Page 25 - Lulu and Bob in Verbo City
P. 25

Trial by Linguatorsion































          Uncle Bunster, still frowning but now with a devilish smile curling
        the corners of his mouth, took a small package from a drawer of his
        desk.
           “Follow me,” he commanded, and the twins trailed silently behind
        him into the dining room. Bob made a face at Lulu; she stuck out her
        tongue in response.
           “Sit  down,  please.”  They  all  sat  down  around  the  dining  table.
        Bunster  pushed  aside  the  stacks  of  books  to  the  unoccupied  side.
        “Now here is the challenge: the first one to trip on a tongue-twister
        loses. This is a brand-new deck. I have seen—or said—none of them
        before.  We  therefore  play  upon  a  level  field.  You  must  say  your
        phrase three times at a rapid clip without error: a bungled tongue'll
        tumble jumbled humbled. No, I’m just warming up.”
           He tore the seal from a new box of Linguatortuous Lollapaloozas,
        took out the cards, shuffled them and dealt them, face down, in three
        piles. “I will go first; then it will be Bob’s turn, then Lulu’s. One at a
        time, in rotation—and no second chances.”

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