Floors #3: The Field of Wacky Inventions by Patrick Carman Page A

day, Miss Sheezley stared up into the sky and had to admit she might have had one of her classic overreactions.
    “It seemed closer than that,” she said.
    In fact, the roof of the Foxtrot Hotel, which was now being held aloft by an enormous blimp, was at least fifty feet overhead. And Leo was right: It looked as though it had stopped moving.
    “It would appear that Merganzer isn’t ready to continue just yet,” Alfred observed. He glanced at his wristwatch, then began limping toward the middle of the roof.
    “That thing could come crashing down at any moment!” Miss Sheezley said. “I say we stay close to the ladder in case we need to get out of the way in a hurry.”
    “Why not enjoy a bite of lunch instead?” Alfred countered. “After all, it’s been laid out so nicely for us. Wouldn’t you say?”
    Leo had been too busy looking up at the building, which swayed slowly in the gentle breeze, to notice what Alfred had found.
    “He’s delivered some lunch, don’t you see?” Alfred said as he arrived in the middle of the roof and looked back.
    This got Remi’s attention in a hurry, and Leo’s, too. They hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and they were both starving. Miss Sheezley’s stomach growled, but she wasn’t going anywhere near the lunch, because it was too far away from the ladder. She took two steps down and stood her ground, where she looked like someone standing knee-deep in a shallow pond. If the need arose, she would be the first one down the ladder to safety.
    “Come on, Lucy, let’s eat,” Leo said, for he was sure the girl he’d found on the tiny dino floor hadn’t eaten anything but dino treats for some time. “I know Merganzer D. Whippet. He wouldn’t set us out a nice lunch unless he wanted us to eat it.”
    Lucy licked her lips, and it seemed to Leo that she was thinking of all the food she hadn’t had in a long time. Her maintenance overalls — which he really wanted to know more about — looked about three sizes too big, like she’d shrunk since first putting them on.
    “Race you,” she said with a twinkle in her bright blue eyes, and before Leo could respond, she was running for the middle of the roof at a dead sprint. Leo took chase but found that Lucy was not only resourceful but also very fast. By the time he arrived at the picnic blanket, she was already sitting down. And Remi, never one to waste any time on formalities, was already chewing a mouthful of cheese and crackers. When it came to a race for lunch, Remi was faster than either one of them.
    Merganzer had indeed provided a lovely scene on the former top of the Rochester Hotel. There was a large quilt with duck images sewn into it, plates of cheese and fruit, baskets of bread and crackers, and something else very special.
    “Flart’s Fizz!” Remi screamed. “No way!”
    “What’s Flart’s Fizz?” Lucy asked, ripping off a piece of bread and handing it to Phil. The tiny dinosaur burrowed back out of sight in one of Lucy’s many pockets and made a lot of munching sounds.
    “What’s Flart’s Fizz?” Remi asked incredulously. “Only the best soda pop in the entire universe, that’s all.”
    “Remi, be polite,” Leo said. “How is she supposed to know what Flart’s Fizz is?”
    “I don’t know what it is, either,” Alfred said. He had arrived last, but wasted no time building a sandwich out of the bread and the cheese as Leo handed him a bottle. Remi gave bottles to everyone else, and found there was one left over.
    “Hey, Miss Sheezley!” Remi yelled across the roof. “Wanna burp your brains out?”
    “No, thank you,” she replied tersely.
    “Didn’t think so.” Remi smiled. Leo was pretty sure his brother was planning to drink the extra.
    Remi popped the lid on his bottle and instructed everyone else to do the same as Leo explained about Dr. Flart, the incredible hidden underground floors of the Whippet Hotel, and the even more incredible burps that Flart’s Fizz produced.
    “Bottoms