
Welcome to the Rainforest
“Wow, Aunt Linda, you weren’t kidding! You really do live in
the middle of nowhere!” Pepper opened the passenger door of
the large SUV, maneuvered her bulging backpack onto the
ground, and stepped shaky-legged — it had been a pretty
bumpy ride — into a green wilderness.
Right away she heard a buzzing in her ear. Then she felt her
first mosquito bite. Welcome to the jungle!
Of course, Pepper’s Aunt Linda didn’t get bitten, because
even the bugs respected her. Aunt Linda was a
research scientist and an expert on primates. She
took Pepper’s backpack and loaded it into a
basket that was dangling from the end of a rope.
Pepper stared in astonishment. She looked up to see
where the rope went and saw a house at the top of a
huge tree.
“At night it’s better to be up there!” grinned Aunt Linda.
“I hope you’re not scared of heights!”
To be clear, Pepper wasn’t scared of anything! Sure,
sometimes she got queasy on long car rides, and
creatures with more than six legs made her hair stand on
end. But a treehouse in the jungle? Pepper jumped up and
down with delight at this new adventure. Or, to be more
precise, not just with delight … Where would the bathroom
in the treehouse be?
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