Read The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee for Free Online Page B

of Amy's
Who
's
Who Book
out of its scroll pipe to bring it up to date. Next to Lydia, Little, he scratched in the words, "Lost in the ocean. Captured by a Monstrous wave! But I hope she will be rescued by a Hero!" Who would that hero be? Perhaps ... probably ... he himself. And he put the scroll back in its proper scroll pipe.
    Perhaps Amy could predict the making of a hero out of an ordinary plumber, the way he could predict storms and hurricanes and hot spells or cold. This thought satisfied him. So now all he had to do was to fulfill a prediction, that made by a little girl named Amy who had chosen to include him in her book of names along with her mama and her papa and her friends and dolls and the great dog Wags ... and also Bear. There he was propped right above him in Amy's hammock, a watcher of the sea by day and by night. A teddy bear captain, looking for Little Lydia. He should have binoculars.
    Not to let this prediction of Amy's interfere with his work, that was the important thing. Be a hero on the side ... his sideline. The trouble was he had very little time for hobbies and sidelines and fulfilling other people's predictions. Especially now, at the height of summer, with Hurricane Lobelia coming in late August, according to his predictions.
    Think of all the work a plumber, a banger on pipes, had to do then ... getting people out of their houses if Lobelia decided to come to Cape Cod, helping them close up their cottages, not to forget to turn off the tap in their cellars. Does that seem to allow much time for sidelines?
    "And don't forget," he reminded himself, "that my main aim, no sideline to this, is the capture of the tiny tip end of a lightning bolt and the final rumble of the thunderbolt!" Sometime soon he must catch these important bolts. Tiny they would have to be, but big as a whale in his mind. He smiled. Big as Monstrous! He laughed out loud. He liked hard work. Two big jobs! Rescuing Little Lydia and rounding out his nuts-and-bolts collection!
    Tonight there was a full moon. This meant that the tide would be especially high. Already the waves were quite high. Many summer people down on the beach, taking advantage of one of the lovely evenings of late summer, were having barbecues, but would soon begin to get ready to go in. The smell of hot dogs and hamburgers lingered in the air. Jimmy McGee enjoyed the sound of laughter, the high-pitched sounds of the ladies, the sudden outbursts of the men, the squeals of delight of the children. But soon, all was quiet. Just the smell of the smoking embers was all that was left.
    Amy's family had long since gone in, and the two little girls were probably in bed. The tide had not shifted yet, and the light of the moon made the sea rosy-hued or a deep violet, ever changing, ever beautiful. The wet sand mirrored these colors, so sea and sky melted together in the moonlight.
    Often on such nights Jimmy McGee found good lost things, some nut or some bolt, a strange piece of driftwood, and would sling these in his bombazine bag to take back to headquarters. But tonight he had something different on his mind.
    Because of the full moon, the tide was now coming in closer and faster. Some children, who had built their castles too close to the high-water mark, would find that theirs had melted in the waves. Not Amy and Clarissa's, though. They and many other children had been smart to build their castles close to the dune. So Little Lydia's castle and her little town were going to be safe, not swept away when the waves rolled in closer and closer.
    Jimmy McGee took note of all this. He said to himself, "Suppose that tonight I should rescue Little Lydia as I am supposed to do according to the book? Would that make me a hero? Of course. Rescued by Jimmy McGee! Rescued from Monstrous! That would be the end of all of this hero-to-be business and could be labeled 'Business done!' Then I could forget it, put Little Lydia back on her couch, and I could get back to my nuts and