“So YOU have it!” he said angrily. He ran up to her and grabbed it.

“What are you doing?” she said, surprised. She tried to hold on to the gun, but he was far larger and stronger than she was and he easily wrested it away from her. “Give it back!” she cried out. “It’s mine!”

“Yours?” he said. “How could it be yours? I MADE it!”

“What!” she exclaimed.

“I invented it. I’ve been working on the schematics for two years and finally built it in the science lab at school. But when I rode home last night on my bicycle, ready at last to experiment with it, it fell out of my back pack. I retraced my steps for hours looking for it but it had vanished. I couldn’t believe someone else had it. It was killing me that someone else would use it!”

“Well ... I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was yours.” Amanda looked up at him meekly. “But, you can’t be mad, can you? I mean, I didn’t mean any harm and ... and you look great, you know.”

Arnold stared at her.

“I mean, isn’t this why you built it? Isn’t this exactly what you wanted?”