ToyWorld: Home of the Christmas Thief (Claus Universe Book 10) by Tony Bertauski

Author:Tony Bertauski [Bertauski, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Deadpixel Publications
Published: 2022-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Penelope,” a scratchy voice called, “I’m hooome.”

“Look!” Robby tapped the mirror. It sounded like a laugh track buried in static. “Look, look, look.”

His blocky head spun around; the monitor was filled with two vague figures buried in snow. “What’s for dinner?”

“Is that…” Haze looked at her brother. “Is that a—”

“It’s a show. A TV show. I’m a TV show.”

It was hardly a TV show, it was so fuzzy. But it was something. Haze said, “How did you—”

“I don’t know! I just heard voices, and then I saw some things, and there they are. You see them, right?”

Robby was enamored with the shadows swimming through a fuzzy picture. He could see them better than everyone else because he described what they were doing. Every single movement. Folding his multi-jointed legs like a three-year-old in front of the TV, he stared into the mirror. Laughing along with the laugh track.

“Wait, look at this.”

The picture was a bit clearer. Toys were crowded into bleachers. It was a sea of color, shoulder to shoulder, wheel to wheel, wings and springs and things only toys could be. A professional announcer announced, “I think he’s going for a three hole.”

“What’d he say?” Haze said.

“Shhh. He’s going for a three hole,” Robby said.

Hiro started picking up the mess. If Mads came out, he didn’t want to be in the circus. He swept googly eyes off a treadmill that had spilled from a jar, made a little pile of spinning black pupils. He righted an oversized hamster wheel.

A framed photo had fallen off the shelf. It was Mads with her parents. She was a teenager. He almost didn’t recognize her. She was smiling. They were dressed up, her father holding an award. Strangely, the photo had been ripped in half and put back in the frame. She was holding something, but it had been torn away. He hid it under a wool sweater just in case Robby decided to take more swings.

The books had fallen into a box of newspapers and manilla folders. He stacked them into a neat pile, the titles academic. The Shape of Time, by Philip Bells. Synchronous Time Funnels, also by Philip Bells.

The pages were filled with graphs and formulas. He dug the newspapers out of the box. Sections had been cut from the pages. Hiro did his best to fold them, but they quickly turned into trash. The stories weren’t much different than newspapers from home: politicians kissing baby dolls, a team of grizzly bears holding up a trophy.

Toymation Nation, one advertisement announced. Experience the joy. Switch to a toy.

An elderly woman was hugging a stuffed lion. Hiro didn’t know what switching meant, but daily packages could be purchased. Prices did not include cold storage. It didn’t say what was being stored. The indefinite option did not have a price. It said call for quotes.

There were more books in the box, thin journals with handwritten notes, mostly calculations and abstract sketches. There were galaxies with illegible notes and high-level equations and indecipherable coordinates. The sort of stuff Corker dreamed about.

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