The Journal of Curious Letters (The 13th Reality #1)

BOOK: The Journal of Curious Letters (The 13th Reality #1)
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This book is dedicated to my wife, Lynette,

and to our mothers,
Linda Dashner and Patti Anderson.

Thank you for making my life so far

a wonderful thing to have lived.

 

 

 

 

Text © 2008 James Dashner
Illustrations © 2008 Bryan Beus

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain
¨
. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

 

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

 

Visit us at ShadowMountain.com

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Dashner, James, 1972-
  
The Journal of Curious Letters / James Dashner.
        
p. cm. — (The 13th Reality ; v. 1)
  
Summary: Thirteen-year-old Atticus “Tick” Higginbottom begins receiving mysterious letters from around the world signed only “M.G.,”
and the clues contained therein lead him on a journey to the perilous
13th Reality and a confrontation with evil Mistress Jane.
  
ISBN 978-1-59038-831-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
eISBN 1-60641-615-4 (eletronic)
[1. Space and time—Fiction.
 
2. Letters—Fiction.
 
3. Family life—Washington (State)—Fiction.
 
4. Washington (State)—Fiction.
 
5. Science fiction.]
 
I. Title.
  
PZ7.D2587Jou 2008
  
[Fic]—dc22
                                                                                 
2007042579

 

Printed in the United States of America
            

Worzalla Publishing Co., Stevens Point, WI

 

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1

 

~

 

Contents

 

Acknowledgments

Part1: The Fire

Chapter 1: Master George and Mistress Jane

Chapter 2: A Very Strange Letter

Chapter 3: A Kid’sWorst Nightmare

Chapter 4: Edgar the Brave

Chapter 5: A Most Unwelcome Patch of Smoke

Chapter 6: The Ladyin the Trees

Chapter 7:Mothball

Chapter 8: A VeryImportant Date

Chapter 9: The Gnat Rat

Chapter 10: The Temptation of the Flames

Part2: The Journal

Chapter 11: Old and Dusty

Chapter 12: The Voiceof M.G.

Chapter 13: Talking to Sofia

Chapter 14: Shoes and Mittens

Chapter 15: Little Ball of Bread Dough

Chapter 16: Nowhere in Between

Chapter 17: Smoky Bathroom

Chapter 18: Edgar the Wise

Chapter 19: An Odd Christmas Present

Chapter 20: The Land of Ice and Snow

Chapter 21: Old, Funny, and Smelly

Chapter 22: Going Postal

Chapter 23: Bonding with Norbert

Chapter 24: Pedal to the Metal

Chapter 25: The Girl with Black Hair

Chapter 26: Time Constraints

Part3: The Magic Words

Chapter 27: April Fool

Chapter 28: A Meeting in the Woods

Chapter 29: A Bundle of Clues

Chapter 30: The Third Musketeer

Chapter 31: Paul’sLittle Secret

Chapter 32: Shattered Glass

Chapter 33: The Final Clue

Chapter 34: The Miracle of Screaming

Chapter 35: The Final Preparation

Part4: The Barrier Wand

Chapter 36: Among the Dead

Chapter 37: A Familiar Name

Chapter 38: Sitting Down

Chapter 39: A Lot of Water

Chapter 40: Master George

Chapter 41: The Taleof the Realities

Chapter 42: The Doohickey

Chapter 43: A Bump in the Night

Chapter 44: Escalation of Plans

Chapter 45: The Thirteenth Reality

Chapter 46: Chi’kardaDrive

Chapter 47: Annika’sToss

Chapter 48: Double Doors

Chapter 49: The Golden Button

Chapter 50: The Calmafter the Storm

Chapter 51: Homecoming

Epilogue: The Thwarted Meeting

A –Glossary of People, Places, and All
Things Important

Discussion Questions

 

 

 

~

 

Acknowledgments

 

I used to think this section was major lame. Why on earth, as a reader, would I give a flying tahooty about the people who helped the author? Well, I’m here to tell you that you should be very interested. Because without the awesome people I mention below, this book wouldn’t be in your hands.

Before anyone else, I need to thank Chris Schoebinger and Lisa Mangum at Shadow Mountain. Despite being an author, I can’t come up with words great enough to express how much they’ve changed my life. Fabulicious. Astoundendicularly whammy. Terrificaliwondershonks. (See, told ya.) Thank you, Chris and Lisa.

Thanks to my wife, Lynette. Always my first reader, she’s not afraid to tell me when something sounds like a two-year-old blurted it out while sitting on the potty.

Thanks to my sister, Sarah Kiesche, for keeping up my Web site during the Jimmy Fincher books and being my number one fan.

Thanks to my agent, Jenny Rappaport, for her work on my behalf.

Thanks to J. Scott Savage. His keen and almost eerie understanding of how to weave a good story has helped me greatly. And our regular lunches to “talk shop” have been invaluable. I do wish he’d use a little more deodorant, though.

Thanks to Annette Lyon, Heather Moore, Michele Holmes, Lu Ann Staheli, Lynda Keith, and Stephanni Hicken. These crazy ladies all read the manuscript and gave excellent feedback.

A huge thanks to the younger folks, whose advice was perhaps most relevant: Jacob Savage, Alyssa Holmes, and Daniel Lyon.

Thanks to Shirley Bahlmann (and her kids), Danyelle Ferguson, and Anne Bradshaw. Shirley is the only one besides my wife who has helped me with every book I’ve written.

Thanks to Crystal Hardman, Tony and Rachel Benjamin, Pam Anderton, and Julie Sasagawa. Eating at Jim’s Restaurant will never be the same.

Thanks to Peter Jackson for making the
Lord of the Rings
movies.

Thanks to the dude who invented football.

Thanks to the many chickens that provided me with spicy buffalo wings over the years.

And last, but certainly not least, thanks to all the Jimmy Fincher fans. Without your loyal following, Atticus Higginbottom would have never been born.

 

 

 

Part

1

 

~

 

The Fire

 

 

Chapter

1

~

 
Master George and Mistress Jane
 

Norbert Johnson had never met such strange people in all of his life, much less two on the same day—within the same
hour
even. Odd. Very odd indeed.

Norbert, with his scraggly gray hair and his rumpled gray pants and his wrinkly gray shirt, had worked at the post office in Macadamia, Alaska, for twenty-three years, seven months, twelve days, and—he looked at his watch—just a hair short of four hours. In those long, cold, lonesome years he’d met just about every type of human being you could imagine. Nice people and mean people. Ugly people and pretty people. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, cops. Crazies and convicts. Old hags and young whippersnappers. Oh, and lots of celebrities, too.

Why, if you believed his highfalutin stories (which most people quit doing about twenty-three years, seven months, twelve days, and
three
hours ago), you’d think he’d met every movie and music star in America. Though exactly
why
these famous folks were up in Alaska dropping off mail was anybody’s guess, so it may have been a slight exaggeration of the truth.

But today’s visitors were different, and Norbert knew he’d have to convince the town that this time he was telling the truth and nothing but the truth. Something scary was afoot in Macadamia.

The first stranger, a man, entered the small, cramped post office at precisely 11:15
a.m.
, quickly shutting the door against the blustery wind and swirling snowflakes. In doing so, he almost dropped a cardboard box full of letters clutched in his white-knuckled hands.

He was a short, anxious-looking person, shuffling his feet and twitching his nose, with a balding red scalp and round spectacles perched on his ruddy, puffy face. He wore a regal black suit: all pinstripes and silk and gold cuff links.

When the man plopped the box of letters onto the post office counter with a loud flump, a cloud of dust billowed out; Norbert coughed for several seconds. Then, to top everything off, the stranger spoke with a heavy English accent like he’d just walked out of a Bill Shakespeare play.

“Good day, sir,” he said, the faintest attempt at a smile creasing his face into something that looked like pain. “I do hope you would be so kind as to offer me some assistance in an important matter.” He pulled a lace-edged handkerchief from within the dark recesses of his fancy suit and wiped his brow, beads of sweat having formed there despite the arctic temperatures outside. It was, after all, the middle of November.

“Yessir,” Norbert answered, ready to fulfill his duty as Postal Worker Number Three. “Mighty glad to help.”

The man pointed outside. “Simply dreadful, isn’t it?”

Norbert looked through the frosted glass of the front door, but saw only the snow-swept streets and a few pedestrians bundled up and hurrying to get out of the cold. “What’s dreadful, sir?”

BOOK: The Journal of Curious Letters (The 13th Reality #1)
2.17Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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