The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee Read Online Free Page B

real good look at her," Jimmy McGee thought. "After all, in the book we're on the same page. In real life our paths may cross ... I must wait and see and be ready."
    He tapped his stovepipe hat and sat down in his doorway and watched.

3. Lydia, Little, a Do-Nothing Doll
    Amy and Clarissa, dressed in their bathing suits—Clarissa's was red, Amy's blue—with all their paraphernalia—towels, pails, shovels, Little Lydia in Amy's tight little fist—practically flew down the twenty-six steps.
    "They'd be good at the zoomie-zoomies," thought Jimmy McGee in admiration. He waited to see where they were going to set up their beach headquarters.
    They stopped right below Jimmy McGee's headquarters, not too far from the steps, not too near the ocean, close enough to the steep dune to get some shade from the afternoon sun. It was a perfect spot for them, and a good one for Jimmy McGee to take in all the goings-on from behind his lacy sea-grass curtain high above them under the edge of the dune.
    It was Little Lydia he was most interested in right now. Here was the real Lydia, Little, the one who was on the same page as he was in the
Who's
Who Book
by Amy. Of course, this made a sort of connection between them. It might even be a clue as to why Amy chose to add hero to her definition of him in her book.
    Amy said, as she spread out their towels, "This is a good place, Clarissa, not too near the high-water line and near the shade of the dune. Besides, other people will not be stepping all over us on their way to and fro. Do you see any horseshoe crabs?"
    "I don't know," said Clarissa. "This is my very first day at the ocean. And I didn't know crabs wore horseshoes!"
    "Well, I don't see any," said Amy. "They're big, Clarissa. But they don't bite, Papa says. Still, how do we know whether or not one of them might mistake Little Lydia for a rare fish, make off with her, capture her and keep her in prison under his hard brown shell?"
    "I don't see anything of that sort," said Clarissa. "All I see is ocean, sand ... oh, how beautiful it is here!"
    "Yes!" agreed Amy. "And now we must show Little Lydia the sights!"
    Amy picked Little Lydia up. She held her high above her head. "Breathe!" she said. But Little Lydia was a do-nothing doll. So naturally she didn't breathe, or blink, or say, "My goodness!" But her face had a pretty smile painted on it, and her eyes were as blue as the sea and the sky, so you would think they could see! The little dress she had on was of calico. It had a blue background with tiny little pink roses in its pattern. She was made of rubber so that she could sit or be put in any position.
    "Pretty, very pretty," thought Jimmy McGee. So
that
was Little Lydia, the do-nothing doll with electric blue eyes that stared at the sky!
    "We're going to make a castle for you," Amy told Little Lydia. "A sand castle, and more than just that. You'll see." She carefully laid Little Lydia down on the tiny blue shawl that she had crocheted for her, and she and Clarissa started on their construction.
    Jimmy McGee watched them bring pails of water and pat the sand down firmly. About to leave to do his work, he took a last look at Little Lydia. A slight breeze had changed her position, so she was lying a little more on her side. Instead of staring at the sky, her electric blue eyes were now riveted directly on him!
    Jimmy McGee rubbed his own eyes. "Am I seeing things?" It was as though Little Lydia could see through his grassy curtains and watch him.
    "Nonsense!" he told himself. "A do-nothing doll is a do-nothing doll. She can't see with those electric blue eyes of hers, not me or anything else. But, bye!" he said in bebop code language. This was his own language that he had developed during his miles and miles of zoomie-zoomie traveling over electric telephone wires, train tracks, trollies, everywhere. So far as he knew, he was the only one who knew the language. But he had made a dictionary of this bebop code. It was in one of his