Unicorns and Germs Read online

  “But why is Tiny still limping?” I blurted out.

  Mom had her head down and neck covered too. “I don’t know, sweetie. You’ll just have to wait for the doorbell and find out.”

  The shaking stopped, and the doorbell rang.

  Dad ran into the kitchen. “Are you both OK? What is going on with all of these earthquakes? This is getting out of hand!”

  As Mom and I crawled out from under the kitchen table, she squeezed my arm and whispered, “You go. I’ll talk to Dad.”

  Dad kissed my head and hugged Mom. On my way to the door, I heard Mom tell him that she was having her colleagues look into it. Dad probably thought she meant the professors at the college where she worked, but she really meant me!

  I grabbed a raincoat and tugged on my rain boots. Between the rain and the ginormous unicorn, there was no way Sassafras was coming with me.

  I ran out to the barn, avoiding the puddles. Once Tiny was better I had plans to do some serious puddle jumping, but right now I needed to work.

  Tiny spotted me and took a final hop closer. His good front hoof landed right in an enormous puddle. It created a giant splash of muddy rainwater, which of course completely soaked me.

  “OOPS.”

  I wiped my face and smiled. It’s not every day that you get drenched by a giant unicorn. But my smile quickly faded when I saw Tiny still holding the bad leg in the air.

  “Hi, Tiny! How is your leg feeling?” I held my breath, hoping to hear it was hurting less.

  “LEG BAD. OW VERY BAD.”

  I let out my breath, and my shoulders drooped. “Can I look?”

  Tiny carefully lowered his bad leg, and I began peeling the tape off. Once I had unpeeled the tape and the plastic wrap, I gasped. Tiny’s cut looked puffy and red—even worse than it had yesterday.

  If it was puffy and red, it meant Tiny’s cut was infected. Tiny’s leg was only going to get worse and worse. The antibacterial cream had always worked for me. I didn’t know what to try next. I took a deep breath and hollered at the top of my lungs.

  “MOOOOOOOOOM!!!!”

  CHAPTER 5

  NOW WHAT?

  Mom patted Tiny’s hurt leg and shook her head. “You’re right, Zoey. The cut is definitely infected. And the antibacterial cream isn’t working. What do you think we should do?”

  “I don’t know.” Every time I looked at the horrible cut on Tiny’s leg, I felt like crying. It must hurt so much! I wished there was something I could do to fix it. “Wait! Can I go get my Thinking Goggles?”

  Mom nodded and I dashed off.

  I found them, put them on, adjusted them so they were just right, and headed back to Mom and Tiny. About fifteen seconds after putting on the Thinking Goggles, I figured it out. “An experiment!” I shouted.

  Mom smiled.

  “I need to get rid of the infection. The antibacterial cream didn’t stop the bacteria. I’ve got to find something that will.”

  “Good thinking,” Mom said, and gestured for me to continue.

  “But if I try something else on Tiny’s cut, I’ll have to wait a day or two to see if it’s working. That would take too long.” I paced around. “I need to find a way to grow a bunch of the bacteria on my own so I can test different things at the same time. And I also need to figure out a bunch of things that might stop bacteria.” I stopped pacing and turned to Mom. “Ummm … how do you grow bacteria? And, uhhh, are there other kinds of creams that get rid of it?”

  “How about I help you grow the bacteria, and you research other things that will stop it?” Mom suggested.

  I nodded. That seemed like it could work.

  I called up to Tiny, “I need to set up an experiment to figure out how to help your cut. Could you maybe lie down out here? I don’t want to make you stand for that long. It’ll take a while.”

  I grabbed my Thinking Goggles just before Tiny started nodding, and I managed to keep them on this time.

  Mom fixed her hair and then gestured for me to follow her into the barn. “I need your help carrying a few things into the house, and then we’ll start cooking.”

  “Cooking?”

  Mom grinned. “You’ll see. For now, can you carry this and this?”

  She handed me a tall bag of stacked clear and very flat … jars? The bag was labeled Petri Dishes. Then she handed me a bag of powder labeled Agar Powder. Finally she tucked one of her old science journals under her arm.

  “Back to the house to get the rest!” she said and waved for me to follow her.

  When we got into the house, I set the petri dishes and agar powder on the kitchen counter, and Mom put out the container of sugar, a big carton of beef broth, and a container of salt.

  Sassafras, who’d missed most of the action by staying inside, paced at our feet and meowed loudly.

  I grabbed a chair for him.

  Mom flipped open her science journal and slid it toward me. I read the recipe out loud:

  “This kind of seems like making yogurt.” I skimmed the list of ingredients again. “But way grosser! It’s like we’re cooking up some sugary-salty-beefy soup.”

  Mom laughed. “When you make an agar mixture, you’re trying to create a place where almost all bacteria will grow. Different kinds of bacteria eat different sorts of things, so this recipe has a little of everything.”

  She typed something on her laptop, then turned it toward me. The screen was filled with a bunch of photos of those flat jar things—the petri dishes.

  “When we made the yogurt, you couldn’t see the bacteria, right?” Mom asked.

  I shook my head. “Right, it just looked like milk.”

  “Exactly. It was all mixed up, so it was impossible to see which parts were bacteria. Bacteria are really, really tiny, but when you get enough of them in one place, they make a dot like this.” She pointed to a picture on her computer of a polka-dotted petri dish. “The agar mixture will make a really strong gelatin. If you add bacteria on the surface of the cooled agar mixture, instead of mixing it in, it will grow in that one spot. And after a while, if enough of it grows, you can see the dots and know that it’s there.”

  “Coooool!” I scrolled through more pictures on Mom’s computer. One had bright orange dots. “Look at that one, Sassafras! It’s the same color as you!”

  Mom agreed. “But remember, some kinds of bacteria are very dangerous. After we add the bacteria from Tiny’s cut to these petri dishes, we’ll tape them shut and seal them in a ziplock bag. And no matter how pretty, shiny, smooth, or Sassafras-y the bacteria looks, you should never try to touch it or open a petri dish to get a better look.”

  “I know. I promise—I won’t!”

  Mom and I worked together to make the agar recipe from her journal. We heated everything up on the stove so the agar powder dissolved into the stinky soup-like mixture.

  “This looks great, Zoey! Can you open all the petri dishes for me? Put one side of each dish onto that cookie sheet, but don’t touch the inside. If you do, bacteria from your hands can get in there and grow. We want to keep these clean so we only grow Tiny’s bacteria.”

  I opened all the petri dishes carefully, and Mom slowly poured the hot agar mixture into the halves that were on the cookie sheet. She set a timer for thirty minutes.

  “While we wait for these to get solid, can you two grab the box of gloves and the box of cotton swabs from under the bathroom sink?” Mom asked.

  Sassafras chattered excitedly when we got back to the kitchen. I gave in and threw him a small handful of cotton swabs. He batted and chased them around the room while we waited.

  When the timer went off, Mom moved three of the petri dishes to the kitchen table. “Before we do the real thing, I want you to practice adding the bacteria to the petri dish. It’s a little tricky. Remember how I said the cooled agar is like a thick gelatin?”

  I nodded. Sassafras bonked into my leg while chasing a runaway cotton swab.

  “It’s possible to poke through the surface of it. And if you d
o, it’ll be harder to see the bacteria. The first step is to take a cotton swab and rub it gently on Tiny’s cut. We’ll pretend the table is Tiny’s leg for now.”

  I took a cotton swab and rubbed it really softly on the table.

  “Perfect. Now lightly brush it across the surface of the agar in that first dish.”

  I tried to, but my cotton swab got stuck in the agar. “Argh!”

  “That’s OK,” said Mom. “Try again.”

  By the third dish I was able to rub the cotton swab on the surface without poking through the agar.

  Sassafras proudly dropped a soggy cotton swab he’d “caught” at my feet. I giggled.

  Mom leaned over my shoulder. “Nice work, Zoey! Now it’s time to do the real thing.”

  CHAPTER 6

  UNICORN MAGIC

  Sassafras decided to be brave and come with Mom and me out back. After all, it was no longer raining, and Tiny was lying down so he seemed a little smaller.

  We carefully dodged puddles as we went, but Sassafras slammed to a stop before we got to Tiny. Even lying down, a baby unicorn is pretty enormous.

  Poor Tiny looked just awful. I tried not to think about how horrible I’d felt when my ear was infected with bad bacteria. I took a deep breath. This experiment would fix him up.

  “Hi, Tiny! We’re going to figure out how to heal your infection, but first I need to grow some of the bacteria so I can run experiments. I need to touch your cut, but I’ll be very gentle. Is that OK?”

  I realized my mistake too late. A yes or no question. Eeek! As Tiny nodded, I held on to my Thinking Goggles, and Mom clutched our supplies tightly, but it was too late for poor Sassafras. The huge gust of wind rolled him right into a giant puddle. Uh-oh.

  For a few seconds, Sassafras sat stunned in the middle of the puddle, soaking wet. Then he hissed, puffed, and jumped all at the same time. He hopped around like crazy trying to shake himself dry.

  “Oh, Sassafras!” I put my hands to my cheeks. “I’m so sorry, buddy!”

  Tiny watched Sassafras and asked, “CAT HAVE OW?”

  “No, he’s not hurt. He just really hates being wet! Don’t worry. He’ll calm down once he’s dry again.”

  Tiny stretched his neck out toward Sassafras. My poor freaked-out cat was so worried about getting the water off that he didn’t see the unicorn horn coming at him.

  When Tiny’s horn touched Sassafras, a quick burst of rainbow light appeared. When the rainbow light disappeared, it revealed a shocked Sassafras who was completely dry and clean.

  “Whoa.”

  Sassafras picked up and examined each paw. Then he walked around in a circle. “Mrrowww?” he asked.

  “TINY FIX OW,” Tiny explained.

  Sassafras blinked for a moment and then slowly walked over to Tiny. I could tell he was still a little scared, but he gently bopped his head against Tiny’s enormous leg and snuggled down next to him and purred.

  Then it hit me. “Tiny! You can use your unicorn magic to fix your cut!”

  Tiny shook his head, and thankfully it was gentle enough that it didn’t blow us away. “HORN NO WORK FOR UNICORNS. HORN FOR OTHERS.”

  Mom nodded. “I don’t think you’ve seen my journal entries on unicorns yet, Zoey. I’ve met a few over the years because they are only able to help other creatures. Their magic doesn’t work on other unicorns or themselves. But don’t worry, we’ll figure out how to help Tiny.”

  I stood up straighter. “Yes, we will!”

  I grabbed a cotton swab from our supplies and carefully rubbed it near the bottom of the cut and tried hard not to think about how much worse it looked. Then I rubbed the same cotton swab gently on the surface of a petri dish. Mom put the lid on, taped the edges of the dish, and sealed the whole thing in a ziplock bag. I took four different samples from the cut, just to be safe.

  I patted Tiny’s good leg. “Now we have to wait for the bacteria to grow. Oh! And I need to get started on my research. I’ve got to make a list of things that I think will get rid of this bacteria!”

  Tiny nodded his head so weakly that it only made a gentle breeze.

  My heart sank a little. Mom and I hugged Tiny. I ruffled Sassafras’s fur and left him behind because he wouldn’t budge from Tiny’s side.

  CHAPTER 7

  WHAT WILL WORK?

  We had to let this bacteria grow in a warm place, just like the yogurt. So we used the same cooler as our incubator. Mom just refilled the glass jars with new hot water. I snuggled the four ziplock bags with the petri dishes down between the jars and made sure they were nice and toasty warm. Mom threw all of our used supplies into the garbage, and we both washed our hands really well.

  “It will take a while for the bacteria to grow, right?”

  “Well, normally, yes, it usually takes one or two days to be able to see bacteria on a petri dish. But magical things always seem to grow more quickly than normal things. I think we’ll have an answer in a few hours.”

  “Oh, that’s awesome! While we wait, I need to figure out what I’m going to use against the bacteria in the second experiment.” I tapped my Thinking Goggles. Nothing. I started walking around the kitchen. When I got near the kitchen counter, I tapped my hand along it. I reached the kitchen sink and spotted the soap. “OH! Soap!” I exclaimed.

  “Good,” Mom replied.

  “OK, one idea down, a few more to go.” I shifted my Thinking Goggles again. For some reason I felt like walking backward. So I did. I ended up at the edge of the kitchen counter right by a container of disinfecting wipes my mom used to clean the counters. “WIPES!” I shouted triumphantly.

  “Another great idea. What else?”

  I took one more lap around the kitchen. I started rubbing my hands together. Wait a minute. “Hey, doesn’t Sophie’s mom use some kind of hand sanitizer made from plants to get rid of the bacteria on our hands before we eat? Oooh! Are there plants that might stop the bacteria?”

  “Yes, there are! Excellent work! The soap and wipes are pretty straightforward. But you’ll probably want to do some reading to figure out which plants to use. I have just the book for you.” Mom went to her office and came back with a big plant book.

  “Before we had antibiotics, like you took for your ear infection, or antibacterial cream, like we use on your cuts and scrapes, people used plants to treat infected cuts. You can read about lots of them in here. Let me know what you decide to try.”

  After I’d read for a while, I grabbed my science journal. There were so many plants to choose from! I decided to pick only the plants I knew I could find at our house. Once I had a list of four plant options, I leapt to my feet.

  “I have a plan!” I announced. No one was in the kitchen to hear me, but I was still excited. I flipped to a new page in my science journal.

  But I couldn’t concentrate. I gathered up everything and headed outside. I needed to talk it through with Sassafras.

  Tiny was awake this time, but he sure seemed like he felt terrible. His eyes were a little puffy and he barely held his head off the ground. Sassafras was curled up by Tiny’s chin, but he looked up when I walked over.

  “I have a plan,” I reassured them. After snuggling them both, I settled down cross-legged on the ground by Tiny’s head. I opened my science journal and picked up where I left off.

  “OK, let’s see here—what’s my hypothesis? I mean, I guess soap or the disinfecting wipes could get rid of the bacteria. But Tiny’s from the forest, so using a plant sort of makes sense to me. Of all the plants on my list, onions seem the most powerful—they always make my nose wrinkle and my eyes water, so I think they’ll be the best at stopping this bacteria.”

  “Materiaallls,” I sang.

  Mom came out to the backyard. “How’s it going?”

  I proudly handed her my science journal and hopped up. “I’m going to check on the petri dishes!” I dashed into the house and peeked in the cooler.

  “Nothing yet,” I announced when I came back out.

  �
��Your plan looks good.” Mom handed me my science journal. “Why don’t you hang out here with Tiny and Sassafras? I’ll call you when it’s time to check the bacteria again.”

  “Thanks, Mom!” I said and snuggled up next to two of my favorite animals.

  CHAPTER 8

  STUMPED

  Tiny was not doing well. I brushed his tail with one of our rakes, and that seemed to make him feel a little better. But what Tiny really needed was a fixed leg. It felt like I had been waiting in the yard for hours when my mom finally called me in.

  I ran to the cooler and opened the lid, excited to move on to the second part of my experiment.

  “But … ?” I looked up at my mom. “The bacteria should’ve grown by now, right?”

  Mom glanced at the clock. “I really thought it would have.”

  “So, what does this mean?”

  She sat down at the kitchen table. “Well, maybe the bacteria just needs more time to grow. Or maybe the agar mixture is missing something this bacteria requires. I’m not sure which.”

  I sat down next to Mom and flumped my head on my arms. “We really need to figure this out! I don’t want to waste any more time.”

  Mom rubbed my back. “I know what you mean.”

  “Can we make a new agar mixture while we give this one more time to grow?”

  Mom nodded. “Let’s try it. But what do you want to add this time?”

  I got up and paced and tapped my goggles. “Come on, Thinking Goggles! Give me some ideas,” I muttered under my breath.

  But instead of new ingredients, all I could think about was yogurt. Was this really the best time for a snack?

  “ARGH!” I pouted. “The only thought I’m having is about yogurt. I don’t want to eat! I want to solve this … OH!”