They lost him when they turned off the freeway and raced past the supermarket to their street. Sunnydale looked peaceful in the afternoon. George's house came in view. He heaved a sigh of relief as the cabbie pulled to a stop. "Rosy!" he yelled, dashing up the walk. He flung open the door and stopped. The house was silent except for Rosy's voice in the kitchen. She was counting backwards: "Five ... four ... three...." "Rosy!" "One ... zero." A steaming hiss sounded in the kitchen. In a moment it rose to a howling pitch. There was a tremendous crash and a tremor shook the plaster from the walls. In the settling dust Timmy crawled out of the kitchen with a pot on his head. In the kitchen Rosy sat on the floor, clutching the instruction booklet. "Now see what you did, George!" "What _I_ did?" "Barging in like that," Rosy said, tears of frustration streaking her dusty cheeks. "I must have pressed the wrong button." Beside her on the floor lay the Touch Command Control Panel. Its colored lights blinked on and off like a pinball machine. Charlie came into the kitchen with Timmy in his arms. "Oh my gosh!" Rosy cried, looking up at the ceiling. A hole was ripped out in the roof and through it they could see God's blue sky. * * * * * George grabbed the control panel and they ran outside. They saw the snooker describing a lovely ellipse over Sunnydale. "My roast!" Rosy wailed. "It seems to be waiting for orders," Charlie said. "Have to get it down," George said, setting the control panel on the lawn. "Before it slams into some airplane." He pressed a large red button. The snooker wobbled for a moment, then broke its orbit and dove for Charlie's house. It smashed in at the back and came out the front. Beth ran out in a bathrobe, screaming. "Stop it!" Charlie yelled, flinging himself at the control panel and pressing a yellow button. The snooker resumed its orbit, then wobbled and dove into every second or third house in the street, working the houses from side to side. Women ran out and stood dazed, clutching their children and watching the snooker. Desperately George pressed the blue button. The snooker resumed its orbit, wobbled, flew once over the street as if to check what all needed to be hit, then slammed through the whole length of houses from end to end. Two houses caught fire. Charlie pressed the largest button of all, the green one. The snooker righted itself and flew out over the town. Wherever it struck a small cloud of dust rose in the air. Four fire-engines turned into the street. Three of them turned around and raced back to downtown. They lost sight of the snooker for a while. All they saw was the clouds of dust mushrooming all over town, and here and there a fire. When the snooker came in view again, it was rising toward a jet plane circling overhead. "It'll get hit!" Charlie said. George pressed all four buttons.