The sky was blue. The grass was green. The air was in-between. Not too hot and not too cold. It was a perfect day for running fast! ¡Muy rápido! I stood by the overhead train track behind my home, Starwood Park Apartments, feeling a smile on my face. My favorite thing to do after a long day at school was to race the train in my super-powered purple sneakers.
I reached into my pocket for my silver goggles. My smile disappeared. Where were my goggles? They weren’t in my jeans, and I needed them to protect my eyes when I zoomed ninety miles an hour. Did they fall out again? This was the second time in two days!
I touched my purple wristband to turn on my super speed. If I retraced my steps, maybe I could find them.
My silver goggles were not on the sidewalk. Were they on the stairs going down to Starwood Elementary? I was just about to search when I heard a voice.
Gio, my first-grade neighbor, was calling me. This was not a good time. I wanted to find my goggles so I could have fun racing the train.
“FREDDIE!” Gio called again.
A superhero should always help others first. I hurried back to Building G, where Gio was waving his arms.
“Puppy is missing!” Gio said.
“¿Otra vez?” I asked.
Puppy was lost yesterday too.
“You should use a leash,” I told him.
“I do!” Gio said. “Puppy pulled it out of my hands when I stopped to tie my shoe.”
Gio’s dog liked to chase squirrels. You needed super speed to keep up with a dog who kept running off.
I took off in a cloud of invisible smoke.
Luckily, Puppy hadn’t run too far away. But I found the other thing I was looking for in Puppy’s mouth. My silver goggles! Ugh!
“Give those back!” I told Puppy.
Puppy was not a good listener. He wouldn’t drop my goggles until Gio came over with a doggy treat. By then, they were too slobbery to put on my face. Yuck!
“Lo siento,” Gio said. “Puppy likes to chew things.”
“And run off,” I added.
“He’s not as fast you.” Gio sighed. “I wish I was.”
Gio was always saying that. He wanted to vanish in a puff of smoke the way I did.
“Do you think I’ll get faster when I’m bigger?” Gio asked.
“Sure,” I said. “Eat vegetables. My mom says they make you grow.”
“Thanks, Freddie!”
Gio left with Puppy, and I headed over to see my friend, Mr. Vaslov, with my drippy goggles. I held them by the strap so I didn’t have to touch dog slobber.
Mr. Vaslov opened his toolshed door. “What happened, Freddie?”
I told him how Puppy had found my goggles before I could.
He handed me a towel to wipe them off.
“It sounds like you need a tracker for those goggles.”
“Can you make one?” I asked.
Mr. Vaslov invented my super-powered purple sneakers and the wristband that controls my super speed, super bounce, and super hearing. Compared to that, a tracker sounded easy.
“I could.” Mr. Vaslov blinked behind his wire glasses. “And so could you, Freddie.”
Me? Could I be an inventor too? ¡Qué buena idea!
“Let’s get started!”
“Tomorrow,” Mr. Vaslov said. “Today, I’m finishing another project.”
“What?” I looked at Mr. Vaslov’s worktable and saw my first pair of purple shoes with silver wings on the side. They were too small for my feet now. Was Mr. Vaslov fixing them to give super speed to someone else?
