Over The Rainbow by Meredith Badger Read Free Book Online Page A

ahead was a very solid-looking door. ‘That,’ she said.

Chapter Ten
    E lly put out her hand and grasped the small, golden handle on the door. Please don’t be locked! she pleaded silently.
    Then she turned the handle and, to her delight, the door swung open with a creak.
    â€˜I don’t believe it!’ laughed Saphie.
    â€˜Maybe I’m better at magic than you realise,’ grinned Elly.
    â€˜Maybe you’re just lucky!’ laughed Saphie.
    Then they both crept into the Rainbow Laboratory. The Lab was very small. Its curved walls and ceiling were painted a deep blue, with shining stars sprinkled across it.
    â€˜It’s so weird to think that we’re actually under the ground,’ said Saphie.
    â€˜I know!’ agreed Elly. ‘All these stars make me feel like I’m floating in the sky.’
    Near the door was what looked like a very high-tech golden telescope, poking out through the roof of the Laboratory.
    â€˜That must be the Sky Scanner,’ said Saphie. Then she grabbed Elly’s arm and pointed. ‘Look!’
    Elly looked where Saphie was pointing. In the middle of the room was a very simple, old-fashioned spinning wheel. Threaded across it was a length of material so fine and silky that it was almost transparent.

    The fabric stretched up to the roof of the Laboratory and disappeared into a golden pipe in the centre of the ceiling. A fine mist of tiny multi-coloured raindrops hovered around the spinning wheel, sparkling and twinkling like a scattering of jewels.
    â€˜The rainbow,’ breathed Elly.
    â€˜I can’t believe we’re actually looking at it being made! ’ said Saphie.
    Elly longed to touch the beautiful fabric spinning around the wheel. It contained every colour Elly had ever seen, and some extra ones, too.
    She had felt the rainbow, of course, when she slid over it into Rainbowville. But this new material looked different somehow. Elly’s hand crept towards the spinning wheel, almost as if it had a mind of its own.
    â€˜Elinora Knottleweed-Eversprightly!’ said Saphie suddenly. ‘Stay away from that! The rainbow is very delicate when it’s freshly spun. It’s not until it reaches the outside air that it becomes hard enough to touch.’
    Elly laughed guiltily. ‘You sounded like my grandmother then,’ she said.
    â€˜Sometimes I know just how she feels, having to keep an eye on you all the time!’ grinned Saphie.
    Saphie flipped open a panel on the Sky Scanner. Inside was a criss-crossing tumble of silver wires and flashing, beeping buttons. Saphie’s face fell. ‘Uh-oh,’ she said. ‘This is going to be more complicated than I thought. I’ll probably need to re-do all this wiring. It’s going to take a while to figure it out.’
    â€˜Can I help?’ asked Elly.
    Saphie smiled. ‘Thanks, Elly,’ she said. ‘But it’d probably be better if I try to sort it out myself.’
    Elly knew what Saphie meant. It wasn’t that Elly tried to cause disasters. They just seemed to find her, wherever she went!
    Elly wandered over to the middle of the room and watched the rainbow spinner again. I really want to touch that rainbow fabric, thought Elly longingly. She glanced at Saphie. She was busily working on the Sky Scanner.
    I’m sure it’d be OK, if I’m very careful, decided Elly. Then she reached out her hand and gently touched the newly spun rainbow.
    The rainbow was very sticky. So sticky, in fact, that it instantly stuck to Elly’s fingers! Elly quickly pulled her hand away, trying not to rip the delicate fabric. With a thumping heart, she examined the multi-coloured fabric before it disappeared up through the pipe in the roof. Part of the red threads had become stuck to the orange threads.
    I didn’t make a hole in it, at least, thought Elly, relieved. She shot a glance at Saphie, who was hunched over the Sky Scanner. Elly