The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty Read Online Free Page A

about Bernie’s universe. We got such a kick out of it, we put it in the school’s Alumni Newsletter. Unfortunately, it got back to the kids at school, and Bernie took a lot of abuse from his classmates over it. I heard kids making up expressions like ‘Don’t Bernie it.’ or ‘What a Bernard!’ I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
    “Just one more question for you, Caleb. Would you recommend Bernie for a builder job with The Business?”
    “Sure, I’d probably hire him. I’d keep an eye on a couple of things, though.”
    “What?”
    “First, make sure he reads the manual before he tries to do anything.”
    “Okay. What’s the second thing?”
    “Don’t let him sit next to Wanda.”
     

 
    The Waiting Continues
     
    The young god closed the door to his home and turned toward the woods. The tiny eyes noticed him right away. For years, they had watched him leave in the morning and not come back until night. Three or four times a week, he had found time to walk with them in the woods. Well, not really… He didn’t know they were there, but they walked with him nonetheless.
    Bowin, whose job was to watch for the young god, alerted the others the boy had been seen heading into the woods. The watchers came together, careful to make no noise. They liked the boy. They’d seen many gods in town before they became refugees and fled to the woods. This one was gentle, and they knew he would not hurt them. Even so, they never let him know they were there.
    Two weeks earlier, something had changed. The boy no longer left home in the mornings. And he was spending more time than ever in the woods. They liked seeing more of him, but they wondered what had happened. For the first few days, he walked along the path and even hummed tunes. His shimmer had been strong, with flecks of gold and blue. He seemed very happy. Bowin had to caution the other watchers not to be caught up in their joy at seeing so much of the boy. There was still great danger in the woods, and they needed to be cautious.
    Following the boy was always an adventure. Strange things happened near him, like branches breaking or things moving by themselves. Once, when Gingi was watching the boy, something pushed the branch she was lying on, and she had to hold tight or she might have fallen. It was as if an invisible force surrounded the young god. Strange things often happened near him. It was common for things from his pockets to end up on the ground. They had talked about it many times. They were sure the boy did not intend the contents of his pockets to be emptied. Bowin always assigned two members of their troupe to recover lost items and return them to the boy’s home.
    Bowin wished he understood the language of the gods. It was not easy. The gods communicated mostly with sounds, but the sounds were very complex. And there was a relationship between their sounds and the colors in the shimmers that surrounded them. The young ones, like their boy, often displayed many constantly changing colors, while the older gods showed few changes in color. And they never seemed to talk with other parts of their bodies. Lamona speculated the gods had been forced to learn complicated verbal sounds because they had no tails or even ears they could move to make their meaning clear. Bowin was not convinced. He thought the gods were so powerful, they simply had no need for soundless ways to talk. But no one really knew what the gods were thinking. And that was reason enough to keep your distance.
    Today, and for the last three days, they saw none of the gold and blue colors in the shimmering light that surrounded the boy. The young god’s head was down, seeming to stare at the path in front of him. Several times, he changed direction without warning, as if wrestling inner demons. And the strange things that happened close to him were happening even farther away. Once, he turned around so fast, he almost saw them, and they had to scramble for cover.
    Still, they