“Yaaaaaaaaaah!”
Over and over Nipper went, clinging to the ball with all his strength.
To his right, he saw a new platform. Then he went under the ball.
He saw the platform again. Then he went under the ball.
He saw the platform again—and he jumped.
He landed and fell to his knees, panting.
“Breep!” the monkey screeched.
Nipper turned and watched the ball roll away. The monkey was still inside, banging on the glass with its sword. He kept watching until the ball disappeared from sight completely. Then he collapsed on the platform, facedown.
Suddenly he sat up. He looked down the track again to make sure the horrible ninja monkey had really gone. The track was clear. He let out a sigh of relief and lay back down on the floor to rest. Every few minutes, he heard the soft rumble of a new ball rolling past the station.
Something rumbled even louder.
It was his stomach.
Across the platform, a sign hung on the wall next to a staircase.
UITGANG:
BEDFORD
“Why is every place I go called Uitgang?” he wondered out loud as he headed to the exit.
He trudged up the stairs, pushed open a door…and saw an elephant-sized coffee pot!
A two-story building rose in the distance. It was round and silver with a large spout near the top. The structure had a big red handle and a few windows set in red frames.
Nipper knew the building was supposed to be a coffee pot. It had the words THE COFFEE POT painted on it in big letters. A door underneath the big silver spout stood open. He didn’t really like coffee, but maybe there were snacks inside, too.
As he crossed the street, he picked at another strand of yellow yarn. It made him think of lemon bars.
Bop!
Something hit Nipper in the face.
He looked down. A candy circus peanut lay on the ground at his feet. He looked up. Two people in jumpsuits and motorcycle helmets waved at him enthusiastically.
“Hey!” shouted one of them. “We want to talk to you!”
They started walking toward Nipper. He turned and ran.
“Come back!” one of them called. “We’ve got candy!”
Nipper already had seen what kind of candy they were throwing. Sad candy. No thanks. This had to be some kind of trick.
“You’re a superstar!” he heard the other one shout.
Nipper kept running. A ninja throwing star had almost killed him already today. He didn’t want to find out about any more stars!
He ignored his rumbling stomach as he dashed back across the street, through the doorway, and down the stairs to the ball coaster.