by M. C. Badger
Marcus shook his head. ‘Sorry! It’s too full at the moment. Why don’t you come back later?’
‘No!’ yelled Simon. ‘We want to swim RIGHT NOW!’
Mila swam up next to Marcus. She had a bucket in her hand. She scooped some water into her bucket.
‘Let us in NOW or we’ll go tell the police about your pool!’ said Sarah Splatley.
‘You’ll get in really big trouble!’ said Simon, with a nasty grin.
Mila smiled. ‘I’m sorry, you can’t come to our pool today,’ she said. ‘But I have an idea. How about the pool comes to you?’ Then she threw a bucket of water over the Splatleys.
Marcus thought this was the best idea Mila had had all day!
MARCUS TINKLER had just finished cooking thirty-three pancakes for breakfast. They weren’t all for him of course. Some were for his sisters.
Marcus’s older sister, Mila, liked to have chocolate ice-cream on her pancakes. Chocolate ice-cream and bacon. His younger sister, Turtle, liked having lettuce on her pancakes.
This is because Turtle thought she was a turtle. She also thought turtles liked eating lettuce pancakes for breakfast.
Marcus liked lemon and sugar on his pancakes. Sometimes Marcus felt like he was the only normal one in his family.
But here is a secret:
MARCUS was NoT REALLY that NORMAL.
For one thing, how many kids are allowed to cook thirty-three pancakes for breakfast? And for another, how many kids are allowed to use the stove without an adult standing there saying, ‘CAREFUL! Remember that’s HOT!’
But the Tinklers were different to other kids. They lived by themselves on the thirty-third floor of thirty-three Rushby Road. You see, their parents worked in a travelling circus. This meant they were often away. It also meant that, most of the time, the Tinkler children got to do things their own way.
Mila ate five pancakes. Then she pushed her plate away.
‘If I try to squeeze in any more I will burst,’ she groaned.
Marcus was full too. He had eaten eight pancakes.
Turtle had only eaten two. Then she slid under the table and tried to teach herself to roll over. But it is very hard to roll over with a cardboard box tied to your back. The box was Turtle’s shell.
Turtle would roll halfway over. Then she would get stuck. Marcus had to keep helping her.
‘Turtle, why do you think turtles can roll over and do tricks?’ asked Marcus.
‘Because it says so in my Big Book of Turtle Facts,’ said Turtle.
Everything Turtle knew about turtles she’d read in her Big Book of Turtle Facts. The book was written by Mila. She had typed it up on the Tinklers’ computer. When she had finished, she’d shown it to Marcus.
‘Those facts are very interesting,’ said Marcus after he’d read it. ‘But I’m not sure all of them are true. Can turtles really JUMP? I have never seen one fetch a stick. And are you sure they can climb out of their shells when they get dirty and need a bath?’
‘Don’t you get it, Marcus?’ said Mila, shaking her head. ‘My book has been typed on a computer. Typing things on a computer makes them true.’
‘Is that right?’ asked Marcus. ‘So, if I type “Mila will always wash the dishes” it will be true?’
‘No,’ said Mila. ‘It doesn’t work with everything.’
Outside the window, the town hall clock chimed two. Two o’clock is very late to have just finished breakfast. But the Tinklers often ate breakfast this late. This is because Mila had trouble getting out of bed in the morning.
Marcus and Turtle had tried lots of tricks to get Mila up. Sometimes they would run into the room shouting, ‘FIRE!’
Sometimes they ran into the room shouting, ‘Pancakes!’ That worked quite well.
Once Turtle crawled in with her shell on her back and shouted, ‘Turtle!’ That didn’t really work at all.
They had tried TICKLING her. They had tried pinching her sleepy cheeks.
One day Marcus invented a giant bed spatula. The spatula was meant to flip Mila out of bed like she was a giant pancake. The first morning it worked. But then Mila started sticking herself to her bed with circus glue.
Circus glue is what the Tinklers’ dad used to keep himself from falling off his tightrope. It is what their mum used to stay on the white horse she rode.
After Mila stuck herself to the bed, Marcus had stopped trying to get her up in the mornings.
Just then the doorbell rang. All three Tinklers ran straight to the door.
Visitors!
The Tinklers LOVED visitors!
The Coolest Pool
published in 2014 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
This ebook is also available as a print edition in all good bookstores.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
eISBN: 9781743581445
Text copyright © 2014 MC Badger
Illustration copyright © 2014 Jon Davis
Series design copyright © 2014 Hardie Grant Egmont
Design by Elissa Webb
Illustrations by Jon Davis
We welcome feedback from our readers. All our ebooks are edited and proofread vigorously, but we know that mistakes sometimes get through. If you spot any errors, please email [email protected] so that we can fix them for your fellow ebook readers.
