Part 38 (1/2)

'Sorry,' said the big green thingy.

'Ha ha,' went Arthur Kobold. 'The open road. Home and free. Rio here we come.

'Faster,' said Tuppe.

'It won't go any faster,' said Cornelius. 'We're losing them,' went the king. 'Ha ha ha.' 'No, that's still reverse,' said Terence Arthur Mul-ligan.

'What's that up ahead?' cried Arthur.

'It looks like a taxi reversing across the road,' said the king.

'It is a taxi reversing across the road.' Arthur went for the brake. 'Oh no.'

'Oh no!' cried the king.

'Oh no!' cried Terence Arthur Mulligan, covering his face.

'Sorry,' said the big green thingy.

'They're slowing down,' said Tuppe. 'Overtake them.'

'I will,' said Cornelius. 'And I'll do it on the inside, just to make it more exciting.'

'As you please.'

'More brakes,' cried the king. 'More brakes.'

'I don't have any more brakes.' There was a kind of thud. The kind of thud that brakes make.

When they break. 'I don't have any brakes,' said Arthur.

Anna preferred a brief chance to certain death. She climbed out of the serving window and jumped for her life.

Right onto the bonnet of a streaking silver car.

Was that lucky or what?

The silver car shot right past Mulligan's Ices with only a bit of swerving, but not enough to dislodge Anna from the bonnet. The ice-cream van just couldn't swerve. Some silver car had cut it up on the inside.

'Ohhhnoooooo!' went Arthur and the king and Terence and the big green thingy. All at the same time.

And then it was KAPOW!

It was a significant explosion, in every sense of the word. The mushroom cloud billowed into the sky. Those few who saw it, and there were only very few, agreed that it was a curious mushroom cloud.

So red in the middle and so white all round and about with the smoke. It was almost like a big red laughing face surrounded by a great white beard. A bit like...

Cornelius brought the silver car to a gentle standstill. He jumped from the car and helped Anna down.

She held up her face to his.

They kiss.

Lovely.