Read Online Fennymore and the Brumella by Kirsten Reinhardt - Free Book Online Page A

puddle that had formed near the bus stop, his hair streaming in the wind. That made the mud splatter, and he laughed loudly and joyfully the whole time.

    The engine droned and there was a rumbling sound as the bus lurched to a halt in front of Fennymore and his father. The doors hissed open. Beardy was taken aback. He stared open-mouthed at the big yellow vehicle. Fennymore turned the coins over in his hand and hesitated.
    â€˜Will you be ready any time soon?’ asked the driver impatiently. ‘Are you coming or aren’t you?’
    He was wearing a blue hat with the logo of the bus company on it. His face looked out from under it, not friendly, but not unfriendly either.
    Fennymore took Beardy by the hand. As soon as they had climbed on board, the driver pressed a button and the doors snapped shut. Beardy was astonished into silence and stared at the driver. The bus driver glared back, appalled. For the first time Fennymore realised how mad Beardy looked, with his mud-streaked wet clothes and his long hair.
    He quickly pressed Herr Muckenthaler’s piece of paper and the coins into the driver’s hand.
    â€˜What’s all this about?’ said the driver crossly. ‘Number six, Lerchenweg. I’m not a taxi. I can take you as far as Taubengasse. It’s five minutes from there. And make sure this fellow doesn’t create any trouble,’ he added, looking at Beardy.
    â€˜Er, yes, of course, thank you,’ said Fennymore softly.
    The bus was half-full and the passengers craned their necks curiously. Fennymore dragged his father, who could hardly take his eyes off the driver, down the bus. One man who was sitting by the window moved pointedly onto the aisle seat. Fennymore pushed his father onto a free seat further back, and the driver pulled off.
    Beardy was enthralled. He gave little cries of delight as the world flew past and banged on the window with his fist.
    â€˜Now, now,’ called the driver and gave Fennymore warning looks in the rear-view mirror.
    The two ladies who were sitting in front of them were whispering excitedly. Fennymore could make out an ‘impossible’, an ‘irresponsible’ and a hissed ‘And as for that brat’.
    The lady by the window was wearing a hat with a little yellow feather in it. Oh no, thought Fennymore, but it was too late. His father had also seen the feather and had just given it a hefty yank.
    â€˜Hee-hee,’ he said and tickled the other lady on the neck with it.
    Fennymore blushed to the very tip of his left ear.
    â€˜So sorry,’ he said quietly.
    But the ladies sat there stonily and didn’t even turn around. Could they be afraid?
    Fennymore had to laugh. He took the feather carefully out of his father’s hand and stuck it back in the hat.
    â€˜No,’ he explained to Beardy, ‘that is not your feather.’
    Then he pointed at the trees and clouds that were going past outside.
    Beardy listened with interest. Then he said ‘Ah. Gah.’
    Wonderful. He’d planned to think about Dr Hourgood and Fizzy’s kidnapping on the journey and also about how he was going to explain the whole thing to Herr Muckenthaler. And instead he was having to report the names of trees and to search for clouds that looked like animals.
    But Beardy liked it. He hung on Fennymore’s words and looked with interest out of the window.
    Soon the first houses of the town came into view. A neon sign for the Tristesse Ice-cream Parlour flew by. Then the bus stopped and the driver called out behind impatiently, ‘So, what’s the story? Taubengasse.’ Fennymore stuck the vinegar-chocolate tin under his arm, pulled Beardy hastily and stumbled, under the disapproving eye of the driver, out into the drizzle.
    â€˜Layabouts. Corner-boys. Scoundrels.’
    He could hear the voices of the two ladies ranting and raving.
    Then the doors of the bus closed again with a hiss.

CHAPTER 17
    In which Fennymore