Page 21 - Jeremiah Lollipop

and a little bit of the road. The light was on in the concrete house. Mr.

Flannel was back at work.

Curious, Jeremiah slipped out the back door and went round the house.

He knew his mother didn’t like him poking around, but he was only

going to look from the road. Surely people were allowed to look at

things from the road?

He crossed the road and perched on the edge of the footpath, beside

the high-sided truck. Out of the dark doorway he saw a man coming,

pushing a large wheel barrow. The man came closer, went along the

large, thick board which bent under his weight, and stopped, then

another load of clay tumbled out of the barrow and into the truck. He

heard the man puffing, and the wheel squeaked as he turned to go back.

Clomp clomp clomp, Mr. Flannel went along the board, through the

concrete door and disappeared.

Jeremiah found a handhold on the side of the truck and lifted himself

up so he could see in. The truck was nearly full again. There must have

been at least a ton of clay, and stones in there. Where was it all coming

from? Surely the back room was finished by now?

He looked at the load in the truck and did some math in his head. He

multiplied the load by the number of loads per week and then multiplied

that by the years Mr. Flannel had been working. The answer was very

large – too large to be taken seriously, so Jeremiah thought he must have

got it wrong. He hopped down off the truck and went back to his