Chapter 8

8 FRANK EINSTEIN PULLS A PHILLIPS-HEAD SCREWDRIVER OUT OF HIS lab-coat pocket and quickly rewires the repair-shop doorbell button. Frank pushes the doorbell to check his connection. The newly connected rubber fish on a plaque on the wall of Frank's laboratory whips

its head out sideways and starts singing, "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!" Watson listens to the tune coming from the lab. He nods. "Nice." Frank flips the shop sign over from OPEN to RING BUZZER. He locks the front door to keep out any more unwanted visitors. "Now let's get to work," says Frank. "We've got a prize to win." He and Watson head out of the shop and back into the yard. "Klink, Klank into the lab!"

Klink pops to life and rolls quickly toward Frank and Watson. Klank throws off his dryer-drum disguise and hustles across the backyard, dragging a mess of copper wire tangled around his left arm and a green garden hose wrapped around his right leg. In the lab, Frank stands in front of his Wall of Science, which is plastered with hundreds of his plans, ideas, sketches, notes, inventions, doodles, and pictures of his favorite scientists. Klink, Klank, and Watson face Frank and the Wall. Frank starts pacing back and forth, the way he does when he's really thinking. "OK, here's what we've got. All of science. Every bit of what the world is and how it works. From the tiniest bit of matter to the giantest outer space of maybe a gazillion universes. But first—I need the coolest invention to win the Midville Science Prize. Klink and Klank, we are going

to need every bit of your robot intelligence." "Yes," says Klink. "I am sure you will." "Oh boy. Oh boy," says Klank. "Are we going to make a baking-soda volcano?" "No," says Frank. "Collect cow farts?" Frank paces. "Could be a good idea... but not right now." Klank whirs and hums for a minute. "Build a Shrinky-Pig 2000?" "Please do not start with the Poopypants again," Klink beeps. "We are going to need something crazy," says Frank. "Something new. Something amazing." Watson drops his backpack onto the workbench. "We can use my project." "Thanks for the offer, Watson, but—"

Watson pulls out a plastic tub filled with a tan-colored goo. "It's new. And it is amazing. It will do for peanut butter what the Kellogg brothers did for corn." "Yes!" beeps Klank. "What Goodyear did for rubber." "Yes, yes!" boops Klank. "What Walter Diemer did for gum!" "Yes... Wait a minute. Who?" bleeps Klank. Klink searches his database in a nanosecond. "Philadelphia accountant. Inventor of bubble gum. 1928. He maximized the elasticity of the gum for better formation of bubbles." Watson breaks off a big chunk of the tan goo and holds it up to the light. "Yes. We will win the prize, wow the world, and save Grampa Al's place from Edison and his ape! It's the universe's strongest, most delicious, so

amazing... Watson's Universal-Strength Peanut Butter Bubble Gum!" "Thanks for the very generous offer," says Frank. "But—" Klank shakes the garden hose off his leg. "Most delicious? So amazing? Yes, I want Watson's Universal-Strength Peanut Butter Bubble Gum!" Klank snatches the goo out of Watson's hand. Frank calls, "Klank, don't—" But before anyone can stop him, Klank pushes the wad of gum into his input port. "Mmmmmmmm," says Klank. Klank's hard-drive brain whirs hard. "Urrrrrrrk," says Klank. Klank's head starts to heat up. His eyes roll funny. "Quaaaaaaaaa," moans Klank. Klank's brain fan spins furiously. Switches