Pippa and Troy head slowly toward the staircase.
Madame Myfanwy shoos them along with a wave of her hand.
“Don’t drag your feet, children. Time is precious,” she says.
“That’s for sure,” Troy mumbles.
Pippa and Troy would give almost anything to see Googol and Googolplex once more before they leave. They hurry into the second-story bedroom where they can hear the painters working. They hope they will be able to catch sight of Googol and Googolplex from the windows in this room. But what they find is … Googol and Googolplex!
The robots are wearing men’s dress shirts that reach past their toes. Polka-dotted, red kerchiefs cover their square heads. And they both have paint rollers in their hands.
Troy laughs. “Don’t tell me you guys have been put to work too?”
“You should be spending your last day on Earth having fun, not doing chores,” Pippa says.
Googolplex’s head spins around three times.
“What are chores?” he asks.
“Dusting, vacuuming, fixing things,” Troy says. “Things that humans do only because they have to.”
“But dusting hard to reach places is fun,” Googolplex says.
“And painting is fun,” Googol says.
Googol tips sideways and rolls up a wall to the ceiling. Then he paints a nice, straight line along the top of the wall.
Googolplex stretches the coiled springs in his legs as he paints a straight line all the way down the corner of one wall.
Pippa and Troy shake their heads.
“Well, you certainly make it look like fun,” Pippa says.
She borrows Googolplex’s paint roller. She makes a wobbly line up the wall next to Googolplex’s line. When she has reached as high as she can, Googolplex picks her up. He stretches up and up and up until Pippa has painted all the way to the top of the nine-foot wall.
Googol gives Troy his own paint roller. He tells Troy to sit on the tops of his yellow toes. Troy sits down and presses the paint roller against the wall. When Googol rolls forward, Troy makes a neat line of paint from one corner of the wall to another.
Troy grins and Googol’s eyes glow.
“You see,” Googol says. “Painting is fun.”
It is. Pippa and Troy even enjoy painting places that they can reach all by themselves. And, when they are tired, they enjoy standing by the door watching Googol and Googolplex paint.
“Perfect!” Googol says as he finishes painting one wall.
“Perfect!” Googolplex says as he finishes the opposite wall.
Troy and Pippa smile. They have, after all, found a good way to spend the last day of Googol and Googolplex’s visit.
Next time the robots come to Earth they will continue their scavenger hunt. Today they will make Madame Myfanwy’s beautiful old house look like new again. They know that the look of happiness on Madame Myfanwy’s face will be as wonderful as all the colors in a rainbow.
Nelly Kazenbroot loved to collect sand dollars when she was growing up. Now she loves to write. She based Googol and Googolplex on small Lego characters that she created years ago. Nelly lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia with her family.
Nelly Kazenbroot created the interior illustrations for Under the Sea with Googol and Googolplex in pencil.
Laura Watson created the cover illustration in acrylic. Laura lives in Toronto with her husband.
Down the Chimney
with Googol and Googolplex
1-55143-290-0 • $6.95 CDN • $4.99 US
Under the Sea Page 3