Child’s Play
Monday, March 23rd, 2009Yesterday we visited Prof. Bookworm and decided to let him use us as guinea pigs. My oh my, was that exciting! I was the first to venture into the green apparatus. Prof. Bookworm, meanwhile, his forehead beaded in sweat, assured me that absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong. He obviously could not contain his excitement, which didn’t exactly set me at ease in the face of this giant, green machine.
Max was more scared than a porcupine in a balloon factory as I saw him standing there, quaking in his Panda boots. But to be perfectly honest, I was pretty relieved that Max played the part of the brave man and volunteered to go first. One could say he was a victim of his own courage. But, of course, I didn’t want my own nervousness to rub off on him. Meanwhile, Prof. Bookworm continued hammering wildly on the switchboard, blinking lights reflecting off his face, the giant machine grumbling a low tone.
“Now, everything should be functioning properly. You can open the door and step into the booth, Max.” So…everything “should” be working. Wonderful. I didn’t want to be a chicken however, so I pulled myself together. Slowly (but confidently of course), I made my way to the machine and opened the dark green, freshly greased door. My heart beat wildly. I turned around and caught the eye of Prof. Bookworm. He winked at me and a bead of sweat from his forehead dribbled down to his eye. Hastily, he wiped it away with the back of his hand and busily twiddled with some buttons and knobs.
“Ella, could you please be of service and close the door?” What, me? I was suddenly forced into the position of Prof. Bookworm’s unwitting accomplice. Most of his experiments turn out okay, but he does have a rather unsavory record of complications. I closed the door of the green vault and it immediately began to quake and rumble. Would I ever see Max again? “Whoops…” whispered Professor Bookworm to himself…
I’ll tell you the rest of the story tomorrow. For now, I’ll let you in on a detail – not everything ran smooth as butter. Prof. Bookworm is still working out some problems with the machine…and with Max too…