Chapter 3

3 LINK, KLANK, FRANK, WATSON, AND JANEGOODALL WHEEL, CLOMP, run as fast as they can down Main Street, left on Oak Street, right on Pine, and into Frank Einstein's laboratory. They slam the door shut behind them and fall on the old couch. Frank and Watson and Janegoodall laugh and pant for breath. Klink and Klank observe their human pals, puzzled. "What is with the rapid air intake?" asks Klink. "We used up a lot of oxygen running so fast," explains Frank. "So our bodies are working faster than usual to replace it."

"I see," says Klink, scanning his instant research on the human respiratory system. "Your muscles are pulling down your diaphragm, causing your lungs to expand, drawing air into your nose and mouth, down your trachea, through your bronchial tubes..." "Exactly," says Frank, parking the FrankenDrone on a shelf above the

workbench. "...into smaller airways called bronchioles," continues Klink, "that end in small balloon-like air sacs called alveoli, that are surrounded by the smallest blood vessels, called capillaries... "...where the inhaled air passes into the blood

and back to the heart, delivering oxygen to the cells and tissues and organs of your body." "Wow," says Janegoodall. "No kidding," adds Watson. "Or you could have just said we are out of breath." "I am not kidding," says Klink. "And why are you laughing?" This makes Watson and Janegoodall laugh harder. "We just got away from someone with a broken window who was going to be very mad," says Watson. "Why is that funny?" asks Klink. "I know why," says Klank. "It is funny like: Why did the chicken cross the road?" Klink blinks a green light and hums. "From the information you have given me, I cannot tell. Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"To get to the other side!" beeps Klank. "Ha-ha-ha!" Klink blinks rapidly now. "What? And why is that funny? Why is it a chicken? What does a chicken..." Klink's hard-drive brain spins and stops, spins and stops. Frank jumps up and knocks Klink on the side of his glass dome. "Forget the chicken. Time to get going on our experiment." Frank digs through a pile of broken toys and a heap of brightly colored models. "It's perfect that Grampa Al cleaned out both the old toy store and the old hospital. And added all these great pieces to his Fix It! junkyard." Frank holds up a giant wind-up cockroach and an oversize model of the human ear. "We've got everything we could possibly need." "No kidding!" says Watson.

Janegoodall picks up a stuffed dog with no ears and a blue-veined model of a red human heart. "Really? And why exactly do we need all this junk?" "Here's why," says Frank. "My first idea."