6 PLAYDOUGH

CHAPTER 6 PLAYDOUGH

I sat and thought. And then I stood and thought. And then I walked around and thought. What could I add to stop the mold from growing on Gorp's fur? My investigations with the bread had been about getting more mold to grow, not about stopping it from growing at all. The bread in the freezer never grew any mold. But putting Gorp in a freezer was probably not the sort of solution he had in mind. I sat down at our dining room table. Sassafras jumped into my lap. I petted him and stared at the messy table, covered with my art projects and things I'd invented using stuff my mom saved for me from our recycling. Maybe my Thinking Goggles weren't positioned right. I moved them to the spot on my head I figured was closest to my brain and waited. I was looking at all the things on the table when a word started bouncing around in my head. Playdough. Playdough?

"OK, Thinking Goggles. If you say so," I muttered. I started playing with the playdough and waited for more inspiration from my goggles. I made a little Gorp out of playdough. Sassafras saw the playdough Gorp and purred. I laughed. Boy did my cat love Gorp! I was making a little Sassafras to put next to the little Gorp when it hit me. The moldy playdough! Of course! One time I'd wanted to make a batch of sparkly grape-scented playdough. I gathered up all of my supplies, but the salt container was almost empty. It only had a teaspoon of salt left in it. The playdough recipe said I needed two-thirds of a cup of salt. I decided to add the teaspoon of salt and hoped the

playdough would still turn out fine. And it did. Well, at first. I went to grab it a few days later, and it was completely fuzzy with mold. I was shocked. I brought the container to my mom to show her. "Salt keeps the playdough fresh," she'd said. "If there's not enough salt, the playdough will mold." Mom called the salt a special word. What was it again? It started with a p... p... p... This was going

to drive me nuts! I heard the front door close. Phew. Mom was here. She could remind me. And I bet she'd also know what to put on Gorp's fur.