132. Twelve Words

Burbank was getting very excited because we had all the pieces of the transmitter now. We just had to figure out how to put it all together. He said that I’d better stay out of it in case I muck it up, which he’s probably write. I’m no engineer. I asked Burbank to divulge a little of how his genius mind works—how did he know how to get all these pieces? How does he know what he’s doing?

He shook his head at me and told me I had the answer right in front of me the whole time. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. It was the torn out page from my book that the French woman had given me with the jelly, jar, and pins. He gave it to me and this time I looked at the twelve circled words a little closer.

Real
Dig
Bike
Weed
Purple
Transmitter
Dish
Power
Highest
Last
Day
Month

I asked him to explain it to me, and I could tell he was getting a little frustrated at my density, but he is kind and took the time to put it in layman’s terms. The first thing he did was buy a real-o-meter, as suggested by the first word. This will be the most intricate technical device that goes into the communicator. He knew to buy shovels because of “dig,” which we used when the bum gave us the treasure map. He knew the bike helmet would be important, but also the seaweed, which obviously needs to be mixed with grape jelly (“purple”) to make a special liquid substance that the energy can travel through like electricity through water. The “transmitter” was the antenna and the “dish” was the aluminum dish on the top of the Gregor Award. The “power” of course is the batteries, which look like normal double A batteries, but they have strange markings on them and are of a brand I haven’t seen before. Burbank recons that they are not filled with normal battery acid. As for the last four words, on the last day of June, we have to get as high as we can to use the communicator. This gives us only four days to assemble the device.