Skeletons

Aren’t they just gorgeous – one of Christina’s many illustrations for my Ghostly Ghastly books

Mr McMarvel’s Amazing Machines

Chapter 1
The Extra-Fast-Rollerblading Machine

The Extra-Fast-Rollerblading Machine swooped round the corner. Smoke and stars roared out of the back. It shot past Mr McMarvel’s workshop and rolled on down the road.
Tim bent forward, his face screwed up as he wrestled with the controls. The machine’s big boots stuck into his knees. He was going so fast he couldn’t swing the machine in the right direction.
The machine choked and stuttered. The machine slid sideways and upended Tim onto the pavement.
Mr McMarvel had invented the Extra-Fast-Rollerblading Machine for people who were in a hurry. Tim had been testing it out for two days now, and he was black and blue from falling off. He could operate the other machines in the workshop but not this one. Tim desperately wanted to be useful. In fact, secretly, he wanted to impress Mr McMarvel so that he would show him how to invent amazing machines. So far, Tim hadn’t the courage to ask him.
The wheels on the Rollerblades whirled madly at super express speed. They slowly came to a stop. Tim looked up. The name over the street door shone out in multi-coloured lights:
…MR MCMARVEL’S AMAZING MACHINES…