My Family Saves Tucson in '78: Carey Lee

By Carey Lee

In Arizona long ago, 1978, three ominous visions of an American Indian haunted my sister Rachel on Sentinel Peak, near downtown Tucson, and our house. My sympathetic ditzy sister Jan talks down a dancing building full of chocolate. My mean sister Jory convinces the hapless White-Out leader to end the plague of white goo shrouding the t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carey Lee
• Release date: Aug 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781087980645

Carey Lee

My Family Saves Tucson in '78

Book preview

1

My Family Saves Tucson in ‘78

A Fictional Fairy Tale

For All Ages

By Carey Lee

My Family Saves Tucson in ‘78 

Copyright 

Dedication

Chapter 1 - I am Not Mean, I am Nice 

Chapter 2 – Yogie 

Chapter 3 – A Frightening Vision

Chapter 4 – It Will Rain Chocolate

Chapter 5 - The Creamy Delight Chocolate Company 

Chapter 6 - Field Trip! 

Chapter 7 – The Weebamites 

Chapter 8 - A Dangerous Dance 

Chapter 9 – Musical Maelstrom 

Chapter 10 – Jan Talks Down the Building, Willy 

Chapter 11 – Jan Saves the Chocolate, Willy, and Us 

Chapter 12 – Pinky Deal 

Chapter 13 – The Bear on Mount Lemmon 

Chapter 14 – We Can’t Escape Yogie 

Chapter 15 – A Startling Meeting with the Chief 

Chapter 16 – Heading Home 

Chapter 17 – The White-Out Factory 

Chapter 18 – Tanque Verde Slip-n-Slide, or Second Plague 

Chapter 19 – Bears Are for Mountains 

Chapter 20 – Snow, or...? 

Chapter 21 – Jory’s Had Enough 

Chapter 22 – Rachel 

Chapter 23 – The Chief Appears, With a Crash 

Chapter 24 – Mom Gives the Go-Ahead 

Chapter 25 – The Story 

Chapter 26 - The Interview 

Chapter 27 – The Set-Up 

Chapter 28 – The Mayor Is Perplexed 

Chapter 29 – A.J. Bayless 

Chapter 30 – An Ominous Sight 

Chapter 31 – A Dark World 

Chapter 32 – A Strange Spectacle 

Chapter 33 – Madge and Mikey 

Chapter 34 - Granny and Mean Joe 

Chapter 35 – Bravery Helps 

Chapter 36 – A Dark, Diabolical Threat 

Chapter 37 - The Inner Madness 

Chapter 38 - The Mayor Preaches 

Chapter 39 – Skeeter Surprise 

Chapter 40 – A Hard Bargain 

Chapter 41 – Professor Brownstone

Chapter 42 – Skeeter Enlightens Professor Brownstone

Chapter 43 – Chief Francis K. Polk 

Chapter 44 – Triumph 

Chapter 45 – Negotiating with the Mayor 

Chapter 46 – A Celebration Worthy of Us 

Chapter 47 – Ron is Okay! 

Chapter 48 – A Lovely Afternoon 

Chapter 49 – My Talented Family

About the Author 

Copyright © 2022 by Carey Lee

Cover art by Somnath Chatterjee

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To John

Chapter 1 – I am Not Mean, I am Nice

We live in a tiny green house on the slope of A mountain. I am 15 years old and normal. I have a mean sister Jory, a nice ditzy sister Jan, a stuck-up brother Skeeter, and a little sister named Rachel. Rachel and I are not mean, and we are not stuck up. Why we have nice, stuck-up, and mean people, all in one family, I still do not know. My name is Randy, short for Randall.

Skeeter's real name was Delbert, and everyone teased him about that, except me and Jan, because we were nice. He would say things like, I doubt that; I don’t believe you; I don’t believe your words. Certainly, he was unique, but the traits that other kids sought like fun, for example, were not always evident in Skeeter.

I wouldn't call Jory mean, except that's how she seemed to me most of the time. She would say things like not nice you're gross icky and the ‘d’ word - disgusting. I had no idea, honestly, what she was talking about. I was just being me. I took baths. I cleaned my plate as directed, when we had steak, or something good. Fish sticks? No, thanks. I ate the bread crumbs on the outside. We had a dog named Norman. He got the de-breaded fish. Was I complimented, for my discriminating taste, relative to all the other family members, who never asked once, who caught this what breed why do we have to eat fish anyway? As you will see, I am totally nice. And Jory had this way of staring, with these Stepford wife eyes. But the meanest thing she ever did was not laugh at my jokes, which were funny sometimes. Maybe she was secretly fun, but I could not tell.

Mom said she heard the name at the Passion Play in Germany when she was a little girl, and fell in love with it. At least, I think it was Jory. It sounded like Jory to me, although...I suppose, the play was in German, it could have been...I don’t know...something else.

Like what? Jory asked.

I don’t remember, it was a long time ago. I don’t wish to discuss it. Any further.

Mom was strong, yet delicate, and rarely muted. But if she didn’t wish to discuss it she was done talking for a bit.

Jan was nice, she listened, and talked, and cried, whenever she could. I don't know why she cried; we haven't figured it out. Whatever the reason, Jan can't talk about it. She can talk about everything else.

Rachel was quieter than me, but she was open and brave and more adventurous at heart, I think than the others. She was like me. Except, I think girls are very...sensitive, maybe? And, they can remember everything bad I ever did. You think, Randy, that's amazing. Not at all; I did such few bad things that each can be recalled in detail. My problem was being ignored among so many kids.

Despite that fact, I couldn't be 'nice' according to my nice sister Jan. But she never told me what that was. How was