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Ollie and the Magic Workshop. Alison Knowles
Читать онлайн.Название Ollie and the Magic Workshop
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781784505196
Автор произведения Alison Knowles
Жанр Учебная литература
Издательство Ingram
Ollie goes back
to the library
The next day Ollie’s mum and Mollie went off to the hospital to see Mollie’s foster mum, and they dropped Ollie off at the old people’s home. Mr Wilcox was playing cards with Mr Green.
“Hello, lad, how are you and how is little Mollie today?”
“She is grumpy,” said Ollie. “I think that’s the only superpower she has!”
Mr Wilcox chuckled. “Now, now, lad, that’s not true, it’s just that Grumpy is trying to protect her, so he is being quite big at the moment.”
“How can Grumpy protect her? Grumpy is stopping her getting a forever home,” said Ollie.
“Well lad, Grumpy is protecting her because by making her grumpy he is stopping people getting too close to her and stopping Mollie from getting close to them so that she doesn’t get attached to people.”
“That’s daft,” said Ollie. “She will never find a forever home like that!”
“Maybe not lad, but you see our superpowers are always trying to protect us, and Mollie’s superpowers know that it might be a long time before she finds a forever home, and that every time she is given a new foster mummy and moves to a new place, it makes her really sad when she has to leave. So, by being grumpy people aren’t as nice to her and she doesn’t get attached to them, and then it doesn’t hurt so much when she has to move onto another home and school.”
Ollie looked puzzled. “But if she was nice she would get a forever home, and then she wouldn’t have to move again!”
“Yes lad, you’re right, but I think young Mollie has been moved around a lot, and every time she moves somewhere she grows to love the people looking after her, and then she is moved on, and that must hurt an awful lot. So by being grumpy she thinks it will stop people loving her, and if people don’t love her, she won’t love them. Also I guess being grumpy helps to keep people away from her and not call her names or say horrible things.”
“How does that help?” asked Ollie.
“Well, children can be very cruel sometimes and say cruel things. I would guess some children have said things about Mollie not having a mummy and daddy that hurt her, so by being grumpy maybe she hopes it makes her scary and will stop others daring to be horrible to her.”
“Humph,” said Ollie with a very confused Confused on his shoulder. “Girls are weird!”
Mr Wilcox laughed, “It’s not just little girls, Ollie. Little boys can be confusing sometimes, too. Now come on lad, I think it’s a perfect time for you to earn your next stripe. This is one of my favourites! It’s called resilience!”
“Resilly what?” asked Ollie.
“Resilience, emotional resilience.”
“What’s that?” asked Ollie.
“Well lad, it’s like a very special suit of armour like a knight might wear. It protects you from invisible arrows that try to hurt your superpowers!”
“Invisible arrows, hurt my superpowers. How, what,” muttered Ollie as he hurried along behind Mr Wilcox towards the kitchen. When they reached the kitchen Mr Wilcox said, “Right lad, off we go. Close your eyes and think of your library.”
Instantly, Ollie and Mr Wilcox were back in Ollie’s library. All the little superpowers were busy putting all the things Ollie was learning into boxes. The librarian was having a cup of tea. All the little chaps waved at Ollie. The librarian looked up and put his tea down.
“Morning, Ollie, how are you today?”
“I am OK,” said Ollie. “How are you?”
“Very well. Thank you, young man, but I would be even happier if you would help us by emptying another black box while you’re here. You’re learning so much that we are running out of space!”
Ollie gulped. “A black box,” he said nervously, and Nervous appeared and hid behind Ollie. “I thought I was here to get some special armour like a knight!” said Ollie.
“Oh, resilience armour,” said the librarian. “Well, yes, I guess it’s time you did get that, but that will take more learning, so we need the space.”
Ollie was not happy – the black boxes made him very nervous.
“Come on, lad,” said Mr Wilcox. “Let’s pick the right team to help you first.”
Instantly Calm and Brave appeared beside Ollie, and they cuddled Nervous, so he began to shrink. Mr Wilcox and Ollie walked off down the lines of shelves towards the back of the library where the black boxes were kept. As they walked down through the shelves Ollie could hear a lot of loud banging up ahead.
“What’s that?” asked Ollie. The banging got louder and louder as they neared a small door Ollie had not noticed before.
“Oh, that’s the magic workshop,” said the librarian.
“Wow,” said Ollie. “A magic workshop! Can we take a look?”
“I suppose so,” said the librarian.
He took a large brass key out of his pocket and put it in the lock of the little door. The door swung open, and Ollie and Mr Wilcox ducked down and stepped into the room. The room was enormous! It really was a huge workshop, and there were lots of little superpowers welding and hammering and, well, making things! There were shiny stripes of ever colour in glass cases on big tall shelves – and little workmen at tables with chemistry sets, making all kinds of strange concoctions! There was a cauldron like the witches have, with a really bad smell of rotten fish and broccoli in it, bubbling away in the middle of the room, and two little men
with a massive wooden spoon stirring it! They were wearing masks because the smell was so bad!
“What are they making?” asked Ollie in amazement.
“Your stripes,” said the librarian.
Sure enough, as Ollie looked closer, he could see that the little men were all making different-coloured stripes! The librarian walked ahead of Ollie and led him to a bench where two little chaps were polishing a very shiny silver stripe.
“This is your resilience stripe,” said the librarian. “And this,” he said, pulling a big cloth off the next bench, “is your magic armour!”
“Wow!” said Ollie. On the bench was the shiniest armour Ollie had ever seen, and it was just the right size for him! And next to it was a silver shield and a very shiny silver sword!
Ollie went to touch the armour. He wanted to put it on and be a knight!
“Not so fast, young man,” said the librarian. “You have to earn this armour and learn how to use its magic first.”
“OK,” said Ollie. “Let’s do it!” All Ollie wanted to do was put the armour on and run around being a brave knight with his shiny shield and shiny sword.
“Not today. Today we are going to deal with one of your black boxes. Come along.”
And with that the librarian headed back to the little door.
Ollie did not want to go, but he followed behind with his Sulky superpower.
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