Page 12 - Lulu and Bob in Verbo City
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Having finished in the library, they passed through the connecting
door to the bathroom they had been using during their visit. They
drank some tap water, despite its off-taste, after making sure nothing
was hiding at the bottom of their glasses. One of the missing
sesquipedalians started with “bath-”, but Bob was fairly certain it had
nothing to do with bathing. Once they ascertained the sink, toilet and
counter were free of loose words they moved on to their bedroom.
After surveying the scattered clothes, books, toys and games on
every horizontal surface, Lulu said, “Look, Bob: we have to pack,
anyway, so let’s get everything into our suitcases before we look for
any jail-breaking jawbreakers.”
Bob sighed. “Okay. That’s an efficient use of our time. But look
out for wayward words: maybe they’re attracted to something we
have.”
And they fell to stuffing their bags with quiet careful
concentration. Lulu shook out her blouses before folding and
stacking them. Bob had fewer clothes, but more gadgets; as he was
about to toss one of them into his suitcase he suddenly stopped.
“Hey, look at this, Lulu! I’ve got one. It was trying to fit into the
scaly spine of my scale-model dinosaur.” He checked the list. “Yep:
it’s ‘micropachycephalosaurus.’”
They stuffed their suitcases until the chamber was bare. As soon
as their gaze elevated beyond the lower half of the room, another
sesquipedalian became evident. It was struggling to retain a foothold
on a glass picture frame enclosing an aerial view of Stonehenge. But
“photoreconnaissance” proved to be the only visible potentially
ambulatory word in the room.
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