After passing a couple pleasant days in Ted’s room talking about books and drinking root beer, Ted tells Bobby that they must go to a seedy part of Bridgeport so Ted can place some bets. Without any other option, she leaves Bobby in the care of Ted Brautigan. Bobby and Ted have to be secretive because Bobby’s mom is a suspicious, greedy woman, bitter about being widowed by a gambler who could not resist betting on an inside straight.īobby’s mother decides to attend a real estate seminar with her boss and some of his colleagues. He says that Bobby will recognize these men because neither they, their strange yellow coats, or gaudy cars belong in the neighborhood – or any neighborhood. These, he tells Bobby, are signs that the men who are looking for him are near. He wants Bobby to watch for lost animal posters and oddly drawn hopscotch patterns. Ted surreptitiously hires Bobby to be his lookout.

Sully John is his pal, but Bobby develops a strong affection for Carol, with whom he shares a first kiss while at rest on the top of the Ferris wheel. He pals around with two friends, John Sullivan (known to all as Sully John or S.J.) and Carol Gerber. Set in 1960, Bobby lives in a lower middle class section of a Bridgeport, Connecticut suburb. Bobby takes an immediate liking to Ted Brautigan who introduces him to adult science fiction and literature and discusses the subjects with him as an adult. Ten year old Bobby Garfield has a new neighbor in the tenant that rents a room upstairs from an apartment he shares with his mother. This book contains two short novels, a novella and two short stories.

Book hearts in atlantis