knowledge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490841984

Katherine Whitehead

Katherine Whitehead is a retired public school elementary teacher. She and her husband live near Orlando, Florida. She has a daughter and granddaughter who are nearby. Her son and grandson live in the Northeast. Katherine enjoys writing, reading, singing, playing hand bells, traveling, and bird watching.

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Copyright © 2014 Katherine Whitehead.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover by John and Susan Powers

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-4197-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-4196-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-4198-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014911312

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/12/2014

Contents

Chapter One Cursed Concoction

Chapter Two Strange Gum

Chapter Three Unexpected Growth

Chapter Four Scary Situation

Chapter Five Cursed Plant

Chapter Six Media Madness

Chapter Seven Crazy Happenings

Chapter Eight The Bubble

Chapter Nine Alarming Call

Chapter Ten Kidnapped

Chapter Eleven Escape Attempt

Chapter Twelve Shrinking Event

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CHAPTER ONE

Cursed Concoction

Good-bye, Mom. We’ll be fine, Ann said.

Mrs. Herkimer was always worried about leaving Ann to babysit her younger brother, James. She had good reason to feel as she did. James got into lots of trouble.

Ann closed the door behind her parents and pulled herself to her full height of five foot seven. At fifteen, she could still tower over ten-year-old James. She raised her hands over her head, made her pretty face scowl, and said in her deepest sing-song voice,

All right, pest. You’d better behave or I’ll bite your neck.

Ha, ha! Got you first!

James jabbed her in the stomach, then ran and hid behind the door into the family room. Ann stormed in after him. James grabbed her ankle, and she fell on him. This is going to be a challenging evening! Even though her parents paid her to stay with James, she decided being a teenager wasn’t always fun.

Get off me! James yelled in her ear. Ann struggled to stand up.

"If there’s nothing you want to watch on TV, find something to do, James! Just leave me alone." She meant it, so James went into the kitchen.

You started it. Remember that! James declared loudly.

He rummaged through the refrigerator and found an apple to eat. Although he was always eating, he remained thin. If he’d worn glasses, he would have looked more like a bookworm instead of a lively daredevil. His eyes always had a special sparkle when he thought of something fun to try.

Next, he went through the cupboards to see what else looked tasty. He found some gumdrops and threw them in the air to see if he could catch them in his mouth.

When he looked at the floor, he decided it would require too much exercise to pick them up. He whistled, and a brown, bouncing streak dashed into the kitchen. Chip always came when he was called, just in case it might mean food. Since he was a chocolate Labrador retriever, James and Ann named him Chip, after chocolate chips. Not quite a year old and full of energy, it took his big tongue about ten seconds to eat all the candy off the floor.

Tired of gumdrops, James went to the cupboard where his mom kept the spices and flavorings. All the little bottles and containers fascinated him. Each one had its own smell and taste. They’re like a rainbow of taste, James thought. He stared at the spices and his eyes sparkled. He slid Mom’s step stool to the cupboard and began pulling out spice bottles. He got a large glass jar and shook spices into it.

He looked in the refrigerator and found open jars containing liquids with interesting colors. He poured a small amount of juice from the red cabbage, dill pickles, and ripe olives into his jar. Next he added orange juice and beef gravy. He didn’t think his mom would notice the small amounts missing. He found hand lotion by the sink and poured it in for thickening.

Next James went to the pantry and added vinegar, molasses, ketchup, and mustard. He liked the bottles that made a glug-glug sound and added more from them. The mixture was now a reddish-brown, murky, foul smelling, sticky ooze that would barely pour.

He didn’t use dangerous products like bleach, and things that might be harmful. His mom warned him many times not to touch those bottles or cans. James added some water and stirred it all up in the jar until it foamed. Satisfied, he capped the jar. It looked scary and his eyes sparkled. He started out of the kitchen just as Ann came in to see why he’d been so quiet. That always meant trouble.

Eeeek, James! she screamed as she looked around the kitchen. Nearly every spice Mom had was on the counter with the tops off. Ketchup and molasses and mustard were spread everywhere.

You clean up this mess right now before Mom sees it!

Ann could sound authoritative when she was angry, even though she was quite soft-spoken otherwise.

Yucky! What an awful smell. What were you doing, James? The foaming jar was hidden behind his back.

I made a potion to kill vampires, he replied and thrust the jar under her nose.

Gross! Ann said and shoved it away. I’ll make a potion out of you if you don’t clean up this mess.

Wanna put a curse on my concoction, Ann?

I’m cursed enough with you for a brother.

Oh please, Ann. Let’s curse it and see if something awful happens.

It already has, Ann said as she looked at the kitchen.

I’ll clean up the mess after you curse it, James persisted.

Oh, OK, Ann finally agreed since she didn’t want to get stuck cleaning it up.

Bleaky, blacky, yucky. I curse you foul smelling stuffy. Ommiahehha Oh. Dump your awful concoction down the drain, James.

Mmm-hmmmm, James mumbled, hoping that would satisfy her.

Since he couldn’t think of another stall, James finally started to cap the bottles and put them away. The counters took a lot of scrubbing to get the goop off of them.

Ann didn’t want to miss any more of the movie she was watching. She assumed he’d dumped the awful stuff. James smiled to himself, and his eyes sparkled as he put the jars back in the cupboards.

I’m going to get ready for bed, Ann, James told her as he poked his head into the TV room. Ann was watching her movie, and it had a lot of kissing. James thought of something much better to do than watch that girly movie.

Maybe I’ll take a bath.

Well don’t make a lake in the bathroom like you usually do.

James clutched his