Mr. Topper's Fabulous Funtown

By Jodi A Woody

Funtown is a place of every child’s dreams and Mr. Topper’s world of merry-go-rounds and magic is the place they want to go. But all that glitters is not gold and Funtown is not what it seems. Who is Tinker and what can he do to help? Jayde and her friends must find Tinker and the truth about Mr. Topper to free Funtown. Middle grade read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jodi A Woody
• Release date: Apr 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311546883

Jodi A Woody

I've always loved the written word. I enjoy writing almost as much as reading. My tastes run from science fiction and fantasy, steampunk and westerns, to historical and romance. The only genres I don't read, ever, is horror, (Life is scary enough, why add to that?) And Erotica. My all time favorite stories are fairy tales! Especially ones that have been re-written for adults. Now that my children are now grown, I have started to write again. The ideas are coming faster than my fingers and brain can keep up with. I live in Wisconsin with my husband of thirty three years. We have raised three children of our own and had others in our home off and on over the years, through fostering and just helping those that we 'adopted'. I have nine grandchildren and am blessed to have two with me on a daily basis. Though I plan on writing some Christian fiction, I am first of all a Christian, I do plan on writing some that are purely for entertainment without any kind of "Christian message". My goal is to make some characters come alive and to provide a small place of escape for my readers.

Book preview

This book is a work of fiction, the people and places are not real, except in my own mind.

Mr. Topper’s Fabulous Funtown

Jodi Woody

Copyright 2013 by Jodi Wooy

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Cover design by Robin Ludwig Design Inc., http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com/

Mr. Topper’s Fabulous Funtown

All that glisters is not gold;

Often have you heard that told:

Many a man his life hath sold

But my outside to behold:

Gilded tombs do worms enfold.

Had you been as wise as bold,

Young in limbs, in judgment old

Your answer had not been inscroll'd

Fare you well, your suit is cold.

~William Shakespeare

Merchant of Venice

Chapter 1

All That Glitters is Not Gold

There was never a town like Funtown, and likely will never be again. It was every little boy and girl’s dream. Shiny, sparkly, noisy, flashy, extravagant and fabulous! Mr. Topper, the founder of Funtown was well spoken of in many a household. What a marvelous man! some would say, A genius! said others. After all he was the one who created Funtown, planned it, built it, paid for it, Mr. Topper was Funtown.

Parents used the wonderful, beautiful town to bribe their children for weeks, months and sometime even years You better be good, or you will not be invited to Funtown threatened parents, or "If you are good, you may get an invitation from Mr. Topper. So every child dreamed of Funtown, of that beautiful invitation, of lights and whirls of color, of the big merry-go-round with the music and horses, of the big top and the shows. Of course, if you had enough money, if your parents were wealthy, if you had private tutors and servants, and had a long line of illustrious ancestors behind you, you could simply go to Funtown (at a price). But even some of those children, the ones who didn’t require an invitation to go, still hoped for one, could still receive one, proving they were especially good, or gifted. Yes, the children dreamed of going, and played ‘Funtown’ on recess, and if you listened closely, you would hear children discussing their desire to go.

I want to live there, said one especially young little one.

"Nobody lives in Funtown," corrected an older little one.

Who takes care of it? asked another.

Nobody takes care of it…its magic, answered a voice filled with awe.

This was always met with ooohs and aaaahs by the others.

Mr. Topper knew about these outrageous stories and rumors. Of course he did, after all, he was the one who started them, and went to great pains to make sure that they continued to be told, were whispered into the ears of all little girls and boys. Sometimes even he began to believe it was magic. When things were going smoothly, when all was shiny and glittered in the night, lit by gas lamps and lights. He would walk through his town and forget about the work, the trouble, and the unpleasant tasks behind all of the sparkle. At those times, he saw himself as a friend, a benefactor to the people, a generous ‘Uncle’ to all who came to escape their dreary lives.

But there were some, a few, who knew who Mr. Topper really was, and what Funtown really was. For all that glitters is not gold…

Chapter 2

Mr. Topper Himself

No one really knew where Mr. Topper came from. Some pretended to know, some made up stories about it, all in fun, and some even guessed that Mr. Topper was really a long line of grandfather-father-son. Others insisted, quite correctly, that he had been there as long as any living person could remember. Stories were told, that happened to be quite true, about so-and-so’s grandfather, who said his grandfather told him, that they all had waited, when they were little ones, for that special invitation to Funtown.

If you were to actually see Mr. Topper, in the flesh, you would have a hard time believing these stories because he wasn’t an old man, and yet he wasn’t a young man. Mr. Topper was just the right age of a father. He had dark hair cropped short, a dark full mustache that curled up on the ends and piercing golden brown eyes. You never, ever saw him without his top hat or his black velvet suit coat with his eyepiece hanging from the pocket. If it wasn’t for the ready smile on his face, you might think he looked a little frightening. But smile he did, on every poster, child’s sketch, and for every photograph, but Mr. Topper had a lot to smile about, didn’t he?

Mr. Topper, with his son, Tiny Mr. Topper, lived at Topperville, the largest, grandest home of all. Part castle, part mansion, part museum, and art gallery, his home was filled with wonders, oddities and secrets that very few even knew about. On his grounds, on the top of the hill that overlooked Funtown, there were other buildings as well. There was The Orphanage, The Skate Police Academy, The School for Tinkers, The Topperville Vault (where all Mr. Topper’s money was stored), The Infirmary, and The Lockup (where criminals were stored), as well as many other necessary buildings of industry and commerce.

Mr. Topper made the rounds daily to inspect all of these. He handpicked the Police Academy teachers and students, the money counters and guards, his staff at Topperville, the inventors, the apothecary, the physician and nurses, the people who mailed the invitations, took tickets, picked up trash, cleaned and polished, swept the streets and the ones he sent out to advertise by posting posters and writing commentaries in the paper, and some not-so-obvious ways (like spreading delicious rumors and whispering in the ears of impressionable little ones, and overly simple adults), and other secret jobs that no one knew about. Not a person working in Funtown or Topperville was ever chosen by anyone but Mr. Topper. Yet, he never took an application, never posted a ‘position offered’ ad, somehow he always found the right person for the right position.

Chapter 3

Jayde: Skate Squad Cadet

Jayde loved Funtown. She was a Skate Squad Cadet, a Jr. Member, so to speak of the Skate Police and she believed herself lucky to be a part of what kept Funtown safe. All she had ever wanted was to wear the uniform, including their ‘Marvelous Metamorphosing Skate Boots’. On her first trip to Funtown, when she was almost four years old, she had seen the police walking along the wooden sidewalks and promenades. Their uniforms were as red as the brightest apple, their golden whistles shining in the sun, their boots black as night.

Jayde was watching them intently, when someone snatched a purse and those officers jumped into the air, clicked their boots and suddenly they were racing away on wheels! All the Skate Police had them, including the junior squad. Jayde was thirteen years old, had been a Cadet since she was twelve, and she would be Cadet until she was eighteen. If you did your job well, you could move on to the Élite Squad until you were twenty-one. Nobody older than that served. At twenty-two, you were allowed to retire and live the life of luxury in The Village, on the outskirts of Funtown, or you could choose to serve in another area of Funtown.

So though the disappearance of her parents, eight years ago, on that same trip to Funtown, was a hard thing to experience, Jayde now felt very lucky indeed to have had that happen. Only orphans were ever allowed to join the Skate Police, or to work in the shops, eateries, and to serve at Topperville, Mr. Topper’s home. Out of those, only the smartest and the bravest children got chosen out of the orphanage to be a Cadet. They were the ones who had Mr. Topper to care for them, and he was better than any mother or father. They lived in Topperville, in the Cadet wing, and trained at the Academy.

Her daydream of wearing the uniform had come true and she wore her uniform proudly, blew her whistle loudly, skated faster than anyone in her squad, greased her wheels and shined her boots every morning. Jayde wanted to work her way up to Squad Leader by the time she was sixteen. She thought very highly of herself, her skating skills, her speed, her quick thinking and of her future in Funtown. Didn’t Mr. Topper himself speak highly of her? Thoughts and memories of her family were few and far between, something from her long-ago-past that she barely remembered.

Jayde loved her training at the Academy, even the book learning. She knew how to read and write, figure her sums, and how to fill out all of the forms that go along with being an officer of the law. But her favorite part of the day was when they got to tag along with the Elite Squad, the full fledged, ticket writing, crowd controlling, and crime stopping police. True, there wasn’t a lot of crime taking place in Funtown, which she attributed to the fine job of the Elite Squad, but there were always tickets to write, missing children to locate, gates to guard and famous people to escort. Sometimes, rarely, they got to chase!

Once they had to chase a runaway clockwork dog from the Sprocket’s Stupendous Mechanical Menagerie. It had shot out of the practice ring and onto the boardwalk before Sprocket could get his hands on it. Jayde and her Sr. Officer took off after it, arms pumping and skates click clacking on the wooden slats. It was the most fun she had ever had. Of course the poor thing wound down before they got very far, but she had gone full speed, in town, dodging people, jumping over waste baskets and blowing her whistle with what little air she had to spare.

Living at Topperville with the other Cadets, Jayde had a few friends. She tended to be a little arrogant, bossy and ambitious, so not everyone could spend very much time with her. One of the boys that she had befriended in