Fuzzy head
suddenly fierce emotion overcame him. He choked, flushed and threw his arm across his face to conceal the way he felt.

"Hello, Johnny!" a bell-like voice said.

"We've come to take you home, Johnny!" a second voice chimed.

It seemed to Johnny that he could be happy dying at once, but he knew that he would be even happier when they took him away to live with them forever.

Slowly Johnny uncovered his eyes and looked at his new parents.

It would not have been easy for an ordinary little boy to stare steadily into the blazing face of the sun, and Johnny was staring at two suns, equally bright.

But Johnny was not an ordinary little boy. Although he did not know it, his own face was, briefly, a sun.

For a moment it seemed to Johnny that the room was filled with—the others. A wheel of fire that kept spinning as he stared, with a great gray face in the middle of the glowing spokes. A big Easter egg on stilts, with its dry mouth hanging open, and its little beady eyes twinkling with merriment.

An animal that wasn't quite a rabbit. It was furry and bob-tailed, but its head kept swimming out of focus. When Johnny stared very hard the rabbit's head became a glowing prism, mirroring all the colors of the rainbow.

There were gilths, too—thin and dark and hairy, with burning glass eyes, and dull fire balls, pulsing.

Suddenly Johnny remembered Fuzzy Head.

He turned and walked back into the room. He knew that his new parents were watching him but he didn't want to talk about Fuzzy Head. He just wanted to keep Fuzzy Head, and he was suddenly trembling in every limb.

Between suns there are no secrets. Thoughts are open, and blaze from mind to mind.

Johnny knew, and the thought was pure torment, that his new parents didn't want him to keep Fuzzy Head. No, that wasn't quite true. They wanted him to keep Fuzzy Head, but they were telling him that he couldn't.

Johnny stooped and picked Fuzzy Head up. He tucked the doll under his arm, and returned to where his parents were standing.

"No, Johnny!" The words came chimingly. "You can't take that doll 
 Prev. P 9/14 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact