CHAPTER 91

Chapter 91 of MAGIC ISLAND

LIKE MOST of MODERN AMERICA

“My clematis is crawling across the laundry line,” she said. There’s no more need for sun-warmed clothes in the breeze. Like most of modern America, we use a washing machine and a dryer. When we go outside, we have to duck the purple flowers.

$6 Pond

Last summer's book was LEXINGTON BROWN and THE POND PROJECTOR. I never heard if anyone read it yet, but it's only $6 now on Amazon. A deal! Inspired by the popular Encyclopedia Brown franchise, this book features a kid inventor who creates a new way to see movies: in a pond! Much adventure leads to the grand showing of his Super-8 movies at the town aquarium. If you've got $6, treat yourself!

PITCH for an OSTRICH FARM

There are advantages, that much is obvious, the eggs are colossal, also if you want to eat an ostrich, it’s like a 300-pound chicken. And weren’t they once fashionable, didn’t people wear ostrich feathers in their hats, or make elegant blue and silver robes from them, waving from the windows of zeppelins? It’s all in a day. You can hitch your ostrich to a carriage, bring along a friend. Ride into town, sell your products to the market, and be back by sundown.

The CAPYBARA

A bit before midnight I got up and looked out the window and saw a strange animal on the grass, near the curb. It was tense as if sniffing the air. It was too small to be a deer, but not a dog, the shape was wrong. I guessed it might be a capybara. I don’t know how one drifted so far north on a hot July night. The thermal conditions must have been just right. It stayed an animal for eight more seconds then I realized it wasn’t. On 32nd Street in that very spot is a fire hydrant, so tame we almost forget it is there.

CHAPTER 79

Chapter 79 of MAGIC ISLAND

CHAPTER 77

Chapter 77 of MAGIC ISLAND