Frankenweenie Page 4

  “So it isn’t? Or it is?”

  E was getting more and more nervous. Nassor scared him. “No. Yes.” He shook his head. “I’m confused.”

  Nassor grinned evilly. He had E just where he wanted him. “Do you have an invisible fish?” he asked.

  Finally, E gave in. He couldn’t take any more torture. Reaching into his backpack he pulled out the jar of water and unscrewed the lid. He told Nassor to dip his finger in and swish it around. But when Nassor did it, nothing happened.

  “It’s just water,” Nassor said. “There’s nothing there.”

  E dipped his own finger in, feeling around for the toothy goldfish. He swished and he swished but there was nothing there. That was weird. It couldn’t have escaped. So where did it go?

  Nassor had had enough. “I don’t know what kind of game you and Victor are playing, but that trophy will be mine.”

  “What trophy?” E asked.

  “The science fair,” Nassor answered. “There’s a trophy.” He leaned in close, pushing his buckteeth into E’s face. “And I intend to win it.”

  E gulped. This wasn’t good.

  had to find Victor—he would know what to do. Hopping on his bike E raced away from school. By the time he caught up with Victor, he was out of breath.

  “Something’s wrong with my fish,” he gasped.

  Victor stopped his bike. “What is it?” he asked.

  E held a hand to his chest, trying to catch his breath before he went on. Finally he said, “It’s not there anymore.”

  “Maybe it hopped out,” Victor suggested, not really worried. “Did you have the lid on?”

  “Yes!” E exclaimed. There was no way E was going to tell Victor that he had shown the fish to Toshiaki, Bob, and Nassor. He had promised he wouldn’t tell anyone. “Ever since…since I left your house. I mean, it was there when I went to bed.”

  Victor was silent as he pondered the possibilities. He had done all the calculations correctly. And Sparky was still fine. So what could have gone wrong? Was the lightning a different voltage? Did fish react differently to the experiment?

  Nervously, E waited for Victor to say something. When he didn’t, E gulped. He had an idea of what could have happened. But he was scared to say it out loud. But when Victor still hadn’t said anything, E took a chance. “I’m thinking,” he began, “maybe they don’t last. Maybe they’re like fireworks. They’re only there for a little bit and then they’re gone.”

  Victor’s eyes grew wide. Sparky! He had to get home!

  Without even a good-bye to E, Victor raced away. When he arrived at his house, Victor ran upstairs to the attic. Opening the door, his eyes went right to where he had left Sparky tied up. The rope was still there, attached to his dog’s collar. But Sparky was gone!

  “No!” Victor cried out. How could this have happened? Why hadn’t he made sure to check his calculations?

  WOOF!

  At the sound of the bark, Victor whipped his head around. Then he let out a huge sigh of relief. There, happily—and visibly—drinking out of his water bowl, was Sparky. Water trickled out of his stitches, but he didn’t notice. Pausing to scratch his ear, however, Sparky was surprised when it came right off.

  Rushing over to him, Victor picked Sparky up and hugged him close. Sparky wasn’t quite sure what all the fuss was about, but he happily licked Victor’s face and wagged his tail.

  Noticing his ear, Victor hugged his best friend closer. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I can fix that, too.” One ear or two, Victor was just happy Sparky was still there.

  Ever since E had shown them his invisible fish, Toshiaki and Bob had been trying to come up with a project that was better. It was not easy. They had tried making a volcano that erupted. But they had used ketchup as the lava—and when it exploded all over Bob’s kitchen, his mother had not been happy. Toshiaki’s parents weren’t thrilled when they brought home a dozen rats. The rodents had escaped when Toshiaki tried to teach them to go through a maze. They had only been able to find eleven.

  But finally, Toshiaki had come up with an idea. Now they just needed to test it.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Bob asked nervously. He and Toshiaki were on the roof of Toshiaki’s house. Bob was wearing a modified backpack. Nine big soda bottles were lashed to it, their caps pointing down. A pull-string was attached to each of the caps. Behind him, Toshiaki was shaking a tenth soda bottle.

  “No,” Toshiaki replied, making Bob even more nervous. “That’s why it’s called an experiment. We have to collect data.”

  “But do we have to collect it on me?” Bob whined.

  Placing the last bottle on the backpack, Toshiaki ignored his friend’s complaining. “Ready?” he asked.

  “No,” Bob said.

  Toshiaki began the countdown anyway. “Ten. Nine. Eight.”

  “We could use a test dummy or something,” Bob suggested.

  “Seven. Six. Five,” Toshiaki counted.

  “Computer simulation?”

  Toshiaki shook his head. “Four. Three. Two…One!” He pulled the strings attached to the soda caps. Foamy liquid blasted out of the bottles, spraying the ground. Bob suddenly found himself hovering—albeit in fits and starts—in the air.

  “It’s working!” he screamed. “It’s working!”

  Grabbing his video camera to document their success, Toshiaki began recording. Looking through the lens, he noticed that the soda bottles were growing empty. The last little bit dropped out of the bottles and then…Bob dropped out of the sky. He thumped down onto the roof. Once, twice. Then, as Toshiaki watched, Bob thumbed right over the edge of the roof. He landed on the ground with a thud, his arm bent.

  Toshiaki gulped. This was going to be hard to explain.

  As soon as Bob’s mother saw her son lying on the ground, she called an ambulance. When she found out how he had broken his arm, she called the school. And when the principal found out a student had hurt himself working on a science project, he called the mayor. Something had to be done.

  Mayor Burgemeister called a town meeting. When everyone was gathered in the school assembly room, he walked up to the podium that had been set up on the stage. He spied the microphone and narrowed his eyes. It was far too low. As he attempted to adjust it, a loud squeal of feedback echoed through the room. The audience clasped their hands to their ears. When the noise faded away, Mr. Burgemeister cleared his throat and began. “As mayor of New Holland, you have entrusted me with your safety. So I can’t sit idly by while a teacher endangers our children.” He paused to look at his notes and then went on. “Mr. Ryzk…krusekishi…krysk…” The mayor stumbled over the teacher’s name, struggling with the unusual spelling.

  Standing up in the crowd, Bob’s mother interrupted the mayor, shouting, “He’s a menace!” There were nods and murmurs of agreement from the other parents attending the assembly. Sitting next to her, his arm in a sling, Bob looked sheepish.

  But not everyone agreed. “Mayor,” Mr. Frankenstein said, standing up as well, “I can tell you that our son, Victor, is just crazy about the new teacher. Thinks he’s great.”

  “Have you looked through this ‘science’ book they’re using?” another father asked, ignoring the positive feedback. “Apparently, Pluto isn’t good enough to be a planet anymore. This guy comes along and rewrites the rules.”

  Another mother stood up. “My Cynthia has been asking all sorts of strange questions. About things I’ve never even heard of!”

  Mr. Frankenstein tried to reason with the parents again. “We should at least give the man the chance to explain himself.”

  The science teacher had been lingering in the back of the room, listening to the accusations. Finally, he walked up to the podium. Looking around the room, he smiled. Unfortunately, his smile was a bit, well, creepy, and he was met with a sea of stony faces. “I think the confusion here is that you are all very ignorant,” he began. The faces grew stonier and Mr. Rzykruski tried again. “Is this the right word, �
��ignorant’? I mean simple. Unenlightened.”

  The audience was beginning to squirm in their seats. They had come here to do the picking, not get picked on.

  Mr. Rzykruski forged ahead, each word getting him into deeper and deeper trouble. “You do not understand science, so you are afraid of it. Like a dog is afraid of thunder or balloons.” As he spoke, his accent got a little clearer and his voice grew stronger. He was on a roll. “To you, science is magic and witchcraft, because you have such small minds. I cannot make your heads bigger, but your children’s heads—” He paused, looking for the right words. “I can take them and crack them open. This is what I try to do. To get at their brains.”

  When he finished the room was silent. Mr. Rzykruski looked pleased, unaware that he had only added fuel to the parents’ fire. Saying thank you, he left the stage.

  If the parents had anything to do with it, he would be leaving the school as well.

  he next day Mr. Rzykruski’s students filed into class and took their seats. Just before the bell rang, the school’s gym teacher walked in. Boys and girls began to murmur in confusion. Taking a place in front of the desk, she waited for the class to quiet down.

  Victor raised his hand. “Where’s Mr. Rzykruski?” he asked.

  “He’s not here today,” the gym teacher answered.

  “Is he coming back?” Toshiaki asked.

  The gym teacher shrugged. “All I know is, I’ll be teaching the class for the rest of the semester.” She turned and began to erase the messy blackboard. Behind her the kids exchanged confused glances and began to whisper to one another. What was going on? What had happened last night at the assembly?

  “Do you know anything about science?” Elsa finally questioned.

  “I know more than you do,” the teacher replied, giving her a look that said “stop bugging me.”

  “Mr. Rzykruski knew a lot,” Bob said. He felt partly responsible for the gym teacher’s presence. But he wasn’t about to admit that he had gotten Mr. Rzykruski in trouble.

  The gym teacher was getting annoyed with all the questions. She was here to do her job. She would much rather be preparing a game of kick ball or practicing drills on the soccer field. “Well, sometimes knowing too much is the problem,” she finally responded, her voice chilly.

  For a moment, no one said anything. But everyone was thinking about the same thing—the science fair. Was it still going to happen?

  “Oh, it’s still on,” the gym teacher said when Victor asked. “So get cracking and may the best person win. Also class, besides death rays, explosives, and nuclear devices, I’m adding rodents and reptiles to the no-go list.”

  With her new rules issued, she began to write the day’s lesson on the blackboard. Behind her, the students were silent. They were beginning to really miss Mr. Rzykruski.

  “I can’t believe I broke my arm for nothing,” Bob said later that day. He, Nassor, and Toshiaki were hanging out behind the school. They weren’t happy that the science fair was still going to happen. Without Mr. Rzykruski around, they figured the fair would be cancelled and they wouldn’t have to come up with a project. But now the fair was two days away and they still had nothing.

  “None of us are going to win,” Bob went on. “E has an invisible fish!”

  Nassor shook his head. “No he doesn’t. You fell for a parlor trick.”

  “You’re saying he faked it?” Toshiaki asked. He had been there. He had seen the goldfish shadow on the wall. Could he really have been fooled by E.?

  Just then, E came around the corner. Spotting him, the boys walked over and formed a circle around the lone boy. He panicked and tried to get away but there was nowhere to go. He was trapped.

  “That fish you showed us, was it real?” Toshiaki asked.

  E gulped. “It was!” he cried. “And it was dead, too.” He brought a hand to his mouth. Oops! He wasn’t supposed to have said that. But he was nervous and when he got nervous he spoke without thinking.

  Nassor narrowed his eyes. “You brought an animal back from the dead?”

  “No, Victor did. With lightning and BOOM! And SSS!!” E replied, pulling his hair up as though lightning had made it stand on end.

  “Impossible,” Nassor and Toshiaki said at the same time.

  E shook his head. “I swear! I mean he already brought back his dog.” Oops! He had done it again! He had promised Victor he wouldn’t say anything. If Victor found out that E had cracked under the pressure he was going to be so mad!

  “He brought back Sparky?” the boys asked. E had no choice but to nod. The other boys exchanged a look. If E was telling the truth, it meant that Victor was going to win the science fair, hands down. Unless…they could think of something that was bigger and better than bringing a dog back to life.

  Victor was worried. Not only was his favorite teacher leaving, he still didn’t understand what had gone wrong with the fish experiment. If the fish could disappear that easily, did that mean Sparky would disappear eventually?

  He knew the only person who could help him was his science teacher. So as soon as school was over, he began to search for Mr. Rzykruski. He had to be around somewhere.

  Finally, Victor found the teacher packing up his car in the school parking lot. He was stuffing the car full of odds and ends from his classroom. The car was as strange as Mr. Rzykruski himself and already looked to be full.

  “I can’t believe the gym teacher is in charge of the science fair,” Victor said, walking up behind Mr. Rzykruski. “She’s not even interested in science.”

  Turning around, Mr. Rzykruski smiled at his favorite student. He would miss Victor. “Back home, everyone is scientist,” he said. He held up his hand and began counting on his fingers. “Physicist, chemist, biologist. My plumber, he wins the Nobel Prize. Your country does not make enough scientists. You should be a scientist.”

  “Nobody likes scientists,” Victor said sadly.

  Mr. Rzykruski nodded. The boy had a point. “They like what science gives them, but not the questions—no, not the questions that science asks.”

  Victor’s heart began to beat faster. It was now or never. “I have a question,” he said.

  “That is why you are scientist,” Mr. Rzykruski replied.

  Smiling a little, Victor gathered his courage. He trusted Mr. Rzykruski. And he was the smartest man he knew. If he couldn’t help Victor, no one could. He had to ask, for Sparky’s sake. “I was doing my experiment, my project, and the first time it worked great,” Victor began. “But the next time it didn’t. I mean it sort of worked, but then it didn’t. And I don’t know why.”

  Mr. Rzykruski was silent for a moment, taking in his student’s words. Then he spoke. “Then maybe you never really understood it the first time. People think science is here…” He tapped Victor’s head. Then he tapped his heart. “But it is also here. The first time, did you love your experiment?”

  Victor thought back to that terrible day when he lost Sparky. And then the hope he had felt when he found a way to bring him back. He remembered the lightning and the flash and then the waiting and the wishing. And then he remembered hugging Sparky, so scared it hadn’t worked. And finally, he remembered the joy when Sparky licked his face. Of course he had loved his experiment. Sparky was his best friend.

  “Yes,” he answered simply.

  “And the second time?” Mr. Rzykruski asked.

  This time when Victor thought about the fish and E and the lightning crackling, he didn’t feel worry or hope or joy. He remembered just wishing that E had never seen Sparky. And he remembered thinking that if he helped E, maybe the boy would leave him alone. “No,” he said. “I just wanted it to be over.”

  Mr. Rzykruski nodded. Just as he suspected. “You changed the variables,” he explained.

  “I was doing it for the wrong reason,” Victor said, understanding washing over him.

  “Science is not good or bad, Victor,” Mr. Rzykruski said, shutting the trunk of his car. “But it can be used both
ways. That is why you must always be careful.” Holding out his hand, he and Victor shook. Then the teacher got in his car and drove off.

  Watching him leave, Victor felt a huge weight come off his shoulders. He knew what had gone wrong with the fish now. But he had loved Sparky when he brought him back. And he would love him forever. So Sparky would be safe, just as long as nobody found out about him…

  t was Dutch Day in New Holland. The event that Mayor Burgemeister had been preparing for all year and the event that gave the town citizens an excuse to break out their lederhosen and wooden shoes. Downtown, the main square had been completely transformed. Storefronts were decorated with pictures of canals and tulips. The street was lined with more tulips and booths set up to sell Van Gogh replicas and mini windmills. A few carnival rides had been set up on the outskirts of the square and several oompah bands meandered about, oomping as loudly as they could. Everyone was in a festive mood as the final touches were put up for the big party later that night.

  In her kitchen, Mrs. Frankenstein was busy looking through her recipe book. She needed to find something perfect to make for the bake sale. Carrot cake? No, not Dutch enough. Stroopwafel? No, too Dutch. Chocolate cherry cheese cupcakes? Perfect! She even had everything she needed in the house.

  Turning on the oven, she began to mix the ingredients. She beat the eggs and stirred in the oil and sugar. Then she added some flour and cocoa and finished with cream cheese and a few spoonfuls of jam. But when she went to put the mix into the muffin tin, she couldn’t find it. She searched through her cabinets, pulling out pan after pan, but none of them were the right one.

  Frustrated, she sat back on her heels. Where could her muffin tin have gone?

  And then she knew—Victor.

  Up in the attic, Sparky was taking a nap when he heard the doorknob begin to rattle. Jumping to his feet, he began to look for a place to hide.

  On the other side of the attic door, Mrs. Frankenstein turned the knob a few more times. It was locked. Pulling a pin out of her hair, she fiddled with it, bending and twisting until it was an eerily accurate–looking key. Apparently, Victor wasn’t the only creative member of the family. Placing it into the lock, she wiggled a few times and then the door unlocked with a POP and swung open.