Chapter 3

Phineas fiddled with his seat-back tray table as he moved it up and down. He turned to Ferb as he kept pestering him about going home.

"Feels good to finally be on the plane, huh?" he said as he leaned over the armrest. "Four more hours and we'll be back home!"

Ferb crossed his arms over his chest as he scooched closer to the other side, closing his eyes a bit. "I just want to get to Danville."

"Yeah, me too," Phineas answered, sitting back into his own seat. "What do you want to do when we get there? See, I was thinking that once we get unpacked we can make this big boomerang that when you hit the button it-"

"Quit bothering me, I'm trying to sleep," Ferb said as he repositioned and closed his eyes tighter. "These flights are long enough as it is."

"Oh, sorry," Phineas said, pulling his knees in and setting his hands on his lap neatly.

The plane arrived in Danville Airport at a late hour. After the family had taken their car out of the parking garage, the group headed home eagerly and upon entering the house, set off to unpack their suitcases. Ferb, however, decided to go straight to bed.

"Wake up, sleepy head! It's already 7am!" Phineas called the next morning. Ferb awoke with a moan and pushed the pillow out from under him.

"So I have a lot of ideas about what to do today," Phineas started, hopping back over to his own bed. "But we have to choose one fast cause the delivery truck makes its rounds in about two hours and we have to get the order in-"

"No, we're not making any of those," Ferb said as he got up to walk over to the desk in the corner of the room.

"Okay, so what are we making?" Phineas said in curiosity, following Ferb.

Ferb had pulled out a roughly-drawn blueprint and flattened it out on the surface. Phineas came over and looked down at it.

"Neat! You drew this yourself?" Phineas was reading all over it. "Soooo… whatz'it do?"

"I'm not telling you," stated Ferb.

"Oh cool, a surprise." Phineas had not taken his eyes off the paper. "Well, it makes enough sense that we can build it together. Grab the parts list and I'll call the delivery truck!"

"You, wake up."

Ferb opened his eyes to the dark lobby, to see the hotel manager standing over him.

"This is a hotel. If you want to sleep here, you have to pay."

Ferb lifted his head a bit to squint at his watch. "Its 4am. You want me to pay 120$ to sleep in a bed for two hours?"

"It's policy. No loitering in the lobby for more than a few hours," the manager explained sternly.

"Two hours. I'll be out of here by six, not a minute later." Ferb sat up to respectfully address the hotel employee.

He just rolled his eyes at him. "Fine, but at 6:01 I'm calling security."

Phineas grabbed two of the metal pieces that had just been delivered into their garage. He fitted them together and reached over to grab a screw. On the other side of the garage, Ferb had on his welder's mask and was aiming the wand at a joint between two metal poles.

"So we got a whole box of two-inch screws, right?" Phineas said, turning in his seat to better talk to Ferb. His eyes then jumped open widely.

"Woah, woah, woah, Ferb!" he leapt over to the other side and yanked the torch out of his hands. "You're gonna burn your entire arm off if you hold it like that!"

Phineas slowly let go of his grip on the torch, calmed down and handed it back to Ferb. "You've only been welding for seven years. Are you okay? Cause you've been acting really strangely."

Ferb just stared up at him and snatched back the wand. "I'm fine."

Most of the rest of the day was spent in the garage, and they made a lot of headway on their project before lunch. A couple of minutes after they had eaten, Phineas spotted Perry through the open door that led into the house.

"Hah, Ferb, look at Perry," he said as he set down the piece he was working on. He then leaned out of his chair to point in the direction. "He's all laying upside-down with his feet in the air! And he's staring at the wall over there."

Ferb clenched his knuckles into a fist. "I don't care about your dumb platypus, Phineas."

Phineas suddenly grew quiet and looked back at his brother. "…You don't? I thought you liked Perry?"

"You've been wondering about that stupid thing all day," he replied, not taking his attention off the small screwdriver in front of him. "Stop getting so distracted so you can get back to work."

A disappointed and surprised look crossed Phineas' face. "When did you get so snappy all of the sudden?"

"I'm not snappy," Ferb retorted with another frown. "I just want you to focus more."

The waiter crossed around the table and held up a large silver carafe. "Can I get you more coffee?" he said as he pulled it over.

"Huh? No I'm good," Ferb answered after looking up from his breakfast. After all the circumstances he was grateful that, of anything, he at least still had his wallet with him. When he had woken up that morning he discovered that he was absolutely starving, having not eaten anything since lunch the previous day. Now, he shoveled bacon and eggs into his mouth as he stared thoughtfully over the backs of the chairs across from him.

"Do you think he was a clone?" Ferb asked the waiter after he had set his fork onto his plate. "I don't think we've ever made clones before. We thought they'd be too dangerous."

The waiter just kept holding his coffee pitcher as he stared, unmoving, back at Ferb.

"But if he was a clone, then he'd have my same personality," Ferb continued, still directing it towards the waiter but clearly talking to himself. "And he definitely wasn't a clone of me. He was… forceful, and angry…."

"Well…" the waiter said in response, darting his eyes left and right with uncomfortable skepticism. "I'll go bring you the check."

"Say…?" Ferb said, leaning out of his chair as the waiter attempted to turn around the corner. The waiter stopped moving but refrained from returning to the conversation.

Ferb saw him respond to his question and continued. He peered around another corner to where the bathrooms were located. "…You don't happen to have a payphone here, do you?"

The waiter let out a sigh of relief when he realized that this was a quite normal question. "Yes, actually. It's right near the coat rack over there. Hasn't been used in ages, though."

"Thanks," Ferb said as he stood up from the table. "Set the check over here, I'll be right back."

Phineas placed the brown paper bag of groceries on the countertop with a light crumpling sound. He then returned to the front door to grab another.

"Thanks a lot for helping me with the shopping, boys!" their mom called out from the car. "It's sure easier to have another set of hands."

"No problem, Mom!" Phineas answered, passing Ferb who was standing in the doorway. He had his back leaning on the doorframe as he watched his mom close the trunk of the car. Coming back up the stairs, both Phineas and their mom entered back into the house. Ferb turned in and followed them.

"Hey, look," Phineas said as he ran into the kitchen. "There's a message on the machine. Must've been left while we were gone."

"Who's it from?" his mom asked from her place sorting the bags.

"Dunno. Let's find out!" Phineas pressed the play button, and the machine rang out.

Hey, guys, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that I'm okay. I'll be trying to get ho-

The message then cut off. Phineas turned around curiously, and saw that Ferb had his finger over the delete button. He looked back up at Phineas and replied shortly, "There's no reason you need to hear that."

"Umm, yeah I guess not," Phineas agreed tentatively. "But where were you when you left it?"

"It doesn't matter where I was. I'm here now," he said with little inflection.

"That's true I suppose. But I was going to listen to it anyway," Phineas pointed out with a little bit of sad regret.

"I said that it doesn't matter," Ferb replied as he pushed past him roughly, heading for upstairs.