A frightened Jeff fluttered his wings within the enclosed space between his brother's hands.
"Barney! Be careful!" Jeff begged. "You could hurt me!"
Of course, without a voice, his plea went unheard. Jeff stepped back into his room and, keeping his hands tightly closed, he bumped at the lid on the empty fish tank along the wall that also provided a backdrop for a bookshelf. When he got the lid lifted, Barney ducked his hands into the empty glass enclosure and opened his hands. The colorful butterfly fluttered out of his hands and made it to a perch of driftwood in the center of the tank.
Relieved to have escaped Barney's hands, more or less intact, Jeff used his thin legs to climb to the rough surface of the driftwood. Suddenly he saw Barney's face looming on the other side of the glass.
"You'll be safe in there," Barney said.
"Safe?" Jeff wondered. He looked around the building-sized glass enclosure. "Did he put me in the tank that belonged to Slithers?"
The late, somewhat lamented Slithers had been a boa constrictor during Barney's phase when he really wanted an exotic pet. Their mom had freaked when the snake escaped, but when the serpent never re-appeared she looked at the disappearance as a silver lining since she had never liked having the creature in the house.
"Tomorrow, I will take you to see Mrs. Peterbee," Barney promised.
Jeff fluttered his way to the front pane of glass. Mrs Peterbee was the high school biology teacher! "Why would he take me to... oh no!" Jeff thought. His brother looked at him like a curious specimen that he could use to score some extra credit from the notoriously strict teacher.
Barney tapped on the glass. "I wonder if you're hungry," he said. "Maybe I should get some leaves out of the backyard for you."
"Leaves! I don't eat leaves, you lame-brain!" Jeff wanted to scream. He needed to get back to the computer, not cool his heels imprisoned in a fish tank.