Read Bubble in the Bathtub for Free Online Page A

started to whisper, but just then the curtain was yanked aside.
    Lisa and Nilly gasped. A figure came careening toward them. It was a tall woman—taller than either of them had ever seen before—and everything about her was thin, elongated, and sharp. Apart from her hairdo, which looked like one of those tumbleweeds that rolls around in the desert and takes root wherever the wind blows it. This specific tumbleweed had taken root over a face whose skin was stretched so tight it was impossible to say how old it was. The face was alsodecorated with plenty of black makeup and bright red lipstick covering its thin lips. The woman was wearing a floor-length, shiny black leather trench coat, which was unbuttoned, thus revealing the cause of both the grating, squeaking noise and her speed. She had a wooden leg, and on the end of her wooden leg, she wore a roller skate that was obviously in need of a little oil. With her other foot she kicked herself forward toward them, stopping all of a sudden, glaring down at them and saying in a voice so hoarse and whispery that it sounded like wind whistling through an old shack, “You’re in the wrong place, kids. Out you go.”
    Lisa lunged for the door in fear, both because of the woman’s unpleasant appearance and because of her breath, which reeked of rotten meat and stinky socks. Nilly, on the other hand, stood his ground, gazing at the woman in the leather jacket with curiosity.
    â€œWhy is that clock running backward?” he asked, pointing over her shoulder.

    The woman replied without turning around, “It’s counting down to the end of time. And for you guys, that’s now. Out!”
    â€œWhat about that one?” Nilly said, pointing to one of the other clocks. “It’s not running at all. Are you selling broken clocks?
    â€œSea spray!” she replied. “That’s just a clock that claims that time is standing still. And who knows?—maybe it’s right.”
    â€œTime can’t just stand still,” said Lisa, who had regained her composure.
    The woman stared at her. “You obviously don’t know anything about time, you stupid little girl, so you ought to keep your ugly mouth shut. Everything in history happens simultaneously, all the time, over and over and over again. But most people have such small brains that they can’t perceive everything all at the same time, so they believe things happen consecutively one after the other. Tick tock, tick tock, I don’t have any more timefor clock talk, so quick: walk!” She spun around on her roller skate and raised her other foot to push off.
    â€œYou’re contradicting yourself,” Nilly said. “If time is standing still, then you have all the time in the world.”
    The woman slowly turned back around. “Hm, maybe this dwarf doesn’t have a dwarf brain. But all the same, you have to leave now.”
    â€œWe have a stamp to sell,” Nilly said.
    â€œNot interested. Out.”
    â€œIt’s from 1888,” Lisa said. “And it looks almost new.”
    â€œNew, you say?” The woman raised her eyebrows, which looked like they’d been drawn in over her eyes with a black, and very sharp, pencil. “Let me see.”
    Lisa held out her hand with the stamp.
    The woman fished a magnifying glass out of her pocket and leaned over Lisa’s hand.
    â€œHm,” she said. “Felix Faure. Where’d you get this?”
    â€œThat’s a secret,” Lisa said.
    The woman raised her other, equally thin eyebrow. “A secret?”
    â€œOf course,” Nilly said.
    â€œIt looks like it got wet,” the hoarse, whispering voice said. “And there’s a whitish coating here along the edge of the stamp. Did you put this stamp in soapy water?”
    â€œNo,” said Nilly, who didn’t notice the warning look Lisa was giving him.
    The woman stretched out her index finger and scraped a long,