The Mystery of Silas Finklebean

by David Baldacci

  CHAPTER 14

  HAROLD RETURNS THE FAVOR

  Theodore, Freddy, and Howie were hard at work on the time travel machine in Freddy’s lab when the other Fries returned.

  “Did you get everything on the lists?” asked Freddy.

  While Ziggy shook his head sadly, Si held up the blue suede car seat. “We got this super-duper seat,” said Si. “Elvis sat on it. His butt marks are on there for all time.”

  Freddy looked stunned. “This is it?! We can’t make the time machine work with only a blue suede car seat. We’ll be laughed out of town.”

  “Well, laughter is the best medicine,” observed Si with a big smile.

  Freddy shook his head and sat down on the floor with his hands over his face.

  “What are you doing?” asked Ziggy.

  “I’m trying to think of a small island where I can go and hide for the rest of my life,” Freddy replied.

  Just then the phone in Freddy’s lab rang. He picked it up. “Yes?”

  “Freddy, it’s Harold Pumpernickel. Your dad said I might find you around here. Can we talk about something?”

  Freddy looked curiously at the others. “Are you alone, Harold?”

  “Absolutely. Adam doesn’t even know I’m here.”

  “Okay, hold on.”

  Freddy pulled a lever. There was a scream, and Harold dropped down through the trapdoor and landed in a soft pile of hay. He stood and brushed himself off.

  “Wow, cool lab, Freddy,” said Harold as he looked around at all of Freddy’s equipment and inventions. He pointed to a pair of tennis shoes that hung on a peg.

  “What do those do?”

  “Show him, Howie,” said Freddy.

  Howie put on the shoes and clicked the heels together.

  VVRROOMM! He took off like a shot. The shoes made him run so fast that he was completely a blur. And he could run up walls and even across the ceiling. He stopped by clicking them together again.

  “I call them the Red Rocket tennis shoes,” said Freddy.

  “Powered by solar amplification with reverse modulating gravitational dynamics?” asked Harold.

  “That’s right,” replied Freddy. “With just a smidgen of diesel fuel thrown in. For catalytic purposes only,” he quickly added.

  Harold pointed to what looked like a Frisbee lying on Freddy’s work-table.“That doesn’t look like an ordinary Frisbee.”

  “It’s not,” boomed Wally. He picked it up and flung it. The Frisbee soared around the room, and everyone put their hands over their noses.

  “PHEW!” said Harold, “that smells awful.”

  Freddy caught the Frisbee. “It should, it’s the stink Frisbee. So long as it’s moving through the air it puts out a smell like month-old sweaty socks mixed with rotten eggs. When I’m really mad at my sister, I toss it in her window.”

  “Cool,” Harold said again. Then he looked around the lab with a rueful expression. “Boy, it’d be nice to have a place like this to invent things.”

  “Well, you can come over any time you want,” offered Freddy. “So what was it you wanted to tell me, Harold?”

  “I wanted to thank you again for helping me on the volcano.”

  “That’s okay, Harold, we were glad to do it,” said Freddy. “By the way, what propulsion device are you using for the volcano’s eruption?”

  “The ACME Turbo Booster 3000 with maximum velocity thruster and optional afterburner. It cost a lot of money, but Adam wanted the best.”

  “I’m sure he did.”

  “And I also wanted to thank you for having your dad hire my mom to work as a part-time cook at the Burger Castle.”

  Freddy’s eyes bugged out. “I didn’t know he’d hired your mother.”

  “I thought it was your idea.”

  “I wish it had been. She’s a great cook.”

  “Thanks,” said Harold, smiling. He looked at what they were working on. “Is this your science project?”

  “Yes, but we’ve run into a snag. We can’t find the materials we need to build it,” said Freddy.

  “What sort of stuff do you need?”

  Freddy showed him the list. “We tried at the hardware store and Dubowski’s Junkyard, but they didn’t have what we needed.”

  “Well, I don’t think we have a nuclear reactor turbine, but we have the other stuff,” said Harold.

  “What do you mean?”

  “My dad has a junkyard too, over near our house. You wouldn’t believe what people throw in the trash. My dad sorts through the stuff every week and keeps the things that he can sell or use. You can come over and take what you need.”

  “We’ll pay for it,” said Freddy.

  “Yeah,” exclaimed Si. “We’ve got twelve dollars.”

  Meese poked him. “No, we don’t. We paid that for the Elvis seat.”

  “Oh, yeah,” said Si. “Okay, we’ve got zip as far as cash goes.”

  “You don’t have to pay us, Freddy. You already helped me on my project. So now it’s my turn to help you. So come on over and get the stuff you need.”

  Freddy looked at the Fries and Howie. “Let’s go, gang. We don’t have much time left.”

  CHAPTER 15

  ASK A LIBRARIAN

  Freddy and the gang got just about everything they needed from Mr. Pumpernickel’s junkyard, including thousands of rivets, metal sheeting for the exterior of the time travel machine, super strong windows that had come off a demolished bank building, and engine parts from a junked race car. Over the next three days they banged, molded, screwed, hammered, and bent the time machine into shape.

  “That magnetic transformer needs to be polarized in the opposite circuitry where it is presently in order to provide adequate navigational capability,” Theodore said to Wally.

  The purple Fry stared at him blankly. “HUH?”

  Theodore sighed and said, “Switch the blue and red wires so we can steer.”

  “Gotcha, Teddio.”

  Si, Meese, and Curly put the blue suede Elvis seat in and bolted it down, and then Howie put in the steering wheel.

  “How exactly do you steer through time?” Howie asked.

  “Very carefully,” replied Theodore.

  Freddy and Theodore examined the blueprints they had drawn up and then compared them with the plans in the logbook.

  “It looks perfect,” said Theodore.

  “Yeah, but we have two problems. First, we don’t have this thing.” He pointed to the drawings where a small object resembling a gyroscope sat on top of the time machine. “According to the plans, that’s the thing that creates the hole in the time-space continuum that will allow us to leave our time and go to another. But Finklebean doesn’t say how to build it. Without that, it won’t work.”

  “Okay, we’ve got the first problem nailed down; what’s the second one, Freddio?” asked Si, cheerfully.

  “The second problem is we still don’t have a way to power the time machine,” Freddy added gloomily. “And without those two things it’s just a big lump of metal. And the science competition is tomorrow. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I’m out of answers.”

  Howie snapped his fingers. “Questions and answers? Remember, Freddy? It’s ‘Ask A Librarian Week.’ Maybe that lady at the library can help us. And she knew Silas Finklebean.”

  “Well,” said Theodore. “Perhaps she can help.”

  Freddy sighed. “We don’t have anything to lose, I guess.”

  Freddy and Howie rode their bikes down to the library. Inside they found the librarian working at the front desk.

  “Can I help you, boys?” she said pleasantly.

  “Uh, yes, Ms., uh …,” began Freddy.

  “Oh, where are my manners. My name is Mildred Maraschino.”

  “Okay, Ms. Maraschino. We were wondering if you could tell us anything else about Silas Finklebean.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, you said he was a very lucky person. And that he was very generous.”

&n
bsp; “That’s right, he was. And he loved children. They were his best friends actually. All the adults thought he was, well, not exactly right in the head.”

  “That happens to me and my dad all the time,” replied Freddy, knowingly. “Did you know much about his inventions?”

  Mildred hesitated, eyeing the boys closely. “I was very young back then. I do remember that he was a very careful man. He planned for every possibility.”

  “That’s what my dad taught me too,” said Freddy. “Every scientist has to think that way. You have to be responsible, but you still can have fun.”

  “I think you and Silas would’ve gotten on very well,” said Mildred, smiling. She hesitated and then plucked something out of her desk drawer. “Silas gave me this.” She held it up. It was a small mirror. “He said this was a wishing mirror. He told me if you looked into it and concentrated very hard, you could make a wish and it would come true.”

  “Boy, I could use one of those,” said Freddy.

  “I’ve tried to make it work over the years, but I guess I wasn’t doing it right. My wish never came true,” she added sadly. She handed the mirror to Freddy.

  He looked into it, and then concentrated very hard. What he was wishing for was an answer to their dilemma. I need to find that gyroscope device. I need to find that gyroscope device. He said this to himself over and over. Nothing happened, though, and he finally handed the mirror back.

  “Silas must’ve really liked you to give you a wishing mirror, even if it didn’t work right,” said Howie.

  “I think of all the children he knew, he liked me the best,” she replied. “I don’t think he gave anyone else anything he’d made.”

  Freddy thought for a moment, and then it struck him. “Did Silas ever give you something else? Maybe something to keep safe for him?”

  Mildred looked taken aback. “Why do you ask that?”

  “Because you said he planned for every possibility. And you said you were the only one he ever gave anything he’d made. I bet he trusted you.”

  Mildred looked a little uncomfortable, but finally, she said, “I live just down the street. Would you boys like to see something?”

  They both nodded.

  A few minutes later they were walking into Mildred’s little cottage. It was cozy inside with lots of dainty knickknacks everywhere. Mildred excused herself. While she was gone Freddy looked over some old family pictures on the fireplace mantel. One of them surprised him. He was about to say something to Howie but then Mildred came back into the room holding a small box.

  “Is that what Silas wanted you to keep safe?” Freddy said, pointing at the box.

  Mildred nodded, put the box on the coffee table, and opened it. Freddy and Howie looked at each other excitedly. It was the gyroscope-like thing from the time machine plans.

  “What did he say when he gave that to you?” asked Freddy.

  Mildred closed her eyes and her brow wrinkled as she thought hard. “He told me that it held the key to everyone’s future. And that he wouldn’t trust it with an adult, but that it would be safe with a child. I never knew what he meant by that.” She opened her eyes and continued, “Do you?”

  Freddy could hardly contain his excitement. “I think I know exactly what he meant. Ms.Maraschino, do you mind if we borrow it?”

  She put her hand protectively on top of the device. “I’m not sure.”

  “We’ll take good care of it, I promise,” said Freddy.

  “I’ve never let this out of my possession since he gave it to me.”

  Freddy glanced over at the pictures on the mantel and then turned back to her. “If you let us take it, I think that the next wish you make in your wishing mirror might just come true. And Silas did say it would be safe with a child.”

  Mildred still looked unsure. “My wish? How can you —”

  “Just trust me, Ms. Maraschino,” said Freddy. “I know I’m just a kid, but I’m also a scientist, a very trustworthy one.”

  Mildred looked doubtful for a moment, and then she finally said, “Well, until you both came along no one seemed to care about Silas anymore, which was very sad indeed. So, yes, you can take it.”

  As Freddy took the box, Mildred added, “Do you think you’ll be able to find your future with it?”

  Freddy patted the box. “I think our future looks really bright now.”

  CHAPTER 16

  THE POWER OF PURPLE AND BLUE

  Freddy and Howie got back to the lab, and with the help of the Fries they were able to attach the device Mildred had given them to the time machine.

  “There,” said Freddy with a final turn of the wrench.

  Theodore was looking at the plans. “Well, we have everything in place. The only problem is we have no way to power up the time machine.”

  “I know,” said Freddy miserably.

  While no one was looking, Wally had slipped behind some junk they hadn’t used and took a bottle from a hiding place. It was the liquid blue stuff he’d found in Finklebean’s lab.

  “Okay, Freddy said I shouldn’t do this, so I’m not,” he said to himself. “No matter how much I want to or how good it tastes or how thirsty little, skinny Wally is, I’m not going to drink it, because that would be bad — very, very bad.”

  He took the top off the bottle and sniffed.

  “Right — no matter how good it smells, no matter how much fun it is to drink this blue stuff, Wally is not gonna do it, because I promised my special friend and buddy, Freddy, that I wouldn’t — and friends always keep their promises.”

  Wally tipped the bottle up to his mouth.

  “And another thing,” he continued, whispering to himself, “A friend who can’t keep a promise to another friend is just no stinking good. I mean, how can a friend do that to another friend? A promise is a promise and Wally never, ever breaks a promise.”

  Wally tipped the bottle all the way up and took a long chug, wiped his mouth, and put the top back on. “Whew, that was close. But like I said, a promise is a prom—YEOW!” Wally flew up into the air and crashed into the ceiling of the lab. Then he shot down, hit the floor, and zoomed forward.

  Freddy and the rest of the gang threw themselves in all directions as the big purple Fry whizzed around the room like a ball in a pinball machine, knocking over shelves, smashing equipment, and punching holes in walls. For twenty minutes they all watched as the purple blob whizzed around the room faster and faster.

  Finally, Wally came crashing down. The lab lay in ruin. Everyone stood and gathered angrily around him.

  He started muttering, “Wally is a good Fry. Wally kept his promise. No blue stuff.” He opened his eyes and looked up at them. “Hey, guys, is it lunchtime yet?”

  Ziggy scolded, “Wally, you drank the blue stuff and destroyed Freddy’s lab.”

  “What do you have to say for yourself?” added Theodore severely.

  Wally sat up, looking confused. “Now wait just a minute. Are you sure it was me? There are other Fries in the room too, you know.”

  “Enormous and purple narrows it down considerably,” said Theodore.

  “And,” squeaked Ziggy, “there’s the blue bottle right there in your hand.”

  Wally held up the bottle. “I’ve never seen this before.” His eyes got really big. “It must have been planted on me. Oh, my gosh, there’s a conspiracy going on. People are out to get me.”

  “Why would anyone want to get you, Wally?” said Howie.

  Wally threw up his big hands. “Don’t you see, Howie? They’re jealous. I mean, look at me: Tall, handsome, smart, and PURPLE. But I want whoever did it to know this!” He paused, put a hand over his heart, and said in a high-pitched, choked voice, “I forgive you.” He wiped a tear away.

  Theodore looked over at Freddy. “Well, Freddy, you haven’t said anything. What do you think his punishment should be? Freddy?”

  Freddy was staring off into space. He obviously hadn’t been listening to any of their conversation.

  “Uh,
Freddy,” said Theodore gently.

  “EUREKA!” shouted Freddy and he jumped straight up in the air. Then he gave Wally a big hug. “You big, beautiful purple Fry you. You’re brilliant!”

  He grabbed the blue bottle from Wally and raced to his work area.

  Wally looked at the other Fries. “Well, I’m glad to see at least someone here recognizes genius.” He walked away with his head held high, tripped, and landed upside down inside an old tractor tire.

  The other Fries hustled over to where Freddy was working frantically.

  “Freddy,” said Theodore, “Why are you so excited?”

  Freddy held up the blue bottle. “This, Theodore, this.”

  “The blue stuff?” said Si. “Okay, it’s blue and it’s wet, but even for a happy Fry like me, it’s not all that exciting, Freddio.”

  “Oh, it’s very exciting,” said Freddy. “It’s the most exciting thing to happen to me since I invented all of you.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Theodore. “How can that blue liquid be so important?”

  “Because this is what’s going to power our time travel machine.”

  CHAPTER 17

  THE PRIMO FAKEOUT

  “Freddy,” called out Nancy, who was standing on the trapdoor to Freddy’s lab. “Oh, Freddy, dear, I’d like to take a tour of THE NANCY S. FUNKHOUSER IMPERIAL THEATER and Museum, and I’d like it right now.”

  “Great,” said Freddy with a scowl. He was putting the finishing touches on the time travel machine.

  When he didn’t answer, she said, “I know you’re in there, Freddy. I’ll give you two hours. If the theater isn’t done, then I’m telling dad about that secret passageway under the Burger Castle and that you’re up to something.” They heard her stomp away.

  Freddy shook his head wearily. “Look,” he said, staring at Si, Meese, Wally, Curly, and Ziggy. “You guys are going to have to do something with her.”

  “Like what?” asked Si. “Tell her a joke? I’m terrific at jokes.”

  “The only one who laughs at your jokes is you,” said Meese.