The skies were found to be a beautiful color of blue during the springtime in Centerville Valley, where nearly every one of the townsfolk lived and worked. Most of the inhabitants of this little town that was nestled in the heartland of Indiana were farmers, small businesspersons, common blue-collar workers, or worked in the diary business.
If ever there was a place of beauty, tranquility, and calm it was found in the heart and soul, of the people of Centerville.
There had never been any real crime in Centerville that anyone could ever remember, except for that try at the horse napping, of Jupiter the Show Horse at the county fair last year. Maybe a piece of apple pie that was cooling on some ones window sill might have got lifted, or somebody might have borrowed someone's pint of milk left on their door step some morning, but other than that this was the most peaceful small town, in probably the whole county.
It seemed for some strange reason that nothing ever much happened here until Louis was born, and started growing up. He was just in the middle of everything that was found to be good or bad. Of course, all the grown-ups loved and adored him, because he tried so hard to do well, but he always seemed to get in trouble or mess things up.
All the neighborhood kids loved Louis because of his endless daydreaming, visions, storytelling, and of course because of his recent incredible adventures to the North Pole. Many of the older or bigger kids in town still picked on Louis. It was as if Louis had to prove himself constantly to everyone, even when he had proved himself, so many times in the past.
Louis had managed to keep his unruly cowl-lick from getting the better of him, since he had gotten back last year from the North Pole. It had not stood up on end, even once, or given him any embarrassment at all. Maybe it was from Louis growing up, or just that Louis had not been in any situations that he could not control. Louis always knew in the back of his mind that that darn cowl-lick (that had is its own personality) would most likely be with him his whole life. Just as, Sammy's stammering would follow with him throughout his life, or Harry's growling all the time, would follow him.
Molly Jenkins and Louis still were going steady, and were very much in love as only two young kids could be, or really knew how to be. Louis and Molly had just sort of grown up, and accepted that they were made for each other. They had been spending most of the early spring together they even sat next to each other this year in school.
All of Louis's friends were still living in town, and would drop by to play with Louis after school, when they weren't doing their chores, or had homework to do, of course. There was also the upcoming baseball season that started in June, so you could see all the kids in town were still very, very busy.
Mr. Beamer was full of activity running his farm year-round, and he was back to running Charlie's ice-wagon, during the summertime. Apollo was still up at the North Pole with Jupiter running Santa's Village with Charlie, so Santa Claus with an another opening for the ice-wagon this summer; Ole' Baron Von Beck who use to deliver the milk for the Centerville Dairy applied for the job, even though he is almost twenty years old.
Mr. Whiteman who owns the local dairy had bought one of those steam-contraption cars which had put The Baron out of work, so what better job could there be for The Baron; but to bring him out of retirement, to take over for Charlie and Apollo, delivering the ice.
Mr. Belvedere the Plow Horse still was working for Mr. Beamer. He was doing all the heavy work out in the fields, and was just as happy as can be, with so much work to do. All the other animals still lived in Mr. Beamer's barn with Harriet the Milking Cow as the matriarch and the keeper of the inner-workings of the barn, and the overseer all the animals who, lived there.
The Henderson family of chickens had almost doubled in size. Arty the Pig and his brood still lived in the mud at the rear of the horse stalls. The nervous Mr. Turkey could still be seen (every once in a while) coming or going from his various hiding places, and of course the prideful Rodchester the Roster could still be found, staring at himself endlessly in the mirror (hanging on the wall) at the back of the barn. And of course, Mitch the Bulldog was still chasing wayward cats up trees.
Life went on in Centerville.
Charlie the Great White Horse and the Journey to Egypt Page 7