“This is awesome,” Justin said. “The H2O4U IS amazing.”
“They’ll flip when they find out we made it in twenty minutes,” Sam said.
Sam put the H2O4U on the Alswangs’ outside table. I covered it with a beach towel. Lucy Rose and Jonique helped Justin line up the chairs.
“Melonhead and I painted those two,” Sam said.
“Open the gate. Let in the crowd,” Justin said.
My dad was first in line.
“Where’s Mom?” I asked.
“She had to see a man about some aphids,” my dad said. “She’s sad to be missing your top-secret project.”
“Attention, everyone, please take a seat and enjoy the show,” Lucy Rose said.
Julia waved her finger at my dad. “NOSE IT TOWN.” She pulled his pants. “Nose IT TOWN,” she said. When he didn’t understand, Julia crawled under his chair, pushed her fingers through the diamond-shaped holes, and poked his butt. “Sup yoogo,” she yelled. “Painon pans. Painon pans.”
“Julia?” my dad asked. “Do you want me to stand up?”
Julia looked at the back of his pants. Then she walked around and looked at the front. “No painon pans?”
“No paint on pants,” I said. “The paint is dry.”
Julia patted my dad’s leg. “Nye spans,” she said.
Sam’s parents laughed. I think they are over that incident.
This time my dad sat next to Madam. “We’re ready to be dazzled,” Pop said.
I plugged it into the extension cord.
Then Sam said, “Presenting the H2O4U!”
“Is that the scientific name?” Madam asked.
I pulled off the towel.
“Why, it’s a floating faucet!” Madam said.
I waved my hand behind the faucet. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I said. “As you can see, the H2O4U is not hooked up to a pipe.”
“But water is pouring out anyway, into this bucket,” Sam said. “It’s H2O4U.”
“That’s impossible,” Jonique said.
“Believe your own eyes,” I said.
When no one could guess how it worked Justin pulled out the plug.
The water stopped.
“It looks like a plastic tube with a faucet stuck on top,” Sam’s mom said.
“I don’t get it,” Lucy Rose said.
“There’s a bowl inside the bucket,” I said. “And an aquarium pump in the bowl.”
“Rocks are covering the pump,” Sam said.
“The tube attaches to the pump,” Justin said. “The pump sends water through the tube.”
“So why doesn’t the water spray out of the back of the faucet?” my dad asked.
“E-Z P-Z,” I said. “We put a wad of quick-drying putty inside the faucet. The water gets pumped up the inside tube but it’s blocked by the putty. So it makes a U-turn and runs down the outside of the tube.”
“And gets sucked back up the inside of the tube,” Justin said. “It uses the same water over and over again.”
“Since the tube is clear it doesn’t show,” Sam said. “Plus it makes it look like there’s more water than there actually is.”
“I see,” Sam’s mom said. “You weren’t fooling around in a public fountain. You were doing research.”
That made everybody laugh.
“You should go into the fountain-making business,” Mr. Alswang said.
“We can call it Mountains of Fountains,” I said.
“Sign us up,” Madam said. “We’ll buy one.”
“I am dumbfounded,” my dad said.
“That is not the same as being dumb,” Lucy Rose said. “He’s just too utterly shocked to talk.”
Sam’s dad took pictures of us with the fountain turned on and off.
“I am proud and amazed,” my dad said. “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to teach me in New York.”
“I have cookies and juice inside,” Sam’s mom said.
“I’ve got to get back to the office,” my dad told her. “Bring the H2O4U home so Mom can see it.”
“Okay,” I said.