Chapter Sixteen‘It worked!’ said Matilda with a level of surprise I felt was a little insulting.
‘I can’t believe my eyes,’ said Patrick.
The balloon balanced awkwardly on the top of the small waves of the river, looking like an unusually rotund acrobat. But it wasn’t sinking.
I blinked and rubbed my eyes. It hurt to see the laws of nature so blatantly thwarted.
‘That’s so clever!’ said Fei Fei. ‘But how are the rest of us going to get to Melbourne?’
We all paused for a moment, watching as our magical vessel bumped up against a rock and then slowly turned and continued on its way, merrily sailing around a bend and disappearing from sight. Then we ran after it, yelling and whooping, leaping over rocks and crashing through bushes, wading and even swimming when it was the fastest way to
