The Big Bad Blackout Read online

  “Are you kidding?” said Stink. “Lights and stuff are like the greatest invention ever. Thank you, Thomas Edison.” Blink-blink. Blink-blink-blink.

  Grandma Lou slept through all the excitement. When she came downstairs in the morning, it had stopped raining and the sky was clearing. “Know what I love most about the storm being over?” she said.

  “The Mad Muskrats physics-based castle demolition game?” said Stink.

  “A warm bubble bath?” said Mom.

  “No more beans in a can?” said Dad.

  “It’s after the storm clears.” Grandma Lou nodded at the window. A watery sun shone through the clouds. “Just look up at the sky. I bet you’ll see a — ”

  “Rainbow!” Stink called.

  “Double rainbow!” Judy called.

  Judy, Stink, and Grandma Lou rushed outside. They blinked in the cloudy-bright light. Tree branches and snapped twigs littered the lawn. The roof of the shed had peeled back like a cereal-box top. The mailbox had turned into a twisty straw.

  Judy tilted her head to the sky. “A double rainbow is way lucky. Luckier than a lucky penny.”

  “Make a wish,” said Grandma Lou.

  “I wish we could go out in the kayak,” said Judy.

  “Yeah, I wish we could go for a ride in Gert before Dad makes us clean up the yard,” said Stink.

  “Follow me,” said Grandma Lou.

  Before you could say It was a dark and stormy night, Grandma Lou, Judy, and Stink had slipped into life vests and were paddling around a “lake” in the backyard. Ducks floated in puddles and frogs kicked up a chorus.

  “I can’t believe we’re in a boat — on a lake in the middle of the backyard!” said Stink. “Pretend we’re surfing the rapids on a river in the Grand Canyon.”

  “How’s it feel?” asked Grandma Lou.

  “Like I’m a tub toy.”

  “It’s like we’re floating on a river of chocolate milk,” said Judy.

  “The creek swelled up so high, it flooded the backyard,” said Grandma Lou.

  Stink pointed to a shoe floating past. “Hey! Isn’t that my sneaker?”

  “And there’s my soccer ball,” said Judy. “The pink-and-black one that’s been up on the roof since last summer!”

  “We’re lucky,” said Grandma Lou. “People lose cars, houses, pets in these storms. One year the wind was so bad, my neighbor’s playhouse ended up in a tree.”

  “A tree house!” said Stink.

  “I know the storm’s over — and we should be happy that it wasn’t a lot worse — but I feel sadder than ABC gum on the bottom of the pool,” Judy said.

  “I feel bluer than a mutant frog,” said Stink.

  “Sorry to hear that,” said Grandma Lou. “Want to talk about it?”

  “It’s over,” said Stink. “No more storm.”

  “No more blackout,” said Judy.

  “It was fun without electricity. But now there will never be another Hurricane Elmer,” said Stink.

  “Back to school,” said Judy.

  “And homework,” said Stink.

  “And now you and Pugsy’ll be going home, too, Grandma Lou,” said Judy.

  “Everybody will go back to watching TV and playing games on the computer like we did before,” said Stink. “No more stories. No more s’mores.”

  “Tell you what,” said Grandma Lou. “You can come visit me anytime, and we’ll have a Great Big Blackout of our own. We’ll turn out all the lights and cook over a fire and tell stories and eat beans straight out of the can.”

  “It’ll be just like Earth Hour!” said Judy.

  “What’s Earth Hour?” Stink asked.

  “It’s when millions of hundreds of people all over the world turn out the lights on purpose at the same time for one hour,” said Judy.

  “To show that we can work together to save energy,” said Grandma Lou.

  “They even turn out the lights on Big Ben and the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower and — ”

  “Okay, Judy. I get it!” said Stink.

  “Dare to save the planet, Stink,” said Judy.

  “I will if you will,” said Stink. He turned to Grandma Lou. “But we don’t have to wait for Earth Hour, do we?”

  “We can have our own Earth Hour, too,” said Grandma Lou.

  “Or Earth Two Hours,” said Judy.

  “With stories and s’mores?” Stink asked.

  “And Musical Board Games and everything?” said Judy.

  “But no ghosts,” said Stink.

  “No ghosts,” agreed Grandma Lou.

  “Not even Ghost Toasties?” Judy asked.

  “Well, maybe Ghost Toasties,” said Grandma Lou.

  “Do you swear?” asked Stink. “On Gert?”

  Judy and Stink put their heads together and whispered.

  “Grandma Lou,” said Judy, “Stink and I would like you to take the Ghost-Toastie Oath.”

  “The Ghost-Toastie Oath, huh?”

  “Raise your right hand,” said Judy.

  Grandma Lou put down her paddle and raised her right hand.

  “Repeat after us,” said Stink.

  “I, Grandma Louise Moody,” said Judy.

  “I, Grandma Louise Moody,” said Grandma Lou.

  “Do solemnly swear,” said Judy.

  “Do solemnly swear,” said Grandma Lou.

  “That we will have a fake great big blackout . . .”

  “That we will have a fake great big blackout . . .”

  “The next time Judy and Stink visit.”

  “The next time Judy and Stink visit.”

  “And it will be just as fun as Elmer.”

  “And it will be just as fun as Elmer,” said Grandma Lou.

  “When we get back to the house, we’ll write it down on paper and you can sign it in blood,” said Stink.

  “Will ketchup do?” asked Grandma Lou.

  “Stink, she can just spit to make it official.”

  “Tell you what,” said Grandma Lou. “How about a pinky handshake?”

  “A three-way pinky promise?” asked Judy.

  “A triple-pinky swear!” said Stink.

  “It’ll be our very own secret handshake,” said Grandma Lou.

  Each of them stuck out a little finger. The three locked pinkies. “Triple dare pinky swear!” they said all together.

  Grandma Lou’s eyes danced. “That should seal the deal.” She gave them one last sideways squeeze before turning the kayak around. “Pugsy and I look forward to it.”

  “So, Grandma Lou,” said Stink, “got any plans for next weekend?”

  1. Read a book by candlelight, flashlight, or headlamp.

  2. Break out a board game or a deck of cards.

  3. Tell not-so-scary scary stories. And knock-knock jokes.

  4. Get a piece of string or yarn. Tie it into a loop and play cat’s cradle.

  5. Shine a flashlight onto a wall and make shadow puppets with your hands. Quack, boo, hippety-hop!

  6. I’m thinking of a game to play in the dark. Twenty questions . . .

  7. Play the Quiet Game. See who can last the longest without a peep, squeak, or giggle.

  8. Get your Picasso on. Draw a picture in the dark (no peeking!) and see if family and friends can guess what your masterpiece is.

  9. Name the yellow bone fame. Oops — that’s play the telephone game!

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2014 by Megan McDonald

  Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Peter H. Reynolds

  Judy Moody font copyright © 2003 by Peter H. Reynolds

  Judy Moody®. Judy Moody is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.

  Stink®. Stink is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system
in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2014

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013943995

  ISBN 978-0-7636-6520-3 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7032-0 (electronic)

  The illustrations were created digitally.

  Candlewick Press

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  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  visit us at www.candlewick.com