Vacation Under the Volcano Read Online Free

again. He looked around the garden.
    He saw something near the mermaid fountain.
    â€œA sundial!” he said. “That’s how the Romans told time!”
    Jack and Annie raced to the sundial.
    â€œWhat time does it say?” said Annie.
    â€œI don’t know,” said Jack.
    His hands shook as he turned the pages of the book. He stopped on a picture of a sundial. It showed examples of different times. Jack looked back and forth from the page to the real sundial in the garden.

    â€œHere!” he said. He had found the one that matched. Jack read the writing under the picture:
    The shadow on the sundial can hardly be seen at noon.
    â€œOh, man,” he whispered. He looked at Annie. “The end isn’t near; the end is
here
.”
    Just then he heard a terrible blast. It was the loudest sound he had ever heard.

The next thing Jack knew, he was lying on the stone patio. The patio stones were trembling. A rumbling sound came from the ground.
    Jack raised his head. Annie was on the ground, too.
    â€œYou okay?” said Annie.
    Jack nodded.
    Everything was shaking and crashing down around them—pots, plants, the mermaid fountain. Water from the goldfish pond sloshed onto the patio and Jack and Annie.
    They both jumped up just as roof tiles began falling into the garden.
    â€œWe better get inside!” said Jack.
    He grabbed his leather bag. Then he and Annie stumbled into the scroll library.
    Giant cracks split the stone floor as Jack and Annie ran to a window and looked out.
    Glowing rocks were bursting through the sky above Mount Vesuvius. The whole top of the mountain had blown off.
    â€œWhat’s happening?” said Annie.
    â€œI’ll check—” said Jack. He pulled out the Roman book. He read aloud from the section about the volcano:
    When a volcano erupts, hot melted rock called “magma” is pushed to the surface of the earth. Once it gets outside the volcano, it’s called “lava.”
    â€œLava! That’s like burning mud!” said Jack.
    â€œIt covers everything!” cried Annie.
    Jack kept reading:
    There was no running lava from Mount Vesuvius. The magma from the volcano cooled so fast that it froze into small grayish white rocks called pumice (PUM-iss). A pumice rock is very light and has holes like a sponge.
    â€œThat doesn’t sound
too
bad,” said Annie.
    â€œWait, there’s more,” said Jack. He read on:
    A great cloud of pumice, ash, and burning rock shot miles into the air. When it rained down on Pompeii, it completely buried the town.
    â€œOh, man,” said Jack. “This is a major disaster!”
    â€œIt’s getting dark,” said Annie.
    Jack looked out again. A thick black cloud was spreading over the earth like an umbrella. The sun vanished as the sky turned smoky gray.
    â€œThat must be the cloud of pumice and ash!” said Jack.
    Just then the ground trembled again. Chunks of plaster from the ceiling fell on the scrolls.
    â€œWe have to get out of here!” said Annie.
    They ran from the scroll library into the garden. Ash and pumice began to fall.
    â€œWe have to cover our heads!” said Jack.
    They hurried from the garden into the dining room.
    â€œLook! Pillows!” said Annie. “Let’s put them on our heads!”
    They hurried to the couches beside the table and each grabbed a pillow.
    â€œTie it around your head with your belt!” said Jack.
    They both pulled off the belts from around their tunics. Then they tied on the pillows, like giant hats.
    A chunk of ceiling crashed down near them.
    â€œLet’s get out of here!” said Jack.
    They stepped over pieces of fallen roof tiles and ran into the main hall. They pushed open the front door.
    A blast of heat and dust nearly knocked them over. And when they stepped outside, pumice rained down onto their pillow hats.
    â€œRun!” cried Annie.
    They ran from the vacation villa into the dark, burning