"Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Fletcher, sir!" The middle-aged woman sped out of the room, clutching the paper that had Ferb's solution written on it.

Ferb smiled. He allowed himself a moment to relax before he pressed the "next" button. Being in charge of the planet wasn't as scary as he'd imagined. Every day, he saw maybe a dozen or two people with problems. There were all kinds of problems. Sometimes the buses didn't stop at intersections where kids were crossing the road. Sometimes two cities didn't get along. Sometimes there wasn't enough money for a program. There were all kinds of problems, and Ferb had an answer for them all.

Ferb was great at solving problems. He could see solutions that others couldn't. He could weigh multiple factors without having to decide which was most important. He found that solving problems was a lot like building a very complex machine: When you knew what you wanted the machine to do, it was easy to align the parts, both big and small. Sometimes, there were parts missing. Ferb found new ones. Sometimes, parts were put in the wrong way. Ferb fixed them. Sometimes, parts didn't fit. Ferb adjusted them so they did.

There were differences, too. Often, the most enjoyable part of ruling was helping people see the solutions for themselves. Machines couldn't do that.

The best part of every day, though, was seeing people leave his office smiling. Ferb liked fixing things, whether they were machines or people.

Ferb pressed the "next" button. Another problem was waiting for a solution.