Free The Mystery of Silas Finklebean by David Baldacci, Rudy Baldacci Page B

happen when I push the GO button inside the time travel machine.”
    “Wow, Freddy,” said Howie. “This is so cool. We’re really going to travel through time.”
    “That’s the general idea,” said Freddy. He picked up three football helmets and handed one to Howie and another to Theodore.
    “What’s this for?” asked Howie.
    “In case something goes wrong.”
    “Will something go wrong?” he asked nervously.
    “I don’t know, Howie. That’s why we wear the helmets.”
    They climbed in and sat on the Elvis blue suede seat, and Freddy closed the hatch-like door. They went through their checklists like pilots did before a flight.
    “Check-check-check-check and double check,” said Howie in answer to Freddy’s questions. “We are roger wilco and ready to GO-GO.”
    “Okay, Theodore,” said Freddy, “engage the time dial.”
    Theodore set the time dial for five minutes earlier. He nodded at Freddy, who took a deep breath and hit the GO button.
    Instantly, there was a feeling of tremendous speed and blazing colors right outside the machine. As they looked out they could make out a swirl of things moving, like people and buildings. Freddy and Howie screamed once when something flashed next to the window. It looked like a large bird, but it was flying upside down.

    “Look!” cried Howie. “That looks like the earth.”
    Sure enough, right outside was a large shape that looked just like the earth. And just beyond it was a far larger shape.
    “That’s the sun,” exclaimed Freddy. “Wait a minute. The earth is going around the sun, but it’s going around it backward. Because we’re moving
back
in time!”
    Then there was a humming sound, and they could feel themselves slowing down. A few seconds later the machine came to a smooth stop, and everything was calm again. They peered outside.
    “Oh, my gosh,” said Freddy. He was staring at himself, Howie, and Theodore. Freddy was just pouring the blue stuff into the time machine, and he was speaking the exact words he had spoken five minutes earlier.
    They all looked at each other in stunned silence. Finally, they all cried out together. “It works! It works! We did it!” They high-fived each other, and Theodore even gave Howie a couple of head noogies.
    After they had calmed down, Freddy set the time dial for the time they had left and hit GO. They were instantly blasted by waves of color again. Things swooped and darted by the windows.
    As they were watching this the strange humming sound started again, and they cruised to a smooth stop.
    Freddy shouted, “We can go anywhere in time that we want! We can see everything.”
    Suddenly, Howie’s eyes got really huge. “Freddy, do you know what that means? If we go into the future, we’ll know things before they even happened. Like, I could see the answers on the math test and then come back and get a hundred.”
    “Howie, that would be cheating,” scolded Freddy.
    “That’s just because you always get hundreds anyway. But you could go into the future and see what’ll happen to you. And if you don’t like it, you could change it.”
    Theodore said sternly, “Changing the future can have very serious repercussions.”
    “That’s right, Howie,” said Freddy. “Besides, we have something else to worry about right now. Remember the volcano? Adam’s going to use it to cover the Burger Castle in goop.”
    “That’s right!” exclaimed Howie. “I know. If he does, we can go back in the time machine and change it.”
    Freddy chuckled. “I don’t need the time machine to take care of Adam and his stupid volcano. I’d say
his
future looks pretty bad.”

CHAPTER 19
    THE SPANKER SWITCHEROO
    Late that night Freddy, Howie, and the Fries snuck back to the Burger Castle after it had closed. Howie and Freddy put on dark outfits and covered their faces with masks. Then the two boys put on their Red Rocket tennis shoes.
    “We look like burglars,” said Howie.
    Wally said nervously,