Read Before Tomorrowland for Free Online Page B

tugged harder on Lee’s arm. She was a kid in a candy story fighting to contain her glee. Then, gaining adult composure, she said, “You don’t have to come in here with me if
you don’t want to. I can just do a quick walk-through with my portfolio—”
    “Are you kidding me?” he countered. “We came all this way, I want to see some…rockets, or space things. And you in action.”
    “All right. But at a distance. This is work for me, you know.
‘Can’t have some kid nipping at my heels while I’m doing my business!’
” She was mimicking
his father, and one of his many reasons why he could never take Lee on the road with him, even for a day trip. Lee laughed, even though he didn’t find it all that funny.
    His mom sauntered down a row of tables. She locked on to one exhibitor and thrust a friendly hand at him with such directness that the man was taken aback. But then he reached and shook it, and
within seconds, she had him flipping through her portfolio. Lee was about to approach and eavesdrop when a hand grabbed his arm.
    “You read this one yet, kid!?” asked a slovenly gentleman who was shoving a yellowed hardback novel in his face. The title was
The Secret People
and the cover depicted a
near-naked woman with pale skin diving into a pool of water, surrounded by gray-colored humanoid figures. “It’s fulla everything a kid like you could want. Action, adventure, mystery,
gnomes, and no shortage of dames, I tell ya, all set in the future world of 1964.”
    Lee couldn’t tell if the man was a bookseller or a street hustler. “Gnomes?”
    “Yeah, gnomes! Or maybe they’re pygmies. I don’t know. I only skimmed it. But I’m sure you’ll love it!”
    Lee tore himself away from the man’s pitch. “Thanks very much!” he said with a wave and continued down the row. His mom was long gone. He told himself not to worry and walked
down the aisle. He passed tables with more pulp novels, some comics, and a few illustrators set up and doing sketches for fans. They all seemed more or less the same to Lee, except one. The placard
stopped him:
    COMICS!
    THRILL AND INTRIGUE!
    THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF PLUS ULTRA!
    COULD THIS BE YOUR WORLD OF TOMORROW?
    Plus Ultra
. He’d seen the words before, somewhere. He looked up at the man behind the table and saw a familiar pair of unblinking eyes staring back at him. No, not back at him. Into
him. It was the funny-looking man in the silver suit from the train station, and his skin was even more bronzed than Lee remembered.
    “Hello,” he said. He spoke in a polite, lilting way that reminded Lee of the jazz singers on his mom’s records. The tone was comforting in contrast to his unnerving eyes.
    “You get around, don’t you?” said Lee.
    The man shrugged a single shoulder and smiled.
    “So what are you hawking here?”
    The bronze man swept his hand over the table. There were stereoscopes, paper and pencils, and a collection box with a sign that proclaimed: LOOK! THINK! WIN! NAME THIS PLACE , WIN PRIZES! There was also a stack of comic books.
    “What do you think of ‘Betterburgh’ as a name for utopia?” asked Lee.
    “It’s not my place to judge,” said the peddler. “But my guess is that it won’t win you any prizes.”
    Lee chuckled and picked up one of the comics. A pair of thin sunglasses, maybe made from bamboo, hung inside the front cover. The production quality was better than Lee expected; the paper was
glossy-smooth. Some of the drawings were almost as good as his mom’s. “What’s Plus Ultra?”
    “If you read the comic, you’ll find out,” said the vendor. He wasn’t as insistent as the last peddler, that’s for sure. “Do you enjoy science
fiction?”
    “I’m just here with my mom. She loves all this stuff. She’d probably love this, too. It looks pretty good.”
    “You don’t care for it.”
    Lee squirmed. He didn’t want to hurt the man’s feelings. “Maybe I don’t have much of an imagination. I just don’t go