Jon Scieszka - Time Warp Trio 09 by See You Later Gladiator

Author:See You Later, Gladiator
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-06-25T22:31:51+00:00

IX

The crowd roared. And I suddenly snapped awake. There really was a crowd roaring. Men, women, and children lined the road. Most wore long shirt-like things and sandals. Some threw flowers and chanted the names of their favorite gladiators.

“Horridus! Horridus!”

“Go Nefarius!”

“We want Doofus!”

It was Monday night TV wrestling brought to screaming life. The gladiators stood in the parade of wagons. They waved and flexed their muscles. The crowd cheered.

“Look,” said the Professor. “Rome.”

Just ahead of us rose a golden-colored city. Arched and columned buildings covered the hillsides. Crowds of people wandered everywhere. We passed through a gate in a tall stone wall.

“Check those guys out,” said Fred.

A row of Roman soldiers lined both sides of the gate. They were an amazing sight in red shirts, metal chest and shoulder plates, helmets, swords, daggers, and spears. One of the soldiers with a fancy brush on the top of his helmet held up his hand to stop our carts.

“He looks just like that alien who always fights Bugs Bunny,” said Fred.

“That’s Marvin the Martian,” said Sam. “And I think you’ve got it backwards. It’s Marvin who looks like this guy from two thousand years ago.”

The Professor looked at Sam like he was a Martian.

A blue chariot pulled by two black horses rumbled in front of us. It was quickly followed by a stream of people, most wearing something blue, running and cheering and chanting.

“On their way to more of the circus,” said the Professor. He looked like he didn’t approve of this part of Roman life. “Gambling away their money, their time, even their lives to fight for their team, Blue or Green or White or Red.”

“Sounds like a crazy fan I know,” I said, looking at Fred.

Fred whacked me with his hat.

We rolled into the city, through winding streets and surging crowds. Then we were suddenly in front of a soaring white stone stadium. Three rows of arches, one on top of the other, stood crowned by more columns and tall wooden flagpoles.

“The Colosseum,” said Sam in amazement.

“It is a colossus, isn’t it?” said the Professor. “It is called the Flavian Amphitheater, but I think Colosseum is a much better name.”

“Folks will probably agree with you in a few thousand years,” said Sam.

The stadium covered what would have been a good couple of city blocks. I saw statues in the arches, banners flying, the whole thing curving away on either side, the crowd pressing and cheering. Our carts rolled through one of the bottom arches into the cool darkness inside.

“Wow,” said Fred. “That was just like being in the middle of the Yankees World Series parade.”

“Yeah, just like it,” said Sam, “if the Yankees got to kill the Padres after they beat them.”

“What’s with all the arches?” I said.

“Seventy-six vomitoria allow the stands to be emptied in ten minutes,” said the Professor.

“Oh yuck,” said Fred. “You mean people go and puke up all their hot dogs in ten minutes?”

“No, genius,” said Sam. “Vomitorium is the Latin word for exit. Seventy-six exits get people to and from their seats in ten minutes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.