Read Online Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder by Jo Nesbø, mike lowery - Free Book Online Page A

was five minutes before six, Lisa told Nilly that it was five minutes before six. The birds were singing in the pear tree. When it was six o’clock, Lisa told Nilly it was six o’clock. And when it was 6:02, Lisa looked at her watch for the ninth time since six o’clock.
    â€œWhere is everyone?” she asked, worried.
    â€œRelax,” Nilly said. “We have to give them time to get here.” He’d crossed his arms and was dangling his legs contentedly.
    â€œIt’s five after,” Lisa said.
    Nilly didn’t respond.
    At ten after, they heard Doctor Proctor grunt from the bench. And saw him blinking his eyes. And then suddenly he leaped up, exclaiming, “Good heavens! Did I oversleep?”
    â€œActually, no,” Lisa said. “No one came.”
    â€œYet,” Nilly said. “No one has come yet. Just wait.”
    At quarter past six, Doctor Proctor sighed almost inaudibly.
    At 6:20, Nilly scratched the back of his head and mumbled something about how kids these days weren’t very punctual.
    At 6:25, Lisa put her forehead down on the tabletop. “I knew it,” she whined.
    At six thirty, they agreed to pack up.
    â€œWell,” Doctor Proctor said, smiling sadly as they put the lid on the last box. “We’ll try again another day.”
    â€œThey’re never going to come,” Lisa said, sounding choked up. She was on the verge of tears.
    â€œI don’t get it,” Nilly said, shaking his head.
    â€œChin up,” Proctor said. “I’ve been inventing things no one wants for years. It’s not the end of the world. The main thing is not to give up. Tomorrow I’ll invent something that’s even more fantastic than Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder.”
    â€œBut there can’t be anything more fantastic than Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder,” Nilly said.
    â€œI’m going to go home and go to bed,” Lisa whispered, and started walking toward the gate in the front yard with her head down and her arms hanging at her sides.
    â€œGood night,” Nilly and Doctor Proctor said.
    They sat down on the bench.
    â€œWell,” the doctor said.
    â€œWell,” Nilly said.
    â€œMaybe I should do a little more work on that time machine I started last year,” Proctor said, and looked up at the swallows.
    â€œHow hard do you think it would be to invent a machine that makes Jell-O out of air?” Nilly asked, and looked up at the swallows.
    And that’s what they were doing when they heard Lisa’s voice from over by the gate.
    â€œYou guys …,” she said.
    â€œYeah?” the doctor and Nilly said in unison.
    â€œSomeone did come,” Lisa said.
    â€œWho?”
    â€œYou kind of have to come see for yourselves,” Lisa said.
    Nilly and the doctor got up and went over to the gate.
    â€œGood heavens,” Doctor Proctor said, dumbfounded. “What do you say, Nilly?”

    But Nilly didn’t say anything, because somethingextremely rare had happened to Nilly. He was speechless. He couldn’t utter a single word. Outside the gate there was a line of children that reached as far as the eye could see. At any rate, as far as you could see on Cannon Avenue.
    â€œWhy are you guys so late?” asked the kid at the front of the line, a boy in a cap with the Tottenham soccer team’s logo. “We’ve been standing here for over half an hour.”
    Then Nilly finally found his voice again.

    â€œBut … but why didn’t you guys come in?”
    â€œBecause it says
here
on the sign, doesn’t it?” the boy in the Tottenham hat said. “It says that Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder is for sale
here
and
nowhere else in the world
.”
    â€œYeah, so?” said Nilly, confused.
    â€œAnd
here
is
here
, right?” the boy said. “And not in
there
.” The other kids in line behind him nodded. Then Lisa pulled a marker out of her bag,