The Mysterious Origins of Mildew Bookworm

www.goodaboom.com


A number of our readers have expressed an interest in the life of Mildew Bookworm, the distinguished, if ecccentric narrator of our recent illustrated story, "The Thief of Hearts and the Firecat".

Against my better judgement, I have decided to disclose a little of his strange past.

When Miki and I were wandering through our creative galaxy we happened across the Planet Goodaboom, and liking the look of it, decided to colonise it and claim it as our own. There were several deciding factors. We had discovered from satellite reconnaisance, that there was several years supply of Gummi bears under the Polar Icecaps, and you could send out for Pizza.

These two factors alone rendered Goodaboom eminently suitable for sustaining human life. We set out to explore...Miki constantly snagging her undone laces on the broccoli fields that carpeted the Northern Hemisphere.

We based ourselves on Goodaboom, the lighter gravity allowing our creative thoughts to soar. Paintings, Poems and Songs began to flow forth, littering the area around our base camp with the detritus of our imagination.

It was after a particularly messy day of gouache and funky love songs, that Miki and I fell asleep, half-eaten Pizza in our laps.

I awoke to the sound of huffing and puffing and tutting. I froze. Who was there?
I heard a voice.
" Just look at this mess! I'd have bought a vacuum cleaner if I'd known we were having visitors! No, actually, inadequate..I'd have ordered a skip!"

"Erm.." I began
"Have you got any books?" said the diminutive figure, totally unfazed by our presence.
"Well, I, no..erm, I've written some songs, and Miki here's a painter." I added.
"Painter? Does she write books?" he queried
"Well, I think she may have written one once." I answered, almost apologetically.
"Have you brought it with you?" he pressed on. Frankly, I though his book obsession was wearing a bit thin.

I looked a little more closely..he seemed to have a faded leather bound volume under his arm.
"Is there any more pizza?" mumbled Miki in her sleep.
"Shh!" I admonished. "Is that your book?" I asked him.
He removed his spectacles and his eyes sparkled as he produced the book with a flourish. "Why yes, indeed, the finest volume of work on all of the Planet Goodaboom!" adding, a little sheepishly, "Its, hhmph, the only volume on Goodaboom."
"Ah!" I said, "I understand your desire to seek further volumes."
"Oh, well yes, its my natural literary curiosity you see, but its not a neccesity, this book has an endless supply of stories."
"Well, it looks rather thin, if you don't mind me saying so."
"Mm? well I do mind, thank you very much, and you might as well know, whenever I open its covers, a new tale is waiting for me."
"How..how is that possible?" I stammered.
He plonked himself down cross-legged in front of me and began to poke at Miki with a stick."Its the lichen..look, see? it grows on the pages, mutating and changing the contents of the book. I was once in the book, a character in a story, but I escaped.
My name is Mildew Bookworm." he held out a hand, and as I reached down to shake it, he withdrew it and began to pick his nose, giggling to himself.
Miki rolled over in her sleep "quattro staggione" she mumbled.
"Look," I said, "We've started a website based on your planet, and we're going to need some short stories and the like, can we use some from the book?"
"Of course!" he squealed delightedly, "I'll even narrate some if you want!"
"Great!" I said. "It's a deal"
He jumped to his feet and replaced his spectacles.
"Have you got any books?" he asked again, and vanished.
Miki crawled out of her sleeping bag.
"Did I hear something?" she said, bleary-eyed.
"You're not going to believe this!" I babbled excitedly, "But we've got a new partner!"
"I hope he doesn't want to share my pizza," she retorted, grumpily.

Editors Note: No Broccoli was harmed during the writing of this article.