Thank you Guest, Dreamcatcher-Megan, RC, Spring-Heel-Jacq and bleazel158 for your reviews! Once again, thank you to everyone reading this story, and everyone who followed or faved it! A/N: Sorry about the wait. Life is starting to get crazy again. I will probably come back to this chapter later and edit it more fully, but I wanted to get it out for you guys now. :D
CHAPTER EIGHT
"And that, Sherman, is how to properly balance a checkbook," Mr. Peabody finished.
Sherman laughed, clapping wildly. "Not on your head, Mr. Peabody!" He said, "That's not how you do it!"
Mr. Peabody grinned sheepishly, and took the checkbook off the top of his head.
"Hmm, it seems a member of the audience believes he knows better than I, the Great Artist Peabody, about my very own art," said Peabody, twirling his cape, "What should I do? I know! A challenge! You sir, in the red shirt! I challenge you! Come here, on stage, if you dare to accept!"
Sherman, being the only person with a red shirt in the audience-in fact, being the only person in the audience at all-was quick to get off his chair and run up to Mr. Peabody.
"First," said Mr. Peabody, making the checkbook disappear out of one hand, "I must inform you that this is no ordinary challenge!"
The checkbook reappeared in the other hand, even though Sherman could clearly see that neither hand had been remotely near the other.
"This is a challenge of wisdom and courage, bravery and intelligence!" Mr. Peabody said, "Sherman! Do you still accept this challenge?"
"Yes! Yes yes yes!" Sherman announced, bouncing up and down.
"Are you ready?" Mr. Peabody asked.
"I can do it, Mr. Peabody!" Sherman said.
"Then, by all means, let us begin!" said Mr. Peabody, with a flourish of his arms and a twirl of his cape, "Now! See if you can properly balance this checkbook!"
"That's easy!" Sherman announced, and he grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil that Peabody held before him, "This is how you really do it, Mr. Peabody!"
Mr. Peabody smiled and nodded, then watched with pleasure as Sherman performed the math lesson.
Present Day
It was not late night anymore, but early morning as Sherman turned the pages of Mr. Peabody's book.
"Wait until I tell Penny," he whispered to himself, "It's the first letter of each word in the sentence!"
Penny might have been very surprised. Or she might have discovered it before Sherman did. Either way, Sherman was going to share this with her as soon as possible: the secret message within the sentence read, To build the WABAC Return go to page two.
"Alright," he said to himself as he reached the second page, "Let's see how to build this thing."
The page began as follows:
Granted, previous master makers petitioned Xandler's unhindered intellectual fallacies too freely. Just outside this unhindered system, various deuterotravelers-under jurisdictions possibly obtainable to determined beginners-systematically favored gigantic variations. Many makers zeroed…
He stopped there, and looked at the page before to understand what the paragraph was talking about. Apparently, it was all about the history of time machines and how they were made.
"Oh no!" he said, disappointed. "Mr. Peabody, why do you have to hide these things so well?"
He stared again at the page. This looked like it didn't have anything to do with the WABAC return at all.
"This is definitely not a normal sentence, even for Mr. Peabody," he said, "But what does it mean?"
Sherman continued to ponder that question for a long time, until finally his eyes closed and, without wanting to, he fell sound asleep. The next thing he knew, somebody was shaking him.
"Go away, Penny," he muttered, going deeper into the covers, "It isn't morning yet. Go back to sleep."
The shaking continued, but just as Sherman felt that the person shaking him was losing vigor, a giant CRASH next to his ear sent him to his feet.
"What happened?" He shouted, "Where am I?"
Suddenly it all came back to him. Penny wasn't there, and neither were Mr. or Mrs. Peterson. He was in the house of Edwin Whiner, the billionaire. And he was to all appearances alone in a giant bedroom.
There was a broken vase on the floor.
Sherman shivered, and collected his only things-Mr. Peabody's book, the WABAC instruction manual and his notebook. If someone else was in the room hiding from him, he wasn't leaving the room without his only clues to find Mr. Peabody.
"Hello?" He asked, "Is anybody there?"
There was no answer. So Sherman got up and investigated the entire room, finally discovering that yes, the bedroom was still locked from the outside, and yes, he really was alone.
Suddenly the doorknob jiggled, and somebody unlocked it.
"Sherman, I'm coming in!" Mr. Whiner said, opening the door.
As soon as he saw Sherman out of the bed, with his day clothes on-since he had never taken them off for bed the night before-Mr. Whiner smiled.
"Aha!" He said, "I told you he would be up by this time."
The person he was speaking to was apparently standing right behind him, for at that moment a second person stuck his head into Sherman's room.
"Very good, very good!" The stranger said, "I see you were right. The boy is indeed responsible."
"Um, thanks?" Sherman asked meekly, still a little embarrassed at having been caught unawares so early by a complete stranger, and by Mr. Whiner, who was as good as a stranger.
"Indeed, I think the boy can safely handle his own financial affairs," said the stranger, "Considering what his plans for the money were at the bank, if what Mr. Williams the banker says is true."
"Really?" said Sherman, "I can do it by myself now?"
"Certainly, boy! Well, you have my approval, Mr. Whiner," the stranger said, scratching something on a piece of paper and handing it to Whiner, "I think that I will be leaving now."
"The maids will show you to the door," said Mr. Whiner, taking the paper, "Thank you for stopping by."
"Not a problem," said the stranger, "Take good care of your money, my boy!" He said to Sherman, and then he left down the hallway, presumably the same way he had come.
What had just happened?
"Well," said Mr. Whiner, "Thank heavens you were awake, Sherman. Now we can go right away to get the papers signed."
"What papers?" Sherman asked, "Who was that man?"
"You'll see soon enough," Mr. Whiner said, stepping into the room to grab Sherman by the upper arm, "Now follow me."
Sherman, who was still holding onto the manual, the book and the notebook, followed Whiner's lead more out of curiosity than obedience. They went through many hallways and corridors, until finally they came to the roof and sat inside a helicopter. A short while later and they were inside Peabody's bank, with Mr. Williams sitting across from them at the table.
"Sherman," said Mr. Williams, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Before Sherman could ask what "this" was, Mr. Whiner interrupted.
"Yes, of course he does!" he snapped, "He said so this morning."
"Then let me hear him now," said Mr. Williams, "For the sake of legality, if nothing else. Well, Sherman?"
"I don't know," Sherman said, "What are we doing?"
"Sherman!" Mr. Williams said, secretly kicking his foot at the boy under the table, "Children have such bad memories sometimes, Mr. Willabee."
"Williams." Mr. Williams corrected.
"Whatever," said Mr. Whiner, "The point is, since Sherman is permanently under my care, this merger would be most beneficial to my raising him."
"What do you mean?" Sherman asked.
"This," said Mr. Whiner, tearing a paper away from Mr. Williams and pushing it in front of Sherman. "All you have to do is sign it," he said helpfully.
"Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to," Mr. Williams said, perhaps even more helpfully.
"Umm," Sherman said, looking at the piece of paper, "What does it mean?"
"It means," said Mr. Williams, "That everything you own belongs to Mr. Whiner, to do with as he sees best."
"Which means," said Mr. Whiner, "That you can have anything you want as soon as you sign that paper. I will be able to grant you your every wish. Think of that, Sherman! Whatever you want."
"But it's all mine anyway," Sherman said, confused, "Until Mr. Peabody gets back."
Mr. Whiner's face grew red.
"You're too young," he said, "Although several people have certified that you can handle your own finances-the social worker you met this morning being the final, decisive voice-you still need training before you're ready for Wall Street. Just sign the paper, and I will do all the hard work for you. It will be so much easier that way."
"No," said Sherman, pushing away the paper, "It isn't mine. It belongs to Mr. Peabody, so I can't sign it."
"Yes, you will!" said Mr. Whiner, forgetting that Mr. Williams was also in the room, "Don't you know what's good for you!"
"Yes!" Sherman shouted, standing up, "And I'm not going to sign it!" He held tightly onto the WABAC manual, Peabody's book and his notebook-indeed, he had never put them down and had them in his arms the entire time-and ran from the table.
"Sherman!" Mr. Whiner called out, "Where are you going? Waterloo, I want the entire bank staff to bring him back!"
"That's Williams," said Mr. Williams, "Leave the boy alone, Mr. Whiner. We both know-"
Sherman heard no more, because he was now beyond earshot.
"I won't let them take away your money, Mr. Peabody," he whispered out loud to himself as he ran down the hallway. He really wished he had a backpack or something for the books in his arms.
Where was he going? Who could he turn to?
He still needed to make sure that Mr. Peabody could come home. He needed to make the WABAC return. And he needed to solve the puzzle in order to do so. Penny could help him with that.
"Right," he said, "So I need to get to Penny."
That won't be easy, he mused as he ran out the back door of the bank. Mr. Whiner, or anybody for that matter, might be expecting him to go back to the Petersons. So he would have to find Penny in secret. How was he going to do that?
He ran into an alleyway and held himself tightly against the wall. Suddenly he came up with an idea. A crazy, ridiculous idea, that just might work.
"Mr. Peabody?" Sherman whispered as soon as he was certain everything was quiet, "Are you there?"
There was no answer.
"Someone has been helping me and Penny," Sherman said out loud, "And the pizza man and cab driver said that you sent them. I don't know if it's really you, or someone pretending to be you, but even if you aren't Mr. Peabody I could really use your help right now. I think you always know where I am, and what's going on. Can you get Penny to meet me at the penthouse? I would really, really appreciate it."
There was no answer, which was disappointing.
"Right," he said to himself after standing there for a few minutes, "I gotta get out of here."
He raced out of the alley and down the street, across the plaza and through a doughnut shop. After making several twists and turns, just in case someone was following him, he ended up at Peabody's penthouse apartment.
No soon did the elevator door open than he saw her.
"Penny!" He cried out in relief.
"Sherman!" She said, running up to him, "I came as soon as I got your text. What's going on?"
"You're here!" he said, grabbing her tight, "Penny, I'm so glad to see you! Mr. Whiner left me all alone in a giant bedroom, and-"
"That's it?" she said, letting him hug her, "That was why you texted me?"
"No, I didn't text you," he said, "Mr. Peabody did. Or at least, I think he did."
"What are you talking about?" Penny asked, "It came from your cell phone."
"I don't have my cell phone, I left it at your house," Sherman said, "Penny, listen. I think my dad really has been helping us out. Remember the pizza man? Well, I almost ran away from Mr. Whiner last night, and there was a cab waiting for me. The driver said my dad sent him to pick me up!"
"Really?" Penny asked.
"Yes!" Sherman said, "I ran away from him again today at the bank, and I asked Mr. Peabody to help bring you here."
"Wait. If your dad has been helping us, then why won't he tell us where he is? Or how to solve the codes?" Penny asked.
"I don't know," Sherman said, "I still can't figure that out. Let's build the WABAC return and ask him when he gets here."
"Right," said Penny, "Did you figure out that weird sentence yet?"
"Sure did!" Sherman said, very pleased. He opened the library book, and set it down on the floor.
"Look," he said, "Read the first letter of each word."
"It says to go to page two," Penny said, after a short silence.
"So I did," Sherman said, opening to page two. "But I can't figure out how this page tells us to build the return thingy."
"Hmm," said Penny, "Maybe this is solved just like the weird sentence."
She began to spell out the first letters of each word, one by one: "G-P-M-M-P-X-"
"It's just gibberish, Penny. You don't need to spell out the whole page." Sherman said.
"Then how do we solve it?" Penny asked.
"I don't know!" Sherman said, "Maybe the instructions aren't in the words."
"That's ridiculous," Penny said, "You said there can't be any invisible ink, remember? The words are the only thing on the page."
"Well, maybe there is another page two," Sherman said, and he carefully started to investigate the book for an extra page.
"Really, Sherman?" Penny asked, "I'm not sure even you know what that means."
Suddenly the phone in the penthouse rang, breaking the silence surrounding the apartment.
"I'll get it!" Penny said, jumping up.
"Penny, wait!" Sherman said, "Don't answer it!"
But it was too late. Penny had already picked up the phone.
"Hello?" She asked, "Hello?"
She turned to Sherman, and he ran up to join her. "Don't worry Sherman, it's all static," she said, waving the phone at him, "See? No one's here."
"Penny," Sherman said, "Can you hear that?"
Through the penthouse telephone, the two children slowly heard the voice of Mr. Whiner come out of the static.
"That's right," he said, "We're sure he's inside the penthouse, with a member of the Peterson family. How soon will you be there?"
"Who is he talking to?" Penny asked.
"Shuuuuuuush!" Sherman whispered, "You're on the phone!"
"ETA at about twenty minutes," replied another voice, "We'll have all our squad cars surrounding the building within seconds of arrival."
"I don't think they can hear us," Penny said, but she was now whispering as well.
"Excellent," said Mr. Whiner, responding to the other voice, "Be sure to make it fast."
"Of course we will, sir," replied the other voice, "We'll have the boy back and the kidnapper in jail before the hour is up, Mr. Whiner. But we need to move without attracting suspicion."
"They think that you kidnapped me!" Sherman said, just as Penny pressed the button that ended the call.
"We have to move fast, Sherman," she said, "They're almost here!"
"Penny," said Sherman, "I don't know how to activate the penthouse security system. They can just walk right up the elevator!"
"Then we'll just have to find the instructions to build the WABAC Return as fast as we can," Penny said, "What does page two say again?"
A/N: Don't take Sherman and Penny's assumptions too seriously! There really is a way to unravel page two. But you might have to work a little to figure it out. ;)