“Hello, Remi,” Mr. Pilf said, glancing down from the ladder. “What have you been up to?”
“Waiting around for an adventure, mostly. How about you?”
Mr. Pilf reached the ground and brushed off his spiffy black jacket. Everyone moved in close, curious why he was so dolled up.
“Busy,” Mr. Pilf said. “In the field of wacky inventions. I work there now, with Merganzer and Powell and the monkeys.”
“That’s not all he’s been up to,” Mr. Powell said, his eyes taking to the sky once more.
A small section of the cabin under the blimp disengaged and began moving down. It was a white platform of about four feet by four feet, and as it came closer, everyone saw that someone was standing on top of it.
“Miss Harrington?” Leo and Lucy said simultaneously.
She didn’t speak. Instead, she smiled the smile of a bride, which tends to be a special sort of smile. She was wearing a sparkling white dress.
“Well,” E. J. Bosco said. “You have been busy.”
“I’ve been visiting her on the weekends,” Mr. Pilf said. “It just sort of … happened, I suppose.”
“You were meant for each other,” Merganzer added.
Pilar took Mr. Fillmore’s hand in hers, remembering her own wedding fondly.
“I love a wedding,” she said. “The happiest occasion on earth.”
It turned into a magical evening of sparkling lights, lots of dancing, and plenty of laughter. Remi stole the show with his recently acquired break-dancing skills, and Leo and Lucy slow danced for the very first time. Miss Harrington, who was aglow with happiness as the new Mrs. Pilf, threw the bouquet. It was caught by Alfred Whitney, which produced much speculation on the dance floor. It was a night full of magic, and on nights such as those, there is meaning in a thing like catching a bouquet.
“Did you bring Phil?” Lucy asked Merganzer, when it came her turn to dance with the most mysterious man she’d ever known.
“I’m afraid I did not,” Merganzer said. He paused for a moment, letting the disappointment really set in. “Would you like to visit him?”
“More than just about anything I can think of,” Lucy answered, hoping against all hope.
“Wish granted!” Merganzer said, and seeing the look on her face, he added: “I do so like granting wishes. Very exciting.”
The party went on for a little longer, and then Merganzer surprised them all by inviting them on a long weekend to a place they all wanted to go.
“We’re all going to the field of wacky inventions — I insist. I’ve got some new rides to show you. You haven’t even tried the Scorpion, Typhoon!, or BLAMMO. The antigravity room is tip-top, ready for another Wyro. And I have new puzzles and games and books and tea.”
“I need to see this antigravity business,” Captain Rickenbacker said to Mr. Phipps.
“And a new puzzle for us to solve.” Mr. Phipps glowed. “We do like a good puzzle, don’t we?”
Captain Rickenbacker nodded, then went to the rope ladder to do some reconnaissance work.
“Come along then, it’s time we made our way under the cover of darkness.”
It was a very Merganzer thing to say. An adventure was afoot, or so it seemed, and danger was in the air.
Everyone boarded together and they flew away into the night sky as one big family. Many hands were held that night on the airship bound for a secret field. Captain Rickenbacker’s cape fluttered in the wind and Leo could only imagine what his superhero friend would think of MONDAR. They were a match made in heaven.
Leo leaned over the rail of the cabin and breathed in the cool night air. His two best friends in the whole world stood beside him, and he thought that one day they would all fly so far they might never return. The adventure would only get bigger and more dangerous, until one day, far away in the future, they would vanish into the night sky, to a hotel even Merganzer D. Whippet could not build.
And there they would live on, forever finding new floors to explore and new adventures to be had.
Leo thought this marvelous thought as the wind blew through his thick mop of hair and the airship rose higher and higher on its way to the field of wacky inventions.
And beyond.
Trilogies can be a daunting task (fun to start, harder to finish), but they are made less so when I find myself surrounded by talented friends. As we come now to the end of our time in the Whippet Hotel, these people made the task both a joy and a triumph: David Levithan, Lauren Felsenstein, Chris Stengel, Peter Rubie, Susan Schulman (to whom this book is also dedicated), Erin Black, Janet Robbins, and Bess Braswell.
Chris Turnham created whimsically wonderful artwork for the entire series, and Jesse Bernstein brought the audiobooks to life.
For my close friends, who put up with all my Ms. Sparks moments and still decide to keep me around: Skip Pritchard, Mike Wilcox, Jeff Green, Jeremy Gonzalez, Jeffrey Townsend, Marcus Wilcox, Matt McKern, and Squire Broel.
Fellow friends who are also authors and know the sharp curves and exhausting moments along the way — David Shannon and Jon Scieszka.
For moms — Remy and Oma — you always read my books and say nice things, and that’s 100 percent of what is hoped for. Hugs.
And above all to Reece Carman, for her boundless imagination and big heart. She made the Whippet Hotel possible. She really did. XOXO.
Patrick Carman is the author of many acclaimed bestselling series for children and young adults, including The Land of Elyon, Floors, Atherton, Skeleton Creek, and Trackers. He lives with his family in Walla Walla, Washington.
www.patrickcarman.com
Copyright © 2013 by Patrick Carman
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carman, Patrick.
The field of wacky inventions / Patrick Carman. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Floors ; bk. 3)
Summary: Leo and Remi have gotten used to the strangeness of the Whippet Hotel, but when the entire top floor is hoisted into the sky and transported to the field of wacky inventions, they find that they must compete against a number of foes to solve a puzzle or lose their beloved hotel forever.
ISBN 978-0-545-25521-9 (jacketed hardcover) 1. Hotels — Juvenile fiction. 2. Puzzles — Juvenile fiction. 3. Adventure stories. [1. Hotels, motels, etc. — Fiction. 2. Puzzles — Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C21694Fie 2013
[Fic] — dc23
2013006690
First edition, October 2013
Cover art © 2013 by Chris Turnham
Cover design by Christopher Stengel
e-ISBN 978-0-545-57648-2
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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