Molly Moon Stops the World by Georgia Byng Read Free Book Online Page A

what Molly said, although he wasn’t exactly sure why. He was glad the birds could come, because he wouldn’t have gone otherwise.
    Two matters had to be dealt with by hypnotism. One by Rocky, the other by Molly.
    Rocky’s challenge was to find hotel rooms for them. Their trip to Los Angeles coincided with its busiest week of the year. The night of the Academy Awards, when the best actors, actresses, directors, producers, and film people would win the coveted golden Oscar statuettes for their work, was in a week’s time. Every single room in every hotel had been booked months in advance.
    “I hate to do this,” said Rocky as he picked up the phone. “Because of us, some people are going to lose their rooms.”
    “Aren’t you nervous that you’ve forgotten how to do long-distance hypnosis?” Molly asked. But Rocky shook his head.
    “Hypnotizing people is like riding a bicycle, don’t you think? Once you’ve learned, you never forget.” Molly was amazed by Rocky’s confidence and veryimpressed when, ten minutes later, he came out of the TV room with the news that they now had two bungalows and a room reserved at a hotel called the Château Marmont.
    “All I needed was a bit of time,” said Rocky. “As long as they listen to me, they melt like butter in my hands.”
    Molly, however, was incredibly nervous about her hypnotic challenge. She had to visit their headmaster and hypnotize him into giving his permission—for her, Rocky, Gemma, Roger, and Gerry to go to Los Angeles, and for the rest of the orphanage children to stay on Mrs. Trinklebury’s sister’s farm. Molly was worried that she might have lost her hypnotic skills, especially since she’d had that ice-cold fusion feeling when she’d tried to hypnotize the bush.
    In the headmaster’s office, Molly started by explaining that the trip to California was educational. They’d been learning about earthquakes and the desert and the American Congress, she said, so the trip would be very informative.
    “The other children have been asked to stay on a pig farm, where they will learn about pigs…. You know—pigs and slop and manure and, erm, agriculture. This will also be very educational.”
    Mr. Struttfield seemed to think the idea splendid, because he said, “I’m very impressed that you havecome to ask my permission yourself, Molly. I like children with initiative. A good golf player has initiative. A sense of—if you want that ball to go in a certain direction, learn how to hit it. Don’t wait for someone else to hit it for you—eh, don’t you agree?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “If you ask me, farms ought to turn their land over to golf courses. Don’t you think?”
    Molly said nothing.
    “So you’re all off to Los Angeles and farms. Well, I hope you have a very educational time and, if you can, play a bit of golf for me, eh?”
    “Thank you, sir. Yes, sir.”
    With that, his phone rang and, picking it up, Mr. Struttfield nodded to Molly that she could go.
    Molly couldn’t believe it. She’d actually persuaded him to let them all off school without hypnosis! She didn’t know exactly how Mr. Struttfield had been so easy to win over, but feeling very pleased with herself, she went back to the classroom.
    And so it was that, a few days later, a small minibus was loaded and thirty-eight passengers (five children, two adults, twenty parakeets, ten mice, and one pug), took their places on board. Even Roger was eager tocome, happy, he said, to be getting away from the voices he was hearing.
    Molly, at last, and for the first time in months, had to test her hypnotic powers. She thought her skills might have grown rusty. But they hadn’t. She easily hypnotized the airline attendants. One bolting glare from her green eyes was all it took. The warm fusion feeling blasted through her, and she knew they were under her power. The animals were allowed through, and soon they were all settled on the plane.
    The flight wasn’t anything like Molly’s