“Hey, that was a great float that you built for the Spankers,” said Freddy so loudly that Judge Thackery could hear.
“Thank you very much,” said the man. “They paid me a lot of money to do it.”
Judge Thackery looked at Chief Spanker. “Is that true?” he asked.
The Chief began to sweat. “Well, um, he, uh, I, uh…”
The judge said, “The rules specifically state that each float must be entirely designed and built by the people entering it. No paid outside help is allowed.” He turned to the crowd. “The Spanker float is disqualified and I hereby declare the Burger Castle float the winner.”
A mighty cheer went up through the crowd.
Judge Thackery looked at Alfred Funkhouser. “Alfred, I know you’re a very brilliant scientist, but how in the world did you get that float to fly?”
Alfred looked at his son. “I’m not the only scientist in our family, Judge. But if I had to guess, I’d say it was a simple matter of physics – right, Freddy?”
Freddy beamed.
But as Freddy and his family accepted the first-place trophy, Adam Spanker was already plotting something to turn defeat into victory.
CHAPTER20
Freddy flew the Burger Castle float over to the real Burger Castle as fast as he could, while his father and sister followed in their car. Freddy had a lot to do before anyone got there. As he looked down from the air he saw hundreds of people streaming toward the Burger Castle for lunch.
When his father and sister pulled up in their car, Freddy had already gotten the Fries in the back entrance and led them to a room with clothes lockers. He opened the locker doors and pulled the costumes out.
“Good thing these costumes are made of rubber, so they’ll stretch. But I have to make a quick modification on Si and Meese’s. I brought some stuff to do that.”
Five minutes later Freddy was finished. “Okay, you know what to do. Meet me at the front entrance in five minutes.”
Freddy hurried off to find his dad and sister.
Alfred had his tomato costume on and was warming up the ovens and getting the fat-free fry machines popping. Nancy went flouncing by in her ketchup costume.
“Dad,” she said, “how can we possibly serve hundreds of people for lunch?”
“We’ll manage somehow,” said her father.
“Uh, Dad,” said Freddy. “I found some people to take the Guacamole Brothers’ place.”
“What! Who?”
“Some friends of mine.”
His sister said, “I didn’t think you had any, except for that cheese cube nerd, Howie Kapowie.”
“Where are they?” asked Alfred.
“Here we are,” boomed out a voice.
They looked over and saw the five – six if you counted heads – bodies coming toward them.
“They’re dressed as fries,” said Nancy.
“That’s right. They’re wearing the Guacamole Brothers’ costumes,” explained Freddy. “Well, with a few modifications.”
The Fries stopped in front of them. They each were dressed as regular-looking French fries with zippers down the back. Wally was squeezed so tightly into his that it looked like it might burst open any second.
Nancy looked at Si and Meese closely. Their costume had been modified to allow for the two heads.
“You have two heads,” said Nancy.
“Duh, they’re Siamese twins, Nanny Boo-Boo,” said her brother.
Si said, “Or as we like to say, conjoined.”
Alfred was looking at Theodore, who had put his glasses and bowtie on the outside of his costume. Freddy suddenly remembered that the glasses and bowtie used to belong to his father. Alfred rubbed his sharp chin while Freddy and the Fries held their collective breaths. Finally he said, “Freddy, they’re perfectly perfect. I’ve never seen better specimens. They must be very special fries.”
“Oh, they are, Dad, they are,” answered Freddy, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Well, thank you,” said Alfred. “Now I guess we better get to work.”
When the lunch crowd started piling in, the Funkhousers could only stare at the masses for a few minutes.
“Wow,” said Freddy, “so this is what it’s like to have customers.”
Alfred looked a little intimidated with all the hustle and bustle, but then he rubbed his sharp chin and said, “Okay, let’s serve these people some good food for a change.”
The Fries plunged right in, cooking food, carting dishes, and serving the customers.
One little boy tugged on Wally’s arm.
“Hey, mister,” he said. “You’re the biggest fry I’ve ever seen.”
Wally got down on one knee and patted the kid on the head. “I’m what they call super size, little dude. Put her there.” They high-fived.
The little boy held up a French fry. “Want one?”
Wally recoiled back. “Sorry, little dude, I can’t eat my own kind.”
As Wally was walking back to the kitchen, Ziggy stopped him.
“Are you all right, Wally? You don’t look so good.”
“I can’t believe it, little dude.”
“Can’t believe what?”
“I just turned down food.”
Later, the Fries performed for the crowd. Using Theodore as a bat, Wally would hit Ziggy up in the air and Curly would run and catch him. The crowd roared. Si and Meese were also a big hit. Si would laugh really loudly whenever someone tickled him, while Meese would bawl on cue.
Freddy watched and laughed along with everyone else. But then he stopped laughing. Coming in the door was Adam and his gang. And with them was Chief Spanker, dressed in his police uniform now, along with Judge Thackery, a reporter, and photographer from the Pookesville Tattler newspaper.
CHAPTER21
Adam walked very confidently over to Freddy. Alfred Funkhouser came out from the kitchen. Nancy watched from the corner, her arms folded over her chest while all the Fries gathered together and looked on nervously.
“Okay, Funkhouser,” called out Chief Spanker. “We’re here to arrest you.”
“Arrest me? For what?”
Everyone in the Burger Castle stopped eating to listen.
Judge Thackery stepped forward. “I’m sorry, Alfred, I’m sure this is really all sour grapes on Spanker’s part, but Adam claims that your son and his friends shot them with giant fruits and vegetables while flying through the air, made their legs turn to jelly, and had them chased by monsters. And lastly, they were stuck to the wall with smelly, stinky stuff.”
All the customers started laughing at this. Adam would have turned beet red if he weren’t already a stinky orange.
The Judge continued, “Now it wasn’t just Adam. All the boys here said the same thing. They saw monsters.”
“Monsters?” repeated Alfred. “We don’t have any monsters on our farm, do we, Freddy?”
“I’ve never seen any monsters on our farm,” said Freddy, “Except for Adam last night.”
Adam lunged forward. “Why you little -”
Judge Thackery grabbed him. “Now we’ll have none of that, Spanker.”
“Judge, I don’t know what to tell you,” said Alfred. “But we don’t have any monsters.”
Adam was looking at the Fries and pointed a fat finger at Wally. “There’s the monster, right there.”
Everyone looked at Wally.
“See, he’s a French fry,” said Adam excitedly. “And so are the rest of them,” he added, pointing at the other Fries.
“Good grief, they’re in costume,” exclaimed Freddy.
“I’m telling you that these are the monsters I saw last night!” yelled Adam.
“These are Freddy’s friends who came to help us at the Burger Castle today,” said Alfred. “There’s not a monster in the bunch.”
“Well, there’s an easy enough way to resolve this,” said Judge Thackery. He pointed at the Fries. “Fellows, go ahead and unzip your costumes and show everyone that you’re not monsters.”