Oliver Possum's Friend: The Bicycle Life of Oliver Possum, #3

By Chip Haynes

It's nice to have a friend.

 

It began as a case of mistaken identity. How many possums on a bicycle could there be? It seems that there are two! Oliver and his friends ride out to find their new potential friend and have adventures involving snakes (yikes!), silly squirrels (yay!), and pie (yum!).

 

Oliver finds out that he and his new possum friend have similar bikes and similar feelings about adventure. They certainly are happy to meet each other!

 

Oliver, meet Olivia. Olivia, meet Oliver.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Little Horsemen
• Release date: Dec 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781644507605

Chip Haynes

Chip Haynes is an artist, writer, cyclist, juggler living in Tampa, Florida. In 2009, New Society Publishers of British Columbia, Canada, published both "The Practical Cyclist, bicycling for real people" in 2009 and "Wearing Smaller Shoes, living light on the big blue marble" in 2010. Satya House Publications of Hardwick, Massachusetts published Chip's "Peak of the Devil, 100 questions (and answers) about peak oil" in 2010 as well. Two out of three won awards and picked up some cool endorsements. So there.Chip is currently dabbling in fiction and poetry when he's not pedaling in shorts and sandals.

Book preview

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Classroom Questions & Discussion:

Author’s Notes

Oliver Possum’s Friend

Copyright © 2023 Chip Haynes. All rights reserved.

4 Horsemen Publications, Inc.

1497 Main St. Suite 169

Dunedin, FL 34698

4horsemenpublications.com

[e-mail]

Cover by Niki Tantillo

Typesetting by Autumn Skye

Edited by Joseph Mistretta

All rights to the work within are reserved to the author and publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 International Copyright Act, without prior written permission except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please contact either the Publisher or Author to gain permission.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022951349

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-758-2

Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-759-9

Audiobook ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-761-2

Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-64450-760-5

Dedicated to the Lovely JoAnn, my best friend ever.

Chapter 1

Out of town.

Hello, Oliver Possum here. Yes, I’m the one on the bicycle. In the brown cap? Yes, that’s me. I’m sure we’ve met. You can find me, most days, riding my bicycle on the road from my house to the village of Pudding. It’s not that far, and the hill’s not that high. I can click my old bicycle down into low gear and go right over. It’s fun to coast down the other side and right into town! That’s what I u sually do.

It’s easy enough to find a reason to go for a bicycle ride. It seems as though I might need something today and again tomorrow. Nothing much, but something, and now it’s time to go. I’ll put on my brown cap and wheel my machine out to the lane. A moment later, I’m riding! It’s nice to feel the breeze and watch the trees slide by as I ride. I’ve got a comfortable bike, and my bike has a basket. Perfect for those trips to town—out and back again—after I get over the hill.

Now, it’s not a big hill. Nothing you’d climb for the grand, wide view at the top, but it does ask that you pedal all the way up. I’ll ride up to the top of the hill in low gear (I have three), both hands on the grips, eyes straight ahead, and I pedal all the way. I can do this! And I have done this, pedaled to the top, many times. Do I ever not do it? Pedal all the way? Yes, well, sometimes I stop on the way to see or find things. It seems as though there’s always something to find.

You always find things on a bicycle. (There are so many things to find.) And since you’re never going all that fast, even when going downhill, you may as well stop and take a closer look if you like. I like to look, and I do that a lot. I’ll see a bright, shiny object alongside the road, and I’ll try to guess what it is before I stop for that closer look. A nut? A bolt? The Lost Diamond of Java? It’s usually just a nut or bolt, but I pick it up, anyway. You never know when you might need one or the other or which one you might need next. I’ve got a whole jar of them at home now. Because you never know.

I never see as much on the way down the other side of the hill. I’m usually going a bit quicker then. Oh, sometimes, yes, something will catch my eye, but mostly I’m rolling right along, watching the road, and watching out for squirrels. The squirrels are loopy; you know. They’ll run out in front of you, stop and stand up and look around as if to say, Hello? Where am I? And how did I get here? Oh, look, a bicycle! And then, about the time you swerve to miss them, they run the way you swerve. It’s all exciting, but I’ll never find The Lost Diamond of Java if the squirrels keep running out in front of me.

So, it’s over the hill and down into town, and then what? What is there to do in the village of Pudding? Oh, my. Where do I begin? How about where I usually begin—at The Tory’s Café. It’s always good to stop there first and get a little something to tide me over to lunch. Or dinner. Or whatever comes next, depending on when I get there. After all, I did ride all the way into town. They make tasty pies, and pie is always good. It’s a great way to start the day, any time of day. So, I start there with pie.

After that, I’m usually off to the hardware store. Everything’s there. Well, everything but food, but I just ate. So, I’ll pedal over to the hardware store, unfold my little list, and wander up and down the aisles, looking for the nuts and bolts I never seem to find on the road. Everyone there is helpful, and in no time, I’ll have all I need. Maybe a little more. Because you never know. You should always be prepared. I read that somewhere.

The next stop in Pudding is the grocers. I’ll buy a few vegetables there if