Ben the Inventor (5 page)

“Are there lots of people?” Jack asked.

“Can't you hear them?”

“Yeah.” Jack stopped at the front door. “Should I just walk in?”

Ben nodded. Then he remembered Jack couldn't see him. “Yes,” he said. “Straight ahead. Then a couple of steps left. Yes, perfect.”

“Now what?” Jack whispered.

“Stop talking,” Ben said. “You are the body, remember? I am the head.” His heart was racing. The real estate agent was across the room. She was looking right at him. Ben looked away quickly.

A man with a beard was walking toward the front door. Ben waited until the man was a few feet away. “Ahem,” he said.

The man looked up at him.

“This house is falling apart,” Ben said. He tried to make his voice low, like a grown man. “There is a rat living in the roof. And, um, it leaks when it rains.”

“The rat leaks?” The man hid a grin behind his hand.

Ben shook his head. “The
roof
leaks. And a new roof costs thousands of dollars.”

“It does indeed.” The man waved over a woman who was admiring the stained glass window in the living room.

She smiled and crossed the room. “Yes?” She looked at Ben and laughed. “Well, hello.”

Ben noticed that she was very pregnant. “Hello,” he said.

“Darling, this gentleman was telling me the house needs a new roof.” The man put an arm around her waist.

“Is that right?” She shook her head. “I'm sorry to hear that. A new roof costs a lot of money.”

“Exactly,” Ben said. “So you don't really want to buy this house.”

The real estate agent appeared behind them. She grabbed Ben's cloak and yanked it off. “You two again!”

Ben jumped off Jack's shoulders and stood beside him. He was so scared, he could hardly breathe.

“Off you go,” the real estate agent said. “Go on. Out!”

“Oh, it's okay.” The pregnant woman was laughing. “They're just having fun.”

“Well, their fun cost me a sale.” The real estate agent glared at them. “The man who looked at the house this morning said he didn't want to live across the street from a couple of badly behaved kids.”

Good
, Ben thought. He didn't want to live across the street from a grumpy bald man.

Chapter Ten

“Success!” Ben said once they were back in his yard. “It worked! No grumpy bald man!”

Jack looked less sure. “She was pretty mad,” he said. “I hope she doesn't tell my parents.”

“Me too.” Ben didn't think his mom would be too happy about Plan B or Plan C. He looked across the street, and his heart sank. People were streaming through Jack's gate. Lots of them. Old people. Families. Young couples. Even a woman with a yappy dog tucked under her arm.

Jack watched them too. “This stinks,” he said. He dropped the cape and sat down on the grass. “I feel like it's not even my house anymore.”

“This really stinks,” Ben said. There was a big lump in his throat. His eyes stung with tears. He had a feeling all the plans in the world might not be enough to make Jack's family stay.

The next day, Ben's mom made his favorite food for dinner: pizza with pineapple and pepperoni, no sauce and not too much cheese.

“Ben,” his mom said. “There's something I have to tell you.”

Ben put down his slice of pizza and looked at her. He had a bad feeling.

“Jack's mom called.” She looked at him. Her eyes looked sad, and there were frown lines in between them.

Ben wondered if he was in trouble. Maybe the real estate agent had told Jack's parents about what they had done. He hoped that was it. Because being in trouble for Plan B and Plan C would be better than the other thing Jack's mom might call about.

“They have an offer on their house, Ben. A good offer.” His mom made a face. “I'm so sorry. They're moving. But they won't go for another month. At least Jack will be here until the end of the summer.”

“It's not fair,” Ben said. He squeezed his eyes tight, trying not to cry. One hot tear snuck out. “He's my best friend.”

“I know. You will miss him. And he will miss you.” His mom stood up. She walked over to him and gave him a long hard hug. “We will visit. I promise. And he can come here too. His mom says he can even come and stay with us for a weekend once they have settled in. Thanksgiving, maybe.”

“It won't be the same,” Ben said.

“You're right. It won't be the same.” His mom sighed. “That's life, Ben. Things change.”

Maybe so
, Ben thought,
but I don't have to like it
.

August went by too fast. It was warm and sunny. Ben and Jack spent almost every day together. They played with water guns. They picked blackberries and ate them right off the prickly green vines. They played soccer and hit golf balls against the fence. They pretended to explore other planets. But mostly they invented things. Because they were inventors.

“And inventors invent inventions,” Jack said. He was lying on Ben's deck, writing the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Blocky capital letters stretched in neat single file across the page.

“That's right.” Ben was working on his own alphabet page, slowly writing each letter with a finetipped black marker. His writing was not as tidy as Jack's. Ben liked to write fast more than he liked to write carefully. But today he wanted his letters to be perfect, because this might be their most important invention ever.
X
,
Y
,
Z
, Ben wrote. “There,” he said. “I'm done. Ready?”

“Ready.” Jack slid his paper above Ben's so the two alphabets lined up.
A
under
A
,
B
under
B
,
C
under
C
.

“What code, do you think?” Ben asked. “Maybe a Plus Three Shift?” His mom had given him a great new book about how to write and read secret codes.

“Plus Two,” Jack said. “Two like you and me. Because we will always be friends. Even if we don't live close to each other.”

“Fire-bellied toads,” Ben said. “Plus Two then.” He grinned and slid his page along two letters. Now the letters lined up with
C
under
A
,
D
under
B, E
under
C
, and so on. Then he taped the two sheets together. “This can be yours,” he said. “And we'll make another one for me.”

“Fire-bellied toads,” Jack said. “I'll email every week.”

“Me too.” Ben looked at the decoder and grinned. “And no one else will be able to read our messages.”

Chapter Eleven

At the end of August, Jack's family packed all their things into a giant moving truck. Their house looked very strange with nothing in it.

“Bigger,” Ben said. “It looks way bigger now.”

They were standing in Jack's empty bedroom. Jack's mom had told them it was time to say goodbye. “We don't really have to though,” Jack said. “Because we can email each other tonight, if we want to.”

“Plus we can visit each other,” Ben said. “My mom says you can even stay with us if you want. For a weekend.”

Jack tackled him and pulled him down to the bare wood floor. “Yes! And we'll do something Stupendous.”

Ben nodded. “We sure will,” he said. He knew they would always be friends. But he still felt sad. He had really loved having a friend right across the street.