Posted on November 21st, 2021

Once upon a time, in our time, Grubber, a cold-hearted, jealous thief from Awful, stole an original manuscript. Grubber asked Printer, an honest, kind-hearted, helpful fellow from the intellectual town of Bookdom, to publish the manuscript for him.

Printer refused to print the manuscript because he knew Grubber had stolen it.

Grubber seethed with outrage, anger and hatred at Printer’s refusal to publish the story, so he devised an evil plan for revenge. He decided to make everyone hate to read.

Grubber went back to Awful, his hometown, which was a cold, harsh, colorless village that specialize in evil potions, deceit and destructions of all kind. He bought a gallon of Codelco serum, four times the amount necessary for his diabolical plan. That night Grubber poured the entire gallon of Codelco Serum into the Bookdom water supply.

The next morning, the unsuspecting Bookdomites made coffee, tea, and energy drinks with the tainted Codeco Serum water. It worked quickly. Bookdomites refused to buy the newspaper. They didn’t want to read it. Students tore up homework assignments. Teachers didn’t care; they didn’t want to correct assignments anyway.

Everyone in Bookdom hated to read. No one wrote letters. No one learned anything new. Children were not taught to read in school. Traffic accidents quadrupled because drivers refused to read traffic signs.

Life fell apart. Paper and ink stores went out of business. The once lovely, progressive town of Bookdom became a desolate, isolated piece of earth. Creativity stopped. Life in Bookdom was reduced to squinting at the sun during the day and gazing at the moon during the night. The situation in Bookdom was pathetic. Pitiful. Pitiful. Pitiful.

One day, despite everyone’s refusal to read, Shelbee Writer asked Printer to publish her “Curtis Chameleon” stories. Shelbee said she had fifteen “Curtis” stories. Printer was stunned. He hadn’t heard the word “publish” in a long time. And to learn that Shelbee had written fifteen stories was beyond astounding.

“Publishing your “Curtis Chameleon” stories would be a waste of materials.” Printer said. “People have lost their desire to read. In fact, people literally hate to read. Printing anything would be a waste of your time and mine. And it would especially be a waste of your money and my limited supply ink and paper. For those reason, I can’t help you.”

“But my “Curtis Chameleon” stories are so much fun to read. I wrote them to break Grubber’s reading curse and to give kids their own hero, a hero who is their age.”

Printer marveled at Shelbee’s tenacity. She had broken Grubber’s reading curse on herself by sheer force of will. He wondered how she had pulled herself out of the do-nothing, want nothing in life, think-about-nothing curse that had bound Bookdom for so long. Her courage tugged at his heart and pushed him into action.

“Okay. I’ll publish your “Curtis Chameleon” stories, but I’ll need money. I don’t have any. I haven’t done business in years.”

Shelbee spoke quickly. “I have seven gold coins. Will that be enough?” she asked hopefully.

“That will just about do it. “Printer answered.

Grubber heard the news about the “Curtis Chameleon” books. He was determined that no books be published. That night he broke into Printer’s shop and stole his paper, ink, and the seven gold coins which Shelbee had given to Printer.

The next morning, Printer and Shelbee discovered, to their dismay, that the paper, ink, and gold coins were gone.

“We can’t publish the stories.” Printer said sorrowfully.

“You’re wrong about that, Printer,” Shelbee said. “I’ll work and earn more gold coins. We’ll buy a supply of paper and ink, and then we will print my stories.”

“Earning enough gold coins will take a long time.” Printer lamented.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes.” Shelbee said emphatically. “I am going to work and save and have my “Curtis Chameleon” stories published. I won’t buy new clothes or a new car or eat at restaurants or go on a trip. I’ll work and save. I will sacrifice. My “Curtis Chameleon” books are too important to me to stop now. I will not let Grubber win. Reading is much too important to me and to everyone. I’ll gladly work to break Grubber’s reading curse.”

Work is exactly what Shelbee did. She worked two full-time jobs for two years. She worked until she earned twelve gold coins. Then she went to see Printer.

“I have enough gold coins to have my “Curtis Chameleon” stories published, she told Printer. “Let’s get started.”

“Yes, now you have the gold coins,” Printer said despairingly, “but while you were working, Grubber went everywhere and brought all the paper, ink and glue factories, and he won’t see to us. I can’t print without paper.” Printer dropped his head dejectedly; he was almost in tears.

“Printer,” Shelbee said, “there must be someone with the materials we need. Don’t you know anyone?”

“I know a supplier in Overland who might have a little paper and some ink. I’ll contact him.”

Printer called Clinton Montclair at the Genesis Printing Supply Chain in Overland.

“I have only blue, yellow, and black ink and a few reams of paper.” Clinton replied, “Grubber brought everything else, and he’s coming back for what’s left.”

Printer hurried to Overland and brought the supplies before Grubber could get them. Printer gave Clinton eight of the gold coins.

“I’ll also need glue for binding the books.” Printer said after checking his list.

Clinton said, “All I have are staples and a staple gun. Glue was the first thing Grubber brought. He knows how important binding the books are.”

“I’ll take all the staple guns and all the staples you have. Printer gave Clinton two more gold coins.

Printer and Shelbee went to work, but after running the pages for the first “Curtis Chameleon” book, the press broke down.

“We’ll have to have it repaired, but we have only two gold coins left. I don’t know if that will be enough. Printer worried.

“The two we have will have to be enough.” Shelbee said. They located a machinist who repaired the press for the last of the gold coins. Then they printed seven thousand copies of the first “Curtis Chameleon” books in the series of fourteen books. These were the first books printed in Bookdom in many years.

“What do you think? “Printer asked when the books had been stapled together.

“Awesome. Amazing. I love them.” Shelbee gushed. “These books represent our victory over Grubber’s curse. What a rat he was to have made reading so detestable. Grubber is mean and rotten not to want kids to read. But they will read. They will win over him. We will cheer them on.”

“You’re right about that.” Printer agreed enthusiastically.

“Okay, then. Shelbee said. “Let’s get kids back to reading and back to winning at life.

The kids will get everyone else back to reading. So, we’ll give these blue and yellow “Curtis Chameleon” books to kids. They will enjoy reading them. Everyone will love “Curtis Chameleon” stories.

Printer sighed “We don’t have coins to advertise the stories.”

“Look on the bright side.” Shelbee said. “Advertising won’t be a problem. We have social media. All we need is for everyone to tell everyone they know about my “Curtis Chameleon” stories. If they spread the word, then news about the stories will go around the world. Grubber’s reading curse will be broken. I’m sure people will help us.”

“If you’re sure,” Printer said, “then I’m sure. You’ve been right about everything so far.

Word about “Curtis Chameleon” books was spread around my millions of people. Kids read about Curtis Chameleon and they began to like reading again.

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