The teleporter shuddered. TJ backed away even more.
“Once sufficient T-waves have been generated, the object inside the teleporter begins to break down to the molecular level.”
“Break down?” TJ said.
The teleporter began to vibrate, and pretty soon it was rattling, and the reddish light grew stronger, the buzzing grew louder, like we were still standing in the beehive, only now the bees were mad about it.
I turned to TJ. “Don’t worry—it only looks like it’s going to explode!”
The red light got brighter and brighter. The buzzing got so loud, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Professor Reese raised her voice to a shout. “When the T-wave energy reaches capacity level, the object is teleported—”
And at that moment was the huge POP! (But this time I was expecting it, so only TJ screamed.)
Then everything got quiet, except for one cheerful beep-beep-boop that the first auxiliary computer made as it powered down, which made Baxter make a little cheerful booping noise of his own.
“It just sent the reconfiguration instructions via radio waves,” Professor Reese said, pushing off the big red button. “And now that they’ve received the instructions, the hat molecules are reconfiguring back into a hat.”
I ran over to the teleporter as TJ lifted the lid. “Wow!” he said.
Professor Reese wasn’t crazy. It was like the teleporter had picked up the hat and put it down somewhere else.
That hat was gone.
We took the stairs two at a time. I grabbed the leash, and then we followed Baxter, his ears flapping as he galloped down the sidewalk.
When we got to the spot on Raleigh Street where the hat was supposed to land, Professor Reese barely had time to say, “This is the landing site . . .” before Baxter pulled me forward.
TJ raced beside us. At the corner, Baxter veered onto Twenty-Second, toward something red lying on top of a bush.
TJ yelled, “There it is! I see it!” and ran faster, but Baxter still beat him by a nose (which, considering how big Baxter’s is, didn’t surprise me). He’d found the hat again. Like magic.
“It works! It works!” TJ screamed. “The tele—”
I clamped my hand over his mouth and kept it there until Professor Reese caught up to us, huffing.
When I pulled my hand away, TJ was grinning. He strutted around like a football player doing a touchdown dance. He plucked the hat off the bush. Then he pulled it down on his head and whispered, “The teleporter works!”
11The Secret Layer of Science
The next morning, Professor Reese opened her door wearing a pink leotard and pink footless tights. She looked like a cupcake or maybe a piece of bubble gum. “I need a ten-letter word for ‘strange and unconventional.’”
I thought, She probably knows a lot of those.
“It starts with out . . .” she continued, “but outlandish didn’t work.”
“Out of this world?” I said.
“Out of your mind?” TJ said.
“Out . . . of course!” she cried, writing outrageous in 16-across.
“Are we doing any teleporting this morning?” TJ asked.
Professor Reese shook her head. “I need to return the spectrometer to the science museum before they open. Want to come along?”
Me and TJ ran home to check with Mom, who said yes. Then we ran over to Dad’s.
“How about instead of waffles we connect when you get back?” he suggested. “I’ll wait to take my lunch break at work until you call.”
“Deal!” I said.
Me and TJ ran back to Professor Reese’s. I gave Baxter a big kiss between his crazy eyebrows, and his kiss back landed on my chin. “We’ll be home soon,” I told him.
Then me and TJ and Professor Reese rode the streetcar to the museum, the spectrometer, in a little black case, sitting on her lap.
The science museum was on the banks of the Willamette River, tucked up beneath a huge bridge. But in spite of the roar of traffic above us, being by the river was nice. People biked and jogged down the riverfront path. Geese paddled around in the water.
We walked up to the front doors, but no one was there yet to let us in. “Let’s go around to the employee entrance,” Professor Reese said.
She led us around to a side door that had a keypad instead of a lock.
“Cool!” TJ crowded in. “Can I do it?”
“We’re not supposed to share the code with anyone.” But when she punched it in, TJ said, “Blast off!” which meant he’d seen it anyway. So Professor Reese let TJ try it.
“6-5-4-3-2-1 blast off!” he said as he punched in the numbers.
The door opened into the Turbine Hall, which was so tall, there was an airplane hanging from the ceiling. We walked past displays on solar technology and bridge building, and TJ ran his hands across everything, saying, “Cool!”
“My office is on the second floor, but the spectrometer belongs in here,” Professor Reese said as we walked into the Physics Lab. “Could you get the lights, Jordie?”
I found the light switch and turned the lights on.
TJ ran over to where a sign said Van de Graaff Generator. It was a huge metal ball with a little handwheel attached. When you cranked it, Professor Reese explained, it rotated a belt that rubbed against a brush inside the ball. “Turning the crank charges the ball with static electricity, like when you shuffle across a rug in your stocking feet.”
“Zap me!” TJ said.
So I cranked the handwheel, and TJ touched the huge ball and got zapped. He had me zap him (twice), and he yelled (both times).
“Do it again!” TJ said.
But I wanted to look at the displays. So while Professor Reese electrocuted TJ, I wandered around the lab.
There were all kinds of technology, some of it really old: a microscope from 1929, a steam engine from 1890, and even some lightbulbs Thomas Edison designed in 1879. “They
