Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy Read Online Free PDF Page A

through the alphabet, which would be the methodical, scientific thing to do. That was what you had to do in those sort of situations.
    If she could let him out and help him find his name, then at least he might be able to get home. Once they had his name, first name and surname, then they could go through the phone book. There was bound to be one somewhere.
    Adam, Ophelia thought, just to get started while they walked along. Alphonse, Abelard, Abernathy, Aaron, Abdul.Abraham, Adolf, Adrian, Albert, Alexander. She needed a piece of paper. She could sit down with him. They’d cross off the names that meant nothing to him and circle the ones that felt familiar. Surely it wouldn’t be so hard to find the right one.
    Miss Kaminski led them through many galleries. She showed them an urn made out of beetle shells.
    Axel, Ophelia thought, feeling positive. Addison, Ainsley, and Aristotle.
    Miss Kaminski then led them through a room filled with carnival masks and another filled with crowns.
    Ajay, Alan, Alastair, thought Ophelia, still upbeat.
    Miss Kaminski showed them both the great staircase and the lesser staircases and the golden arcade, where the ceiling was studded with precious stones.
    Andrew, Ambrose, Archie. A little less happy.
    She had put her hand in her pocket to retrieve her puffer, and when she did, the little hole ripped into an even bigger hole. She caught her puffer just as it was about to fall through. She placed it in the left-hand pocket and knew she would never be able to use the right-hand pocket again. It made her feel very despondent to be a one-pocketed girl.
    Aladdin, Albie, Alex, Alf … actually quite downcast.
    All the way through the teaspoon gallery … downright glum.
    Suddenly Miss Kaminski stopped. To her horror Ophelia saw they were standing on the sea monster mosaic. Ophelia retrieved her inhaler and puffed. Miss Kaminski cocked her head just a little, as though she were listening for something.
    “I’ve always felt this is one of the least interesting sections of the museum,” she said, before continuing on.
    In the dinosaur hall, the huge ceiling arched overhead. It was all wrought iron and skylights covered in snow. The place danced with shadows and was alive with echoes. The walls turned even the smallest of whispers into shouts. It was a cold, murky place. The guard woke in the corner on her chair and began to knit furiously.
    “There are hours of amusement here,” said Miss Kaminski, standing in the gloom beneath the giant skeleton of a
Brachiosaurus
. Her sentence was repeated by the walls several times. “There are the dinosaurs, of course, and in these cabinets, some of the most remarkable fossils in the world. I will show Alice some wonderful dresses, and we shall return for you in one hour.”
    “Thank you,” said Ophelia.
    And the walls said,
Thank you, thank you, thank you
.
    “Do not go anywhere else,” said Miss Kaminski.
    “I won’t,” promised Ophelia.
    I won’t, I won’t, I won’t
.
    Miss Kaminski patted her on the head. She meant it kindly, but Ophelia noticed the distaste in the museum curator’s eyes, as though she were patting a small toad.
    Ophelia waited until they had gone. The guard lowered the knitting to her lap and went back to sleep. There was one other person in the hall. An old man. He stood for so long, bent over a small pile of bones in a glass box, that Ophelia thought perhaps he had come yesterday and frozen solid there.She quivered with the cold. The shadows of birds moved above the snow-covered skylights.
    The old man finally creaked upright, looked at her sternly, and left through the darkened door.
    Ophelia walked around the
Brachiosaurus
and
Tyrannosaurus rex. Triceratops
was starting to crumble, and some bones lay scattered on the floor beneath it. No one had bothered to pick them up. Barry, she tried. Bartholemew, Baxter, Bert, Bob, but without much conviction. She peered into the gloomy, dark cases at the strange collections of