Mr. Peabody & Sherman Junior Novelization (Mr. Peabody & Sherman) (9 page)

“I did! I know! It’s terrible!” Sherman confessed. He told Mr. Peabody everything, from Penny’s crazy Egyptian wedding to Leonardo’s flying machine to the Trojan War. “And then you died in ancient Troy!”

“Died? I have a hard time believing that,” said Mr. Peabody skeptically.

“It’s true!” Sherman insisted. “But now you’re here and everything’s going to be okay.”

Mr. Peabody frowned. He realized he had a bigger problem on his paws. “I told you never to come back to a
time when you existed because there’d be two of you!”

“Yeah, but the other one of me is still in ancient Egypt, losing Penny,” Sherman said, pleased with himself.

Suddenly, the three of them heard footsteps approaching, and the other Sherman—the one from the dinner party—rounded the corner. Toga Sherman realized he had miscalculated. He and Penny had arrived just as Past Sherman was about to ask Mr. Peabody for help. Past Sherman stopped abruptly and gasped when he came face to face with … himself.

“AHHHHHH!”
Both Shermans were shocked.

“Who are you?” Past Sherman asked, startled.

“He’s you but from another time,” Mr. Peabody explained.

Past Sherman wrinkled his brow in confusion. “But I thought you said never to come back to a time when you existed—”

“Exactly.” Mr. Peabody fixed the Sherman from ancient Greece with a pointed look.

“I know, I know.” Toga Sherman sighed. “But what was I supposed to do? Mr. Peabody died in ancient Troy!”

“
Died?
I have a hard time believing that.” Past Sherman snorted in disbelief.

“Thank you!” Mr. Peabody said. He couldn’t understand why everyone thought he had died. He was a supergenius. He could think his way out of anything.

Penny propped her hands on her hips. “What are we going to do?” she asked. In her opinion, having two Shermans was having one Sherman too many.

“Well, for starters, both Shermans can’t stay here!” Mr. Peabody told them.

“Why? We could get bunk beds!” Past Sherman said eagerly.

“I was thinking the same thing!” Toga Sherman agreed.

“That’s so weird!” Past Sherman exclaimed. “It’s like we’re twins!”

Toga Sherman nodded enthusiastically. He was starting to like this Past Sherman kid—after all, he was pretty handsome. Toga Sherman raised his hand and leaned in to give his past self a high five. A bright bolt of electricity zipped between the two of them, giving them a jolt.

“Careful! Don’t get too close! This situation is putting too much strain on the space-time continuum!” Mr. Peabody warned. He stepped between the two Shermans
and held them apart, worried. He had to come up with a solution, and fast! Under no circumstances could he let Penny’s parents find out what was going on. If they learned the truth, they would press charges and Miss Grunion would take Sherman away for sure. Just then, Paul and Patty Peterson popped their heads into the hallway. Past Sherman ducked quickly out of sight before Penny’s parents spotted him.

“Hey Pea-buddy!” Paul said cheerily. “Patty and I are working up an appetite!”

Mr. Peabody grinned uneasily and cast a nervous glance around the room, hoping that Past Sherman had found a place to hide.

“Hey, what’s with the getups?” Patty asked, noticing the kids’ strange costumes.

Penny and Toga Sherman exchanged a worried look. Thinking quickly, she draped an arm around his shoulder and said, “Toga party!”

Patty Peterson clapped her hands and whooped delightedly, while Paul suggested they move the party back into the living room.

“No!” Mr. Peabody shouted abruptly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Past Sherman standing behind
Penny’s parents. “I mean, it’s so fun … right here! To-ga! To-ga!” he chanted, distracting them while Past Sherman scurried toward the penthouse elevator. He was just about to press the call button when the elevator arrived—
DING!

Past Sherman ducked into the shadows as the elevator doors opened to reveal Miss Grunion.

“M
iss Grunion! How delightful!” Mr. Peabody gushed enthusiastically. But he was secretly terrified. The bothersome woman had picked the worst possible moment to inspect his home.

Miss Grunion stepped into the penthouse and looked around suspiciously. She saw that the Petersons were there and knew Mr. Peabody was up to something. It was only a matter of time before she got to the bottom of it.

“I think you’ll find that everything is tip … toe!” said Mr. Peabody as Past Sherman tiptoed from the shadows and sneaked behind Miss Grunion into the living room. “Tip-top! Tip-tip-tip-tip-top!” he corrected himself.

Miss Grunion ignored Mr. Peabody’s nervous outburst and stepped around him, headed for the living room. “I don’t know what your game is, Peabody, but I
have an inspection to finish,” she said sternly.

Panicked, Mr. Peabody leapt in front of her. “Of course, of course!” he said soothingly. “Why don’t you start over here … or here … or here?” He moved his paw back and forth in a mesmerizing rhythm. It was the same trick he’d used to put the Petersons into a trance, only it didn’t work on Miss Grunion.

“Stop waving your hands around,” she said, annoyed.

Unfortunately, Mr. Peabody’s trick worked a little too well on Past Sherman. Mesmerized, the boy stumbled out of his hiding place in the living room and fell flat on his back.

Miss Grunion and the Petersons reeled in shock. They looked from one Sherman to the other, absolutely baffled.

Paul Peterson used his fingers to take a quick head count. “
Dos Shermanos?
What’s going on here, Peabody?” he asked.

“Well … you see … that’s Sherman’s twin brother, Herman,” he lied quickly. “Say hello, Herman.”

Past Sherman climbed to his feet and shook his head, coming out of his trance. “Hello, Herman,” he said obediently.

Miss Grunion frowned. She didn’t believe the phony
story one bit. “Is that true?” she asked Past Sherman.

Before he could answer, he was interrupted by the sound of the penthouse elevator—
DING!
The doors slid open, and this time Mr. Peabody stepped out—a
second
Mr. Peabody. He wore a dingy toga and a battered Trojan helmet and looked a bit dusty, as if he had been on a very long trip. “No, the truth is … I have a time machine,” he confessed. “I call it the WABAC.”

Toga Sherman could not have been happier to see him. “You didn’t die!” he said gladly.

“Of course I didn’t die!” said Trojan Peabody.

“Hey, how did you get back?” asked Toga Sherman.

“Well, after a few failed experiments, I hit upon a combination of bone, stone, and yak fat and constructed a rudimentary WABAC,” Trojan Peabody explained. “If at first you don’t succeed,
Troy, Troy
again.”

Past Peabody wasn’t impressed. “How could you let this happen?” he said to his other self. “My plan was foolproof—”

“But it wasn’t childproof. It turns out raising a boy is more complicated than you thought!” Trojan Peabody explained.

Miss Grunion huffed and folded her arms across her chest. She knew that this couldn’t possibly be a
good environment for a growing boy. “I knew I’d uncover something unnatural, but I had no idea I was going to be presented with such clear-cut evidence of…
weirdness
,” she said warily.

“Not weirdness, Miss Grunion—
science
!” Past Peabody said, trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

Trojan Peabody stepped forward and offered to set everything right by using the WABAC to return everyone to their proper timelines. But Miss Grunion felt that things had gone far enough already. She took both Shermans by the hand, determined to remove them from the home!

“No, don’t! Miss Grunion, please!” Penny begged. “This is all my fault. I started it!” She turned to the Shermans to apologize. “I’m sorry I picked on you, Sherman. I’m sorry I called you a dog!”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Penny,” Miss Grunion said firmly. “A dog should not have been allowed to adopt a boy in the first place. Come along.” She pulled both Shermans away from Mr. Peabody, dragging them toward the door.

“Miss Grunion, don’t,” Mr. Peabody warned her.

The two Shermans struggled to break free of her
grip. They kicked and twisted and finally slipped out of her grasp. Unfortunately, they stumbled and fell smack into each other!

That made the universe very unhappy! The minute one Sherman tripped into the other Sherman, electricity crackled and the entire building shook!

I
t was the oddest stumble anyone had ever seen. When Past Sherman and Toga Sherman tried to climb to their feet, they realized they were stuck together. In fact, they were more than stuck. They were melting into one another! One boy’s hand sank into the other’s nose, and one boy’s foot stuck to the other boy’s kneecap. The Shermans were attached to each other like glue, and more electricity crackled as they began to fuse!

“What’s happening?” Penny screamed.

Both Peabodys looked on in horror. This was exactly what they’d been afraid of. The laws of physics had been stretched to the limit, and now they were breaking. The universe knew that there should only be one Sherman in one place at one time, so now it was trying to squeeze the two of them back together.

“Mr. Peabody! Help!” the Shermans cried. By now they had blended into a gooey mess with multiple arms and two legs and one terrible head with four eyes!

The Peabodys rushed forward and tried to pull the sticky Shermans apart, but they were sucked into the roiling mass of morphing body parts.

“AHHHHHHHH!”
came a strangled scream from the tumbling ball of flailing limbs and cosmic goo formerly known as Sherman and Peabody.

A dangerous rumbling sound built beneath the living room floor, and the lights in the building flickered on and off at an alarming rate. Penny hugged her parents tightly and turned her face away.

The gooey mass writhed and shuddered, sparking arcs of electricity, until it finally exploded with a loud
boom!
Shock waves knocked everyone to the floor.

A few moments later, Miss Grunion and the Petersons pulled themselves to their feet. They had no idea what to expect when the dust settled, and they certainly weren’t expecting to see anything so … normal. Now there was only one Sherman and one Mr. Peabody, and there was nothing gooey about them.

“I don’t know what just happened here, but I know it was wrong!
Very wrong!
” Miss Grunion said, revolted.

“Miss Grunion, please,” Mr. Peabody begged. “Let’s sit down and discuss this matter like two reasonable—”

“People?” she asked pointedly, looking the literate dog up and down.

“Adults,” Mr. Peabody answered.

But Miss Grunion refused to discuss the matter further. She took Sherman by the hand and pulled him toward the elevator.

“Miss Grunion, please don’t! I beg of you! Don’t take my boy!” Mr. Peabody pleaded.

Sherman looked sadly at his father and tried to run back to him, but Miss Grunion jerked him roughly to her side.

“Ow! You’re hurting me!” Sherman shrieked.

That was the last straw for Mr. Peabody. All the logic and science in the world flew right out the window when he saw Miss Grunion hurting his son. It didn’t matter that he was a supergenius, or a Nobel Prize winner, or an Olympic gold medalist. It didn’t matter that he’d invented a time machine. It didn’t even matter that he was a dog. What mattered was that he was Sherman’s father, and he wasn’t about to let anyone hurt his son.

Mr. Peabody, the world’s smartest (and only) literate
dog, did a very bad thing. He bared his teeth, opened wide, and
bit
Miss Grunion!

It was the bite heard round the world—the bite that in ancient Troy would have launched a thousand ships. Penny and the Petersons reeled in shock. Sherman’s eyes popped out in surprise. Even Miss Grunion was momentarily stunned, until her shock dissolved into a self-satisfied grin. But no one was more shocked than Mr. Peabody.

Miss Grunion pulled out her cell phone and immediately dialed the police to report the bite.