I have a Kindle…now what?

Welcome to the Klub!

If you just got a Kindle (as a gift, or maybe you bought it for yourself with or without gift certificates you got), this post is for you.  That’s not that it won’t help you veteran Kindleers (people who have Kindles…it’s like musketeers): it certainly may.

It’s just that I want to make some suggestions on “first steps”…that Quick Start guide is nice, but there is more you can do to get the most out of your Kindle.

NOTE: I am not addressing the Kindle 1 in this post.  It is no longer available new from Amazon, and the instructions would be quite different. 

Initial use

Kindles are very easy to use.   Your Kindle should have a User’s Guide and a dictionary on it when you get it.  You can start reading right away.  You probably won’t need to charge it first, although you might.

Your Kindle will probably be asleep.  For any Kindle, slide the power switch on the top of the Kindle to your right as you face the screen for about a second, then release.  It should wake up.

There is a home button on your righthand side.  Click that…the button pushes in on the side towards the middle of the Kindle, by the way…not the outer edge. 

You’ll see some “titles”.  Use your five-way (the little joy-stick like thing in the bottom right of the Kindle) to move up to a title.  I call that movement “flicking”, and you may find it easiest at first to use a fingernail, but you’ll get used to it quickly.  Click when you get to a title (push the 5-way down, like a regular button).

The title will probably turn black for a split second, then the title will open.

You can now use NEXT PAGE and PREV PAGE buttons to move through the book.  When you stop using your Kindle, it will eventually go to sleep again.  That’s okay. 

That’s the basic operation.

Charging

It’s likely your Kindle already has somewhat of a charge when you get it.   When you wake it up, there is a battery indicator in your top right corner of the screen.  You’ll be able to tell if it’s getting down there…the battery will start looking “eaten away”. 

To charge your Kindle, you can do one of two things.

There is a cable that came with your Kindle.  It has a normal wall plug.  You can plug that into the wall, then plug the small end into the bottom edge of your Kindle (“Vulcan fork” side up). 

You can also charge the Kindle by plugging it into a powered USB (Universal Serial Bus) port on a computer.  You can slide the wall plug off the end of the cable…it’s easy, it will come right off.  That reveals the USB plug.  Plug the large end into your computer (on a laptop and generally, it will be Vulcan fork side up…if it doesn’t fit and you have a vertical port, just flip it over and try again…it should work easily).

With the USB, the Kindle will go into USB mode, and show you a Vulcan fork screen.  If it doesn’t do that, try a different USB port…they aren’t all powered the same way.

Note: Do not disconnect the Kindle while it is showing you the Vulcan fork screen. 

To disconnect your Kindle, you have a few choices.  If you are charging from a computer and you shut the computer down, the Kindle will go back to its normal display, and you can disconnect it.

With a PC, you need to “safely remove” the Kindle.  In the bottom right corner of your computer screen (near the clock), you will typically see a grey rectangle with a green arrow. You might need to click a left facing chevron (like an arrowhead without the stick) to see it. You may see a choice for a USB storage device. After you click on that one, it should show you a choice for the Kindle. If it tells you the Kindle can not be stopped at this time, don’t disconnect it.

With a Mac, you can throw the Kindle in the trash, or CTRL+Click the icon to get a choice to eject it.

Before you pay for your first book

There is an important decision to make before you start buying books.  You’ll be able to share books with other devices on your account.  So, the question is: do you have the Kindle registered to the account you want?  It’s great to have your family members, for example, on the same account so you can share Kindle store books for one purchase price.  Officially, you can’t merge accounts (although I’ve heard of exceptions being made).  If your Significant Other already has a Kindle, and then your Kindle is registered to a different account, you won’t have access to the SO’s previously purchased books…and your SO won’t have access to the books you buy.

You can register the Kindle to an account, download books, and deregister, but that is more complicated.

If you are on the same account, you will be able to see each other’s purchases, and the payments will come from the same source.  If you don’t have shared finances, that’s a possible concern, but it’s not that hard to handle.  See this previous post for more information.

Getting books

There are two real choices for getting books from the Kindle store.   You can shop directly from the Kindle, or you can shop from your computer. 

From the Kindle itself, you do Home-Menu-Shop in Kindle Store.  You’ll need to have the wireless connection for this to work…if you don’t have it turned on, the Kindle will give you a way to do that.

When you see a book that interests you, you can: buy it; get a free sample; or put it on a Wish List. 

When shopping from your computer, you can also choose to Transfer Via Computer.  If you do that, you’ll be able to download it to your computer, and then transfer it to your Kindle using your Kindle’s USB cord.

Your Kindle purchases will be charged to your 1-click method.  That is usually a credit/debit card.  However, if you’ve applied a gift certificate/card to your account, that balance will be drawn first until exhausted.

Fun things to do with your Kindle

Okay, now it’s time to start playing around with your Kindle.

• Get free samples! 
• Get free books!  There are about 20,000 of these in the Kindle store as I write this
• Go to a website!  This may not really be fun, because it’s clunky, but it’s fun to see it work.  Home-Menu-Experimental-Basic Web.  There will be some included “bookmarks”, and you can start there
• Have it read to you!  Open a book, and do Shift+Sym (the shift is the up arrow…these are the two corner buttons in the lowest row).  It will take a minute or so to start.  This feature may be blocked by a publisher.  When you done, hit Home. 

Traveling home

If you are traveling by plane, that’s fine.  Your Kindle can go through the x-ray machine (I’ve read many reports where that is fine).  If you feel more comfortable doing it, I think you’ll be able to have the screener hand exampine it.  The flight crew will probably want you to keep it off during take-off and landing.   You should have the wireless turned off (Home-Menu) during the flight, but you’ll still be able to read. 

Protect your Kindle

• Keep it dry (a Ziploc bag will work for this)
• Keep it a reasonable temperature
• Record the serial number from the back somewhere
• I recommend getting a recovery services sticker: see this previous post
• Let it go to sleep, or put it to sleep by moving the power button to your right for a second.  It’s better not to keep turning it on and off
• Get it a cover, in case you drop it

Trouble-shooting

Kindles tend to be pretty trouble-free, but problems do happen.  If something goes wrong:

• Try a restart.  Hold the power button to your right for about twenty seconds, then let the Kindle restart
• If you are having trouble with the Whispernet, try clearing your cookies and cache (in browser mode, hit Menu-Settings)
• Read the User’s Guide.  You can read it on-line  even when your Kindle isn’t working
• Ask the Amazon Community Kindle forum …you’ll get lots of help there
• Ask me…you can leave a message for me in my forum at Amazon
• Contact Amazon Customer Service

What’s next?

I’ve barely scratched the surface in this post!  You can go back through this blog (including searching it).  I’d consider subscribing to some of the Kindle blogs for more tips and tricks.  Again, I’d recommend the Amazon Kindle community…you can get suggestions from the folks there.

Enjoy!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! Non-US stores get a lot more books

I’ve been saying it was going to happen pretty quickly (over the next year or so). 

One of the world’s largest publishers has just made its books available through the Kindle store for non-US customers.

I’m not naming the publisher, because they block text-to-speech on their Kindle books…and that’s a policy with which I disagree.  I think it’s a personal decision as to whether you buy books from them or not, but I don’t want to promote them.

Suffice it to say that, if you are a non-US customer, you may see a lot more titles available to you today.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

A Kindle Carol, Part 3

This is part 3 (and the conclusion) of the story that had begun in this earlier post.

It was like being everywhere at once.

Warmth and sorrow, family and fear, here and there…it was all the same.  It seemed to flicker like an old nickelodeon…phft-phft-phft as each smallest split second changed to the next.

At first, Scrooge/Everything couldn’t focus.  It was one rush of feelings, emotions, thoughts, and nothing.  You couldn’t look anywhere in particular because wherever you looked, you saw something else…or was it the same thing?  You (and I) saw yourself (and it) whenever we/they tried.

Eventually (although it happened instantly), Scrooge/Everything became aware of scenes.  Not as things separate from himself or from each other, but as part of existence (and yet, the whole of it).

Scrooge felt the immersion of someone reading a book…how you enter the author’s universe, while still being part of yours.

He was a single mother, a soldier in Iraq, the captain of the high school football team, himself, a surgeon, a small child sleeping on a cement floor with five other siblings, a cat, a dog, a thought, a prayer, a kiss, a tear…a moment.

He became aware of the Cratchit family.  Bob was still at work…we had that meeting tonight.  He felt his (Bob’s?) wife’s resentment, but resignation at the same time.  Two young children, who he knew were the twins, were playing a videogame.  A third tiny youngster shouted encouragement. 

“Get him, Robby, get him!”

“I’ll get him, Tim.”

Scrooge knew there was nothing on the screen right then for Robby to get.  He was humoring Tim, who was blind.  His video self fired off a shot at the wall…the TV made the distinctive “pzzoo” sound of the ray rifle.

“Did you get him, Robby?”

“Sure did, Tim!  Sure did!”

The other gamer, a girl named Kelsea, rolled her eyes.  She didn’t really approve of lying, but it made Tim happy to be a part of the game.  She was itching to see the next level, and they weren’t going to have as good a chance of getting there if Robby kept wasting his ammunition charge like that.  Still, she figured it was worth it to see Robby high-five tiny Tim’s outstretched hand.

Buzz!

A voice came through the intercom.

“Mom, it’s me!”

Scrooge knew it was Martha, the oldest daughter.  “I’ll get it!”  Tim ran unerringly to the button and buzzed his sister up the stairs.

“Hey, Double-T!  I got you something!”

“Whatizitwhatizit?”

“Well, the teachers let us out early for Thanksgiving, and Ms. Ramirez dropped me off at the library–”

“Did you get me a book?”

“I did,” Martha said smiling.  “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”

“Oh boy, thanks!  What’s a pimplemill?”

Tim’s mother called from the kitchen.  “Pimpernel.  It’s a flower.”

“A flower?”  Tim was still holding out his hands to Martha.

“Not this Pimpernel, Double-T!  He’s a hero…with a secret identity and everything.”

“Like Daredevil?”

“Even better.  He saves people from the bad guys in old France.  If he didn’t, they’d cut off their heads!”

“Yaaaaay!  I’m going to go listen to it right now!  Thanks, Martha!”

Tim took the box of CDs that Martha slapped into his open hands and ran down to the room he shared with Robby and Kelsea.

“That was nice of you, Martha.”

“Well, Mom, Ms. Ramirez offered to drive me.  Mr. Cho brought turkey in for everybody, so I had enough lunch money left for the bus.  I can probably get one of the other kids to take it back.”

“Mom,” Kelsea said hesitantly, “Latella’s cousin is blind.  They don’t have to get books from the library…he gets all the audiobooks he wants sent to him for free.”

“That’s great, dear.  But to do that, you have to have a doctor certify you as blind as there is a lot of paperwork to fill out.”

Scrooge/Kelsea fell silent.  S/he knew that they couldn’t afford a doctor.  Scrooge/Mrs. Cratchit wished again that Bob had a job with full benefits.  She’d always wondered if little Tim’s eyesight could have been saved if they weren’t just going to the community clinic.  She knew it probably wouldn’t have made any difference, but she couldn’t help wondering.

“Mom, when is Dad going to get here?”

“I don’t know, Robby.  They have that annual marketing meeting tonight.”

“Dumb old Scrooge!”

“That’s Mister Scrooge, Robby…he is your father’s boss, after all.”

“I know.  I just hate that guy sometimes.  Why doesn’t Dad just quit and get a better job?”

“We don’t say hate in this house, you know that.  It’s not that easy, Robby.  It’s a hard time to find work out there.  Besides, your father likes working for Mr. Scrooge.”

Martha pouted.  “I don’t know why.  He treats him like dirt.  He doesn’t pay him anything, and he makes him work all the time.”

“I can’t say I really understand it either, dear, but it’s what your father wants.”

Scrooge suddenly found himself back in his office.  He was just himself again.  He was thinking about Bob, when a dark figure grabbed him by the wrist. 

“Wait!  Slow down”

The ghost of tomorrow did not wait…it never does. 

“Where are you taking me?”

Scrooge felt himself fall through the floors of the building.  He thudded on to the lobby floor.  Workers went past him, carrying chairs and tables.  They came out of the freight elevator, headed for a big truck on the street.

“Somebody must be moving,” thought Scrooge.

The spirit pointed to where the building receptionist was opening the glass case that contained the directory.  She slid out one of the printed names.

“Spirit, tell me…what is happening?”

The spirit continued to point.  The receptionist walked over to the garbage can where a security guard was standing.

The guard smiled at her.  “Well, that’s it, huh?  They are finally gone.”

“Well, it was only a matter of time, I guess.  I heard on the news that they went bankrupt.”

“Got any news on a new tenant?”

“It’s not that easy to fill a whole floor.  I’m guessing it will be awhile.”

She dropped the laminated name in the silver bin and walked back to her desk.

The spirit led Scrooge to the garbage can.  Scrooge stood, afraid to look inside, afraid at what he might see. 

“No, spirit, no!”

The spirit stood, immobile and impassionate.  Scrooge couldn’t help himself…he saw the J. Marley Publishing sign, with the logo of Jacob on it.

“Bankrupt!  It can’t be!  I won’t let it happen!  You…you wouldn’t show me this unless I could do something about it, right?  Jacob said it could change…he said I had a chance if I could learn something!  I’ve learned, spirit!  I’ve learned that books are books, whatever the format!  Its not the paper, it’s the words that matter!  And poor Tim Cratchit, and a million others like him!  We…I can help them!  Please, spirit, please!  Give me another chance!”

“Unca?  Are you alright?”

Scrooge found himself back in his office again. 

“You…you’re still here!  The business is still here!”

“Sure it is, Unc.  Geez, how long was I on that phone call, anyway?  So, you want to get back to that meeting?”

“Yes…yes, I do!  Cratchit!”

Bob was surprised to hear his boss yelling.

“Get in here.  No, wait, start some coffee first.  Nephew, tell me about those e-books.  I want to do them…I want to get started right away!  Make sure they have that read-aloud thing…that’s important!”

“Sure, Unc, that’s great!”

“Cratchit…Bob, I’ve decided you are going to get a bonus!”

“Uh..a bonus, sir?”

“Yep!  I’m getting everybody in your family a Kindle!  You tell Tim he can have all the books he wants, and you send me the bills.  When he gets done with The Scarlet Pimpernel, you tell him old Neezy wants to talk with him about it.”

“Yes sir!  Bless you, sir!”

Epilogue

Scrooge was never again troubled with spirits.  Jay-Em e-Romances were a permanent part of the bestseller lists, with the first one in the series  always being offered for free.  Martha Cratchit wrote a few herself, eventually become a successful author.  The company thrived, and the Greasy Cat Foundation, with Timothy Cratchit as its Executive Director, became a leader in providing free e-book readers to those in need. 

May we all learn from the past, savor the present, and build a future not just for us, but for others.

The End

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! New podcast interview with Bufo

I’ve appeared once before on Len Edgerly’s The Kindle Chronicles. 

I’m happy to have appeared again in a special holiday podcast recorded today.  You can’t hear it on your Kindle unless you download it first and then put it in your Audible folder on your Kindle.  If you aren’t sure how to do that, see this earlier post.  You can listen to it online, though.

We talked about tips for new Kindle owners, and I was happy to share the time with “Kris Kindle”.    You can get to it here:

The Kindle Chronicles #75 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! Free one-day shipping on the Kindle international…going, going…

I mentioned when there was free 2-day shipping…there are 8 hours left (roughly, as I write this) for free 1-day shipping on the Kindle 2 international! 

There are some limitations to it, but those are spelled out here.

Looks like the cut-off is basically midnight Eastern time on the 24th (middle of the night tonight, Wednesday the 23rd).

Disclosure: if you buy your Kindle through this link, I do get a cut from Amazon, but it doesn’t affect your pricing or anything.  I don’t recommend products for that reason, but I thought you might want to know.

This post by Bufo Calvin first appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! A fix for blogjams?

Several people have been reporting that some of their blogs have not been updating on their Kindles.  It seems to have been since the recent software update, but that’s not necessarily the cause.

Anyway, one of my readers told me about having that problem with this blog.  I recommended clearing the cookies, and that seems to have worked!

When you are in browser mode on your Kindle, hit the Menu-Settings.  You’ll see the option to clear/delete the cookies.  You may also want to do the cache.

You can see more information on Kindles and cookies in this earlier post.

Of course, if your blog isn’t updating, you won’t see this.  I’m hoping people spread the word…

This post by Bufo Calvin first appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Publisher profile: Pocket Books

This is a profile of a publisher that does not block text-to-speech for the Kindle at time of writing.  I want to recognize these publishers, and give you a bit of background on them.

Paper history

Pocket was crucial in US publishing history.  The idea of cheap paper editions had caught on in Europe, but it wasn’t until that magical year of 1939 that Pocket Books, under the direction of Robert de Graff, popularized the format in the United States.

For twenty-five cents (roughly the equivalent of four dollars in 2009), you could get a classic like Shakespeare (five tragedies in one volume) or Wuthering Heights (a bestseller that year), or a genre book, like the ghost comedy Topper or the fantasy/adventure novel, Lost Horizon.

This is somewhat of a parallel for me to what is happening with e-books.  We are getting cheaper editions, and they are heavy on classics and genre works.  However, we also are getting the mainstream, and that’s nice.  

Over the years, the Pocket kangaroo (named Gertude) has had a lot of books with cult followings, like the Perry Mason books and the Star Trek books.

They also had the important strategy of moving book sales out of only bookstores into other places, like drugstores and variety stores.  You might not be able to buy your books in a grocery store if it wasn’t for Pocket.

Official Company History Page  

Family ties

Pocket is (since 1966) part of Simon & Schuster, which in turn is part of the New York based CBS Corporation.

Pocket itself includes:

• Downtown Press
• G-Unit
• MTV Books
• Paraview (uses Pocket phone number)
• Star Trek (which may say Pocket)
• Threshold Editions
• WWE (used Pocket phone number)

Simon & Schuster also distributes Baen Books (science fiction and fantasy), Games Workshop Group (best known for the Warhammer games), Harlequin (romances), Merck (best known for the Merck Manual medical reference books), and the World Almanac.

Other Simon and Schuster imprints include the Free Press, Scribner, and Simon and Schuster.

Management

 Carolyn Reidy is President and CEO of Simon and Schuster.  She took over the company in January of 2008.   Her experience in publishing goes back to 1976, and she has also worked for Random House and William Morrow.

Louise Burke in in charge of Pocket Books. 

Company contact information

Ebook Customer Service form 

Toll free Customer Service phone number: 1-800-223-2336

Customer Service e-mail: Consumer.CustomerService@simonandschuster.com

New York offices:

Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Phone: 212-698-7000

In the e-book world

Pocket has embraced e-books, which isn’t too surprising given their innovative approach to publishing in the past.  According to their website, they actually have more e-books available than they do new mass market paperbacks or trade paperbacks (although the combination of trade and mass market would be larger).  It certainly says something that e-books is the format with the largest number of titles.

Amazon has 1,195 e-books by Pocket as I write this.  It’s important to realize that I am only talking about books with the Pocket name, not other imprints (like Baen, which they distribute, and Juno).

Kindle Store search for Pocket Books 

Some books appear in more than one category, but 939 of them appear under fiction (79%). 

The most popular Kindle book they have right now is Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin.  It’s #488 (again, as I write this) out of 396,117…that’s pretty good).

While that book comes from a particular viewpoint, it’s not the type case…they have a lot of different things.

For example, they have several Star Trek novels…nowhere near the 1201 they have in the Amazon store altogether!

Generally, they seem to be releasing Pocket branded e-books a day after the mass market paperback, although I didn’t look at a big sample.

Pocket e-books in the Kindle store

Here is a sampling of their books in the Kindle store.  You can also get Pocket e-books from other sources.

Ghost Hunting 

by Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, and Michael Jan Friedman

If you watch the Syfy Channel’s Ghost Hunters show, you’ll know Jason and Grant…plumbers by day, proplamologists by night. 

But I Trusted You 

by Ann Rule

This is the fourteenth book in the true crime series from Rule, who had a huge hit with her book on Ted Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me.

Wuthering Heights 

by Emily Bronte

This classic was one of their first paperbacks…they still do quite a few classics in e-book.

A Highlander Christmas

by Janet Chapman

The latest in a romance series.

This Family of Mine: What It Was Like Growing Up Gotti 

by Victoria Gotti

A tell-all biography by a member of the infamous family.

Star Trek (new movie tie-in)

by Alan Dean Foster

Pocket has been the Star Trek publisher for decades, and they continue with this novelization from science fiction novelist Foster (who has also written quite a few other tie-ins)

Rise of the Horde 

by Christie Golden

This is the fourth in a series of World of Warcraft books…the company does have a gaming connection.

 Nightmares & Dreamscapes 

by Stephen King

Here’s a nice collection of King short stories, from a company that doesn’t block text-to-speech access.

A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco 

by Suzanna Clarke

Contemporary first person non-fiction, bringing a glimpse of what it is like to move into another culture.

101 Reasons the ’90s Ruled 

by M.C. King

Pop culture…I’m guessing the author and I might have different highlights for this decade, but this companion to the E! miniseries is likely to spark a few personal memories for you.

Hari Maut (World Terrorism Series) 

by Sanjay Gupta, Tarun Kumah Wahi, Manish Gupta, Lalit Sharma (illustrator)

A graphic novel by the CNN commentator/neurosurgeon/Surgeon General candidate…in Hindi?  I think this is the same person.  I tried a sample on my K2: it actually looked pretty good!  I could even see using this to show people the graphics capability of the Kindle.  As to the Hindi: since it is part of the picture, it reproduces…the Kindle wouldn’t be able to do it if it need the character set, currently. 

Well, that’s a pretty eclectic bunch!  If you want to support company’s that don’t block to text-to-speech, or even if that isn’t an issue for you, you’ll probably be able to find a Pocket Book to give you a great reading experience on your Kindle.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! Last day to get the Kindle in time for Christmas with free 2-day shipping

Amazon has a countdown clock going, but basically, they are giving you free two-day shipping on the Kindle 2 international.

There are a few caveats (like they could run out, although I don’t think they will).  One big thing: if you add anything else to the same order (like a cover), it will be the two-day shipping charge for the other items.  Instead, place two separate orders, if you don’t mind getting the cover later, and save the charge.

Amazon two-day offer details page

I do think it’s the best EBR (e-book reader) out there right now, and it would make a great gift!

Disclosure: if you buy from this link, I do get a cut as an Amazon Associate.  That doesn’t affect what you pay for it, but I thought you might want to know. 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Flash! Kindle for Blackberry has a page!

Getting closer…

Kindle for Blackberry page 

You can sign up to be notified when it’s actually ready.  I’ll  post about it as well. 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

A Kindle Carol, Part 2

This is part 2 of the story that had begun in this earlier post.

“The Greasy Cat!”

The spirit child rippled with laughter at the name. 

Scrooge’s eyes grew large, and he shook his head to clear it.  There could be no doubt.  Although it was much smaller than he remembered it, he was seeing the treehouse of his youth.  They had called it “The Greasy Cat” after a secret meeting place in The Scarlet Pimpernel.  While the name, Le Chat Gris actually meant “The Gray Cat”, that had been beyond his level of French at ten years old.  Marley had known that “chat” meant “cat”, and the rest had been a guess.

“But how can it still be standing after all this time?”

The spirit child rippled again.

“It couldn’t be, could it…the house was sold years ago.   This whole area is an industrial park now.”

“Not now, silly head,” said the child.

“Of course!  This is the past.  Oh, the times Jakey and I had up there!  The laughter and the secrets.  I’d love to see the inside again…but my legs are more rickety than that old board ladder.”

There was no whirlwind, just a whisper…like the too loud hsh-hsh-hsh of small children hiding behind a couch.

Scrooge suddenly found himself inside The Greasy Cat.  He thought he would feel claustrophobic, but he didn’t.   The room hadn’t gotten bigger…and he didn’t seem smaller.  In fact, he didn’t seem to be there at all, and yet, it was all perfectly clear.

The only lighting in the room came from a two-battery flashlight with a cracked lens.   If Scrooge needed any more convincing, that would have done it.  He remembered reading so many things with that thin black jagged line across the words.  They pretended it looked like a Z, and that they could use it like a Zorro signal to call that masked defender of the people.  Although there was one night when they would swear they had both heard Tornado’s hooves, Don Diego remained as hidden from them as he had from Sargent Gonzales.

But who was holding the light…

“Jakey!”

“They seek him here,
They seek him there…”

The boy with the flashlight read on, paying Scrooge no heed.

Suddenly, another child’s voice echoed through the gloom in a lightning crack:

“They seek him in his underwear!”

Both kids exploded in raucous laughter, slapping each other and rolling on the floor.

The older Scrooge smiled.   The spirit child became a cloud and whirled around the room, mirroring the boys as they made no attempt to control themselves.

“Oh, I loved that book.”

“Not a book,” said the spirit child sternly.

“Of course it is!  That’s The Scarlet Pimpernel!  That’s why we named the treehouse the Greasy Cat.”

“Comic book.”

“Comic…say, that’s right!  We were reading the comic books!  I remember now.  We would get them at Fezziwig’s.  We used to ride our bikes down there and sneak the comics back under our shirts.  Wouldn’t do to have Dad catch me with a comic, even if it was a classic.”

“Not a real book.”

“They were real to us!  Realer than school, realer than anything!”

“Fake books.”

“Hey, at least we were reading, right?  I might not be what I am today without those comic books.”

The spirit child flew at Scrooge, and for a moment all he could see was a wall of white.

He blinked his eyes and found himself back in his office. 

He jumped when a figure suddenly entered the room.

“Hey, Unc…I just need to make one more call…gotta follow up on something with one of the kids.  You know how kids are, right?”

Scrooge’s nephew turned away, his thumbs flicking on the keys.

Left alone in his office, Scrooge gave the question more consideration than it had been meant to deserve.

It had been a long time since he’d thought about children.  Children didn’t buy JMP books.  He didn’t have any kids of his own.  This company had been his life.  When Marley died, he had felt like a single parent.  JMP had been theirs…it still was.  But he had suddenly had to do it all by himself.  They had always divided everything.  It wasn’t as simple as good cop/bad cop, or tough love/tenderness.  They were both tough, and everybody knew it.   They were just tough in different ways.  Marley was tough with people…Scrooge was tough with the numbers. 

When he’d been left by himself, he didn’t try to copy Marley.  He couldn’t, there was no point to it.  So, he’d just let that part die along with Jacob.

He missed him now.  He’d know kids.  He’d known what people…all people wanted. 

Didn’t Cratchit have kids?  Scrooge thought he did…in fact, he was sure he did.  He’d never met Cratchit’s family…not that he could remember.

“I wish I knew more about them.”

A breeze seemed to cause the potted plant in the corner to wave from side to side.  But it couldn’t be a breeze: there were no windows, and the air conditioning was off. 

“Hmph.”

The plant continued to move.  Scrooge smelled that distinctive plant smell, like walking by a park after a rainy day.  The smell terrified Scrooge.

The plant was plastic.

The smell began to fill the room.  It reminded Scrooge of a particularly unpleasant trip, when he had gone to Hawaii for a publishing convention.  He’d always hated travel…meeting with people had been Marley’s part of the deal.  But Marley had been too sick to go…he’d gotten better, that time.

Scrooge coughed and hacked.  Why wasn’t his allergy medicine working? 

When he could stand again, he saw that the room was covered in ivy, overgrown in leaves.  They were still growing…flowers sprouted, tendrils twisted around branches. 

A man stepped into the center of the room.  At least, “man” was the closest approximation Scrooge’s confused mind could make.  Whatever it was, it was part of the jungle that was all that Scrooge could see.  He couldn’t see where the man started and the plants stopped.

“Ebenezer Scrooge.”

“Are you the second of the spirits?”

“I am here and now.”

“What will you show me?”

“I am here and now.” 

The ivy continued to grow and expand.  Scrooge felt it pressing against him, wrapping around him.  He struggled. It covered his face.  He couldn’t breath!  He felt it go through his skin, becoming part of him…or he of it?  Scrooge found it hard to think…his mind was stretched, and the thinner it became the less of him was left.

He fought to control it…control was always how he got through things.

He lost.

To be continued…

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.