232 | John W. Warner IV did little to counter the days dry heat, which was now finally easing. Bea placed the tray in the hallway and settled into the stuffed chair beside the bed. Pulling a book from her fathers old briefcase that she had carried here and there since Wycombe Abbey, she opened Tie Tale of Peter Rabbit, fluttering pages and igniting her childhood innocence and wonder, a luxurious feeling she hadnt allowed herself for years. Bernie awoke from his half-slumber and removed a crumpled sheet of Tie Washington Post from his stomach, tipping up his eye mask. N-n-now.. .what? Finally, Thoth speaks. When I was sick or sad as a child, Mumbly would read Mrs. Potters books to me. Somehow they always helped. Away we go. Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton tail, and Peter. They lived with their mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very bigfir-tree. Now, my dears, said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, you may go into the fields or down the lane, but dont go into Mr. McGregors garden: your father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor. Bernie rolled onto his side and moaned in wildebeest fashion. Remember our spiritualist friend Rudolph Steiner said that evil spirits will feed off depression and blackness, so dont feed them, old boy. Bea rolled along, modifying the text for her own amusement, hoping some of the prose would filter in between his tortured ears. Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the desert for he hadforgotten his way back to the Persian Gate. He lost one of his jackboots among the cabbages, and another one amongst the Lotus flowers in the oasis pond. After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into Flash Gordons gooseberry space net, and got caught by the large FDR election button on his jacket. It was a U.S. Navy blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new, with his recent medal for being the most clever Rabbit amongst his naysaying family. A painful: Ohhmmm… Mr. McGregor came up with a Luger, which he intended to whack Peter with the handle, but Peter wriggled out of the netjust in time, leaving his prizedjacket behind him. And Peter rushed into the tool shed, and jumped into a Tiger tank. It would have been a beautiful thing to hide in, if it didnt have so much sand inside.