Pumphrey The WaterSpout

By Larry Good

Meri and her friends Jethro, The Tackling Dummy, Wut, and Perfit have crossed over The Mistercald River and go by The Land of Falling You. It's snowing, and sometimes snow falls in the shapes of giant snowflakes, sometimes in the shapes of houses, and sometimes even exactly like YOU if you happen to be passing by or go inside. Imagine copies of YOU falling down as snow! The Land of Raining Faces is nearby, so you may even see your own face made of raindrops. The visitors see other fascinating lands.
In The Land of Buffalo Unicorns, they meet Jethro's mother, Meridia. She's extremely friendly---and pleasingly flamboyant! She especially loves hats. She loves Perfit's beautiful yellow hair and wants a wig just like it! They meet Minglemint and Globe, who are also Buffalo Unicorns.
As the five friends are flying back across The Mistercald River with their flying wands, suddenly Pumphrey The WaterSpout rises out of the water below them. At the moment he's an enormous whirlpool! He's immediately pleased by the novelty of having company up in the air, where he's usually so lonely. He can't resist approaching. But Perfit is blown out of the saddle and Jethro begins to fall downward toward The Land of Wrong Kites. He has only seconds to live. Here comes the grass! He can see dummies running toward the site of the expected crash. Him!
When they reach The Land of Loving Yellow, suddenly Perfit disappears. Someone else loves her beautiful yellow hair. In fact, everyone in the whole Land!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Larry Good
• Release date: Jan 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310483783

Larry Good

Larry Good grew up in Nottoway County, Virginia. Blackstone High School awarded him a diploma, the University of Virginia a B.A., and the College of William and Mary a master's degree in Education. He played football in high achool, both offense and defense, as number 66. The team won a Regional title. He met the Tackling Dummy on the Practice Field of Blackstone High School. The first thing after college, he became an English teacher, and before long he had spent most of his time in classrooms. When The Tree of Ticket Leaves takes Meri to The Lands, the first one after The Autumnforest is The Land of Upsidedown Learning. You learn through your feet. (Meri takes off her shoes and socks.) The one after that is The Land of Handwriting Speech. There's no sound when someone speaks, but you can read it. The air of this land is unforgettable. For a while the author went to work for the C & P Telephone Company. The business office was a large room filled with service representatives at their desks talking to customers on telephones. When the man of the house called, the service representative wrote "mr cld" on her records. From these five letters came The Mistercald River which flows right through the middle of The Lands. You can see it from The Tree of Ticket Leaves, which is in The Land of Pink Windmills.

Book preview

Chapter I: THE LAND OF SEASONAL SPEED

Follow me, said Wut, with his short arm stretched out and his small black fingers confidently holding his wand forward. The Land of Pink Windmills, tiny in the distance behind them, with all of the windmills pleasantly turning, soon became almost impossible to see.

The travelers, facing the opposite way, never noticed when it faded into the landscape.

The sun was painting the waters of the river with a warming silver. There was very little wind, judging from the flatness of the wide reflecting surface below, on which could be seen a small boat of dummies drifting along enjoying the early river.

These dummies hadn’t expected the sky to be a significant part of their scenery.

When the fliers were halfway across, and the angle became right, a brilliant shimmering pathway of the sun appeared on the water, moving right along with them. Here and there a gull, acting as if there was nothing at all unusual about these other fliers, floated right along beside them, or met them.

Perfit’s hair, lifted by the moving air rising from the warming river, was as pretty as ever. She was navigating perfectly from high on Aquamarie’s saddle across the wide back of the Buffalo Unicorn, who was continuing to smile softly to himself and to mutter Yep to no one in particular as he looked everywhere he could. His large brown eyes, whimsical as always, continued to have a starriness of first flight in them.

Are you okay? asked Perfit considerately from above, feeling responsible for her great friend, since she was holding the wand that was carrying him across the river and moving him about. She understood that what happened to him depended almost entirely on her.

She had a lot of responsibility!

Yep, he answered quite casually, glancing straight up the river, noticing some of The Lands which made so colorful its eastern side.

Never been better. And you?

Perfect, said the tiny little girl dummy. He was quite relaxed, but her answer reassured him nevertheless.

Up in the sky, of course, she could keep her other hand on the saddle horn, and she did, since it gave her a place to rest it. She really didn’t need anything to hold onto, she was so comfortable. She also had an interesting view whenever she looked down, since looking down for her always included part of Jethro as well as what she could see beyond.

But she liked being up there on the saddle atop her friend, where she felt even higher than the others as they all flew along, because Jethro was so large. As you might have expected, she and Jethro began to develop a closeness from working together and also from just being together.

Is there anything that could go wrong? Meri, flying close to Wut, who was just a little in front, asked about Perfit and Jethro. It was an unusual question in a way, since he was the one who usually expressed concern---often a little more than the others thought was actually necessary.

But, there was a special reason for the question; for, being flesh and blood herself, she was sensitive to the very real danger of Jethro being up so high. She wanted to make sure he would be all right. She loved Perfit too---she would always be her irreplaceable little sister---but she thought that Perfit would survive a fall from that high up.

Jethro couldn’t.

There’s always a chance, he replied thoughtfully, after hesitating for a minute, because concern came readily to him, "but up in the air like this there’s almost no chance at all. If something happens---if something should go wrong---it would have to be incredibly weird and completely unexpected."

He waited to let that idea sink in. And then he continued.

I’m sure you’ll agree there’s almost no chance at all for something incredibly weird and completely unexpected to happen up here. And we won’t even be up here long, so you can relax. We’re going down now.

They were over land.

Putting his other hand over the end of the flying wand, and holding the wand straight up and down, he began drifting slowly and casually down. The others, watching him, did exactly the same.

The Tackling Dummy was the only one who didn’t do it perfectly---but he was learning.

They were floating down into a land that looked more like spring than any place Meri had ever seen. Flowers were everywhere---the delicate flowers of spring---giving a special light and lyrical collection of colors to the entire land rising up to meet them. One of the most beautiful things ever: flowering trees, fruit and other kinds, were everywhere, and the grass was a light green---maybe even a slightly lighter green than they were used to.

The five travelers lighted safely among the grass and flowers and flowering trees and looked around at the unbelievable soft beauty of this land. There was something else, too, about this land that was different. But it was hard to tell what it was at first.

Something seemed to be happening, but it was happening so minutely that not one of the travelers was aware of it---except for Wut, of course. He was already bouncing softly on the grass among the spring flowers, and between the trees that hurt the visitors’ eyes, each one was so pretty. Jethro was so lost in the idea of flying that he wasn’t being that observant.

Jethro had been there before, but it had been long ago, because it wasn’t that easy to get to this side of The Mistercald. He didn’t even remember the exact name of the land. He began trying his best to, however. Looking around, he did remember that it was near another land that was especially important to him. He began to feel some important emotions.

And a little guilt.

Listen, everybody! Wut said, bouncing. I want to tell you what we’re doing. He was going up and down beside a fruit tree of medium height with light green petals among only slightly darker leaves, so perfect that everyone’s attention became fixed on it---until they happened to glance at another painfully beautiful tree with mild rose petals, and then another nearby, all of which had the same effect.

"We’ve got to travel up beside The Mistercald, to get to where we’re going, so I thought we might as well travel part of the way on this side of the river. We could have just stayed on the other side, but I thought coming over here for part of the way would give Meri and Perfit a better idea of The Lands. They can also say now that they’ve been on both sides of The Mistercald.

I also thought it might be extra helpful to the Tackling Dummy, who I know is thinking of staying in The Lands, to see some of The Lands over here.

Thanks, said the battered and torn silver gray Tackling Dummy, cheerfully. He looked especially worn and shabby standing in this particularly perfect land.

There isn’t any new canvas over here, is there?

By this time he had realized, of course, that he needed more than just new canvas---he needed to be re-made. Aquamarie could make new clothes, and she could repair canvas and yarn, but she couldn’t do as much as he needed. The Tackling Dummy was in such bad shape, after being tackled so violently so many times, and after the hot violence of the fireball, that he needed to be made new again. And that was different from sewing.

The Tackling Dummy, realizing this more and more, was feeling less hope, but he was trying to remain cheerful just the same.

Wut seemed to have a hint of his friend’s feelings as he himself bounced so perfectly up and down on the bright grass.

Not that I know of, he answered reluctantly. "But don’t you dare give up hope---you can never predict what will happen in The Lands, as I think you and Meri have definitely found out by this time."

Yep. That’s the truth if anything is, in The Lands, answered Jethro thoughtfully for everyone, in his deep voice. His eyes were still very bright from his recent flight. In fact, he wouldn’t have minded going up into the air again, at that very minute, for a minute or two more.

But Wut disappointed him for the time being. We’ll just walk through a few lands here, he continued, bouncing casually up and down in the air of this vibrant land, and then cross back over and perhaps walk through even a few more lands on the other side. That way we’ll get a nice balance.

He hesitated a moment, looking around, to make sure that everyone agreed with his plan. Everyone seemed to, and there was no objection---Jethro politely didn’t say anything, although he really wanted to fly up again for a little while.

Wut loved to talk about The Lands. With a glance to the side, he said somewhat pointedly to Perfit, Meri, and the Tackling Dummy, "I’m sure you’ve been wondering about this land. Remember The Land of Geological Speed on the other side of The Lands? Well, this is The Land of Seasonal Speed.

"It’s like the other land, but without too much danger at all---although I’m not saying there isn’t any. Here, only the seasons are speeded up. It doesn’t go nearly as fast as the other land, which covers ages in just a few minutes, but it is fast. Each season lasts only about 15 minutes, and obviously it’s spring now.

In fact, he added, "I’ve never actually seen it look like this before---so special. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve missed it. Even I don’t get to this side of The Mistercald as much as I want to---and need to."

He took a moment to glance appreciatively around.

As they watched, however, the grass began to turn a darker green, and the air became warmer. The blossoms fell from the flowering trees in lavender, white, pink, and yellow rains, and in rains of other colors.

On the ground, the lighter more delicate flowers slowly began to disappear and to be replaced by flowers of more pronounced hues, equally beautiful although not as numerous. At the same time, the leaves of the many larger surrounding trees---you had to look closely or you wouldn’t see it---happened to be turning a slightly darker green.

It began to be hot, and summer was upon them. At the same time they began walking and bouncing across the land.

Whew! said Jethro, of the heat. But his hat, with the large brim over his eyes, helped. Perfit was now walking. She had popped down into the arms of the Tackling Dummy, who had held them up to her, to suggest that she might want to walk while they were down from the air. She did. Her long light pink dress with the yellow windmills all over it made her feel the heat a little more too, up on the Buffalo Unicorn, as well as her long yellow curls. She was much cooler walking on the grass.

Soon the summer flowers were gone, and the heat too, to the relief of the travelers. Even fewer autumn flowers appeared, but the most remarkable change was occurring in the larger trees, where fall colors were dramatically appearing.

Look! said Perfit, pointing to the changes. There weren’t that many trees in The Land of Pink Windmills, which was one reason she had been so awed by The Autumnforest. Now she was getting to see autumn trees all over again. The orange, yellow, brown, deep red, plum colored and gold leaves reminded Meri of The Autumnforest, which was so special to her, but she marveled at this land as well, with its especially remarkable spring and other changes.

But she hadn’t seen winter yet!

And then the leaves began to fall, first slowly, lightly, inconspicuously, and then pleasantly, until finally there was a steady, continuous fall that was irresistibly attractive to the travelers because it was so soothing, so peaceful, so colorful, and yet so dramatic.

It’s not no time to not watch not no leaves, murmured the Tackling Dummy to himself, as one of his sentences came into his mind. Meri had heard it before and was glad to hear the catchy syllables again. Not ever having seen trees up close before he had escaped from the stadium, the Tackling Dummy was getting his fill of trees in The Lands. He appreciated every moment of it.

By this time the travelers were in the middle of The Land of Seasonal Speed, and it began to get colder. The trees became bare, and to the discomfort of all five, a chilly rain