Middle School: How I Got Lost in London Read Online Free PDF

water the American way. Over a stove. Well…a fire.
    I took a seat. I was thinking that maybe Albert would pick up the phone to call the Mercury Lodge Hotel. But there was no phone in the office. Matter of fact, Albert didn’t have a TV, either. Or even a radio. No wonder he wasn’t angry with me: He must have been glad of the company.
    “You haven’t introduced me to your friend,” said Albert.
    “Oh,” I said. “This is Leo the Silent.”
    “It’s splendid to make your acquaintance, Leo,” said Albert.
    “Uh…sure…” laughed Leo in reply.
    Albert turned to me. “And why, might I ask, are the two of you alone in the Temple of Terrors after hours?”
    I took a deep breath and told him.
    I guess I did what they call “over-sharing,” because I told him pretty much the whole story. Beginning with my lame “Here” at first assembly and ending in the Temple of Terrors.
    And I know it’s kind of a cliché but it felt good to talk. It felt like I got a lot of stuff off my chest.
    “Well, you had better rejoin your group,” said Albert. He stood up. He had a weird way of doing things without making much noise. Or even, really, any noise. Then he said, “But how would you like your own guided tour of Madame Fifi’s first?”
    “The whole thing?” I asked. “Not just the Temple of Terrors?”
    “The whole thing,” said Albert with a smile. “And when it’s over, I have a gift for you. Something that might just help you with your bully problem…”

MADAME FIFI’S ALLOWS photography, but that’s the problem—everyone, like everyone , is taking photographs. I’d found that out earlier when I’d been trying to get a picture for my Living History trip report and ended up with some fascinating shots of the backs of people’s heads.
    It’s not a problem when you have the place to yourself, though. And even easier when you have your own tour guide in the shape of our new friend Albert. He took Leo and me around the whole place. He and Leo were getting on like a house on fire. Leo asked questions while I snapped away with my camera and scrawled notes and sketches wherever I could. How cool was the tour? Put it this way. Before the tour I had nothing for my report. After it, I had enough for two.
    It seemed like hours later when we came to the last bit of the tour—a storeroom where the old, unused exhibits were kept. Then Albert gave me my gift— my gift to help beat the bully—and I tucked it in my backpack.
    And then, as the battery on my phone ran down to nothing, I managed to get one last picture: It was Albert, standing next to a waxwork of Elizabeth I.

    He posed, smiling. Then he indicated to a side door leading onto the street, which hung open.
    “And there we have it,” he said as he ushered us out. “Dawn is about to break, and I must continue my rounds.”
    I stepped outside, where the sun was just coming up on a chilly morning. Then turned to him. I wanted to thank him for the gift and for the tour. And to say they were great but…uh, how do you figure I’m going to get back to the Mercury Lodge when I don’t know where the heck I am, don’t have any money, and the battery on my phone just died when I took your picture?
    But he wasn’t there. And the door had slammed shut. Leaving me standing on the street in the middle of London, in the early morning, without even the taxi fare to the hotel.
    Gulp .
    “Where to now?” I asked Leo.
    A couple of cars passed, but otherwise the street was deserted. And not in a good way. There was a rattle that my imagination insisted was a rat, but it turned out to be a McDonald’s carton blowing in the breeze. Even so. It was eerie, being so deserted.
    “Back to the river bank?” suggested Leo.
    And seeing as that was one of only two places in London I was familiar with, it seemed like the best idea at the time.
    I may have been lost but I reckoned I was clever enough to make my way back to the river bank. That much I could manage.
    Okay, so