Marcus Whippersnapper's Squirming Brown Paper Parcel

Marcus Whippersnapper's Squirming Brown Paper Parcel: 
Object Post 101

Source? It came from Great-Uncle Hinkley Whippersnapper

Significance? It contained a special legacy

Fate? It was opened and the contents extracted

Author’s inspiration? I used to think it would be handy to be able to shrink horses, bicycles and other things I couldn’t get over fences

Appeared in? Timothy Whuffenpuffen-Whippersnapper

The parcel was squirming, so it was probably an Amazonian python, or something worse.

When the brown paper parcel arrived for Marcus Whippersnapper, Mum and Marcus knew it was from Great-Uncle Hinkley Whippersnapper and assumed they’d shortly be making a trip to the zoo. Uncle Hinkley had a habit of sending Marcus livestock for his birthday. It had somehow escaped his notice that Marcus and his widowed mother Veronica lived in Blankstone Buildings, where the landlord didn’t allow pets.

Mum hated sending away Great-Uncle Hinkley’s presents, but she had no choice.

The accompanying envelope this time held a letter from Fergus McDaftie, Uncle Hinkley’s solicitor, and also a letter from Uncle Hinkley himself. It turned out the squirming parcel wasn't a birthday present, exactly. It was a legacy.

By this time the parcel had stopped squirming, so Mum opined it might be an antique clown costume.

Marcus prodded the parcel again. “I don’t think it’s a clown costume,” he said in a doom-laden voice. “I think it’s a python.”

Only one way to find out,” said Mum briskly. “Unwrap it and see.”

“Can’t you?” asked Marcus, but Mum gave him a look, so he cut the string and pulled apart the paper.

“Thank goodness for that!” remarked the contents of the parcel as the waxed paper fell away. “I was somewhat tired of holding my breath.”

Mum and Marcus stared at what had been in the parcel. “What is it?” said Mum.

“Well,” said Marcus doubtfully, “I’m not sure, but I think it’s a dragon.”

The parcel was unwrapped, but the adventure was just beginning.

Marcus Whippersnapper’s squirming brown paper parcel appears in Timothy Whuffenpuffen-Whippersnapper

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of June 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places, objects and themes. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!