Strained Peas

Strained Peas is a short story written by R. L. Stine. It is about a teenage boy who suspects that his new baby sister is evil. The story was adapted as an episode on the Goosebumps television series. Followed by: Strangers In The Woods Preceded by: Teacher's Pet

ynopsis

The story begins with the boy (Nicholas) reading a comic book called Iron Man: The Mark of Dr Destro as his mother arrives home from the hospital with the baby, Hannah. Strange things start to happen around her, and her eyes change color, her heart-shaped birth mark grows, and she even wants to kill Nick! He comes to believe that Hannah is a monster, despite his parents' assurances that there is a perfectly normal explanation for everything. Eventually it is discovered that while in the hospital, Hannah was accidentally switched at birth with the boy's real sister, and she is not related to him at all. She is returned to the hospital. The boy seems pleased with the real baby, Grace - until she begins talking in an evil voice and commands him to stop tickling her, or she would "kill" him when she learns to walk.

TV Episode

Nick's best friend Sam tells him that his new baby sister is going to be a pain as life goes on. When Grace arrives, Nick likes her. But she seemed to look at him funny and kind of growled at him.

Nick can't sleep because of Grace's crying. He goes to her and she pukes on him. The next day, Nick tells Sam what happened but she tells him she told him so. They play a rock song for Nick's gerbil Stanley for the science fair. They wake up Grace and they have to try to put her back to sleep. While only Nick can see, Grace spells "ONLY ME" in her blocks. Nick tells Sam, but when she looks at it, the blocks are messed up. At night, Nick wakes up because he hears noises in the kitchen. He goes in there, and it's a mess! All the food and drinks are splattered on the floor. Nick slips on them and is also a mess. He goes in the living room and Grace is watching TV. She talks to him "You're history, big brother." Then Nick's parents come in and he gets in trouble. He tells them what Grace did but they don't believe him. The next day, Nick tells Sam what happened last night, but she doesn't believe him either. Nick finds Grace's pacifier and goes up to her. He tells her she's not going to get away with what she's doing. She says "Soon I'll be the only one." He recorded what she said. Then her eyes start to glow.

Nick shows his parents the tape recorder and plays Grace talking. But the tape had just suddenly got eaten. He gets mad and runs to his room and sees his math book half eaten. He goes to Grace and says again "You're not gonna get away with this!" Then she bites him. He tells his parents, but they don't believe him since Grace doesn't have teeth yet. They decide to send him to stay with his grandparents for a while. Then they get a phone call from a doctor at the hospital about Grace. Nick had told the doctor to call, though. They leave him to baby sit Grace. Sam comes over and sees her CD that she let Nick borrow eaten. She thinks Stanley ate it but he did not. It was Grace. But she doesn't believe Nick and goes home. The power goes dead because of Grace. Nick looks for her and finds her in his room. She eats Stanley and then runs out and into the parents' room. She blocks the door but Nick still gets in. She spits Stanley back up and Nick grabs her and she starts to cry. Then his parents come in.

They tell Nick that the doctor says they got Grace mixed up with their real baby. Some sort of computer error. A man comes to switch babies. He just says "Baby." They give him Grace and he gives them their real baby. In the car with Grace's real parents, they are revealed as monsters. Nick asks if they can call their new baby Chloe. They agree. But when Nick holds Chloe alone she says "Cut that baby talk and get me some food. And none of that mushy junk." Then Nick groans.