I sang the turtle song while all this mud-bringing and mud-building was going on. I was happy to hold still for it. I was happy to be of help. As the mud world got heavy, another turtle, as large as myself, rose up under me and helped support me on his back. Under him, another turtle came, and another, down into the darkness.
CHAPTER 79
Pop!
I really liked being the Great Turtle, and supporting all of North America, or the world, or creation, on my back. I'd have thought a job like that would get boring, but it didn't. I could have done it forever. I had almost forgotten all about being Neddie.
Until I popped out of a little pond at the La Brea Tar Pits. I, Neddie, the same one I'd been before I met Kkhkktonos in the coliseum. Except for being all wet, with creosote on me, I was the same as I'd been. Everything else looked to be the same as it had been too: the little wire fences around the ponds—I had to climb over one to get out—the traffic on Wilshire Boulevard, all just the same. I even had the stone turtle in my pocket—I'll keep it until it's time to give it to the next person.
I like it here. I've been coming here a lot. I sit on this bench, with my parakeet, Henry, on my shoulder. I've been writing down everything that happened to me in this big school notebook. And I've got it all written, pretty much right up to the moment. I was going to write about what happened to Bunyip, and Seamus, and Aaron Finn, and Iggy and Billy the Phantom Bellboy, and what they are doing ... but I've run out of space. It seems I have come to the last line of the last page.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Front
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER 66
CHAPTER 67
CHAPTER 68
CHAPTER 69
CHAPTER 70
CHAPTER 71
CHAPTER 72
CHAPTER 73
CHAPTER 74
CHAPTER 75
CHAPTER 76
CHAPTER 77
CHAPTER 78
CHAPTER 79
The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization Page 17
