The Yggyssey by Daniel Pinkwater Read Free Book Online Page A

details.
    "I was talking to Neddie about that night a couple of years ago," I began.
    "To what night do you refer?" Sergeant Caleb asked me.
    "You know—there was some kind of crisis with evil spirits or something. Neddie was supposed to confront some dark power, and the whole future of civilization was at stake."
    "Oh, I wasn't there," Melvin said. "I had to go to a bowling tournament with my friend Crazy Wig." Crazy Wig is another shaman. He talks to himself.
    "But you know what happened," I said.
    "Not in any detail," Melvin said. "Neddie wrote up notes and was going to give them to me to read. What happened to those notes, Neddie?"
    "I lost them," Neddie said.
    "Well, I'm sure they'll turn up one day," Melvin said. "And I'm sure you did a good job, seeing that we're all here, eating ice cream, and everything is fine."
    "Everything may not be fine," I said. "That's why we wanted to talk with you. It seems a couple of ghosts have disappeared—La Brea Woman and Rudolph Valentino. And we wondered if that was normal."
    "Oh, you know about that?" Melvin asked.
    "You knew about it too?"
    "Well, not about La Brea Woman and Valentino—but a number of well-known ghosts have gone missing. There's Harry Houdini, Fritz, the projectionist from the Vogue Theater, two soldiers from the days of Spanish California, and Rin Tin Tin."
    "Gee. And this is not a normal thing?"
    "Doesn't seem so very normal to me," Melvin said.
    "Does it mean something?" I asked.
    "It probably means something," Melvin said.
    "Should we be worried?"
    "Oh, no," Melvin said. "Definitely do not be worried."
    "That's a relief," Neddie said.
    "Wait," I said. "Melvin, what if you knew for sure that an atomic bomb was going to be dropped on Los Angeles tomorrow? Would you say we should worry then?"
    "Oh, no. Definitely do not be worried."
    "So, let me put it another way," I said. "When ghosts disappear, is that a bad thing?"
    "It might not be good," Melvin said.
    You have to know how to talk to Melvin. "Can you say why it might not be good? Can you say what it means when ghosts disappear?"
    "Well, it would depend on why they are disappearing," Melvin said. "If they are voluntarily going away—that might mean something bad. Sort of like animals clearing out when there is going to be a volcanic eruption or an earthquake—something like that. On the other hand, if something is taking them away, against their will—that might be bad too."
    "So we should worry."
    "On the other hand, it might be something good—one of the first things a shaman learns is that one doesn't have all the answers."
    "Shamanism is an imprecise science, isn't it?"
    "Except for it being a science, you have that right." Just then I thought how awful it would be if my ghostly bunny friend, Chase, were to disappear, and how I would miss her. I wondered if she had told me all she knew. But where could the ghosts be going?
    "Where could the ghosts be going?" Neddie asked.
    "No idea," Melvin said. "But if you're curious, this is the perfect week to try to find out."
    "The perfect week?"
    "Sure. You know what Saturday is, don't you?"

CHAPTER 23

The Day After Halloween
    "The day after Halloween?" Neddie asked.
    "Yes, but something else besides," Melvin said.
    "What something else is it?" we asked Melvin the shaman.
    "Before I tell you—I mentioned Harry Houdini earlier. You know all about him, do you?"
    "He was a magician on the stage?" I said.
"And an escape artist—the kind who can get out of ropes and handcuffs and things?" Neddie said.
    "He was world famous," Melvin said. "He drew huge crowds whenever he performed. Audiences would sit still for an hour, or two hours, while he worked his way out of ropes and handcuffs and a canvas mailbag placed inside a
trunk, which was then bound up in chains and padlocks and placed behind a screen. Hundreds of kids worldwide suffocated to death, or at least got nasty rope burns trying to imitate his tricks."
    "And people would just