Conan let out an angry growl. As he lumbered forward to pound Evan’s face into mashed potatoes, Evan turned to Kermit. “Thanks a lot,” he told his cousin. “Thanks for all your help.”
“Which way do you want your nose to slant?” Conan asked Evan. “To the right or to the left?”
“Don’t do it!” Kermit shrieked in his scratchy mouse voice.
Conan raised a huge fist. With his other hand, he grabbed the front of Evan’s T-shirt. He glared down at Kermit. “Why not?” he growled.
“Because I have this!” Kermit declared.
“Huh?” Conan let go of Evan’s shirt. He stared at the glass beaker Kermit had raised in both hands. The beaker was half-full with a dark blue liquid.
Conan let out a sigh and swept a beefy hand back through his wavy blond hair. His blue eyes narrowed at Kermit. “What’s that? Your baby formula?”
“Ha-ha,” Kermit replied sarcastically.
If Kermit doesn’t shut up, we’re both going to get pounded! Evan realized. What is the little creep trying to do?
He tugged at Kermit’s sleeve, trying to pull him away from Conan. But Kermit ignored him. He raised the beaker close to Conan’s face.
“It’s an Invisibility Mixture,” Kermit said. “If I pour it on you, you’ll disappear.”
We should both disappear! Evan thought frantically. He let his eyes dart around the backyard. Maybe I can make it through that hedge before Conan grabs me, he thought. If I can get around the next house and down to the street, I might escape.
But would it be right to leave little Kermit at Conan’s mercy?
Evan sighed. He couldn’t abandon his cousin like that. Even though Kermit was definitely asking for it.
“You’re going to make me invisible with that stuff?” Conan asked Kermit with a sneer.
Kermit nodded. “If I pour a few drops on you, you’ll disappear. Really. I mixed it myself. It works. It’s a mixture of Teflon dioxinate and magnesium parasulfidine.”
“Yeah. Right,” Conan muttered. He peered at the liquid in the beaker. “What makes it blue?”
“Food coloring,” Kermit replied. Then he lowered his squeaky voice, trying to sound tough. “You’d better go home now, Conan. I don’t want to have to use this stuff.”
Oh, wow! Evan thought, pulling the bill of his Braves cap down over his face. I can’t bear to watch this. This is sad. Really sad. Kermit is such a jerk.
“Go ahead. Try it,” Evan heard Conan say.
Evan raised the cap so he could see. “Uh … Kermit … maybe we should go in the house now,” he whispered.
“Go ahead. Make me invisible,” Conan challenged.
“You really want me to?” Kermit demanded.
“Yeah,” Conan replied. “I want to be invisible. Go ahead, Kermit. Pour it on me. Make me disappear. I dare you.”
Kermit raised the beaker over the gray muscle shirt that covered Conan’s broad chest.
“Kermit—no!” Evan pleaded. “Don’t! Please don’t!”
Evan made a frantic grab for the beaker.
Too late.
Kermit turned the beaker over and let the thick blue liquid pour onto the front of Conan’s shirt.
Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw a monarch butterfly fluttering over the low hedges. I wish I were a butterfly, he thought. I wish I could flap my wings and float away.
As far away from here as I can get!
The blue liquid oozed down the front of Conan’s muscle shirt. All three boys stared at it in silence.
“Well? I’m not disappearing,” Conan murmured, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Kermit.
Then his shirt started to shrink.
“Hey—!” Conan cried angrily. He struggled to pull off the shrinking shirt. It got tinier and tinier. “It—it’s choking me!” Conan shrieked.
“Wow!” Kermit squeaked, his black eyes glowing excitedly behind his glasses. “This is cool!”
Evan gazed in amazement as the muscle shirt shrank down to a tiny shred of cloth. And then it vanished completely.
Now Conan stood in front of them bare-chested.
