Read Online Adam and the Arkonauts by Dominic Barker - Free Book Online Page B

bridges.’
    Adam pointed the camera at the Bajapuentalists.
    â€˜Say ouch!’ Carla called.
    â€˜Ouch!’ cried the other Bajapuentalists, and the camera flashed in the dark street.
    â€˜Thank you,’ said Carla. ‘Would you like a picture of yourselves in front of it?’
    â€˜That won’t be necessary,’ said the Doctor. ‘But you could help us by looking at a picture.’
    â€˜Is it of a low bridge?’ asked Carla optimistically.
    â€˜No,’ said the Doctor. ‘It is of my wife.’
    â€˜Is she standing in front of a low bridge?’
    The Doctor shook his head. He reached into his pocket and carefully pulled out a small black and white snap of a woman holding a toddler. The toddler was Adam.
    â€˜She will be older now,’ said the Doctor.
    Carla and the other Bajapuentalists scrutinised the picture. All shook their heads.
    â€˜It was a long shot,’ said the Doctor.
    â€˜More of a close-up, I’d say,’ said Carla.
    â€˜I meant . . . Oh, it doesn’t matter,’ the Doctor sighed.
    â€˜We must be going,’ said Carla. ‘But if you want to join our society we meet every night on the Puente Pequeñita near the Plaza de los Valiente Hombres.’
    â€˜You’re very kind,’ said the Doctor.
    â€˜And a bit crazy,’ added Adam.
    But luckily the Bajapuentalists were already on the way to their next low bridge.
    â€˜Come on,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s obvious we’re on the route to the Hotel Dormir that does not avoid low bridges. Let us hope it gets us there soon.’
    Adam thought his father should have known better. This was Buenos Sueños, after all. Two streets later the road opened into a wide square jammed with people. The signpost unhelpfully pointed straight across the square, through the most tightly crowded part.
    â€˜We must make our way through as best we can. Stay close,’ said the Doctor. And he turned to a man on the edge of the crowd. ‘Excuse me.’
    Two hundred and thirty-eight ‘Excuse me’s later and they had reached the middle of the square, when suddenly there was a surge in the crowd and a voice boomed out of a loudspeaker, ‘Señors and señoras, please welcome the next Mayor of Buenos Sueños, Felipe Felipez!’
    There was a loud roar of approval. The Doctor and Adam (with some difficulty because he was smaller) looked towards the platform set up on one side of the square to try to get their first glimpse of the mysterious man who was taking Buenos Sueños by storm. They were only able to catch the glint of his unnaturally white teeth shining in the sun.
    Felipe Felipez grabbed the microphone.
    â€˜Señors and señoras, thank you for your coming out to this rally today. I know how much effort it has taken you, how weary you must be, thanks to the hopeless inability of the Mayor to stop the Dreadful Alarm.’
    Felipe Felipez looked at the crowd.
    â€˜Tell me, señors and señoras, are you tired?’
    â€˜Si,’ shouted the crowd.
    â€˜Are you yawning?’
    â€˜Si,’ they shouted once more.
    â€˜Are you irritable and prone to lose your temper too easily?’
    â€˜Si.’
    â€˜Are you beginning to forget things?’
    There was a silence and then a bit of muttering. Felipe Felipez asked again.
    â€˜Are you beginning to forget things?’
    â€˜Possibly,’ shouted back the crowd.
    â€˜I feel your pain,’ Felipe Felipez told the crowd, holding his hands out towards them. ‘I too have wax on my fingers after jamming them deep in my ears to keep out the terrible ringing of the Dreadful Alarm. But still it rings – while the Mayor snores in his soundproofed office, oblivious to our pain.’
    â€˜The Mayor’s office isn’t soundproofed,’ said Adam, but nobody was listening. Felipe Felipez was building up to the grand finale of his speech.
    â€˜We have had