9 A Trip to Town

9. A TRIP TO TOWN Matilda was sitting between the three hags on the backseat of a bus. It was a small bus that ran along the coastal roads between the beaches, villages, and towns. There were a few locals mixed with tourists on the bus, but none of them wanted to be

close to the sea hags. There were a couple of empty rows in front of Matilda. That meant there was space for her bicycle, which she'd rescued from the cliff top. Beyond the empty seats, a young girl, fingers gripping the seat back, peeked over the top until her mom whispered something in her ear and turned her around to face the front. The sea hags were keeping their beady eyes on the large sack of treasure they'd left on the luggage rack.

Matilda thought she would be relieved to get off the bus. But once they stepped onto Dull-on-Sea's Main Street, even more people stared at the sea hags. Matilda locked her bike to a railing and they set off down the street, burly men nervously ducking into doorways and parents putting protective arms around their children. At least the sea hags were quiet, apart from their sack of gold clunking as they dragged it along the sidewalk. Matilda rushed them

along as best she could, although they occasionally stopped to sniff a passerby, peer into a mailbox with their illuminated wands, or examine the contents of garbage cans. Their first stop was a new shop called Gold-Diggerz, which promised to pay "loads of cash" for any unwanted gold. It was a small shop, filled with a very fat man, bedecked in chunky jewelry and tapping away on a computer. He sat at a leather- topped wooden desk, behind a nameplate which read HARVEY CARROT. With the ring-a-ding of the door, he looked up. "Well, hello," he boomed. "What can

I do for you... um... lovely... um... ladies?" Without a word, the sea hags emptied their sack of gold on the desk. If there had been enough space behind Harvey Carrot, he would probably have fallen off his chair. "Well, yes. Imagine that," he said, slapping his large, sweaty hands together. "That's quite a lot of gold, isn't it?"

"There's a lot more where that came from, Mr. Carrot," said Matilda. Behind her, the hags stared at him and sniffed the air. "Really? Well, yes, how wonderful, but please, call me Harvey," he said, grinning. "And how much would you like for this little pile, young lady?" "Five thousand dollars," said Matilda as calmly as she could. She wasn't sure why she said it, but it was more money than she'd ever seen before, and it sounded like a LOT. To Matilda's surprise, Harvey very quickly fumbled with his keys and unlocked a safe in the wall behind him.