"Bob's Book": Chapter Two, Page Seven

 

I looked around the room.  There are some framed maps on the wall, a dark painting of a ship in a storm, and a couple portraits of people I didn’t recognize. I slowly chose a seat in the corner and sat, shivering a little. The stove was not lit in the mid-November weather, and the room was chilly. As I sat huddling into myself, I sank into a wary reverie.

Well, here I was, in the belly of the Bureau, and all alone. Not quite how I expected to face my interrogation. I knew next to nothing about Mr. Williams, but if he was anything like Mr. Frobisher, I could expect a pretty thorough interview and a right going over. I sat wishing Pa was there to help smooth things along. And then there was a knock on the door.

It made me jump. I leaned forward a bit, half-expecting Pa to be back or Mr. Williams to come walking in, but a second knock made me realize it couldn’t be either. I cleared my throat.

“Come in?” My voice sounded very uncertain in the empty room.

"Bob's Book": Chapter Two, Page Six

 It was just as well he didn’t, because there was no-one there. There was only a main desk with a green-cushioned chair, benches on either side of the door, and a couple of chairs on the walls to right and left. A skinny upright stove and a smaller door that must have led to an inner chamber behind the desk were the other salient features of the room.

Pa looked around, non-plussed.

“Huh.” Something on the desk caught his eye, and he walked forward and picked up a note lying there.

“Hm. ‘Back in 20 minutes,’” he read. He dropped the card. “Well, all right, we can wait …”

There was a sudden knock on the door. We turned to see a very worried looking man peering in, hanging on the door. I came to know him later as another agent, Mr. Carp. His dark hair was slicked back with sweat. 

“Hullo, Chase. Thank God you’re back. We need you right away!”

“Can’t it wait?” Pa began, raising a hand to indicate me. “I’ve just brought …”

“Sorry,” he gulped hastily. “It’s a Level Three, and we don’t have anyone else qualified in-house right now. We’re lucky you walked in when you did. Come on!”

“Level … ” Pa turned to me. “Listen, you wait right here. I’ll be back as soon as I can. When Mr. Williams comes …”

The agent grabbed his arm.

“Let’s go!”

He pulled Pa away. Pa gave me a quick reassuring nod, then I was out of his thoughts and he was on the case. The door swung shut with a bang behind them, and I was alone.

"Bob's Book": Chapter Two, Page Five

 

“What did he mean by an examination, Pa?” I asked, my voice hushed. “Am I going to have to take some kind of test?”

Pa hesitated a moment, then went on cheerfully.

“No, not really. Not like a school test, anyway. They’ll look you over, maybe ask you a few questions about your goals and expectations, what you already know about the business, that sort of thing. But there’s only one real qualification to join the Bureau, and you have it.”

“And what’s that?”

“Not for me to say, Bob,” he smiled. “That’s Mr. Williams’ job. And here we are at his door.”

I remember thinking it looked a rather plain door for the secretary of a department. Pa knocked briefly, then walked right in without waiting for an answer.

Charlie Brown’s All Stars!: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

 

Charlie Brown’s All Stars!: 50^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Attentive readers of this blog (and is there any other kind?) will recall that back in February I went on something of an animated Peanuts kick. It was at this time that I ordered a copy of Charlie Brown’s All Stars!, waited a perishingly long time, and was finally sent a copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas instead. The people I ordered it from would not acknowledge their mistake. I gave that copy to my niece, and after a period of moping and mourning and anger, ordered another copy of All Stars from a different source. This arrived today, on time and for much less money than my first order.

          Charlie Brown’s All Stars! (the second animated Peanuts special) premiered in 1968 and was only rerun until 1971, unlike the more popular holiday-themed specials which played almost every year. My memories of watching it are dim and iffy. I am much more familiar with the little paperback we had of it, which we read for years. I popped the DVD into the machine and started it, wondering what the experience would be like.

The story, of course, was familiar, both from the paperback and from reprints of the daily strips from which parts of the special are taken. Charlie Brown tries to bring his failing baseball team back together with the news that a local hardware store owner has offered to buy them uniforms and sponsor them in a league. For a while, things seem encouraging, but when he finds out that league rules preclude having the girls and Snoopy on the team, he feels he must bow out. Still, he wants them to play one more game before he tells them, hoping the bright prospects will lead to a win that will keep them playing nonetheless. They almost win, but when Charlie Brown tries to steal home and fails, losing the game, the team turns on him and he finally confesses there will be no uniforms. They storm off in anger, excoriating Charlie Brown, until Linus and Schroeder reveal the reason that he turned down the offer: to keep his friends on the team. In remorse, the girls fashion Charlie Brown a manager’s uniform – out of Linus’s blanket! The story ends with Charlie Brown on the pitcher’s mound, eagerly awaiting the day’s game in a torrent of rain, with Linus sucking his thumb and holding the shirttail of his erstwhile blanket.

          I watched the show intensely, looking to see if I would have some response in memory from any animated detail or line of dialogue. I am disappointed to say it was all very equivocal. There may have been one tremor of recognition in the opening sequence where Charlie Brown runs through a number of obstacles to catch a fly ball only for it to bounce out of his glove at last, but even that is dubious. Much seemed familiar, but there were parts that completely surprised me, and those were things not in the book. Although I think I must have seen it at least once, as an exercise in nostalgia it was almost a complete bust.

          On the other hand, as its own experience, it was quite good. It hails from the great old era of Peanuts specials (although still a little rough) and is redolent of period airs. By turns funny, uneasy, and heart-warming, it is an emotional adventure, and not just one darn thing after another. It is accompanied by A Charlie Brown Celebration (1982) wherein “The Peanuts gang is involved in a variety of activities, including a baseball game and a school field trip.” – IMDB. This show can be seen as a marker post ending a certain time before Peanuts specials became It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown or Snoopy: The Musical. 

"Bob's Book": Chapter Two, Page Four

 

“But not always when they’ll be back, eh, Mr. Bellamy?” He quickly filled out the form, eyes down, a half-smile on his face. “Though now there will be two Misters Bellamy, will there not? More headache for me to keep straight!”

He handed me the paper.

“Here is your temporary pass, Mr. Bob,” he said seriously. “Do not lose it; you may be asked to present it at any time, until your position has been formalized.” He glanced down at my bag. “If you wish, you may leave your things here at the desk.”

I handed it over some relief.

“Thank’ee, sir, and pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“And yours, I’m sure.” Mr. Desmoulins ducked down to tuck the bag away, but we all started at the sounds of a commotion suddenly entering the lobby, and he looked up, distracted. A party of six or seven men were approaching, making quite a bit of noise; there was some kind of thing in a covered cage on wheels with them that did not seem to happy to be there. Mr. Desmoulins cleared his throat and turned back to us.

“Apprentice reviews are in Mr. Williams’ office on the second floor today; I believe there are several scheduled.” He put the bag away briskly. “Good-bye, Mr. Bob, and good luck with your examination. And once more, welcome back, Mr. Bellamy.” Although he spoke politely enough, we were clearly being dismissed. His attention was already on the approaching uproar.

We touched our hats and moved over to one of the roped-off staircases. Behind us, the bickering party reached the desk and erupted into a jabber of contradictory uproar, which Mr. Desmoulins attended to with a stoic but masterful air. The thing was rocking its covered cage back and forth, squawking in an unearthly manner. We reached the top of the stairs and shut the muffled ruckus out with the click of a padded door behind us.

"Bob's Book": Chapter Two, Page Three

 

[Sliding Board, Extra Large]

“Ah! Mr. Bellamy! So nice to have you back!” His face beamed. I could detect a slight French accent in his voice. “And how was your mission?”

Pa shook his head.

“Bit of a dud, I’m afraid, sir,” he said wistfully, but stating a plain fact. “I got the beastie out of the place, but I think it just moved on. More trouble to come down the line.”

The man tutted.

“You cannot win them all, eh?” Then he brightened, consoling. “Still, future trade for the Bureau!”

They both laughed at that; I found out later that this was an old joke in the Department. As they laughed, the clerk turned to a sliding board on one side of the desk that displayed about twenty-five names. He slipped the shutter with BELLAMY on it from ‘Out’ to ‘In’. He turned to me, smoothly taking up a pen and a form from under the desk.

“And who is your guest?”

“Not a guest after today,” Pa said. He clapped his hand onto my shoulder. “Mr. DeMullins, may I present my son, Bob Bellamy, come to join us as an apprentice! Bob, Mr. DeMullins, our department manager. He knows where it is, who to see, where they are, or where they’ve gone.”

“But not always when they’ll be back, eh, Mr. Bellamy?”

Six from The Seguin Public Library Book Store

 

Life With Father, by Clarence Day (This edition 1947, The Sun Dial Press. Movie Tie-In.)

Common Sense, by Thomas Paine (Penguin)

Music For Chameleons. by Truman Capote (Vintage International)

The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Macmillan)

Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective, by Donald J. Sobol (Puffin, #1 in the series)

Travels with Charley in Search of America, by John Steinbeck (50th Anniversary Edition. Penguin)

Today Kelsey, Kameron, and I made a lightning-quick trip to the Seguin Public Library Book Store (and by coincidence passed by the future Pecantown Books and Brews, noting its location for later visits). I bought the kids a couple of books and got six myself. Why these six? Most of them are not really the kinds of books I would usually choose, but each one spoke to me for some reason. Maybe because they reminded me of old times, even if they were of an element of old times I hadn't really participated in. Maybe something in them made me want to broaden my experiences a bit, and their low prices helped me to indulge that urge.

The only one I am even a bit familiar with is the Encyclopedia Brown book; the series was very popular even into middle school. Though this is a new cover, it still has the old interior illustrations by Leonard Shortall. There are 29 volumes of Encyclopedia Brown adventure books, with many related books of puzzles, games, and facts. If this had not been Volume Number One, I probably wouldn't have bought it, but as it is, it is ... what's the phrase ... culturally significant to me.