Ben the Inventor (6 page)

A week later, Ben sent Jack an email. It read:

Hi Jack!!! You' ll never guess who bought your house.
Remember the pregnant woman and the man with the
beard who were at the open house? Well, they just moved
in. I guess they didn't believe us about the roof. They
have a little baby now. It cries all the time. Loudly! But
here's the good part. They also have a kid who is eight!
A girl called Sarah. You can meet her when you come
and visit. And guess what else? She put Star Wars posters
all over your room. She is nice, but I wish you still lived
there. I miss you. From your friend, Ben the Inventor.

Ben stopped typing. That was long enough. It took a long time, writing messages in code. He had to write his emails the normal way first. Then he had to put them in Plus Two Shift code. His mom was even letting him have extra computer time to do it. Just typing
Hi Jack!!!
took him a couple of minutes. It became
Jk Lcem!!!
Ben loved that.
Jk Lcem!!!

Finally, Ben had his message all in code.
Ben
the Inventor
became
Dgp vjg Kpxgpvqt.
It looked Stupendous. He grinned. It was going to take Jack hours to decode the whole email.

Ben yawned and stretched. Through the window, he could see Sarah. She was wearing 3-D glasses and making crazy designs with chalk on the sidewalk in front of her house. Her hair was tangled and long, and she had bare feet. He had played with her a couple of times already. She even wanted to walk to school with him and Jessy when school started next week.

When Ben thought about it, Plan B and C hadn't been a total failure. Sarah's parents had liked that there were other kids living on the street. They had even liked the way he and Jack had dressed up at the open house. So it was thanks to Plan B and C that Sarah lived across the street instead of the grumpy bald man.

Outside, Sarah stood up. She put down her chalk, and she walked across the speed bump.

Quickly, Ben pressed
SEND
. Then he closed the laptop.

Sarah was about to knock on the door, and Ben had promised to show her his workshop.

Robin Stevenson
is the author of many novels for children and teens.
Ben the Inventor
is Robin's second Orca Echo about Ben, and both stories were inspired by her own son. Robin lives, writes and teaches in Victoria, British Columbia.