Mr Gum and the Power Crystals Read Online Free Page B

famous curse –
    â€œWhen next the windmill’s sails do turn,
Lamonic Bibber will burn and burn!”
    â€˜But Old Granny, why would he want to burndown the whole town into cinders an’ ash?’ asked Polly. ‘It doesn’t make no senses!’
    â€˜It was grief for his dead wife and son,’ said Old Granny gently, rocking back and forth in her chair and farting all the while. (Luckily the creaking of the chair covered the noise, and they didn’t smell too much so she just about got away with it.)

    â€˜Yes, Nicholas’ grief rose up inside his heart and drove him mad,’ she continued sadly, ‘and in his madness, he blamed the whole town for what had happened to his family.
    â€˜And so for the next thirty years no one saw Nicholas de Twinklecakes. Up there in his windmill he sat, all alone like a piece of old cheese that no one wants to dance with. His hair grew long and his face grew bitter and his arms sort of stayed about the same, but never mind.He was busy with his experiments. Strange, unnatural experiments involving power and crystals. And eventually, after thirty years of toil, struggle and hardly combing his hair, he had finally done it. The year was 1559 –’
    â€˜Jus’ like what it’s written on the bag Jake found,’ whispered Polly in the flickering firelight.
    â€˜It was 1559,’ continued Old Granny, ‘and it was Midsummer’s Eve once more.
    â€˜â€œHa ha!” crowed Nicholas from high up inhis windmill. “I have finally made some power crystals! And now to do that curse I mentioned earlier, about thirty years ago.” Giggling madly, he ripped up a couple of floorboards and made them into a Power Crystal Control Panel.
    â€˜â€œHa ha!” crowed Nicholas. “Now to put the crystals into the Control Panel – and it’s burning time!”
    â€˜But at that moment there came a shout from below and peering down, Nicholas saw thetownsfolk gathered around the windmill, brandishing flaming torches and chickens.
    â€œWe know what you’re up to!” shouted the townsfolk. “We are going to get you, Nicholas de Twinklecakes!”
    â€˜â€œOh, no!” cried Nicholas. “I haven’t got time to put the power crystals in the Control Panel. I’d better run away.”
    â€˜So Nicholas climbed out the back window and away he ran, over the fields and meadows,stopping only to bury the power crystals deep in the ground. Maybe he thought he’d get another chance to use them some other time – but it was not to be. Three days later he was found in a ditch, dead as a kettle and completely bald. He had been murdered by hair thieves.
    â€˜And that’s how I heard the tale, as it has passed down from generation to generation,’ finished Old Granny. ‘To be honest, I made up the bit about the enormous apple but the rest ofit is probably true. And I tell you, young ’un, ever since that time the windmill’s sails have never once turned, not even in the strongest winds.’

Chapter 16
Attack of the Roo-de-lallies
    â€˜W hat a brilliant story that was,’ said Polly after Old Granny was done. Outside the wind was howling and the first drops of rain were beginning to fall, a cold, cold rain that meant noone any good. ‘The bad guy lost an’ the townsfolk won an’ all’s well that ends well. Good night an’ sweet dreams, says I!’
    â€˜Oh, young ’un,’ said Old Granny. ‘The story is not yet over, don’t you see? Nicholas’ chance has come again after all.’
    â€˜But all that stuff done happened ages ago!’ exclaimed Polly. ‘Nicholas de Twinklecakes is dead an’ gone, you saids it yourself with your very own cracked old lips. It’s all in the past!’
    â€˜Aye, young ’un,’ said Old Granny mysteriously. ‘But the past has a way of repeating itself. The past has a way of