Giggleswick: The Amadán Map

Chapter One: The Perfect People

Giggleswick: The Amadán Map

Matthew Mainster

Cover illustration by Lindsey S.M. Loegters

Lee Press, U.S.A

Copyright © 2012 by Matthew Mainster

Illustrations by Lindsey S.M. Loegters © 2012 

All rights reserved.  Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher.  

Lee Press

First Paperback Edition: June 2012

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.  Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  

ISBN-13: 978-0615621920 

ISBN-10: 0615621929

Library of Congress Number: 2012906455  

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

For Mom-Lew

  

Chapter One: The Perfect People 

Wally Noodle was pleased to see that styles hadn’t changed much in the course of a year. As he glanced around the building paying particular attention to the apparel of the adults and children, he assured himself that, besides his perky pink bow-tie –– a fad which indeed appeared to have faded out –– he looked much like everyone else. 

Often prone to distraction, Wally probably should have had his mind on more urgent matters. He was currently on special assignment for the SMR, an agency he was in charge of back home. Head Officer of the SMR was a prestigious and very important position, and in order to perform the job properly one had to look and act the part, which, of course, Wally did seamlessly. He was a tall, broad-chested man, with wispy blond hair and sharp blue eyes. Although too humble to admit it himself, many found him to be strikingly handsome and debonair. Being so terribly gorgeous did have its downsides though. Back home, despite the fact that everyone was well aware of his lovely wife, Lilly, and of their beautiful twelve-year-old daughter, Eliza, women couldn’t help but constantly flirt with him. 

Here, he wasn’t as highly regarded, however, and hardly anyone seemed to notice his existence as he meandered down the hall, not entirely sure where to go next. He had already spent two whole days in Maine and had yet to find anyone suitable. Yesterday, he’d met with a lovely couple that had been married just three months, both seemingly wonderful people, but no –– they wouldn’t do; they just weren’t quite right. Perhaps he was deterred due to the fact that they had expressed a desire to have twelve children, but he couldn’t say for sure. Then, earlier this morning he thought he’d found the perfect person: an enthusiastic, middle-aged man devoted to a cause –– though, alas, it wasn’t quite the cause Wally’d had in mind. Two others he’d seen the day before might have worked out well, but once he’d described the situation to them, they quickly sent him on his way, calling him a “nutter” or something of the sort. It wasn’t meant to be, he supposed. 

Now as Wally walked away from yet another unworthy candidate, a young schoolteacher who had expressed great interest, but for the wrong reasons –– selfish reasons –– he was left with no one to evaluate. He had to find someone soon ... he was only ever given five days to find the perfect person and he didn’t want to wait until the last minute! Last year hadn’t been so easy either, he supposed, and he felt slightly more relaxed having remembered this. Then again, he was never all too happy with the outcome of last year’s expedition, but Constable Humphrey had insisted that Wally need not look any further; the perfect person had been found.