Floors #3: The Field of Wacky Inventions Read Online Free Page A

limbs, and there were no rails whatsoever. Just a flat place to stand, a wooden box of rollers for riding on, and a long zip line that ended someplace they couldn’t see.
    “Remember how we used these before?” Leo asked. “Under the Whippet Hotel, in the underground jungle?”
    “I remember it was not enjoyable,” said Remi. “Especially the landing part.”
    “Come on — it’ll be fun,” Leo said. “I bet there are pancakes down there.”
    Remi’s eyes lit up. The beef jerky had tasted like dirt, and he knew Merganzer was famous for cookingup breakfasts that were super-amazing, fantastic, and great.
    “You had me at pancakes,” Remi said. “Let’s do this.”
    They each picked up one of the rollers, and Leo set his over the top of the rigid line. “Follow me. I’ll yell back if there are any obstacles.”
    “Obstacles? Who said anything about obstacles?”
    Before Remi could change his mind about the whole endeavor, Leo dove off the platform and into the air, zipping down the line, away from the tree house. Remi followed a little too close, and because he was heavier, caught up to Leo in approximately two seconds.
    “Incoming!” Remi screamed, plowing into Leo’s back and sending him twisting and turning as they approached a wide limb in their path. Leo barely lifted his legs in time.
    “Lift your legs, Remi! Quick!”
    Remi did as he was told, but he was quite a bit shorter than Leo, so he hadn’t needed to lift his legs. Forming into a cannonball did make him go faster, though, and he clobbered Leo again as they both screamed and careened down the zip line toward a platform in the middle of the outer wall. The line leveled out as they approached the end, and Leo was able to hop off and stand upright, the wall around the field of wacky inventions staring him in the face. Remi came inlike a bowling ball, toppling Leo like a pin and slamming into the stone wall.
    “Whose idea was this again?” Remi said as he shook his head.
    “I guess that would be me. Sorry, bro,” Leo offered. He was rubbing his side, where he’d just been struck by a Remi wrecking ball.
    The platform was right in the center of the wall — no closer to the ground than the top edge of the stones.
    “Looks like it’s about twenty feet up there,” Leo said.
    “And twenty feet down,” Remi said. He was looking down into a hole on the platform that had a ladder leading to the ground.
    “Let’s have a look outside first, shouldn’t we?” Leo asked. “We can go down right after.”
    Remi sniffed the air.
    “Someone’s cooking,” he said, standing up. He sniffed some more, like a dog on a scent, and pointed back in the direction from which they’d come. “Down there. It’s bacon.”
    “Just give me two seconds,” Leo pleaded. “Don’t you want to know where we are?”
    Remi looked up, then back in the direction of the unseen bacon sizzling on a grill, then at his stepbrother and best friend in the whole world.
    “You’re the only person I’d do this for, but okay. Let’s get up there and have a look.”
    Leo smiled broadly and the two began climbing. A ladder leading up the side of the wall was wide enough for both of them to ascend side by side, so they went together. Remi kept looking over his shoulder, in search of breakfast, but there were so many branches and vines and tree trunks, it was useless. He could barely see past his own nose, let alone all the way off into the field of wacky inventions.
    “They sure do know how to grow trees around this place.”
    It was farther than either of them had supposed when they had looked up, and the rungs were farther apart the higher they climbed. By the time they reached up and touched the top of the wall, they were both out of breath.
    “This thing is wider than I expected it to be,” Leo said, ever the observer of all things before him. The top of the wall was about three feet wide, so both boys hopped up on top and let their legs dangle down on the other