The Project Gutenberg EBook of Celebrity, by James McKimmey

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Title: Celebrity

Author: James McKimmey

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29962]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELEBRITY ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration]

_Sound the fanfare! Beat the drums!
Shout hosannas! Here he comes...._

CELEBRITY

By James McKimmey, Jr.

Illustrated by PAUL ORBAN

June 19, 1978. Celebrity day.

The city stretched. Empty streets glistened from the bath of a water
truck. Dew-wet grass winked at the fresh peeping sun, like millions of
shimmering diamonds. A bird chirped. Another. The city yawned.

Rows of houses lay like square ivory beads on patches of green felt. A
boy drove his bicycle down the middle of an elm-bordered avenue,
whistling loudly, while tightly rolled newspapers arced from his hand
and slapped against porches.

Lights snapped on in a thousand windows, shining yellowly against the
cool whiteness of dawn. Men blinked and touched beard-stubbled chins.
Women moved sleepily toward porcelain and chrome kitchens.

A truck roared and garbage pails rattled. There was a smell of sour
orange rinds and wet leaves and unfolding flowers. Over this came the
smell of toasting bread and frying bacon.

Doors swung open, slippered feet padded across porches and hands groped
for the rolled newspapers. The air was stricken with the blaring sound
of transcribed music and the excited voices of commercial announcers.
The doors swung shut and the sounds were muted.

A million people shifted and stretched and scratched. The sun rose above
the horizon.

Celebrity day.

* * * * *

Doors slammed again, and half-consumed cups of coffee lay cooling
behind. Children wiped at sleepy eyes and mothers swept crumbs, touching
self-conscious fingers at their own bed-ruffled hair. Laborers and
clerks and lawyers and doctors strode down sidewalks and climbed into
automobiles and busses and sleek-nosed elevated trains. The city move