h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chapter 16

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“With Blake gone and Jasper heading back to college soon, it’s going to seem lonely here,” Viola told Grandpa as she sat next to him on the veranda.

“You might want to do some camel training,” the old man said. Fifty yards away, half a dozen wuheebies were grooming the camel that Blake’s employer had just delivered. “Your grandmother plans to ride that camel, and I bet she could use a hand.”

“I guess I should be grateful my husband didn’t work in Antarctica, or we’d be overrun by penguins now,” Viola said.

“Mom, all my courses are online this semester,” Jasper said, joining them, “so I can stay here and help out. Oh, and there’s another delivery at the south entrance. It looks like a bandstand.”

Sure enough, a bandstand was indeed waiting for them, courtesy of Viola’s father’s will. There were clockwork musicians inside, programmed to play hundreds of songs.

It was quite a procession that accompanied the bandstand to its new location. The camel, with Grandma on its back, pulled the bandstand to a spot near the lake. Then Grandma rode the camel onto the deck of the whaling ship. Suddenly there was a flash of light behind a butternut tree. When the glare faded Viola went over to the tree, but no one was there. She found a stick of lipstick on the ground, though. It was her mother’s favorite brand.

“I think someone just took a picture of Grandma and the camel,” Jasper exclaimed.

“…On a whaling ship,”Grandpa said. “Why would anyone want a picture of something like that?”

“More to the point, why would my *mother* want a picture of that?” Viola wondered, holding up the lipstick.

“Too bad she didn’t wait for the whale to arrive,” Jasper said, pointing to the animatronic whale that was on its way across the field. When the whale was floating on the lake, another of its features became readily apparent: it sang “My Way,” followed by “New York, New York.”

“I hope the camel likes Sinatra,” Viola muttered.

Deb

[Amy P]