“Let’s put it this way, Dad. Traveling into the past and future sounds cool, but it’s a lot smarter to stay in your own time.”
As Alfred Funkhouser left to congratulate Harold, Mildred Maraschino came up to Freddy.
“Oh, Freddy,” said Mildred, “I can’t thank you enough.”
“For what, Ms. Maraschino?”
“For bringing Silas back.” She handed him a book. It was a copy of The Entire History of Pookesville in 31 1/2 Pages. It was open to a particular page. Freddy read it quickly.
“It doesn’t say here that Silas Finklebean disappeared! It just says that he was a very successful inventor and a great father.” He paused and said, “He was your father, wasn’t he?”
She looked surprised. “Yes, he was my father.
Before my marriage my name was Mildred Finklebean. How did you know?”
“When we went to your cottage I saw a picture on your mantel of two people. One looked a lot like you as a young girl and the other looked like Silas Finklebean. That’s why I thought he might have left the gyroscope with you. And the little girl who ran out to see him when we brought Silas back to his time was the little girl in that photo, meaning you.”
She smiled kindly at him. “You are one smart young man.”
“I saw you over near the time machine before we went into the future. Were you the one who set the time dial to 2206?”
She nodded. “When I was a little girl I thought I heard my father talking to me. He said the number 2206 over and over. I thought I was dreaming.”
“He was sending you a message from the future using the QUIT.” Mildred looked puzzled and Freddy quickly added, “It’s sort of complicated.”
“Well, I never told anyone because they would have thought I was crazy. But when I saw your time machine today I recognized it from some plans that I saw in my father’s lab. I knew he was working on some sort of time travel thing, and it struck me that the number 2206 might actually be the year where he was. So I snuck into the machine and set the time dial. I could only hope that it would take you to him.”
“Well, that clears that up,” Freddy said, but then he looked puzzled. “But since we changed the past, the ’future’ never happened in the way it did before. So how did you even know about us?”
“Easy. Silas told me when he got back. Just like you remembered what happened.”
“Well, I guess that’s the mystery of time travel that we’ll never completely understand.”
Mildred took something out of her pocketbook and handed it to him. It was the “wishing” mirror her father had given her. “I wanted you to have this, seeing as how you helped make my wish of having my father back come true.” She gave him a hug and then left.
As Freddy watched her go, he heard a scream behind him. Storming out of the Burger Castle was his sister Nancy. She was covered in paint and carrying what looked to be pieces of torn canvas. Behind her came a photographer and reporter from the Pookesville Tattler, laughing their heads off.
“Freddy Funkhouser, I am going to cream you, you little rat,” she screamed.
“What did I do?”
“You know very well what you did, or should I say, didn’t do. The Nancy S. Funkhouser Imperial Theater and Museum? There’s nothing there, you little jerk!”
Freddy looked at Si. “What did you do?”
“Hee-hee,” laughed Si nervously. “It’s sort of a long, depressing story and I’m just too happy of a Fry to tell it.”
“I told you,” moaned a terrified Meese as he watched Nancy stomping toward them. “She’s going to massacre all of us.”
“Not me she’s not,” yelled Si. “See you in the future.” He and Meese took off running towards the time machine with the others in hot pursuit.
“Stop!” said Freddy. He, Howie, and the other Fries raced after them with Nancy right behind. But Wally, who was just inches ahead of Nancy, couldn’t stop in time. He slammed into the gang and they all sailed headfirst into the time machine and the hatch slammed shut behind them. Nancy pounded on the hatch futilely. “Come out of there, you creep, so I can annihilate you!”
Wally was right next to the control panel.
“Whatever you do, Wally, don’t hit the GO button,” warned Freddy, who was squashed in the back.
“What, this one?” said Wally as he pushed the button.
“WWWAAALLLYYY!” they all screamed together as the time machine blasted off once more.
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Table of Contents
Dedication
CHAPTER 1: Fries Definitely Alive
CHAPTER 2: The Spanker Whammo
CHAPTER 3: Theodore’s Coconutdumdum
CHAPTER 4: The Mystery of Silas Finklebean
CHAPTER 5: Harold J. Pumpernickel
CHAPTER 6: No Spy Fry
CHAPTER 7: Curly to the Rescue
CHAPTER 8: The Finklebean Special
CHAPTER 9: Some Funky Answers
CHAPTER 10: The Star of Nancy
CHAPTER 11: The Science of Competition
CHAPTER 12: Lydia the Lunatic
CHAPTER 13: The Junkyard Joust
CHAPTER 14: Harold Returns the Favor
CHAPTER 15: Ask a Librarian
CHAPTER 16: The Power of Purple and Blue
CHAPTER 17: The Primo Fakeout
CHAPTER 18: Testing Time
CHAPTER 19: The Spanker Switcheroo
CHAPTER 20: A Matter of Time
CHAPTER 21: The Future Now
CHAPTER 22: Busting Out the Bean
CHAPTER 23: All’s Well That Ends Funky
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The Mystery of Silas Finklebean Page 10