Riley's Island: And the Magical, Mystical, Simply Fantastical Gomobile Time Machine, Tales of Hither and Yon

By J.P. Mason

Anyone can read about history (yawn), but it's quite another thing to shake hands with it; as does Riley Ballou and his constant parrot, as they travel back and firth through timein this Magical, Mystica, Simply Fantstical Gomobile Time Machine.

After discovering the Magical, Mystica, Simply Fantstical Gomobile Time Machine in a mysterious cave on their Secret Island, Riley and Quico are quick to set off on their many, exciting journeys through time.

Zipping through the ages they are on site for momentous happenings where they meet lots of famous people... along with a few infamous ones as well.

During these adventures-as related by young Riley-they encounter legends, meet the makers and shakers of our planet and discover, in demonstration of unparalleled time travel one-upmanship, they can also enter the pages of fiction to hobhob with the likes of Robin Hood and his Merry Band or the likes of Huckleberry Finn!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483647074

Book preview

Riley’s Island

And the Magical, Mystical, Simply

Fantastical Gomobile Time Machine,

Tales of Hither and Yon

J.P. Mason

Copyright © 2013 by J.P. Mason.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 05/31/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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CONTENTS

1.    Our Adventures Begin

2.    Our Adventure In Clydebank Scotland

3.    Our Adventure On Cat Island

4.    Our Adventure With Lucy

5.    Our Adventure With Whales

6.    Our Adventure In Ancient Egypt

7.    Our Adventure In Sherwood Forest

8.    Our Adventure With Dr. Livingston

9.    Our Adventure In Ireland

10.  Our Adventure On The Mississippi River

11.  Our Adventure In Dinosaur Land

12.  Our Adventure With Chief Old Joseph

13.  The Story Of Loki

In Celebration Of

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The joy of discovery

Unbridled imagination

And pristine naïveté

CHAPTER ONE

OUR ADVENTURES BEGIN

Hello! My name is Riley Ballou and I live on an island. I call it, Secret Island, which means nobody knows where it is, or how to find it. Except me of course. And my friend Quico—can’t forget him. Quico is a parrot. The world’s smartest parrot, by the way, and he lives with me on Secret Island. Now Quico is no ordinary parrot—far from it. You see, my little trusted, feathered friend can also change colors! Sometimes he changes colors when the sunlight shines on him this way or that, or one way or the other.

At other times he glitters and sparkles and radiates all over the place, especially when he’s very happy. Or very angry for that matter. And when he’s scared? Well, that’s when he becomes a flashing, dazzling, living rainbow of colors.

I’m sure you will agree that living on a mysterious, nobody-knows-anything-about-it island is very, very, oh so very cool! But… the most cool thing of all is that Quico and I—hold on to your hats—Quico and I travel through time in our MAGICAL, MYSTICAL, SIMPLY FANTASTICAL GOMOBILE TIME MACHINE! That’s right, absolutely true, we surely do! We can go back and forth or forth and back, in and out or up and down and thoroughly through and through time! Now that’s really cool, right?

So let me tell you how it all came about. As I said, Quico and I live on Secret Island and on our island there is a big… and I mean super big, cave. Well, on one particular Friday, after we first discovered the big cave, Quico and I were having fun running through all the tunnels and counting all the stalactites and stalagmites—you know, those funny looking things that hang down from a cave’s ceiling or grow up from the cave’s floor. The ones that hang down always remind me of icicles and those are the ones called stalactites, only they’re not made of ice, they’re made of mineral deposits. And so are the stalagmites; the ones that grow up and look like skinny, upside-down ice cream cones.

Anyway, as Quico and I were exploring this huge cave, running and laughing and having a great time, we suddenly came upon a strange looking machine, which we soon discovered was the MAGICAL, MYSTICAL, SIMPLY FANTASTICAL GOMOBILE TIME MACHINE. It was hidden behind a big group of stalagmites and guarded by a funny looking little man totally covered in blue and orange hair who, we quickly discovered, only spoke in rhymes.

Naturally we had never seen a GOMOBILE before, or, for that matter, someone covered in blue and orange hair. This funny-looking little man, whose name was unpronounceable except on Mondays, was pacing in a big circle and very upset. So I said to him, Say, little blue and orange man, why are you so upset?

Then, quick as a blink he hopped up on a rock and after loudly clearing his throat—"AHEM!"—he began to speak.

"By my big toe, ’twas not long ago, that I looked very much like you.

With far less hair, I was almost bare, and so much the taller too.

Then I met this fellow, who said, ‘Hey, hello, my name’s Gaston G. Guggenheim.

And I can soon take you, quickly will have you, traveling backwards through time.’

So I said, ‘How’s that?’ Then doffing his hat, he said, ‘Please, if you would, follow me.’

So, we came to a lake, where a green water snake, was coiled in a Chinquapin tree.

And under the tree, just as cool as could be, all silvery, shimmery green.

With trimmings in red, looking bold-spirited, sat the MAGICAL, MYSTICAL, SIMPLY FANTASTICAL, GOMOBILE TIME MACHINE.

Yes, it’s all very true, I confess it to you, time travel was easy as candy.

All I needed to say, to go flying away, was…"

And then, the little blue and orange man took a deep breath and said, Moolaka-poolaka-doolaka-dandy!

The little blue and orange man sighed and sat down on his rock and began to weep huge tears and cry so loudly that three stalactites snapped right off and came crashing down to the cavern floor.

Quico was so shocked that he began to turn nine shades of purple and three shades of raspberry.

When the little blue and orange man’s tears finally slowed down, I asked what it was that made him cry so loudly. He told me that Gaston G. Guggenheim had warned him, saying that wherever he traveled in the Gomobile, he could stay no longer than four days in anyone place. And when the four days are up he had to get back in the Gomobile and say the magic words, Moolaka-poolaka-doolaka-dandy, or he would be stuck in that place forever!

Sadly enough, that’s exactly what happened when the little blue and orange man landed the Gomobile right here in our cave. Seems like he had never seen a cave before and quickly became lost as he wandered through the many passages until he wasn’t able to find his way back to the Gomobile for six long days. So, there he was then, and here he is now, stuck forever in the wrong place and in the wrong time.

So sad. Well, just telling us his story made him so sad and so mad that he cried and cried some more until his tears began to form a giant stalagmite all around him. The stalagmite kept growing higher and bigger and taller and thicker until it completely covered up the little blue and orange man and he disappeared from view! And even today, Quico and I can occasionally hear him still crying inside that giant, blue and orange stalagmite.

Anyway, that’s how Quico and I came to be the new time travelers in the MAGICAL, MYSTICAL, SIMPLY FANTASTICAL, GOMOBILE TIME MACHINE. Of course, no matter where we go, I always remember—with the help of my four-day alarm pocket watch—to say the secret words before our time is up so we can always return home to Secret Island.

All right then, now that we’ve been properly introduced, I would like to share with you some of our many adventures through time. You’ll learn all about everything that happened to us on each trip back through time. You’ll learn about the interesting, mysterious and