A Taste for Treasure: Tales of Reading Road, #3

By Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

When a girl sets a boy a strange challenge, he must venture into some extraordinary places in pursuit of his goal. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sixth Planet Productions
• Release date: Aug 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223742470

Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

Kevan Kenneth Bowkett is a Winnipeg writer and researcher. His writing has ranged from an International Convention on the Evaluation of New Technologies to poetry to Elizabethanesque drama in Time’s Fancy: The War of King Henry V and Joan of Arc. He’s also done door-to-door sales, built and slept in an igloo, and run for Parliament. .......... To sign up for Kevan's e-newsletter to keep in touch with his new books, productions, and other projects, please go to http://eepurl.com/g1dX6z

Book preview

1.

They were Canadians on a high school trip in Italy in 1984. In the mountains near Lake Como they had a few hours free of their itinerary, and Perry had wandered off among the hills.

And there was Myra, a tom-boy with whom he was madly in love. She was on a little cliff looking over some lower hills that dropped down toward the blue lake. She was sitting quietly for once. Like embers just waiting to blaze up, Perry thought to himself.

Without any preamble he seized the moment and said, Please would you go out with me, Myra?

She looked at him, appearing to study what she saw. Then she laughed slightly and said, Oh, I’ll only go out with you if you bring me something wonderful.

Like what? the boy asked.

Like—like gold from an ogre’s treasure underneath the Alps here. Or maybe from the bottom of Lake Como. Yes, bring me some of that.

Okay, challenging. Notice I don’t comment on your imagination.

What’s wrong with my imagination? she asked, indignant.

Nothing, nothing at all, Perry replied. I didn’t say anything about it. He paused. Then: If I can’t find the gold, he asked, can I bring you back something of equal wonderfulness?

She pondered. Then, Yes, that would be fine, she said, and smiled.

Her smile was easily worth ten dangerous and arduous journeys, and Perry said, Worth it, and set out on the quest.

We have to be back at the bus by four, she called after him.

He called back, If I can find ogre’s magic gold, I’m sure I’ll find a time machine to bring me back if I take longer.

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As he went he recalled the first time he’d spoken with Myra—last summer, the summer after grade nine.

They had found themselves next to each other in line at the Dutch Maid ice cream shop. It was a sweltering July day in Winnipeg.

When Myra had her ice cream—a Neapolitan cone—there was only one table empty, so she went and sat, and said to Perry, Sit here, there’s nowhere else.

Thanks, Perry answered, and came over with his own ice cream, his heart