At first Flint had no idea what to do. In fact, he couldn't understand what he was seeing. Hadn't the FLDSMDFR been destroyed by the exploding meatball AND sprayed by his awesome spray-on-shoes?
Flint glanced over at Steve, his monkey, who was chewing a gummy bear. A rather large one. Probably leftover from the food disaster. Curiosity spread inside Flint. He watched the screen, as the words 'loading' went away and a map appeared. A blinking orange dot was on the map. Squinting, Flint saw that the map was a map of ChewandSwallow and the ocean around it. The dot was near the docks.
His eyes widened as Flint ran out of his lab and down the tunnel with Steve at his heels. They ran across the yard and he waved a good morning to his dad; who watched Flint with a raised eyebrow.
"Gotta go, dad!" Flint shouted over his shoulder. He ran down the street and onto Main Street, where people gathered to watch the news on the TVs in the store window. Flint stopped there, to see Sam Sparks telling the weather for the New Yorkers. She had taken out her Jell-O scrunchie and now wore it on her wrist. Her glasses were gone too. She looked like the Sam Flint first met.
The only thing that was different about the weathergirl was her mood. She sounded happy and acted happy, but Flint could tell by her eyes, that she was upset. He wanted to reach out and hug her, comfort her, be with her.
Sighing, he turned away and trooped off to the docks with Steve sitting on his shoulder. The day was cloudy and reminded him of the day when he had first met Sam. How she had kicked him in the face. He smiled weakly at that and chuckled.
At the docks he climbed down the familiar ladder and sat on the third last step. Now his eyes trained on the water below. There was nothing in front of him. He spun around and looked behind him; under the dock.
And there it was. The FLDSMDFR all cracked, smudged in food and covered in ash or something. The screen on it was cracked completely and two of the legs were missing out of the four. Grinning, Flint turned around on the ladder so that he was facing the direction under the dock. Then he leaned over and holding on to the ladder grabbed the FLDSMDFR by its antenna. It was much heavier than he thought.
Grunting, he heaved it onto the dock and climbed up the ladder. Now all he had to do was carry it to his lab and examine it. On his shoulder, Steve whimpered at the sight of the old invention. Ignoring Steve's protests, Flint lifted the invention and walked down the dock and back down Main Street. Some people watched him as he went.
"Is that one gonna destroy anything, Lockwood?" someone called out and a bunch of people laughed.
"No. It's my old one." Flint snapped and hurried on back to his lab. The people gasped and stepped back as they eyed the FLDSMDFR.
In his lab, Flint placed the invention on his tabletop and pulled up his chair. Carefully he examined it. The chow-fluffer (the part that spat out the food) was all covered in his spray-on-shoes substance. Most of it was burnt.
He put on his caution gloves and slowly began to take it apart. It was tricky because of something that seemed to be holding the parts together like glue. It was probably marshmallow.
Before he could do anymore, he heard his dad calling him. Running over to his window and pushing it open, he saw his dad standing down below.
"You have a visitor!" his dad called out.
"Coming!" Flint shouted back and ran out of his lab and down the tunnel once again. His dad was already going back into the house. Where and who was the visitor? He around the yard and then went around to the front of the house. At first he couldn't see anyone.
Then he saw her.