3 The Big Push

CHAPTER 3 THE BIG PUSH Luckily, the potato-powered translation transmitter level is right above us, so it's not too hard to get there. We set the controls to ALL LANGUAGES, ALL CREATURES, VERY LOUD, and Jill begins speaking…

Jill has only just finished speaking when Terry points excitedly at the animals streaming toward us from the forest.

"It's working!" says Terry. "Look— here they come!" The residents of the treehouse join us too, and soon our tree is filled with an army of willing pushers. We all line up behind Terry and push… "Go, Terry!" I shout. We push and push and push… Terry gets closer and closer. "I'm almost there!" Terry shouts back. "But I still can't quite…" "You've got this, Terry!" says Jill. "You just need one last big push! Everybody ready?"

With the power of the last big push, Terry manages to get close enough to the weather dome door to slam it firmly shut!

"We did it!" I say. "All the weather is back in the weather dome where it belongs." A big cheer rises up from below, where a large crowd has gathered. "Hey, look!" says Terry, waving. "There are

television cameras down there. We're famous!" "How does it feel to be heroes?" calls our old friend Wanda Write-a-lot while Jimmy Snapshot clicks away with his camera. "Pretty good, actually!" says Terry. Then he turns to us. "Did you hear that? We're heroes. I've always wanted to be a hero." "Well," I say, "technically, it's me and Jill and everybody else who helped push who are the heroes, not you." "What do you mean?" says Terry. "You're the one who left the door open," I remind