The Planetoid of Amazement. Mel Gilden

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СКАЧАТЬ Mitzenmacher 260, which he zoomed through the air.

      When the phone rang, Rodney jumped and put down the model. “Hello?”

      “How are you, Rodney?”

      “Okay, Mom. How are you and Dad and the con­ference?”

      “The new Chocolatron advertising campaign is very exciting.”

      “Hmm,” said Rodney.

      “Yes,” his mother went on, “I always liked ‘It’s atom powdered,’ but most of the delegates think that slogan is old-fashioned. They like ‘Chocolatron: a blast from the past.’”

      “Hmm.”

      “That’s what I said.”

      “Uh, did Dad tell you about the strange envelope with the stickers inside?”

      “He certainly did. It was very exciting. Any adven­tures to report?”

      “Sort of.” Rodney told his mother what had been going on, about the dreams and the problem with the kazoo and all.

      “This is very good,” Mrs. Congruent said.

      “But what does it all mean?”

      “You’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure. That’s the way adventures work.”

      “Dad got another one of those strange envelopes. Only now I can read what it says.”

      “The work of the sticker, of course. What does it say?”

      “It says: VISIT THE PLANETOID OF AMAZEMENT (RTE. HUTZENKLUTZ STATION).”

      “Very interesting.”

      “The Planetoid of Amazement is probably a sec­ond-rate amusement park or a restaurant where they pay more attention to the video games than to the food.”

      “You believe that?”

      “No.”

      “Have you opened the envelope yet?”

      “No,” Rodney said patiently. “It’s addressed to Dad.” That was a good excuse, anyway.

      “If you want to, open the envelope, Rodney. I think your father would insist on it.”

      Rodney knew his mom was right. He no longer had I reason to avoid the inevitable. He held the receiver of the phone under his arm and sighed. With a mighty effort, he tore open the envelope. Inside was another instruction sheet and a foil packet. He held the packet up to the light and shook it, but still couldn’t tell what was inside.

      The instruction sheet showed one side of the packet being torn off, and whatever was inside being poured over the outline of a person. In the drawing, the stuff looked like sand. At the top of the sheet something was written in the funny language that Rodney could now read.

      “Mom?” said Rodney into the telephone.

      “Yes, Rodney?”

      “There’s a packet and some instructions. I don’t know what’s in the packet, but the instructions say GREETINGS, WATSON CONGRUENT. OPEN THE PACKET. THROW THE CONTENTS OVER YOUR­SELF AND GET A BIG SURPRISE.”

      “My husband has obviously been keeping secrets from me.” Mrs. Congruent laughed and went on, “You must immediately do as the instructions sug­gest.”

      “We’re talking adventure here, aren’t we, Mom?” A hot wind rushed through Rodney’s body. He felt as if he had the flu.

      “I’m sure of it,” Mrs. Congruent said.

      “Okay, then,” said Rodney. “Here I go.”

      Rodney put down the phone. He tore open the packet and poured the contents into his hand. What­ever it was looked like the kind of glitter a little kid would glue onto a homemade Mother’s Day card. Judging by the strange properties of the sticker, this glitter probably was not as innocent as it looked.

      With a sense that he was jumping off a cliff, he took a deep breath and threw the glitter over his head. As the glitter settled, the edges of each bit seemed to slice through the very fabric of reality. The world seemed to disintegrate around him.

      Rodney’s last thought before he was engulfed by darkness was that he’d neglected to hang up the phone.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      WOMAN FLAGGING DOWN A BUS

      Rodney did not move. Bits of somewhere else fell around him, and like puzzle parts the size of snow­flakes, they built up Rodney’s new location.

      As far as he could tell, he was now inside the metal room he had seen in his dream the night before. The huge bear wearing the utility belt and the stool helmet was motioning to him in an incomprehensible way. Meanwhile, a kangaroo creature was rushing from place to place in the round room, obviously searching for something. Occasionally the kangaroo creature would look at him and at the bear and shake its head.

      Rodney inhaled deeply and took in the cool air, which smelled faintly of machine oil. He was doing all right so far. He was a little afraid, but only a dope wouldn’t be. Mostly, he was interested, curious, and ready to expect the unexpected. He looked around the room.

      The walls were covered with buttons and gauges and small toggle switches. At one side of the room—­you couldn’t say that a round room had an end—was a single round window that seemed to be blank.

      When Rodney walked over to look out the port­hole, what he saw surprised him, excited him, and made him more afraid. Outside, hanging among the powdering of stars, was the planet Earth, looking blue and serene, much as it did in Space Agency photo­graphs. Everything and everybody he knew was down there. He was alone. All questions about his ability to handle an adventure were about to be answered. And there wouldn’t be any last-minute rescues, not even if he needed one.

      Rodney turned around when the bear said some­thing that sounded like “Ompah! Veigh iz tzoo mere! Slignathi tzoo mere!” His voice was kind of a growl, pretty much what you’d expect from a bear.

      The kangaroo answered, “Some tau!” and rushed around the compartment with even more determina­tion. The kangaroo’s voice was a surprise. It was the voice of a sweet young girl.

      Rodney said, “What’s going on? Where am I?”

      The kangaroo cried, “Lerique! Lerique!” and handed the bear a white thing like a toothpaste tube.

      The bear motioned Rodney closer, opened the tube, and squeezed out a column of clear jelly on the calloused black pad of a finger. He held up the finger to Rodney’s forehead. Rodney flinched, then stood steady. The bear rubbed the jelly across the top of the yellow sticker, and seconds later the sticker fell away. Rodney rubbed the itchy spot as the bear threw the sticker down what appeared to be a disposal chute.

      The kangaroo held up a sheet of paper to Rodney. In the funny squiggles, it said IF YOU CAN READ THIS, WAVE YOUR HANDS! This was amazing! Evidently, the sticker was not a translator, but a teaching СКАЧАТЬ