M Is for Mama's Boy by Michael Buckley

Author:Michael Buckley [Buckley, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Ages 8 & Up
ISBN: 9780810989863
Publisher: Amulet Books
Published: 2013-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

The goon did not intimidate Mama. She had faced down Jennifer DiDomizio at the neighborhood bake sale last summer. Jennifer had the audacity to bake lemon squares when she knew full well they were Mama’s signature dessert. The two women had screamed at each other so loudly that Bonnie Fuller’s chocolate bundt cake collapsed in on itself. If Mama could handle Mrs. DiDomizio’s dry and tasteless lemon bars, a guy with a hook for a hand wasn’t going to intimidate her.

She climbed right up the rope ladder with her son following sheepishly behind and found Simon sitting in his chair surrounded by squirrels.

“Are you the one taking advantage of my son?”

Simon set down his bag of nuts and sat up in his chair. He eyed her closely. It was clear to Mama the boy was not used to being confronted.

“Excuse me?”

“My son, Albert, says you hired him to build a doomsday device and all you’re offering him are some silly superpowers,” Mama said.

“I’d hardly call superpowers silly,” Simon replied. “When all is said and done, your son might be able to fly or lift a car over his head. He might have heat vision.”

“Albert does not need heat vision. What he needs is a future.”

“Mom, you’re embarrassing me,” Albert whined.

“Hush, honey. The grown-ups are talking,” Mama snapped, then turned her attention back to Simon. “My son has squandered the last twenty years of his life on comic books, and now he is finally doing something that could turn it all around.”

Simon frowned.

Mama reached over and snatched Albert’s machine from his hands. “Let’s be honest. You can’t take over the world with that little pop gun he built.”

“That’s the prototype, Mama,” Albert cried.

“Albert, it’s clear that your mother understands exactly what is going on. So, yes, Ms. Nesbitt, now that we know it works, I intend to have Albert build one a thousand times bigger that we can aim at the planet from space. One little zap and every machine from here to Australia will be under my control.”

“That should be worth more than being able to leap tall buildings.”

“What are you proposing, Ms. Nesbitt?” Simon asked. One of the squirrels climbed up in his lap and then onto his shoulder. It hunched forward as if it too wanted to hear what the strange woman wanted.

“Call me Mama,” she said.

“OK, Mama,” Simon replied.

“Let’s just say that Albert builds you something that lets you take over the entire world.”

“Let’s say that.”

“The world is a big place. It would be hard to manage it all by yourself. You might want to give some of it away just to avoid the headaches. Who better to take that problem off your hands than my son?”

Simon frowned. “When you say ‘some of it,’ I assume you have specific places in mind.”

“I’ve taken the liberty of making a list,” Mama said, handing Simon a slip of paper.

He scanned it. “You want your son to control half the United States, including Arlington, Virginia?”

Mama nodded. “Yes.”

“Why Arlington?”

“What’s the point

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