At midnight, I was awakened by Jerry. He interrupted an excellent dream in which I was floating on a boat down the Nile River.
“Detective,” Jerry said. “Something bad is going to happen.”
I untucked my toes from the cozy blanket and leaned over the stall gate. Jerry’s head appeared from the opposite side of the partition.
“It’s raining,” Jerry cried out. The whites of his eyes were huge.

It was true. Outside the barn doors, which had been left open because the day had been warm, it was raining torrents.
“Rain brings out the alien creatures,” Jerry said. The hairs on his head were standing on edge.
I gave him a long look. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“They come out in the rain. Sometimes dozens of them,” he replied.
I scanned the scene outside the barn doors. “I don’t see anything,” I told him.
Jerry began to spin around in his stall. He swished his tail and stamped his front hoofs. “That’s because they hide. But they’re out there.”
Slowly, I pushed open my stall door. “I’ll go outside and take a better look,” I suggested.
Jerry looked horrified. “Be careful, Detective. They’ll pop up when you least expect it.”
I walked towards the doors and pretended to scan the horizon. “No monsters here,” I called back over my shoulder.
“Look harder. Their skin is made of horrifying colors,” Jerry warned.
I stopped and spun around. Raindrops were falling on my head. Each uncomfortable splatter seemed to bring me closer to unraveling the mystery. Everyone had been so afraid when Jerry stopped acting that they hadn’t realized that he was simply too scared to act.
Comments