The beam of the flashlight was directed away from Stanley’s eyes and onto Zero, who was sitting on his knees. The suitcase was on his lap.
Mr. Pendanski was holding the flashlight. Mr. Sir stood next to him with his gun drawn and pointed in the same direction. Mr. Sir was barefoot and bare-chested, wearing only his pajama bottoms.
The Warden moved toward Zero. She was also in her bed clothes, wearing an extra-long T-shirt. Unlike Mr. Sir, however, she had on her boots.
Mr. Pendanski was the only one fully dressed. Perhaps he had been on guard duty.
Off in the distance, Stanley could see two more flashlights bobbing toward them in the darkness. He felt helpless in the hole.
“You boys arrived just in the nick—” the Warden started to say. She stopped talking and she stopped walking. Then she slowly backed away.
A lizard had crawled up on top of the suitcase. Its big red eyes glowed in the beam of the flashlight. Its mouth was open, and Stanley could see its white tongue moving in and out between its black teeth.
Zero sat as still as a statue.
A second lizard crawled up over the side of the suitcase and stopped less than an inch away from Zero’s little finger.
Stanley was afraid to look, and afraid not to. He wondered if he should try to scramble out of the hole before the lizards turned on him, but he didn’t want to cause any commotion.
The second lizard crawled across Zero’s fingers and halfway up his arm.
It occurred to Stanley that the lizards were probably on the suitcase when he handed it to Zero.
“There’s another one!” gasped Mr. Pendanski. He shined the flashlight on the box of Frosted Flakes, which lay on its side beside Stanley’s hole. A lizard was crawling out of it.
The light also illuminated Stanley’s hole. He glanced downward and had to force himself to suppress a scream. He was standing in a lizard nest. He felt the scream explode inside him.
He could see six lizards. There were three on the ground, two on his left leg, and one on his right sneaker.
He tried to remain very still. Something was crawling up the back of his neck.
Three other counselors approached the area. Stanley heard one say, “What’s going—” and then whisper, “Oh my God.”
“What do we do?” asked Mr. Pendanski.
“We wait,” said the Warden. “It won’t be very long.”
“At least we’ll have a body to give that woman,” said Mr.
Pendanski.
“She’s going to ask a lot of questions,” said Mr. Sir. “And this time she’ll have the A.G. with her.”
“Let her ask her questions,” said the Warden. “tust so long as I have the suitcase, I don’t care what happens. Do you know how long…” Her voice trailed off, then started up again. “When I was little I’d watch my parents dig holes, every weekend and holiday. When I got bigger, I had to dig, too. Even on Christmas.”
Stanley felt tiny claws dig into the side of his face as the lizard pulled itself off his neck and up past his chin.
“It won’t be long now,” the Warden said.
Stanley could hear his heart beat. Each beat told him he was still alive, at least for one more second.
