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.”