Big Change for Stuart Read Online Free PDF

into his eyes, and he paused to wipe his forehead. His T-shirt was damp, his jeans sticking to his legs, the buckle of his belt so hot that it was actually—
    â€˜
Belt!
’ shouted Stuart, leaping to his feet. ‘My
belt
!’
    It took him about six seconds to get back into the pyramid, take his belt off, slip it through the loop on the fourth triangle and grab the loops on the other three sides. He took one last look at the blistering landscape, the circling birds, the blurred and distant blob that was the camel, and then he gave the belt a pull.
    As the fourth side closed, the blurry distant blob moved closer, and Stuart realized that it wasn’t the camel at all, but something much smaller. Something white and brown. And then, before he could see it properly, the fourth side snapped shut.
    Slowly he released his grip on the loops. For a moment all was darkness, apart from the glimmer of red stars, and then Stuart yelled as a vivid green shape writhed suddenly across the inside of the pyramid. It was an emerald S, which stretched and tautened and glowed and grew – and then disappeared utterly as one side of the pyramid opened.
    â€˜Are you all right?’ asked one of April’s sisters, peering anxiously in on him. Behind her, the museum looked reassuringly normal. ‘I heard you shouting,’ continued May (or June).
    â€˜I’m fine,’ said Stuart, climbing out, though actually he felt shaky and strange and in dire need of a sofa and a glass of water. ‘What are you doing here? Why didn’t April come?’ he added.
    The triplet frowned. ‘
I’m
April,’ she said.
    â€˜No you’re not.’
    â€˜What do you mean
No you’re not
? I should know who I am, shouldn’t I?
I’m
April and you promised to wait until I got here before you started exploring.’
    â€˜But you’re not wearing glasses,’ said Stuart. ‘And you’ve got a camera.’
    She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. ‘I was on my bike delivering papers, and then I swerved to avoid a hedgehog, fell off and scraped my knee and broke my specs,’ she said. ‘That’s why I got here two hours late. And then I happened to borrow May’s camera because I thought it would be useful.’
    â€˜Oh.’
    â€˜I so wish you’d just
try
to—’ she began, and then tilted her head, puzzled. ‘Why are your shoes all covered in sand?’ she asked. ‘And why are your trousers falling down?’
    There was a pause in the conversation while Stuart scuttled back to get his belt.
    â€˜The thing is,’ he said, bending to pick a thorn out of one of his socks, ‘you’ll never believe where I’ve been for the whole of those two hours. I don’t believe it myself.’
    April lost her cross expression and looked at him eagerly. ‘
Magic?
’ she whispered.
    â€˜Yes. Definitely.’ And he told her about his jigsaw puzzle in the desert. And about the emerald letter S that had greeted his return.
    â€˜
Use the star to find the letters!
’ exclaimed April. ‘That’s what the message said, didn’t it? Oh, I
wish
I’d come.’
    â€˜So do I,’ replied Stuart honestly, ‘and next time you will.’
    â€˜Promise?’
    â€˜I promise.’ Stuart held out his hand, and April started to shake it and then froze, gazing open-mouthed past his head.
    â€˜Look,’ she said. ‘It’s not shining any more.’
    Stuart turned. The sun was pouring in through the window, but the golden surface of the Pharaoh’s Pyramid barely glinted. It was still a beautiful object, but like the Well of Wishes it had lost its lustre.
    â€˜The magic’s all used up,’ said Stuart wonderingly. ‘It’s like a flat battery – there’s no more power in it.’
    Then he remembered the six-pointed star, and ducked back into the pyramid to retrieve