Free George Brown and the Protector by Duane L. Ostler

He clicked
off the cell phone. “Looks like I’ll be gone all day tomorrow,” he
said grumpily.
    “That’s too bad,” said the protector. “I was
thinking we need to go to China tomorrow.”
    “Go to China!” exclaimed George.
    “Yep,” replied the protector. “We need to
take a look at their fallen star. And most importantly, we need to
see if anyone there found an Uth stone like yours. The newspaper
didn’t mention anything about one.”
    “That’s right!” cried George. “If everything
else about it is the same, there should have been an Uth stone
there too.”
    “Well,” said the protector, “I just hope if
there was one it’s not in the wrong hands, since it is so powerful.
Anyway, you’d better get going. Just meet me in front of your house
in the morning the day after tomorrow and we’ll go to China
then.”
    “Gosh, I sure wish I didn’t have to go to
Aunt Agnes’ place tomorrow,” said George.
    “It’s all right,” said the protector with a
smile. “It’s only one day. And it will give me some time to do some
testing on your fallen star, to try to find a clue about what it’s
made of.”
    George gave Emberly a final pat, then went to
the door. He paused for a second, then turned and asked, “how are
we going to talk to people or understand them in China? And how are
we going to even get there?”
    “Oh, that’s easy,” replied the protector.
“But I’ll describe it all the day after tomorrow. Now go, before
your Mom gets upset.”
    “O.k.” said George reluctantly. There were
still so many things he wanted to ask that he hated to leave. But
he knew his mother well enough to know he had to get home fast.
    “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow then,”
he called as he ducked through the door.
    “O.k.” came the protector’s reply. Then in a
voice that seemed to fade into the distance like a rock being
dropped into a well, George heard the protector say, “Watch your
head!”
    The instruction came too late. George’s head
banged into something hard and he suddenly found himself sitting
sideways, back to his full size, with his head stuck under the
passenger seat of the Volkswagen.
    George heard the protector’s tiny voice
yelling, “don’t worry, you’ll get better at it. Now you’d better
get going. I’ll see you in two days.”
    George struggled out from under the seat,
righted himself, and waved to the miniature protector standing in
the door far below. Then he hopped out of the car and raced for
home.
     
    CHAPTER 13: A Poke in the Ear
    The next day all
George could think about was fallen stars, the protector, China and
Uth rocks. He was so preoccupied at breakfast his mother had to
tell him three times to stop holding his dripping cereal spoon over
his pants. She got after him again when he came out to the car to
go to Aunt Agnes’ house with a cowboy boot on one foot and a tennis
shoe on the other. George stared blankly out the window for the
whole two hour drive to Aunt Agnes’ house, totally oblivious to the
passing trees and countryside. Instead, he was seeing images of
evil, slobbering Grak, refrigerator’s wearing sweaters, and ants
driving Volkswagens.
    After they arrived at Aunt Agnes’ house,
George was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he actually ate a
mouthful of pickled peaches his Aunt offered him before he realized
what he was doing (naturally, he spit it out immediately).
    All in all, the day seemed to creep by like a
cat being dragged by his claws across the carpet. After an eternity
of sitting on Aunt Agnes' lumpy couch while she talked on and on
and on, they finally drove home. When George finally went to bed
that night, he was exhausted from having tried hard all day to
force time to go faster. But at the same time, he was full of
excitement to meet the protector and go to China in the
morning.
    The next morning George was out front as
early as his mother would let him. She was actually glad this time
to see him go, since he had been