I couldn't wait to get started on my new invention.
I also couldn't wait to fix Oliver's bad attitude.
He was complaining about everything.
"You should have an elevator in your building,"
he said as we climbed the stairs to my apartment after the shoe store.
"Or at least an escalator," he added.
"Oliver is driving me crazy!" I thought.
"Whoever heard of an escalator in an apartment building?"
"Why are your radiators so loud?"
Oliver asked after we were inside our apartment.
"The heat at my house is really quiet."
Actually Oliver was right about that.
Our radiators were banging and clanking louder than ever.
I figured I'd better start working on my Amazing Attitude Adjuster right away.
But first I had to get Oliver to be quiet.
"Hey, Oliver, do you want to watch TV?" I asked.
"I can turn it on for you."
"Your TV is really small," said Oliver.
"You need a new one."
"You need a new attitude!" I thought.
Even though our TV is small, Oliver finally settled down to watch cartoons.
A few minutes later Molly brought me her toy telephone.
I brought it into my room and started working on my dial-a-joke invention.
At my desk I took out a pencil and a thick pad of paper.
I had thought a lot about the way my invention was going to work.
I'll tell you about that later.
The most important thing was that the jokes had to be funny.
They had to make people laugh so they would get a better attitude.
If someone had a really bad attitude, though, she or he might need a lot of jokes.
I decided I would need at least one-hundred jokes for Oliver.
This was not going to be easy!
I went into my brother's room.
He was listening to music with his earphones.
"Tate!" I yelled loudly so he would hear me.
"Do you know any more jokes?"
"What?" yelled Tate.
I yelled louder.
"I said, do you know any more jokes?"
Tate took out his earphones.
"I know a great joke," he said.
"What did the big fish do to his pesky little brother?"
"What?" I asked.
Tate grinned. "He told him to go jump in a lake!"
That was Tate's way of telling me to stop bothering him.
But I added Tate's joke to my list anyway.
Oliver was still watching TV.
I went into the kitchen.
My mom was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book.
"Mom, can I knock on apartment doors and ask people for jokes?" I asked.
"Huh?" She looked up from her book in confusion.
I repeated my request.
"Okay," she said slowly.
"But go with Molly, or Josh and Jenny, and stay in our apartment building."
I knew all the neighbors in our building.
But there were only ten apartments, including ours.
We were going to have to work hard to get one-hundred jokes.
Well, ninety-nine, if you counted Tate's.
I heard Oliver's TV show end.
Then Oliver shouted, "I'm bored!
I don't have anything to do!"
I pretended I hadn't heard him.
I opened the door and raced out of the apartment as fast as I could.
I hated to admit it, but Tate was right.
Being a big brother was much harder than being a little one.
Luckily, my Amazing Attitude Adjuster was going to fix that.
It was also going to get me into the Inventor's Hall of Fame!