Molly Moon Stops the World Read Online Free Page B

hobbled through another door. Molly followed, and the glory of the room beyond took her attention away from Lucy’s bandages.
    The room was a shrine to hypnotism. In the center of it was a table that had a circular swirl inlaid in copper. Molly looked at the pattern. It reminded her of a similar swirl that had been painted on a pendulum she’d once owned. The copper design seemed to draw her eyes toward the dot at the table’s center. At once she felt relaxed. Immediately she snapped away. “Is that a hypnotic table?”
    “It can be,” said Lucy.
    “I’ll have to watch you this time,” said Molly, smiling. “I can’t believe you hypnotized me so easily last November in the library.”
    “Well, as I told you, I wanted you to find the book,” said Lucy. “Don’t worry—I don’t need to hypnotize you ever again.”
    “I’m too alert to be hypnotized anyway,” said Molly, following the copper swirl with her finger.
    Indeed Molly was. Everything in this room reminded her of the incredible power of hypnotism. Above the mantelpiece, over a cheerful fire, hung a portrait of a bewhiskered Victorian gentleman in a black tailcoat and top hat. From his waistcoat top pocket came a golden chain that was attached to a shiny pocket watch. Molly instantly recognized the old man from his picture in
The Book of Hypnotism.
    “Yes, there’s the great Dr. Logan himself,” said Lucy, settling down in a chair. “All over the room are things that belonged to him that have been passed down through the family. The table, and in the cabinet behind you there’s the very pocket watch that he’s holding in that portrait. He used it as a pendulum. He went all over America, and that’s how he made his fortune. I’ve got lots of pictures of him and his traveling hypnotism show. There’s his collection of miniature clocks, too. Have a look.”
    Molly went to the cabinet. Sepia-colored photographs of Victorian people stood in silver frames. In one, Dr. Logan was on a stage, posing theatrically beside a peculiar figure. Lying flat and balanced between a couple of chairs, her head on one and her feet on another, lay a woman. Nothing supported herbody. Her long dress had been bunched up, like a tiedup umbrella, so that it didn’t drag on the floor, and she was as stiff as a board. Molly knew it was a hypnotism trick called the human plank.
    Molly inspected the golden pocket watch and then looked at the tiny carriage clocks. On the wall beside the cabinet were three more clocks: a round one, a castle-shaped one, a pewter clock. They were all showing the correct time. “I’ve never seen so many clocks in one home,” she said.
    “Well you’ve probably never been in the house of a clock collector,” said Lucy. “Clocks remind me that life is short and that I mustn’t waste it.”
    As Molly thought about this, she looked out the sitting-room window. It was then that she noticed that Lucy’s garden was the very one where the topiary animals grew. The hare and the dog were very close to the window, making the room darker than it should be.
    “Wow! I was looking at your animal bushes yesterday,” Molly exclaimed. “Without realizing that they belonged to you. Are they new? I’ve often looked over the river from the parking lot, and I’ve never seen them before.”
    “Yes, they are new. I bought the plants fully grown and clipped them myself.”
    “I like the dog with the big eyes,” said Molly.
    Lucy laughed. “It’s supposed to be a bush baby. I obviously need to go to topiary classes.” She reached for a cookie. “Help yourself, Molly. I shouldn’t, really. I’ve put on so much weight since the accident. I’ve eaten hundreds of cookies.” She shifted uncomfortably in her skirt and undid its zipper a bit. “The bushes are there for a reason,” she added. “They’re to stop people from looking in.”
    Lucy suddenly seemed nervous.
    “I can’t be sure who’s watching me at the moment.” She paused. “Molly,”