The Adventures of Larry the Lizard

By Bryan Unwin

A little lizard escapes from a Phoenix pet store, gets trapped in the Arizona desert, and tries to get back to the pet store. This is a story of the adventures he encounters along the way to get back home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryan Unwin
• Release date: Feb 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465949295

Bryan Unwin

I was born in Seattle, Washington, many, many years ago. My family first moved up to Anchorage Alaska, when I was a young pup of just 6 years old. Grew up there, high school and stuff, then went to college at The Evergreen State College. Kicked around a bit after graduation, not sure what I wanted to do. Finally found myself working at Boeing in Everett, working on software projects (testing software, developing better software processes, etc). Sadly, I was laid off from Boeing three years ago. Haven't worked since. And finding a lot of free time on my hands, I started writing. I have completed three books (two children's books), and one about Alaska. I am currently writing two books simultaneously which I hope to publish soon. That's about it for now...now you have the "Life of Bryan".

Book preview

The Adventures of Larry the Lizard

By

Bryan R. Unwin

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Our story begins:

Chapter One.—the pet store

The bell above the pet store door clanged loudly enough to make Larry to jump up from his nap.

Geeze, what the heck was that? queried Larry to himself.

For some strange reason, the bell seemed louder today than usual. Running over to the cage wall, standing up on his hind legs, he propped himself up against the wire wall and looked over at the door. Hmmm, just the usual big people walking around.

He could see the store owner Mr. Carrow behind the cash register as usual, and Pete sweeping up the floor up as usual. He liked Pete, because Pete was always talking to him, and snuck him little flies that had the misfortune of flying in the pet store when the front door was left open too long.

Running over to the other side of his cage, Larry saw a little boy with his mother that he hadn’t seen before. A customer? he thought. Maybe. Was he going to buy me and take me out of my home? I hope not, worrying a bit more. The little boy was looking over at his cage. Slowly he started to walk over to Larry’s cage.

Oh no Larry said to himself. They are going to look at me! I’m going to hide! He scrambled under his favorite red-spotted river rock, half covered up by straw, hoping they wouldn’t see him.

Justin spun around and ran back grabbing his mommy’s sleeve and started to violently tug at it.

Mommy, mommy! I want to see that lizard over there, cried Justin, pointing towards Larry’s cage, pulling on her shirt, trying to get her to move closer to the cage.

Okay, okay, said a tired, frustrated mother. They had been shopping all day, looking for a birthday present for Justin’s sister, Emma, and they had found nothing so far. She thought a nice parakeet would be fun for Emma, but all the parakeets in the pet store were sold.

As they approached Larry’s cage, Justin could just barely see Larry’s small green tail sticking out from under Larry’s rock.

Bang, bang. The cage wall shuttered as Justin hit it with his a fist a couple of times, causing Larry to scurry out from under his favorite rock.

Look Mommy! I’ve never seen a real lizard before. Can we get him, can we, can we? asked an excited Justin pointing down at a frightened Larry.

Twisting her eyebrows, she looked down at the little creature.

Why in the world would you want a lizard, for crying out loud? she puzzled.

Oh please, please mommy. I’ll take care of him, and feed him, cried an excited Justin. He usually got his way, if he pressed her enough. He knew it, and she probably did too. Besides, when he gave her just the right look, she could never say no.

Are you sure you’d take care of him? Remember what happed before with that puppy we got you? she asked.

Oh yes, yes. I promise I will, he said, sure that this time he would take care of his pet. Besides, he wasn’t his fault his puppy Spotty ran away. His sister Emma was supposed to watch him that day.

Ok then, we’ll get him, she said, waving to Mr. Carrow. He walked over to her.

Oh thank you, thank you Mommy, said a excited Justin, jumping up and down near Larry’s cage .

Yes, how can I help you? asked Mr. Carrow.

We’d like to take this little lizard. How much is he? she asked, looking around for a price taped on the cage wall.

That would be $19.95,