Page 47 - Lulu and Bob in Verbo City

Bob peered at her scrawls. “So it’s ‘Names you’ll be positive you’re
knowing well’. That’s not very good grammar: if we were Wordcraft
Rangers we could give Uncle a citation and he’d have to appear
before the Language Police. Or could he claim poetic license?”
“Is this thing a poem?” Lulu looked doubtful. “We’ll soon find out.
Line three begins with two linked human figures: one has a very big
toe, radiating heat or pain for emphasis, I suppose; the other towers
over him. Must be ‘toe’ plus ‘tall’. I get it: ‘total’!”
“Right.” Bob reached into the cookie jar. “Here, Lulu: have an
Okinawa flying fox. I’m sorry. Anyway, the next word probably has
only one solution, because it’s made of three parts: a prisoner
(because of his striped outfit), a penny (clearly denominated) and a
soldier’s meal in a can (also unambiguous). I don’t know about the
first part, but the rest could be ‘cent’ plus ‘ration’. Aha! ‘Con’, short
for ‘convict’: ‘concentration’.”
“Excellent!” said Lulu. “And I see how to make this go faster: we’ll
alternate, and only interrupt if one of us gets stuck. You agree? Fine.
Now we have the letter ‘U’, which could be a bracket or a horseshoe
or a U-turn, but is probably just the word ‘you’, followed by a can of
film tied to a pair of eyes. Let’s see…yes, it’s a reel: ‘realize’.”

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