Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure Read Online Free PDF Page A

long, bustled dresses and hats. The men’s headwear ranged fromtop hats to caps to floppy woolen hoods. The turbaned man urged the horse on, ignoring its alarm at the immobile world. Grumbling to himself, he weaved the cabriolet through the obstacle course of horse-drawn carriages and wagons.
    A busy market was taking place in a side street. There were cake stalls, bread stands, and cages full of live chickens that could be bought and slaughtered on the spot. A meaty-faced butcher held a chicken in position on a chopping board, his other hand raised with a cleaver ready. Petula’s sensitive nose picked up the scents in the air of blood and beer and baking and straw and animals and smoke, and she tried to understand why everything smelled so different.
    Finally they arrived on the other side of the town, near the common. Molly’s kidnaper dismounted and let the world move again. Disheveled from his ride, exhausted from the effort of freezing time, and impatient, he beckoned for Molly and Petula to get down. He held his hand out. In it was another metallic purple capsule that he’d removed from the side of his silver gadget.
    “Swallow this,” he ordered, his words spiced with a strong Indian accent. Molly paused, tried to refuse, and then did as she was told. The metal pill felt uncomfortable as it made its way down her throat. Theman consulted his device, which had a flashing dial on it and a keyboard. He squinted at the tiny buttons and, with a pin from his turban, began tapping in numbers. Molly watched. Finally he pressed a silver button and took her hand.
    “You are exhausting me!” he grumbled. Then he raised the silver mechanism up to his neck and with his little finger cupped the
red
crystal that hung there.
    His face strained and reddened with concentration. There was the familiar distant BOOM and the world around Molly and Petula began to shift and melt and change again.
    A warm wind blew. Molly realized that they were now moving
forward
in time. A rapid succession of noises whizzed past her ears until the silver gadget emitted a bright flash of light. The disgruntled man brought them to a standstill. When the swirling stopped, Molly saw a familiar world. The common was a modern playing field. Two boys in dark blue sweat-suits were kicking a football about, concentrating so intently that they didn’t notice the three time travelers popping up.
    “Haap!” Molly tried to shout, but her voice was locked in her throat.
    The ruffled man ran his hand over his dry, wrinkled face and walked toward a wooden bench. Heretrieved another purple metal pill, which Molly deduced he must have hidden there earlier to help him find the exact place again.
    Then he shouted to the boys, “What is the time by your watch and chain?”
    One boy stopped with the ball under his foot. “Talkin’ to me?”
    “Yes, you, boy.”
    The boy gave his friend a look as if to say, “Cor, we’ve got a right one here.”
    “Ten to four,” he shouted back. As he did, Molly recognized him. He was from Briersville School. He’d been in the grade above Molly and sometimes he’d played football with Rocky. Yet he looked younger—
much
younger than when Molly had last seen him. They must have landed in a time way before she’d ever found the book about hypnotism, the book from which she’d learned her skills.
    Had she not been hypnotized, she might have laughed in amazement or yelped with fear. For Molly was in a time that she herself had already
lived through.
    “Mweal,” she grunted, trying to call his name. She glanced over her shoulder at the fields and woods that were the hilly shortcut from Briersville School to Hardwick House Orphanage.
    The hill was the route the children from theorphanage often took. If it had been a school day, they would already have been walking home, as tea was at four o’clock prompt. Sure enough, a group of children was near the top. And, lower down, two small figures emerged from the woods. One had black