Читать книгу The vanished village - Markus Seidel - Страница 7

It smelled of dust and stagnant air, as it usually smells in attics. At least in the attics I used to know. At home, it smelled the same up there, and to be honest, I didn't like being in attics too much, I always found it pretty creepy. Almost as scary as the basement.

We looked around. The whole attic was empty, which was rather unusual for an attic; people usually put lots of things here that they don't need - furniture, old bicycles and stuff. But this attic was actually empty. Not even a spider was found here, and an attic without spiders, what kind of attic is that? You would have thought that someone had cleaned it up, and perhaps it was. Who knows.

So it was empty except for a book that was lying in a corner on the floor. I went and picked it up. It was big, thick and heavy, I could hardly hold it in my hands, it was so heavy.

"Tom, look," I said. "Have you ever seen a book that big?"

"What does it say?" he asked. "Open it."

And so I did. To our astonishment, there was nothing to read on the first page, and the second page was also empty. We turned the page, but nowhere was there anything to read or a picture to be seen. It was full of empty, white pages.

"Strange book", I said and was about to put it down when I saw that something was written on the very last page. I read:

Once upon a time there were three dwarfs called Red, Green and Blue. At some point one of them noticed: "That's funny. We have a red hat, a green hat and a blue hat." - "True," said the dwarf in the blue hat, "but none of us wears a hat the color of our name." - "That's right," Green said.

"What is this strange riddle?" I asked in amazement and closed the book again.

"And anyway: 'The beginning of the adventure'? What do you mean, the beginning of the adventure? What adventure?", asked Tom.

"Never mind," I said, and continued to rummage about in the attic. Tom took the book and opened it again. He reread the riddle task, but suddenly there seemed to be more in it than before, for in the end Tom was reading:

Now it's your turn, Tom and Max: What colour hat is blue? The correct solution is the beginning of the adventure. And your salvation...

"Why do our names appear in this book?" I cried out in wonder. "That wasn't in it a moment ago, I'm quite sure of that! Who wrote this, anyway? And when? We've only just been here! And what is meant by 'rescue'?"

At that moment it suddenly became dark in the attic. I looked at the window and saw a huge dog in front of it, big as a house. Tom had now seen it too, it screamed and retreated to the farthest corner of the attic, I, on the other hand, stood still as if petrified and looked at the dog, but it had suddenly disappeared again.

"That's what it's all about," cried Tom, "we must be saved from the dog."

"Tom, he's gone. Come on over!" I shouted. "I have to look out the window. You must help me."

After some hesitation he actually came, we made a robber ladder and I looked out of the attic window. What I saw took my breath away: I saw the garden shed, it was as big as a skyscraper, and I saw the dog from just now. His teeth alone were at least as big as our living room window. The dog now ran to a tree that seemed to reach into the sky. Then I lost sight of him, he had disappeared for quite a while, and I was already hoping that he was gone and not coming back.

But then, from one second to the next, he stood at the window, I was almost scared to death, I screamed out loud - and fell to the ground. The dog barked, he yelped so loudly that we were afraid the window pane would shatter.

Tom and I made our way to the last corner of the attic so that the dog could not see us. But the book was still lying right under the window. What did it say? The right solution is to save us?! What exactly was the task? Something about midgets. I had to read it again.

"Tom, we have to get the book!" I whispered to him. "We have to solve this weird riddle about the dwarves."

"Without me," he said, and I could tell he meant it. "I'm not moving an inch away from here." So I had to go and get it myself, or we'd be lost.

Bit by bit I slid on the floor to the window, the dog had disappeared, you could hear him barking, but he was no longer to be seen.

I grabbed the book, ran back to the corner where Tom was sitting, hurriedly opened the last page again and read falteringly and in a trembling voice:

"Once upon a time, there were three dwarfs called Red, Green and Blue. At some point one of them noticed: "That's funny. We have a red, a green and a blue hat on." - "True," said the dwarf in the blue hat, "but none of us wears a hat the color of our name." - "That's right," Green said.

Now it's your turn, Tom and Max: What color is the hat of blue? The right solution is the beginning of the adventure. And your salvation.

I looked at Tom and said, "Now what colour is the hat of blue?"

Tom blew his cheeks open: "We have to approach this logically," he said and thought about it. Suddenly the dog appeared again at the window, he opened his muzzle and we could see his huge teeth. His breath fogged up the window pane so that he was soon hardly recognizable. But you could still hear him quite well, him and his panting behind the roof window pane. My knees became soft, Tom cried out again. We moved to the back where he couldn't see us.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" I shouted. "Let us think. Well, he can't be wearing a blue hat, because his name is 'Blue', and the dwarves all have a different colour hat than their names. So he wears either the red hat or the green hat.

"That's right," said Tom, "and dwarf green on the other hand can't wear green, it can either wear blue or red. But red, who has noticed the whole thing, has to wear the blue hat, otherwise it won't fit with the others."

The dog was barking like crazy now, we looked anxiously to the window, it wouldn't be long before he would bite it open or turn the house upside down or do who knows what. We had to hurry, otherwise everything would be lost!

"So stay red and green," I shouted. I could hardly understand my own words, the dog yapped so loudly.

"But green can't wear green," said Tom, "so blue must wear the green hat. Dwarf blue wears the green hat! That's the solution! At least I hope so...-"