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CHAPTER TWO
The sights and sounds of the big fair on that crisp day were almost enough to frighten little boys who didn't like loud noises. But they certainly weren't as scary as the nearby menagerie of animals that Mr. Peabody had wanted to see.
"Come along now, Sherman. The horses won't bite," Mr. Peabody said, dragging the boy behind him with one hand.
"B-but they're so big!" Little Sherman argued.
"They may be rather large, but I can assure you they are perfectly harmless," Mr. Peabody said, "Here. Why don't you pet this one? She seems rather gentle."
Sherman lifted up his hand to pet the same horse that Mr. Peabody was petting.
"There now. You see? It's not so scary after all," Peabody said, "Are you ready to go see the goats?"
"In just a minute Mr. Peabody," said Sherman, "I like this horse. What's her name?"
"Let's ask," said Peabody. He turned his attention to the horse handler. "My good man, what is this fine mare's name?"
"That's Sheba," said the handler, "Ten bucks and the kid can ride her."
"Can I? Can I Mr. Peabody?" Sherman asked.
"I don't know, Sherman. Ten dollars is a lot of money, you know."
"Is it really, Mr. Peabody?"
"Why, of course it is," said Mr. Peabody, "How much money do you have at home in your piggy bank?"
"Fifteen dollars!" Sherman said proudly.
"So then, if you take out ten dollars to right this horse, how much money will be left?"
"Um..." Sherman thought, "Five?"
"Very good, Sherman!" said Peabody, "Now, would you like to spend ten dollars from your piggy bank now on this horse, and have five dollars left?"
"Um, no," said Sherman, "I wanna buy that chemistry set. The one with the test tubes."
"Then let's go see the goats," said Mr. Peabody, "I'm sure you can get a much cheaper ride on a horse when we go see the American Indians."
"In the WABAC?" Sherman asked.
"In the WABAC." said Mr. Peabody.
"Cool!" Said Sherman, "Indians are more fun anyway."
Peabody smiled, and began to lead the way.
Present Day
The dining table of the Peterson house was normally empty at this time of day, but now it was covered with papers and thoughts. It was obvious who had been working there. Sherman and Penny were still there, and Sherman was tapping his pencil to his mouth even as he stared at a blank piece of paper.
"Listen, Sherman," said Mrs. Peterson, picking up one of the crude drawings with barely legible writing, "I know you and Penny have been busy trying to find out where your dad went, but you should also try to figure out what to say to the court today."
"What do you mean?" Sherman asked, looking up from his paper.
"She means," said Mr. Peterson from the living room, "That chances are Peabody's Will gives you everything he's got. And in that case, everybody within the country will want to adopt you for your fortune."
"That's ridiculous," Sherman said, drawing a picture of the WABAC.
"What should he say, Dad?" Penny asked.
"Ask to choose who you want to adopt you," Mr. Peterson said.
"I'm not going to choose anyone," said Sherman, "I want Mr. Peabody."
Mrs. Peterson sighed. "Listen," she said, "If Mr. Peabody comes back, and someone else spent all his fortune, what will he say?"
That got Sherman thinking.
"How much money does he have, anyway?" Sherman asked.
"A lot," said Mrs. Peterson, "He's a very successful soldier of fortune, remember? Now, you two better hurry. The court begins again in three hours."
"What's the rush?" Penny asked.
"Don't you two want to go to the library first?" Mrs. Peterson asked.
"Yes!" Sherman said, throwing his pencil on the table, "We'll see you in court, Mr. and Mrs. Peterson!" He shouted, practically slamming the front door on his way out.
Penny rolled her eyes and collected his pencil as well as her own. She came outside to find Sherman fidgeting by the porch, impatiently waiting for her.
"Alright, here's the thing," he said as they both began walking, "Mr. Peabody should be stuck somewhere in the past right now. But we haven't found any clues so far. Tonight, let's go back to my apartment and search again. You'd think that he'd have left a clue or something since he's stuck and all."
"Um, sure," said Penny, "Or, he can't leave us any clues."
"It's real easy to leave a clue, Penny," Sherman said, "All he has to do is mail a letter."
"Unless he isn't in the past," Penny said.
"Impossible," said Sherman, "We've been over this, Penny. He's got to be somewhere. And it can't be the future because no matter how long he's stuck there he would have come back to the present already."
"Yeah, I know," said Penny, "Unless he's-"
"Don't say it, Penny!" Said Sherman, "He's fine! He's just stuck, that's all!"
"I know, I know," said Penny, "We've had this same conversation, like, twelve times already. Let's refocus. Where was he going that night? And why didn't he take you with him?"
"I've been trying to figure that out for forever," said Sherman, "He didn't mention any places to me at dinner that night. He seemed really happy, though."
"Maybe he was going to surprise you with something," Penny said, "You sure it wasn't your birthday?"
"Of course not," said Sherman, "Maybe he always took midnight trips and I just didn't know it."
"Maybe," said Penny, "But then, why didn't he come back this time? What happened to the WABAC?"
"It's gotta be broken somehow," Sherman said, "Really broken, so that Mr. Peabody has a hard time fixing it."
"Yeah, but Mr. Peabody's a genius," Penny said, "He can fix anything."
"So what happened?" Sherman asked. He groaned and threw up his hands. "We're back to square one!" He shouted.
"Here we are, we're at the library," Penny interrupted, "Let's look for clues. We have...two hours and forty-five minutes left." She said, looking at her wrist watch. "Alright, where do we start?"
"Let's think. Where would Peabody hide a clue in history, when he knows we're going to look for it?" Sherman asked.
"The dictionary?" Penny asked, "The architecture of the building?"
"Maybe we should ask the librarian first," Sherman said, leading the way.
They entered the building and walked up to the front desk.
"Excuse me miss," Sherman whispered.
"Yes?" asked the librarian, whose nameplate said her name was Miss Heartman.
"Suppose that...we're looking for a clue...a time traveler left," Sherman said hesitantly, "Where should we start?"
The librarian looked at them up and down.
"I think I know just the place," she said, "Follow me."
She led them down the library, past multiple rows of books, until she came to the children's section.
"No, not here!" Sherman said, whispering vigorously.
"We were thinking a dictionary or something," Penny added.
"Ah, but that's just what everyone would expect," said Miss Heartman, "The real time traveler hides his clues, so that no nosy adults will find them."
She picked up some children's novels about history and put them on the children's table.
"Wait here," she said, "I'm going to get one more book."
She left them at the table, looking at the selection of books.
"I don't think this will work," said Sherman.
"It's better than nothing," Penny said, opening up an interesting book, "What were we thinking, that we'd look through every book in the library?"
"No," said Sherman, "But there's got to be something off in the history books. Or something that shouldn't be at a certain time, but is."
"In that case, the librarian's right," said Penny, picking up another book, "A time traveler probably would hide a clue in the children's section, because all the adults would notice if something was in the wrong time."
"Ah, here we are!" said the librarian. She set down a dusty book on the table. It was old, very old-but it was still a children's book.
"This book was always my favorite," Miss Heartman said, "Have fun looking for clues!"
Sherman and Penny stared at the book, which didn't even have a dust jacket. Sherman was the one who opened it.
"Look at that," he said to Penny, opening the book right in the middle.
"At what?" she asked.
"This!" He said, "See? It predicts how a real time machine works. This is just how the WABAC works!"
Penny flipped to the next page.
" 'What to do if you or your loved one is in a time where your language modifier isn't working,' " She read, "'How to speak the local language even if you don't know it.' Sherman, this is a how-to book on time travel."
"It might not be what we were looking for, but it might come in handy," Sherman said, putting the book aside.
"Yeah? It's all fake, Sherman." Penny said, "It's in the fiction section, remember?"
"So?" Sherman asked, "Some of it might be real. Look at that drawing of the brake mechanism! That's how the WABAC really stops!"
"Maybe Mr. Peabody got some ideas from this book," Penny said, sounding interested.
"Maybe," said Sherman, "Come on, let's keep looking."
The two of them poured over the rest of the children's history books. Occasionally, they asked one another if certain parts of the books were clues, but in all cases they both decided that they really weren't. They were about to go explore the adult history section when Penny pointed out that they had to be going.
"We're going to be late for court if we don't start leaving now," she argued.
So Sherman checked out the time travel book, and Penny checked out a few interesting books she had found, before they left the building.
Sherman fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair.
They had been reading Mr. Peabody's will for the last half an hour. And they hadn't even gotten to the part where Peabody said what he wanted everything to go to.
"...and everything else," said the Judge, interrupting Sherman's thoughts, "I bequeath solely to my boy Sherman, to do with as he sees fit."
Sherman and the rest of the court waited for the Judge to finish, but he put the paper down.
"That's it?" Someone asked. Sherman almost didn't recognize him, but then he remembered that he had introduced himself earlier as 'the billionaire Edwin Whiner'. Sherman had decided right then and there that he didn't like him.
"Yes," said the Judge, "As stated at the beginning of his will, Peabody has directed that all of his charities, grants and scholarships are to continue receiving their same amounts yearly. The rest all goes to Sherman."
The crowd made a collective gasp and, like a wave, began to collectively murmur.
"So what's the big deal?" Sherman whispered to Penny, "It's just a will."
Mr. Peterson, who was sitting on the other side of Sherman, answered him.
"It means that you are now richer than everyone in this room," he whispered, "Combined."
Sherman gulped.
"And now," said the Judge, "We will begin the matter of the boy's living situation."
The whole court practically rose to their feet and bellowed out loud, each person practically begging to be the one to take charge of Sherman and his wealth.
Sherman, meanwhile, tried to sink into the floor.
"Order, order!" The Judge cried, and Sherman realized with a start that he had been shouting this order for some time now, "Order!"
The crowd quieted down.
"Finally," said the Judge, exasperated, "Apparently, things are too much for everyone here to handle. We will postpone this decision until tomorrow. Dismissed."
The sound of the gavel brought the murmuring sound into the courtroom once more, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that Sherman and the Petersons could get out of the room-with the help of a large security guard team.
"Now that was close," Penny said as soon as they were back at the Peterson house, "I was almost certain we would be buried alive in there!"
Sherman shivered. "I think they squished my backpack," he said.
Penny gasped. "Mine too!" She said, taking her backpack off of her back, "And I have library books in there!"
Sherman picked up his backpack, which he had just thrown onto the ground, and checked inside.
"Still good," he said, holding up his one library book.
"It's a book about time travel," Mrs. Peterson said. Then she laughed. "I can see why this one attracted your attention," she said.
"Huh?" Sherman asked.
"What's so funny, Mom?" Penny asked, grabbing the book out of Sherman's hands, "This is serious research!"
Mr. Peterson looked over her shoulder, and chuckled.
"I can see you like the author," he hinted.
Penny and Sherman looked at one another, then looked at the author's name. The book was written by one P. Body.
"You don't think..." Penny began, but Sherman was way ahead of her. He opened the book and began looking at it page by page.
He didn't need to get very far to find what he was looking for. On the dedication page were the words, To My Boy Sherman.