Frank Einstein and the Space-Time Zipper (Frank Einstein series #6) , livre ebook

ABRAMS BOOKS - Jon Scieszka

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115 pages

English

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In the sixth and final book of the New York Times bestselling Frank Einstein series, Frank Einstein (kid-genius, scientist, and inventor) and his best friend, Watson, along with Klink (a self-assembled artificial-intelligence entity) and Klank (a mostly self-assembled and artificial almost intelligence entity), once again find themselves in competition with T. Edison, their classmate and archrival, this time studying the science and mysteries of the universe!

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	20 mars 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781683352563
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	5 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0332€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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UNIVERSES 0/1, 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2, 1/3, 1/4 . . . 144/1 . . . 145/1 . . .
Sometimes plans don t work out.
Oftentimes inventions fail.
Who can know how things work out?
There is a theory that every possibility works out.
That there are multiple universes.
An infinite number of universes.
One for every combination of possibilities.
For the universe where you didn t make the bus this morning, you missed the class on stars, you weren t inspired to become a scientist, and the world didn t get the invention that you would go on to make, which would change everything . . .

The sun sets slowly in the western sky of Midville.
Watson zips down East Oak Street as fast as he can pedal.
From the other side of town, Janegoodall races along West Oak Street.
They both hit the corner of Oak and Pine at almost exactly the same moment, skid, slide, turn, and stop.
Watson holds up his phone. You got the weird text from Frank, too?
Janegoodall nods. What do you think it means?
Watson shakes his head. I have no idea what s going on . . . but it sounds like Frank s in trouble.
Janegoodall reads from her phone. Need help. Come to junkyard. Follow the arrow sign. At sunset. Bring banana.
Watson holds up a slightly smushed banana.
Janegoodall shakes her head. I have no idea.
Watson looks at the setting sun. Let s roll!
Watson and Janegoodall race their bikes to Grampa Al Einstein s house/Fix It! repair shop and Frank Einstein s laboratory.
They skid to a stop, drop their bikes, race around the back of Grampa Al s.
They scan the piles of junk.
There, says Watson.
Janegoodall and Watson follow the old lightbulb-studded arrow sign.
But it points to nothing except a pile of broken toasters.

The red-orange rays of the setting sun light the top of the giant maple tree in the alley.
Watson jams the banana in his back pocket. Frank needs help with . . . toasters?
Janegoodall looks around. Maybe this is the wrong sign. She kicks at a pile of junk. She sees metal.
Janegoodall and Watson clear away the toasters. But the metal turns out to be nothing but a storm drain.

A crow caws in the distance.
Venus, the evening star, glows silver in the gathering dusk.
Are we too late?
Maybe we missed sunset.
Janegoodall and Watson look up.
And that s when they hear a metallic clink. A knocking on the storm sewer cover.
Watson and Janegoodall kneel down, use two rusted metal rods to pry up the metal disk.
Frank . . . ?
Space.
Outer space.
Hundreds . . . no, thousands . . . no, millions of points of light dot the moonless inky blue-black night sky.
A kid wearing size-five brown wing-tip shoes swings a giant telescope in a slow arc. He scans the points of starlight.
Wow!
Standing next to the kid, a chimpanzee in a lab coat, pleasantly surprised for once, agrees.
The sparkly expanse of the Milky Way, splashed across the sky, is . . . wow.

Look at all of those stars. All of those suns. So many planets.
Mr. Chimp nods.
If we could find a way to travel out there . . . just think . . . we could . . .
Mr. Chimp nods again, his mind expanding with thoughts of the sheer immensity of the universe. The sheer immensity of possibilities . He is glad he came back. Glad T. Edison might be of some help in his Big Plan.
. . . make so . . . much . . . money!
Mr. Chimp covers his face with his hands.
If it weren t so dark in the rooftop observatory of ChimpEdison Laboratories, you could see him shaking his head. Now less glad.
T. Edison shuts down his telescope. He closes up the observatory. He flicks on the lights.
But other planets, other solar systems, are so far away.
T. Edison paces back and forth. He looks over his planet charts.
It takes too many years to get anywhere.
Mr. Chimp slides his hands down his face. This is the first smart thing he has heard T. Edison say tonight.
Mr. Chimp signs:

Exactly! says T. Edison. The distance that light can travel, speeding nearly 300,000 kilometers per second. T. Edison starts pacing again. I ll bet you didn t know that!
Mr. Chimp sits down and writes out the mathematical formula for the distance of one light-year.
Mr. Chimp holds up his calculation.
This annoys T. Edison.

Well, maybe you did know. But here is my genius idea-what if I invent a way to travel faster than light? Then we could get to any planet. In seconds. Like taking a train. A very fast train.
Mr. Chimp looks up from his calculations. He doesn t even know where to start.
He could remind T. Edison that nothing can outrace light.
He could explain to T. Edison that when a car traveling at the speed of light turns on its lights . . . the light still travels at the speed of light.
He could explain to T. Edison the vast scale of the universe.
That if Earth were the size of a tennis ball, the sun would be seven football fields away. The next closest star would be 130,000 miles away. The next galaxy unimaginably far away.

But Mr. Chimp is tired of explaining things to T. Edison.
Plus-this time, he s got a plan of his own.
Mr. Chimp gathers up his papers, looks at T. Edison, and lies:

Mr. Chimp waves good-night.
And heads off to his own room.
The Midville storm drain cover moves.
Watson and Janegoodall grab an edge, heave, and slide the heavy metal disc sideways.
Watson peers down into the shadowed tunnel. In the fading sunlight, he sees a crazy mess of hair, a dirty lab coat, and two hands reaching up.
Watson and Janegoodall grab Frank s hands and pull.
Frank!
It is.
Frank Einstein.
Watson and Janegoodall pull Frank up out of the drain. He collapses in a heap next to Grampa Al s motorcycle and the pile of old toasters.

Frank sits up. Amazing! He weaves back and forth.
Frank looks up to the stars. His eyes close. He slumps over.
Watson and Janegoodall load Frank into a red wagon and take him inside to his lab. They lay him on the old couch in the corner. Watson wipes the dirt off his face. Janegoodall gets a cup of water.
Frank s eyes slowly open.
Watson. Janegoodall. Thank goodness you made it.
Of course we did, says Janegoodall. What happened? Why were you down there?
Frank lies back on the couch.

Oh! And here s your banana, says Watson. He pulls the slightly mashed fruit out of his pocket.
Frank takes the banana. Peels it. And scarfs it down.
What s the banana got to do with anything? Watson asks.
Is it because it contains vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium? guesses Janegoodall.
Frank finishes the banana. No, I was just hungry for a banana.
Watson shakes his head and laughs.
Much better, says Frank. This is so amazing. You are not going to believe where Grampa Al and I have been.
Grampa Al? asks Janegoodall.

Is he in the other room getting his telescope?
Ummmmm, no.
Then where is he? You were the only one in there.
Frank runs his hands through his electrified hair.
Ohhhhh nooooooo. I lost Grampa Al.
You lost him? In the sewer?
No, says Frank. Worse. He accidentally fell into my space-time rip. Before my invention was ready.
What?! Watson exclaims.
So where is he? asks Janegoodall.
Frank looks up. Come to the roof. I ll show you.
Frank swings the big telescope on the roof of Grampa Al s to point north in the night sky. Right near the constellation Cassiopeia. That big W shape . . .
He adjusts the viewfinder, zeroing in on a pinpoint of light.

Watson and Janegoodall look at each other. They wonder if Frank Einstein has lost his mind.
There! says Frank. Look.
Watson looks. What am I looking at?
Alpha Andromedae. Brightest star in the Andromeda constellation. Ninety-seven light-years away.

And why are we looking there?
Grampa Al. He s somewhere near there.
Now Watson and Janegoodall are sure Frank has lost his mind.
Really. Ninety-seven light-years away?
Yes, yes. Frank brushes them off.
But . . . how did you get ninety-seven light-years away? And back again? Even if you were traveling at the speed of light, it would have taken you . . .

About one hundred ninety-four years, figures Janegoodall.
So much work to do . . . mutters Frank. He scratches his head. He sketches on a blank sheet of graph paper. Albert Einstein s happiest thought-gravity is simply the warping of space-time. Small object causes small distortion of space-time. Massive object causes massive distortion. Simple!
Frank! Janegoodall snaps him out of it. What are you talking about? You are not making any sense.
Frank looks down at the lines he has scribbled on the paper.
Einstein s general theory of relativity. Space, time, gravity . . . all connected. All part of the same thing. That s how to travel farther and faster than the speed of light. But something went wrong . . .
What?
Frank doesn t answer. He keeps talking to himself out loud. All connected. Maybe a different way. Maybe. Like this.
Frank draws a crazy mess of circles and lines that look mostly like an octopus putting on socks.

See? All connected. Just have to maybe re-power the crossover circuits to use space-time bend. Get Grampa Al back!
Jane and Watson study the crazy diagram.
They look at Frank all wild-eyed and wobbly on his feet.
Ummmmm, right, says Jane. But maybe a bit of sleep first.
Frank looks up at the stars. He pats his pockets, looking for something. Oh no. No time to waste. Time is space. Space is time. Connect time and space.
Frank spins around in a slow circle, still patting his pockets. Must. Save. Grampa Al. Now.
Watson takes Frank by the arm and gently steers him away from the edge of the rooftop.
Frank blinks, closes one eye.
Right . . . now . . .
Frank falls forward, asleep on his feet, right into Watson s arms.
Watson looks at Janegoodall. Did any of that make any sense?
Janegoodall looks down at Frank s crazy diagram, and up at the stars. No . . . and yes . . .
CAMEROON, AFRICA, 1956
Deep in the jungle, a baby chimpanzee is born.
The world turns. The sun rises and sets.
Men! With nets.
They come and scoop up baby in