Of Nasty Divorces and Premonitions

Chapter 1

Every night when Ferb closed his eyes; long after his dad had bid him good night, turned on the little yellow truck night light that Ferb insists he doesn't need because he's 7 and a big boy now (but will get out of bed and turn it on if the man decides to listen and leave it off), and closed the door, he'd dream about intelligently bright eyes, shocking red hair, and a grin that was just as infectious as it was mischievous. "Come on, Ferb! I know what we're going to do today!" the boy would say, practically vibrating in excitement. Ferb would open his eyes and find himself sitting in the cool shade of an oak tree that couldn't possibly fit into zoning laws next to a boy in jean shorts and an orange and white striped shirt. Brother, a part of his mind would whisper from somewhere in the darker recesses reserved for dream states. Here, so far away from England and his grandparents, he had a brother. He focused back in on a nose that was practically touching his in its closeness. "Wanna build a rollercoaster?" Entranced by the excitement shining back at him, all he could do was nod.

The boy is instantly on his feet, tugging Ferb up with persistent hands and running his mouth about needing rivets and scrap metal and posters to advertise. "It'll be the coolest coaster EVER Ferb! We're gonna have zigzags and loop de loops, and three mile drops straight down into a vat of mud! We'll even dump rubber snakes on them! This is gonna be awesome! But first, we need a blowtorch and some peanut butter. If you'll take care of that I'll go see about getting those building permits together so we can start ordering parts!"

"Hey, Phineas. Watcha dooin?" Taller than Phineas but shorter than Ferb, Isabella stood in the gateway with her pretty pink dress and bow in her neat hair; such a contrast to the messy visage the boy gave off. "Hey Ferb!" she waved. Ferb waved back from where he was perched on the girding of the framework, firing in rivets into the cold steel. Isabella was a Jewish Mexican girl who lived across the street from Phineas and came over every day. She was outgoing and clever and ready for whatever idea Phineas's brain has come up with, and she had the absolute most obvious crush on the redhead. Obvious to everyone, that is, except the boy in question. Every time he saw her openly making "doe eyes"--as he'd heard it called by grown-ups--at the shorter boy, he had to fight back an irrational wave of jealousy. She wasn't real, she was just part of a dream. So what reason did he have to be jealous? It was just silly. "Your step-brother doesn't talk much, does he?" Isabella was saying to Phineas. There were those weird doe eyes again... Phineas didn't notice. He was studying the blueprints they'd drawn up with a big grin on his face, which he turned on Ferb before answering. "Nah, he's more of a man of action." Ferb liked that smile. No one at home smiled like that, at least not at him. He fired in a row of rivets in quick succession. Sometimes he'd get a special smile from his father when he was being especially well behaved, or a smile full of old yellowish teeth from Grandpa Reg when he did a magic trick, but nobody smiled at him the way Phineas smiled at him.

The roller coaster was the coolest coaster ever. Everybody said so. Even if it didn't go exactly to plan, but they didn't have to know that. Ferb thought his favorite part was when they ended up in outer space. You could see the whole universe from up there! When he woke up, he was going to ask his dad if they could take a trip to the Peter Harrison Planetarium sometime soon. When he asked Phineas's favorite part, the boy had just grinned cheekily and replied with "the mud and snakes." The roller coaster cars exploding in the top of the tree had scared him a little, but Phineas hadn't seemed concerned. "It's okay, Ferb. The tree will be fine. It actually does that a lot." Phineas got up and dusted the grass off his jeans. "Okay, Ferb. You have to be going, don't you." Ferb felt a wave of sadness. That's right. He always wakes up after their invention of the day. He nods, feeling like he was going to cry. He didn't want to leave. He liked Phineas! He liked Phineas's mommy. She always made them snacks and never told them it would ruin their dinner. And Phineas had the coolest pet, a teal platypus named Perry who always sat next to him and let Ferb pet him. He didn't have any pets at home because his mommy was allergic so the closest he had was his stuffed bunny, the Duke of Longear.

Phineas seemed to sense Ferb's distress because he kneeled in front of the Brit and wrapped him in a tight hug. Phineas had the best hugs. "It's okay, Ferb! You'll be back tomorrow! I'll think of something real cool for us to do, okay? Real cool. Good night Ferb!" He let go, but he didn't get up and go back inside. He sat there while Ferb leaned back against the tree and felt his eyes growing heavy. Phineas never left before Ferb was asleep again. Even though he was sitting beneath a tree in a backyard on a bright sunny day, he felt the chill of his open window and the weight of his blanket tucked up to his chin. There was a soft mattress under him and a fuzzy animal in his arms, and then he blinked and he was in his room, night light dim in the morning sunlight. Goodbye Summer in Danville, hello September in London.