Chapter 16

Phineas was pacing all up and down his bedroom. A computer running a homemade program was open on the desk beside him, as Phineas ran his fingers on his face. Candace stood in the doorway and watched with concern as her little brother fretted over nothing in the world except for Ferb's whereabouts.

"It's six FIFTEEN, Candace!" Phineas was saying. "Only a little more than an hour! I put all the numbers into the computer five or six more times, and it's definitely been 105.75 hours already! I bet Ferb is getting sick right now, and I'm not there next to him!"

"Calm down, Phinny," Candace comforted. "Let's go over it again. What do we know about where he is?"

Taking a few deep breaths, Phineas looked up at his sister, who had her hand on his shoulder. He tried to think as he organized his thoughts. "Well… we know he's at somebody's house. And when he called my phone it sounded li—"

"Wait," Candace stopped him. "He called you on your cell phone?"

"Yeah," Phineas whimpered. "But I didn't have the translator on me so I couldn't understand what he was trying to tell me! Maybe I would've found him already…"

"No, Phineas, that's not what I meant," Candace said as she pointed towards Phineas' desk. "Do you still have the number on your phone?"

"It's in the recent calls," Phineas confirmed. But he shook his head. "I tried calling again, but they stopped picking up after the third or fourth time."

Candace took the phone from her brother, and spun his laptop towards her. After doing some typing, she turned it back and showed him a search engine.

"Why don't you type it in there, and see if it will pull up an internet phone book?" she suggested. "And find the address."

Phineas snatched up the computer and looked at it. Then he tipped his wide eyes back to Candace. "Are you allowed to do that?"

"I have no idea," Candace replied. She pointed at it. "But I say there's no reason not to give it a try."

Phineas threw his fast fingers over the keyboard. After a second, he leapt up and pointed enthusiastically at the screen.

"Five eight three three Walker Street!" he yelled as he started running around the room. "That's like a forty-five minute drive all the way on the other side of town!"

Candace leapt up and grabbed onto his arm, stopping him. Phineas looked at her anxiously and whispered, "What if I go all the way over there, and he's not there? Then I would only have less than a half hour lef—"

But Candace had leaned away and snatched Phineas' car keys off of his bedspread. She thrust them onto his chest and shushed him, "Stop thinking and drive! Drive, brother, drive!"

The room spun around Ferb's head as he fought to keep his eyes open. He was so hot; his fur wasn't helping him as he felt waves of heat rush over. He would've been sweating if he could.

He was breathing deep breaths through his mouth in an effort to cool him off, but he wished he knew how to pant the right way. And his heart was beating faster than normal; he couldn't get it to slow down no matter how loud it was.

"David… I think there's something wrong with him," Martha said nervously. She had gotten down on her hands and knees to examine Ferb. "He's been moping around all day, like something is bothering him."

Sticking her fingers in his fur, Martha let the strands show through between them in bunches. "And his skin is so hot."

"I know… why," Ferb moaned. "I wanna… be myself… again."

But then Martha had leaned her head down as she ran her fingers deeper. She backed up and commented, "Hey, David…? Had you ever noticed this before?"

"Noticed what?" he asked from his place at the kitchen table. They had just sat down to start on the freshly-made casserole.

"His fur…" Martha inspected. "At the bottom it's all… green."

"Green?" David repeated, leaving his plate and coming over. "Like the color, green?"

"After what happened, he has brown hair now… but it still grows as green," Martha spoke distantly.

"What do you mean by that?" David asked her as he, too, sat on the floor.

Martha took her hand away from Ferb's back and looked to the corner in thought. Then she asked softly, "When the dog was talking… Did he give you his name?"

"The dog wasn't talking… we decided it was Randy, remember?" David reminded her. "But yeah… I did think it was strange that he named him. It was a short name, I think it started with 'F.' Frank… Fred… no, it was more unique than that."

"Ferb Fletcher?"

"Yeah… that was it," David confirmed with a nod. "…How did you know?"

Martha looked back down at her dog and placed her hands again in his fur. "…It's the name of the missing boy."

"The one from the supermarket?" came David's question. Then he sighed in disbelief. "If the boy's brother was looking for a dog, wouldn't you think he would have mentioned that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Martha said haphazardly, focused on stroking Ferb's fur gently. "I think that he honestly seemed worried out of his mind. Maybe he just forgot."

"…I'm… hungry…" Ferb mentioned as a whiff of the dinner caught his nose. "And… that smells… good…"

"He does bark in sentences…" David marveled. "But… isn't it a huge jump to go from 'Our dog's hair is green,' to 'He's really this missing seventeen-year-old kid'?"

"Maybe you're right," Martha gave in. She gave Ferb another pet along the back, before standing up. "But you've gotta admit, he is a unique guy."

Then they both stood up off of the floor, leaving Ferb on the living room carpet as they headed over to finish their dinner in the kitchen. Ferb tipped his head on the floor a bit to let his stare follow them. He was still hungry.

"He can't be a human being…" David put out, still glancing suspiciously over to Ferb as he and Martha sat down at the table once more. He said softly, under his breath while picking up his fork, "…That's just silly."