In the Kitchen Read online

  Hiya! My name Thudd. Best robot friend of Drewd. Thudd know lots of stuff. How bug walk up wall. Why bubble break. How spider make web!

  Drewd like to invent stuff. Thudd help! But sometime Thudd and Drewd make mistake. Invention plus mistake make adventure! Thudd and Drewd go on adventure now. Want to come? Turn page, please!

  Get lost with

  Andrew, Judy, and Thudd

  in all their exciting adventures!

  Andrew Lost on the Dog

  Andrew Lost in the Bathroom

  Andrew Lost in the Kitchen

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost in the Garden

  To Dan and Zack and Dad

  and the real Andrew, with love.

  —J.C.G.

  To Dave, for washing the dishes.

  —D.P.

  Andrew’s World

  1. Toilet Bowling

  2. Trapped!

  3. Pipe Down!

  4. That Sinking Feeling

  5. Bye-Bye, Umbubble!

  6. Splitting Up!

  7. The Drastic Elastic

  8. Butter Up!

  9. A Patch of Blue

  10. Buzzing Off

  True Stuff

  Where to Find More True Stuff

  Andrew Dubble

  Andrew is ten years old, but he’s been inventing things since he was four. His newest invention is the Atom Sucker. It shrinks things by sucking the space out of their atoms.

  Andrew wanted to shrink himself so he could write a report about ants. But Andrew had a little accident. Now he, his cousin Judy, and his robot Thudd are so small they could use a drop of water as a swimming pool!

  Judy Dubble

  Judy is Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin. She’s pretty annoyed with Andrew for shrinking them. But Andrew shrank her parents’ helicopter, too. If they can find it, she can fly them back to the Atom Sucker. But they have to hurry. In less than eight hours, the Atom Sucker will explode!

  Thudd

  Thudd is a little silver robot. The letters in his name stand for The Handy Ultra-Digital Detective. He’s Andrew’s best friend.

  In the last book Thudd got soaked in a bathtub. He needs to get dry before his supercomputer brain gets too soggy!

  Uncle Al

  Alfred Dubble is Andrew and Judy’s uncle. He’s a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd!

  Thudd has been trying to call Uncle Al with his purple button, but his antennas are getting rusty. Andrew and Judy need to find some butter to grease Thudd’s antennas, or Uncle Al won’t be able to help them at all!

  Harley

  Harley is a basset hound. He belongs to Judy’s next-door neighbor, but Judy is his best friend. After they were shrunk, Andrew, Judy, and Thudd ended up in side Harley’s nose!

  A few minutes ago, Harley pooped on the floor. When his owner cleaned it up, she cleaned up Andrew, Judy, and Thudd, too!

  Mrs. Scuttle

  Mrs. Scuttle is Judy’s next-door neighbor. Harley belongs to her. She just flushed Harley’s poop—together with Andrew, Judy, and Thudd—down the toilet!

  When you wake up in the morning, thought Andrew, you never think about getting flushed down the toilet!

  At 12:01 that afternoon, Andrew had accidentally shrunk himself, his older cousin Judy, and his robot pal, Thudd. They were smaller than the point of a pin! Now they were huddled inside one of Andrew’s inventions, the round, rubbery Umbubble.

  The Umbubble was whirling round and round a toilet bowl. Judy’s neighbor Mrs. Scuttle had just flushed it—along with a pile of poop from her dog, Harley.

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “It’s like we’re at the top of a water tornado!”

  meep …

  The sound came from the little silver robot that Andrew held tight in his hand. It was Thudd.

  “Why do elephants got trunks?” Thudd asked. “Cuz they don’t got pockets to put stuff in! Hee hee!”

  Andrew looked at Judy. He was worried. Thudd had gotten wet in the bathtub. Now he was telling silly jokes.

  The Umbubble picked up speed as it was pulled to the middle of the twisting water. Down, down, down they rushed! The light above them faded away

  meep … “’Fraid of dark!” said Thudd.

  GLOOOGGHH! The toilet roared.

  Judy leaned very close to Andrew. “If this thing springs a leak,” she said, “I’m using your head to plug it!”

  The Umbubble slammed to a stop.

  “Yerggh!” said Andrew.

  “Oof!” said Judy.

  “Eek!” said Thudd.

  “We’re stuck on something,” said Andrew.

  The roar of the water outside got softer and then stopped.

  “I think all the water flushed,” said Andrew.

  Suddenly a light blinked in the darkness. It was the big purple button in the middle of Thudd’s chest!

  Snap!

  The purple button popped open. A beam of light shot out. At the end of the beam floated a clear purple hologram of Andrew and Judy’s Uncle Al.

  “You’re back!” said Andrew.

  “Hey there!” said Uncle Al, smiling.

  Andrew and Judy had talked to Uncle Al earlier that day. They were hoping he could help them somehow. But Andrew could tell his uncle was worried. His bushy eyebrows were scrunched together.

  “It’s 5:15,” Uncle Al said. “My plane is over Canada. I’m trying to get to you before 8:01, before the Atom Sucker—er—blows up. Where are you guys now?”

  “We got flushed down the toilet,” explained Judy. “Now we’re stuck somewhere in the drainpipe.”

  “Good golly, Miss Molly!” said Uncle Al.

  meep … “What is biggest ant on Earth?” Thudd interrupted. “Eleph-ant! Hee hee!”

  “Uh-oh,” said Uncle Al. “Thudd is telling elephant jokes. That means his thought chips are dangerously soggy! You’ve got to get him dry. And he needs to be rubbed with butter so he doesn’t get rusty.”

  Judy frowned. “I know you can’t see us when you’re a hologram, Uncle Al. But we’ve got a big shortage of dryness and butter down here in the toilet!”

  Uncle Al nodded, “What you need is a kitchen,” he said. “The pipes that leave the toilet and the tubs and the sinks all connect to one big drainpipe.”

  meep … “Look!” said Thudd. His face screen lit up with a picture of the plumbing in Mrs. Scuttle’s house.

  “I know,” said Judy. “When I was a kid, I made real plumbing for my dollhouse.”

  “Super!” said Uncle Al. “So you know that connected to the big drainpipe is a smaller pipe that leads to the kitchen sink. Can you tell where you are in the big drainpipe?”

  Andrew stuck Thudd to the sticky wall of the Umbubble. Then he unhooked his mini-flashlight from his belt and snapped it on.

  The Umbubble was surrounded by mounds of gooey jelly! Stringy things were floating in the goo. Little blobs were squirming through it!

  “We’re stuck in slime like we saw in the bathtub drain,” said Andrew.

  “Ah, slime!” said Uncle Al. “I love that stuff! So interesting!”

  Suddenly Uncle Al started disappearing, feet first. In an instant, all that was left of him was his shaggy hair.

  “Uncle Al!” Judy yelled. “Don’t go!”

  But it was too late. He was gone!

  “We’ve got to find the pipe to the kitchen,” said Andrew. He waved his flashlight around the walls of the pipe. Huge, shiny water drops were trickling down over the slime.

  “Wait!” said Judy. “I think I saw something!”

  She grabbed the flashlight and pointed to a curving black shape below them.

  meep … “Oody found place where kitchen pipe hook up with big drainpipe!” said Thudd.

  “We need to
get the Umbubble unstuck and into that pipe!” said Judy.

  “Jumping up and down might get us loose from the slime,” said Andrew.

  They bounced down on the Umbubble. Nothing happened. They bounced again. Slowly, the Umbubble pulled away from the slime.

  “Yay!” Andrew cheered.

  The Umbubble drifted down. Soon they were across from the dark hole where the pipes connected.

  “I’ll have to steer the Umbubble like I did when we were in the bathroom,” said Judy.

  Judy gave the flashlight back to Andrew and pulled a ballpoint pen from her pocket. She had taken the ink cartridge out of it before. She poked the empty pen tube through the wall of the Umbubble and started to blow.

  The Umbubble moved in the opposite direction—into the new pipe.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew. “This place smells like poop, old sneakers, and onions!”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “Thanks for pointing that out,” she said.

  Andrew beamed his flashlight toward the top of the pipe. He spotted a cluster of strange, egg-like things clinging there. They were shiny and white. They looked squishy.

  “I wonder what those are,” said Andrew. He gave a little shiver. “But I kind of don’t want to know.”

  meep … “Eggs of drain flies!” said Thudd. “Look!” Thudd pointed to an egg at the edge of the cluster. It was quivering! Suddenly it split open. Something started to wriggle out!

  Judy stopped puffing to watch. “Looks like a worm!” she said.

  meep … “Baby drain fly,” said Thudd. “This how it look when it grow up!” Thudd pointed to his face screen.

  Andrew and Judy were staring at Thudd’s screen when the Umbubble bumped into something. Andrew shined his flashlight on it. There was a turn in the pipe. It was going down. And the pipe below was filled with water!

  “What’s this?” said Andrew. “I thought the pipe would turn up toward the sink.”

  “We’ve come to the trap in the drain,” said Judy.

  “Why would anyone put a trap in a drain?” asked Andrew.

  Judy gave Andrew her don’t-you-know-anything look. “Pipes under sinks and toilets and tubs all have these U-shaped parts to trap water,” she said. “The water keeps the stinky smells from getting into the house.”

  Andrew scratched his head. “You mean we have to dive through that water to get to the sink?” he asked.

  “Not just water,” said Judy. “Anything that goes down the drain gets stuck in the trap. Mushy meat, moldy mushrooms, gunky grapes….”

  “Okay, okay!” Andrew said.

  Judy let the Umbubble drift down. Below them floated dark chunks and shiny, slimy things.

  Then Andrew’s light flashed on something familiar sticking out of the water. It was something thick and scaly.

  “It’s a hair!” said Andrew.

  “Mrs. Scuttle has long hair,” said Judy. “If it’s one of hers, we could follow it through the trap to the sink. But wait a minute.” Judy’s eyes got narrow. “We’ll have to stick our hands into the yucky stuff to grab the hair!”

  Andrew and Judy looked at each other. Andrew was about to ask Thudd if he had a better idea when he heard a sound he didn’t want to hear. “Shnurm … shnurm … shnurm …”

  Thudd was snoring again! Sleeping was another thing Thudd had never done before he got wet.

  Judy yanked the pen tube out of the Umbubble. Then she rolled up the sleeves of her jacket. Andrew stuck his flashlight on the wall of the Umbubble next to Thudd.

  “Ready?” asked Judy.

  Andrew nodded.

  They poked their hands through the rubbery Umbubble and reached out into the gooey darkness.

  “Yeuuuw!” said Judy. “It’s so squishy out there. I haven’t done anything this disgusting since I ate a fried cricket in Australia.”

  “Don’t think about it,” said Andrew.

  They grabbed on to the hair and began to pull the Umbubble down into the goop.

  Mushy shapes moved like ghosts in the darkness outside the Umbubble.

  “Andrew, look!” said Judy, pointing. “It’s one of your initials!”

  A white letter A was floating by outside.

  “And there’s a B!” she continued.

  “I guess Mrs. Scuttle likes alphabet soup,” said Andrew.

  Then an enormous green flower the size of a dump truck floated up through the letters.

  “Bizarre-o!” said Judy.

  meep … “Broccoli flower!” said Thudd, awake again.

  Suddenly the beam from the flashlight caught a sparkle of color outside. It flashed red and yellow and blue and white.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew.

  Judy leaned over to see. “It looks like part of a rainbow!” she said.

  Thudd pressed the “What’s It?” button on his chest, and a thin red ray shot out at the twinkling thing. The “What’s It?” ray told Thudd what things were made of.

  meep … “Diamond!” said Thudd. “Diamond made of stuff inside pencils!”

  “It sure doesn’t look like pencil lead,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Diamond come from deep inside Earth,” said Thudd. “Hot, hot, hot! Pencil stuff get squished into diamond!”

  Andrew looked at Judy. “Maybe Mrs. Scuttle is always grumpy because she lost her diamond ring.”

  Judy shook her head. “Mrs. Scuttle would be grumpy if she had a diamond as big as a barn.”

  They dragged the Umbubble past the diamond. The underwater world was quiet and spooky. There was no way to tell where they were, or if the hair would lead them all the way through the trap.

  Andrew squinted. It seemed that the icky blackness all around them was turning into yucky grayness.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “It’s getting lighter!”

  Judy pushed her face close to the wall of the Umbubble. “I think we’re getting close to the top of the trap!” she said.

  Andrew and Judy pulled the Umbubble along the hair faster.

  At last the Umbubble popped to the top of the water.

  “Yay!” cheered Andrew.

  “Yeep!” squeaked Thudd.

  “We did it!” said Judy.

  The Umbubble was covered with slimy, seaweedy gunk from the trap. But there were a few places where they could see out.

  Andrew pointed at a circle of light above the Umbubble. “It’s the kitchen drain!” he said.

  “Now the problem is to get there,” said Judy. “Help me pull the Umbubble a little further up.”

  Once they were off the water, Judy and Andrew pulled their arms back into the Umbubble.

  Andrew wiped his slimy hands on his pants. “Super gross!” he said.

  “We’ve won the lottery of grossness,” said Judy.

  Judy got out her pen tube again and pushed it through the bottom of the Umbubble. She looked at Andrew.

  “Okay, Disaster Master,” she said, “it’s your turn to blow the Umbubble.”

  “Sure,” said Andrew. He started to blow. They floated up.

  Thwunk!

  The Umbubble had bumped into something.

  “It’s probably the side of the pipe,” said Judy.

  Andrew puffed and puffed, but he couldn’t make the Umbubble move.

  “We’re stuck again!” said Judy.

  Andrew stopped puffing. The Umbubble started moving. But it wasn’t floating. It was sort of … scampering!

  Judy and Andrew tried to find clear spots on the Umbubble wall to see what was going on.

  “I see a hairy tree branch,” said Judy.

  “I see a wall of shiny tiles,” said Andrew.

  Suddenly Thudd’s antennas started twitching. Thudd used his antennas to hear. He also used them to smell with. Something was making them wiggle!

  “Eek! Eek!” Thudd squeaked. “Smell something big! Bad!” His antennas were going crazy. “Cockroach!”

  Thudd pulled himself off the Umbubble wall and scuttled over to Andrew.

  meep … “Shiny til
es are cockroach eye!” Thudd said. “Cockroach eye made of two thousand little eyes. But they not see much. Mostly just see when stuff move.”

  “And what’s this hairy tree branch thing?” asked Judy.

  Thudd hurried over to Judy’s side.

  meep … “Antenna,” said Thudd. “Antenna taste stuff. Antenna feel stuff move.”

  The circle of light above them was getting bigger.

  “I think the cockroach is climbing into the sink,” Judy said.

  meep … “When cockroach get to kitchen,” said Thudd, “cockroach look for food. Then hide. Go find big cockroach family behind wall.”

  “Then we’d better dump this bug,” said Judy, “before we end up having Thanksgiving dinner with a cockroach family!”

  Judy jostled against the wall of the Umbubble. Andrew did, too. But they couldn’t get loose.

  Then the cockroach twitched its antenna. The Umbubble floated free! The cockroach scrambled up the drain ahead of them.

  Andrew shut off his mini-light and attached it to his belt loop. Then he got back to blowing the Umbubble to the circle of light.

  At last they popped into the sink. It was a skyscraper city of dirty dishes!

  Eeeeeee! came a loud screech.

  Judy covered her ears. “What’s that?” she asked.

  Andrew shook his head. Then he heard softer clicking sounds. “That sounds like—”

  meep … “Harley paws on kitchen floor!” Thudd said.

  Thump! Thump! Thump! came heavy footsteps. Mrs. Scuttle’s voice shook the Umbubble. “Harley, you bad dog!” she yelled. “How dare you poop on the floor!”

  Ahwoooo! Harley howled.

  “No!” Mrs. Scuttle shouted. “You’re not going out! You’ll head straight for the garbage again. Right after I’ve given you a bath, too! You’ve already wrecked my day and my bathroom!”

  Judy sighed. “Mrs. Scuttle doesn’t deserve a great dog like Harley,” she said.

  Andrew blew the Umbubble up through the pile of dirty dishes. On a white plate below them, they saw the yolk of a fried egg. It looked like a sun that had crash-landed in a desert of toast crumbs.