The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow (11 page)

“Great.” Vincent let out a sigh of relief. “Danger Boy, you take us upstairs and we’ll build you the most powerful, most dangerous
birthday rocket you’ve ever seen.”

Danger Boy was halfway up the stairs before Vincent could finish his sentence. Vincent grabbed the bag with the kite remains
and Groove Tubes, and he and Stella followed Danger Boy up the stairs.

“Okay, here’s the closet. Now what?”

“You go downstairs and we’ll be down in ten minutes with the craziest, fastest rocket you’ve ever—” Vincent hadn’t even finished
his sentence and Danger Boy was gone.

“What are you going to do with the hydrogen peroxide?” Stella asked.

“Nothing,” Vincent said as he put it back in the closet. “But we’re upstairs…. ”

Vincent reached into the dark and pulled
on the rope.

“Welcome to my lab.”

“Oh my gosh, Vincent.” Stella looked around the room at all the equipment and prototypes. “This is incredible!”

She touched a sketch. “What is all this?”

“This is the Batcave. I’ll have to give you the details some other time, but you know those headaches I get?”

Stella nodded as she read the labels on various jars of experiments.

“Well, they aren’t really headaches. They’re more like inspiration. Intense ideas.” Vincent realized he hadn’t talked about
this with anyone but his mother.

“Intense ideas?” Stella asked.

“Yeah. I see toys. Toys that don’t exist. My mom and I built this lab so I could try and build them. But no one can know about
this, Stella.”

“Come on, Batman. You know your secret is safe with me. But what if Danger Boy and his mom come looking for us?” Stella asked.

“As long as we’re quiet, they’ll never find us in here. They’ll probably assume we couldn’t build the rocket and left.”

“Yeah, well, we may have an easier time building the rocket than fixing this kite.” Stella pulled the broken, balled-up mess
from the bag.

“We’re not going to fix it,” Vincent said. “We’re going to build something even better. My mom and I spent years working on
bubbles that release sound when they pop. But I’ve never been able to get them to work. They need high voltage. But the high
voltage makes the bubble solution uncontrollable.” Vincent pointed to the scorched remains from his last night in the lab.

“So, maybe we’d be better off getting one of these to work,” Stella said as she picked up a basketball with a built-in targeting
system. “This is cool,” she said as she aimed the ball.

“Thanks. That’s the Bullz-I Basketball. Look—” Vincent pointed to a sketch in his notebook. “All this time the answer was
right in front of me. Tonight, Mr. Whiz showed me a Tesla invention that looked just like this.”

“Hey, that looks like the thing we saw at the Met.”

“It
is
the thing we saw at the Met. That thing is actually a high-powered Tesla coil with a vacuum tube.” Vincent flipped to the
sketch of his Pop Tunz device. “If I connect the Tesla coil from my kite to my Pop Tunz device… ” Vincent drew a Tesla coil
on the tail end of the sketch of his bubble blower and then reached into the bag from the music store and pulled out the vacuum
tubes. “And I attach the Groove Tubes to the front nozzle, maybe, just maybe, the bubbles will work.”

“And then the bubbles will play a sound?”

“I hope so,” Vincent said.

“Hey!” Stella pointed to Snonkey the Great across the room. “You did take Anna’s animals!”

“All in the name of science.” Vincent smiled.

“What do these do?” Stella pointed to prototypes for Art 3-D, Sonic Snorkelz, Sno-zuka, Sketch ’n’ Sculpt, and Alarminalz.

“That one lets you draw in 3D. That one lets you talk underwater. That shoots snowballs. That lets you draw with growing ink,
and that’s an alarm clock,” Vincent said. “Actually, grab that Alarminalz.” He pointed to the stuffed lion.

“This?” Stella held it up.

“Yeah. It has an alarm clock built into it. We can use that to wake us up early. We’re gonna have to sneak out of here before
Danger Boy and his friends wake up.”

Vincent unwrapped the three glass Groove Tubes and the Tesla coil from the windless kite and set them on the table in the
middle of the room.

“These inventions are great, Vincent,” Stella said as she continued to look at all the drawings of inventions taped to the
walls.

“Thanks. Can you grab one of those gun-looking things from the top shelf?”

“I was always better at writing than drawing. Is this the thing you want?” Stella pointed to a Pop Tunz bubble-blowing prototype.

“Yeah, that one will work.”

Vincent slid a large box out from under the table and pulled out his catcher’s mask and pads. “What’s that stuff for?” Stella
asked.

“It’s going to be a long night, Sis,” Vincent replied.

Stella smiled. That was the second time today Vincent had called her Sis.

BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP

Howard sat up in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He looked across the room at the alarm clock. 5:30
AM
. He must have fallen asleep at his drawing table. Again.

BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP

Howard G. Whiz walked across the room and pushed the off button on the alarm clock.

Toy Fair was the one time a year that toy companies, from all over the world, gathered in New York to unveil their latest
creations. And, most importantly, Toy Fair was the time a year that Howard selected the winner of the annual Whizzer Toys
invention contest.

Howard took a new white tie from his closet and sat back down at his drawing table. He stared out the window and thought about
the Toy Fair. Then he thought about the contest, the kids, and their wonderful inventions. He grabbed a paintbrush, opened
three jars of paint, and prepared to create that day’s tie.

This was Howard’s routine every morning for the last 22,438 mornings. But this morning Howard did something he had never done.
He smiled, screwed the lids back on the jars of paint, and decided to wear a completely white tie.

“Perfect,” he said.

The Alarminalz’s roar woke Stella. She
opened her eyes and looked up at Vincent, still hard at work.

“What time is it?” she asked.

Vincent looked at his watch. “It’s eight thirty.”

Stella jumped up. “We’re late! You’ll be disqualified!”

“I’m almost ready. I had a ton of ideas hit me last night. Talk about bad timing. It was hard to get this thing done.” Vincent
carefully set the Pop Tunz bubble blower into a box.

“Does it work?” Stella asked.

“I hope so. I decided I better not test it. I didn’t want to wake Danger Boy and company.”

Vincent placed three glass jars of black liquid into the box. Stella carefully opened the lab door and peered out of the closet.
The seven-year-olds were all still asleep.

After Vincent and Stella had disappeared, the boys had looked for them for about two minutes before losing interest. Then,
they had stayed up late eating pizza and bragging about the stunts they would perform when they were older.

Making as little noise as was humanly possible, they stepped over the boys in sleeping bags and avoided getting too close
to Danger Boy, who slept hugging a brand new cherry-red Whizzer Board 4000 with the bow still on it.

Seamus and Liam skated off the stage
and the crowd erupted in applause. They loved Seamus and Liam and they loved their Airblades invention.

“Has Vincent arrived yet?” Howard Whiz asked Calli.

There were three thousand people in the audience. And they were all there to see Vincent Shadow and his amazing windless kite.

“No. I’m sorry, sir, but no one has heard from him. It looks like Vincent is going to miss the contest. We only have two contestants
left.”

George Spinowski Jr. felt sick as he looked out at the sea of people. He didn’t like crowds.

“Okay, George, you’re up,” Calli said.

His stomach hurt. He was sure he was going to be sick.

“Can I go last, Ms. Callosum?” George asked.

“Sure, George,” Calli said. “That means you’re up next, Gabby.”

Gabby connected the Elli-Squirt sprinkler toy to a garden hose and walked onto the stage.

Norton, Vibs, and the girls had taken a late flight to New York the previous night, hoping to surprise Vincent. But Vibs was
currently focused on the surprise Gabby had in store for the audience.

“Is that a garden hose?” Vibs asked.

“Yeah, I think it is,” Norton said.

“Well, they aren’t going to let her use that in here… are they?”

Gabby started to introduce her product. “This is my invention. It’s a sprinkler toy, but not like any sprinkler toy you have
ever…”

“Yeah, I think they’re going to let her use it,” Norton said.

“Norton, this is silk.” Vibs touched her blouse. “This cannot get wet. We’re moving!” Vibs stood up and marched toward the
back.

“Come on, girls,” Norton said to Gwen and Anna. “Your mom doesn’t want to get wet.” Norton stood up and followed Vibs to the
back of the hall.

“Norton! Norton!”

Norton looked around. He heard someone calling his name but couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

“Norton, honey! Over here!” He looked to his left and saw Aunt Bonnie sitting with a group of schoolkids.

“It was the only seat left.” She shrugged. “I’m so glad you made it. Vincent is going to be
thrilled
to see you.”

“Have you seen Vincent yet?” Norton asked.

“No. Not yet. Maybe he’s next. You better get to your seat.”

Norton nodded in agreement and rushed after Vibs and the girls just as the crowd stood up and began clapping.

Gabby picked up her sprinkler toy and walked off the stage.

“Amazing, Gabby. Just amazing. The ending gets me every time,” Calli said.

“Okay, George, your turn. Knock ’em dead.”

George Jr. took a few steps onto the stage and then quickly turned around and began to walk off when his father grabbed him
by the arm.

“I need you to win this contest. Now suck it up. Get out there and win this thing,” George Sr. said.

“But Dad, my stomach—”

His dad shot him a look that he knew all too well. George Jr. turned around and walked to the middle of the stage as his stomach
gurgled. He pulled a sheet off a shiny white toilet.

“He invented a toilet,” someone shouted from the crowd.

“Maybe it’s a remote-controlled toilet!” another yelled.

The crowd laughed.