Far-out Show (9781465735829) Read Online Free PDF Page A

might have seen her. She didn’t know if Jones had noticed
her when he passed on the opposite side of the street but the fact
that Krinkle drove away without looking more than routinely
paranoid suggested the young guy at least hadn’t mentioned seeing
anything unusual.
    As they drove Krinkle explained, “We have to
stay alert for signs of Reggie. That’s interference I’d be happier
without, thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    They drove another block in silence before
Jones asked, “What’s a reggie? Is it a kind of car?” Like an Audi
or a veggie? No, wait, veggies aren’t cars. Are they?”
    Krinkle gave no sign that he found any of
that amusing or odd. He simply replied earnestly, “I mean Penelope
Regimentator. She’s the nasty problem I want to avoid. If that
frustrates her and pisses her off that’s okay.”
    “Why does she piss on what you do?”
    Krinkle decided that fit with what he was
thinking even if it twisted what he said a bit so he opted not to
straighten it out. Instead he answered the question. “She knows the
kinds of things I’m interested in so it’s likely she’s looking to
follow me around today. She hopes I’ll lead her to any very foreign
visitors so she can sell photos and the story about it to the news
people before I can. In fact I’d rather keep it secret at least for
a time to have a chance to find out about the visitors and maybe
learn useful stuff from them.”
    “Did you call her and tell her you were going
alien hunting and she’s not allowed to know about that?”
    “No, I haven’t talked to her for a long time.
But I have seen her tailing me a couple of times when there were
UFO type stories in the news. She knows I’m interested in those and
do my homework to know about the latest rumors and any facts,
although there aren’t usually many of those,” Krinkle said.
    “Does she read your mind about those
things?”
    “It’s not quite like that. She flirty
flip-flopped me and I just can’t forgive her for that. Or ever
trust her.”
    “Okay,” Jones said simply.
    Even though it seemed Jones wouldn’t ask
about that Krinkle said, “I should explain that. Reggie’s always on
the lookout for people who might do something important that she
can slip in and steal out from beside them in whatever way is
possible. For me that means find out what I’ve discovered and
report it to those willing to pay her for that scoop before I can
tell the world about it myself. This is hard for me to talk about.”
He stopped and took several deep breaths.
    “You don’t need to.”
    “Yeah, sooner or later I’ll maybe have to
tell others these facts so I need to start with you to get me
through it. Fact is that to get me relaxed enough to talk about my
interests and what I have already discovered she once flirted with
me.”
    “Is a flirty girl a bad thing? My mom won’t
talk to me about stuff like that.”
    “It was bad this time for me because I made
the mistake of telling her about what I’ve learned and what I hope
to find out and about my dream inventions.”
    “Is that the machines you dream about in your
sleep and then make when you wake up? Like the things on the back
seat?”
    “Exactly right, Zippedy.”
    “They’re neatsy-petesy and awe-filled up
stuff.”
    “Thank you for agreeing with me about that.
She however wasn’t impressed because none of it was stuff she could
see a way to make money off right away. Also...uh, let’s just say I
thought we had become boyfriend and girlfriend so I... Uh, anyway
she got flustered and laughed at me and called me a nerd and a
loser.”
    “That wasn’t nice to say even if she thought
it.”
    “Since then I won’t have anything to do with
her the several times she’s made half-hearted moves to get friendly
but still stay at a distance from me. So she stalks me. I’d bet a
dollar that when she heard the news reports about a local man
reporting the object near the moon she immediately assumed it was
me and is