Ben the Inventor (3 page)
“Mom, do we have any balloons?” Ben asked.
His mom was stirring oatmeal on the stove. “I don't think so.”
“Don't we have some left from Stella's birthday?” Ben looked at Stella, who was stacking cans of beans into a tower. “Stella, do you have balloons?”
“Balloons,” Stella said happily. She knocked over her tower, and the cans tumbled to the floor with a crash. “Red balloons.”
“Where are they, Stella?”
Stella's lower lip was sticking out like a fat pink worm. That meant she was in a stubborn mood. “Stella's red balloons,” she said firmly.
“I know, Stella. It's important, okay?” Ben knelt down beside her. “I'll get you more. I promise.” He looked at his mom. “If Stella lets me use her balloons, you can buy her more, right?”
“She doesn't have any, Ben.” His mom grabbed the saucepan as the oatmeal started to boil over.
“Stella, where are they? The balloons?” Ben looked at Stella. “Tell me, okay?”
“Balloons go sky,” Stella said. “Up, up.” She shook her head, and her blond hair floated like a fluffy cloud around her chubby face.
Ben groaned in frustration and rocked back on his heels.
“Why do you need them, Ben?” his mom asked.
“I just do.” He looked out the window. The Stupendous Contraption was hidden behind his workshop. He and Jack needed something to launch, but stones were too dangerous. Water balloons would have been perfect.
There was a knock at the front door. “It's Jack,” Ben said. “I'll get it.” He ran and let Jack in. “No balloons,” he said. “What time are the people coming to look at the house?”
“Ten o'clock,” Jack said. “Plus there's going to be an open house at twelve. Mom's going out, but she said I can stay here, if it's okay with your mom.”
“That's fine,” Ben's mom said from behind him. “Why don't you two go outside and play. It's a gorgeous day.”
“What are we going to launch?” Jack asked.
They were looking at the small mountain of junk they had hauled out of the workshop. It glittered in the sun. “It's all metal and stuff,” Ben said. “Too hard. We have to make people not buy your house, but we don't want to hurt anyone.” He glanced at the kitchen window, which now had thick plastic taped over it.
Jack clapped his hands together. “I've got it.”
“What?”
“Weeds,” Jack said.
Ben looked around his yard. Morning glory vines grew all along the fence, twisted and green. Dandelions spotted the lawn. And behind the compost bin was a huge pile of weeds his mom had pulled from the vegetable garden.
“Fire-bellied toads! That's so perfect,” Ben said. “We will make it rain weeds at your house.”
The catapult part of the Stupendous Contraption was made of a long wooden board. A toilet seat was duct-taped near one end. Ben and Jack gathered an armful of weeds and placed the pile inside the toilet seat.
“Test run,” Ben said. He picked up a golf ball and dropped it into a sloping metal pipe. He and Jack both crossed their fingers and held their breath. The ball dropped out the other end of the tube. It rolled down a ramp and knocked over a wooden post. The post landed on the first of a long row of empty
CD
cases. Down they went, like dominoes.
Bing
,
bing
,
bing
. The last
CD
case set off a mini-catapult, flinging a Ping-Pong ball into the air.
At this point, the Stupendous Contraption needed a little help. The Ping-Pong ball wasn't heavy enough to push the race car into the race-car launcher. Ben gave it a little shove.
Whoosh!
The race car zoomed along the plastic track and dropped off the end. It nudged a perfectly balanced soccer ball, which fell onto the end of the Ultimate Catapult.
The weeds flew into the air.
They landed in a pile less than two feet away.
The boys stared at it in disgust. “Well, that's no use at all,” Ben said.
“It was pretty cool though.” Jack grinned. “Like when the race car knocked off the soccer ball. That was great. And the domino thing.”
“Cool but not useful. They were supposed to fly across the street to your house.” Ben heard a car door slam. He stood up and looked toward the street. A blond woman in a suit was getting out of a car. “Is that her? The real estate person?”
“Must be.”
They watched as a second car pulled up. A tall bald man got out. The real estate woman waved to him. Then they walked through Jack's front gate together.
Jack turned to Ben. “I guess that's the man who wants to buy my house.”
Ben made a face. “No way.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“Well, launching the weeds didn't work. So I guess we move on to Stupendous Plan B,” Ben said.
“Okay. What's Stupendous Plan B?”
Ben didn't actually have a Plan B, let alone a
Stupendous
Plan B. He thought fast. “We'll just carry the weeds across to your yard,” he said. “We'll spread them on the lawn while the real estate agent is inside showing that man your house.”
A grin spread slowly across Jack's face. “And he will think the weeds are growing there!”
“Yeah, and he won't buy the house because there is too much gardening to do,” Ben said.
“Perfect,” Jack said, gathering up an armful of weeds. “Fire-bellied toads! Let's go.”
Ben opened his back door and stuck his head inside. “Mom? We're just going for a walk, okay?”
“Stella, stop that.” His mom grabbed Stella's arm. “Spit it out, honey.” She popped her fingers into Stella's mouth and fished out something small and blue. “Lego, this time. She just puts everything in her mouth.”
“We'll be back soon,” Ben said.
“Okay. Stay on this block,” his mom said.
“Oh, we will.” Ben nudged Jack. “Come on.”
Ben and Jack picked up the weeds they had piled by Ben's front gate. They carried them across the speed bump. Then, very quietly, they scattered them around Jack's lawn. Dandelions on the grass. Morning glory vine on the rose bushes. All kinds of dead green stuff along the path.