Read Online The Great Rabbit Revenge Plan by Burkhard Spinnen - Free Book Online
Authors: Burkhard Spinnen
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takes up the spinach challenge once again. As a precautionary measure, he bends so far over his plate that there is at the most five millimetres between the spinach and his mouth. That looks good, but even within this space of five millimetres, the spinach is sure to be able to make a dash for it.
Allâs well at first, but then a siren suddenly starts up outside on Hedwig Dransfeld Strasse. Is it the fire brigade? Could one of the new duplexes have gone on fire? And if so, which one? Maybe one where a child whoâs on Konradâs list lives? Maybe itâs number 28b?
Quick, to the window for a look! Peter has the same idea at the same time, and as the two of them leap up from the table at the same moment, their shoulders collide and there is such a tussle that Konradâs fork, which he had put down abit crooked at the edge of his plate, unfortunately slips to one side. Being somewhat overloaded, it falls from the table and hits off the side of the chair, which creates a catapult effect. This catapult effect causes a forkload of spinach to fly through the air and to land â splat â against the dining-room wall. Not until then does the fork clatter to the floor.
Major Mum-panic sets in. Peter starts up a precautionary wail, and â wouldnât you know it? â the noise outside turns out not to be the fire brigade after all but a car alarm, and there is nothing to be seen except the man from number 18b, who keeps pulling a cable out from under the bonnet of his car until the siren finally stops. Thatâs the end of lunch.
Mum scrapes the spinach off the wall and says horrid things about her sons. The boys excuse themselves and go to their rooms and think dark thoughts about spinach, while their mice, Lackilug and Mattchoo, go so far as to suggest what might be done about eliminating spinach altogether from the world. Just as well no one else understands what they are saying.
And then all of a sudden itâs a quarter to two! Which means that Konrad had better be on his way, because he has to meet a girl called Fridz with a d and very likely also her horrible rabbit. So he goes downstairs, puts on his shoes and calls out as usual, âBye. Iâm not going far.â Just as he has his hand on the door handle, his mother calls him back. Mum-panic is still in evidence.
âStay right there! You are under house arrest.â
âI beg your pardon?â says Konrad.
Fine, anyone can understand âstay right thereâ. But whatin the world does âhouse arrestâ mean? Konrad Bantelmann doesnât know what âhouse arrestâ means. And he says so.
âWhatâs house arrest?â
So there they stand, Mum Bantelmann and her son Konrad, who still has his hand on the door handle. And while Konrad goes on thinking about the words âhouse arrest,â it has dawned on Mum that sheâs done something wrong. Because while of course it is unacceptable for the boys to spread spinach on the newly painted walls of the recently built number 17a, on the other hand, a phrase like âhouse arrestâ is just as out of place in Hedwig Dransfeld Strasse as spinach on the walls. That is a phrase out of the Dark Ages, when parents locked their children up in their rooms for the slightest thing. House arrest hadnât existed even when Mum was called Edith and was a little girl. Even then house arrest had been abolished â and now many, many years later, at a time when her son Konrad doesnât even know what house arrest means, she, a thoroughly modern Dransfeld mother, is planning to impose such an old-fashioned punishment! And all because of a spot of spinach! Mum flushes a little. But just as she is about to answer, it finally occurs to Konrad what âhouse arrestâ must mean.
âArrestâ, thatâs what a policeman threatens a robber with in one of his books, and it means something like jail. So, Mum wants to turn the house into a
Allâs well at first, but then a siren suddenly starts up outside on Hedwig Dransfeld Strasse. Is it the fire brigade? Could one of the new duplexes have gone on fire? And if so, which one? Maybe one where a child whoâs on Konradâs list lives? Maybe itâs number 28b?
Quick, to the window for a look! Peter has the same idea at the same time, and as the two of them leap up from the table at the same moment, their shoulders collide and there is such a tussle that Konradâs fork, which he had put down abit crooked at the edge of his plate, unfortunately slips to one side. Being somewhat overloaded, it falls from the table and hits off the side of the chair, which creates a catapult effect. This catapult effect causes a forkload of spinach to fly through the air and to land â splat â against the dining-room wall. Not until then does the fork clatter to the floor.
Major Mum-panic sets in. Peter starts up a precautionary wail, and â wouldnât you know it? â the noise outside turns out not to be the fire brigade after all but a car alarm, and there is nothing to be seen except the man from number 18b, who keeps pulling a cable out from under the bonnet of his car until the siren finally stops. Thatâs the end of lunch.
Mum scrapes the spinach off the wall and says horrid things about her sons. The boys excuse themselves and go to their rooms and think dark thoughts about spinach, while their mice, Lackilug and Mattchoo, go so far as to suggest what might be done about eliminating spinach altogether from the world. Just as well no one else understands what they are saying.
And then all of a sudden itâs a quarter to two! Which means that Konrad had better be on his way, because he has to meet a girl called Fridz with a d and very likely also her horrible rabbit. So he goes downstairs, puts on his shoes and calls out as usual, âBye. Iâm not going far.â Just as he has his hand on the door handle, his mother calls him back. Mum-panic is still in evidence.
âStay right there! You are under house arrest.â
âI beg your pardon?â says Konrad.
Fine, anyone can understand âstay right thereâ. But whatin the world does âhouse arrestâ mean? Konrad Bantelmann doesnât know what âhouse arrestâ means. And he says so.
âWhatâs house arrest?â
So there they stand, Mum Bantelmann and her son Konrad, who still has his hand on the door handle. And while Konrad goes on thinking about the words âhouse arrest,â it has dawned on Mum that sheâs done something wrong. Because while of course it is unacceptable for the boys to spread spinach on the newly painted walls of the recently built number 17a, on the other hand, a phrase like âhouse arrestâ is just as out of place in Hedwig Dransfeld Strasse as spinach on the walls. That is a phrase out of the Dark Ages, when parents locked their children up in their rooms for the slightest thing. House arrest hadnât existed even when Mum was called Edith and was a little girl. Even then house arrest had been abolished â and now many, many years later, at a time when her son Konrad doesnât even know what house arrest means, she, a thoroughly modern Dransfeld mother, is planning to impose such an old-fashioned punishment! And all because of a spot of spinach! Mum flushes a little. But just as she is about to answer, it finally occurs to Konrad what âhouse arrestâ must mean.
âArrestâ, thatâs what a policeman threatens a robber with in one of his books, and it means something like jail. So, Mum wants to turn the house into a
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