Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater Page A

Reynold said something about how Roger Mudd would really be terrific if he grew a moustache, and we all sat down to supper.
    The supper was the same as the snack we’d had on the crater rim. The little cakes are all they ever eat in Diamond Hard, not that I minded. It isn’t the sort of food you’re apt to get tired of, since it tastes like everything there is all at once, and one thing after another simultaneously. As I said, it’s an interesting food. The lizards call the little cakes Thunderburgers. Of course, they’re not in the least like hamburgers—it’s just another English word they like.
    It was like eating with any family. The three Raymonds talked about what had happened in school. Helena told Reynold what had happened while he was working, and Reynold told about our walk from the beach to Thunderbolt City. It turned out that all the Reynolds who had met us had started out the day before and slept in the forest so they would be sure not to miss us. I wanted to know how they knew we were coming. Reynold said they had seen it on TV. It seems that Reynold had some kind of job which included meeting visitors to Diamond Hard. Charlie wanted to know if they had many visitors. Reynold said almost none. Of course Claudia got most of the attention of the family. They all wanted to feed her, and whenever she took some food, they all laughed and carried on. Charlie whispered to me that he was afraid Claudia was going to get spoiled from all that attention.
    After supper, Reynold said he would take us to the place where we were supposed to stay. We followed him out into the street. All the houses in Thunderbolt City glow in the dark. They don’t exactly shine like light bulbs, they just glow slightly—enough to see where you’re going. Reynold took us to the middle of town, up the hill and into one of the big buildings. We didn’t see many lizards on the way.
    Inside the big building, we went up a very long flight of stairs and then down a long hall. Reynold showed Charlie and me two little rooms with nothing in them but a sort of low bed; those were for Charlie and me to sleep in. Claudia was supposed to sleep in this real big room, with all kinds of beautiful oil paintings of Walter Cronkite and Thunderbolt City and beautiful rugs and statues of chickens. Charlie said that Claudia wasn’t used to sleeping in a room of her own—usually she just slept in Charlie’s hat turned upside down.
    Charlie explained to Reynold that Claudia was used to sort of depending on him, Charlie, and she might not be too comfortable spending the first night in a strange place all alone. Reynold said he understood, and it was fine with him if Charlie wanted to stay in the big room with Claudia. Then he asked us if there was anything else we needed—there wasn’t. Reynold said good night and left.
    Charlie and I had a long talk. I wanted to know a whole lot of things about the island and the lizards. I hadn’t asked too many questions of Reynold and the other lizards because I didn’t want to bother anybody—they were all being so nice to us. Also, it was becoming very clear that I wasn’t very important to them, even Charlie wasn’t. The one they were really interested in was Claudia. She was like visiting royalty or something. It obviously had to do with all the chicken pictures and statues all over the place. I asked Charlie if the chicken was like a god on Diamond Hard. He said he didn’t know—Claudia hadn’t told him all that much about the place. That was something else I’d been meaning to ask him about—I had never heard Claudia say a word. I also wanted to know if Charlie had really been watching television with Reynold, or if he was just faking it like I was. I didn’t get answers to any of this, because he started shushing me. He said that Claudia was getting sleepy, and we’d have to continue our talk in the morning. He pushed me out of the big room and closed the door very softly. There really wasn’t any