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    Give the Hippo What He Wants
    Give the Hippo What He Wants
    Give the Hippo What He Wants
    Ebook53 pages41 minutes

    Give the Hippo What He Wants

    By Robert Jeschonek

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    About this ebook

    In the baseball league of the future, losing the World Series will get you the death penalty.  Nobody cares if anti-MVP Thal Simoleon choked because of an opera-singing pink hippo that only he can see.  Angry fans hunt him down in murderous mobs, dying to get a piece of him.  And that damn pink hippo taunts him every step of the way, always making things worse.  But the sins of the past that set the death hunt in motion might also point the way to salvation.  Will the pink hippo's terrible secret be the key that leads Thal back to some kind of glory?  Or will he die in extra innings of the bloodiest high-tech basebrawl of all time?  Only the hippo knows.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Jeschonek
    Release dateOct 16, 2018
    ISBN9781386756415
    Give the Hippo What He Wants

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      Book preview

      Give the Hippo What He Wants - Robert Jeschonek

      Give The Hippo What He Wants

      GIVE THE HIPPO WHAT HE WANTS

      A SCIFI TALE

      ROBERT JESCHONEK

      Pie Press

      CONTENTS

      Also by Robert Jeschonek

      Give The Hippo What He Wants

      About the Author

      Special Preview: Six Scifi Stories Volume Four

      GIVE THE HIPPO WHAT HE WANTS

      Copyright © September 2023 by Robert Jeschonek

      http://bobscribe.com/

      Cover Art Copyright © 2023 by Ben Baldwin

      www.benbaldwin.co.uk

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved by the author.

      A rocketship blasts off among the stars.

      Published by Blastoff Books

      An Imprint of Pie Press

      411 Chancellor Street

      Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15904

      www.piepresspublishing.com

      Subscribe to the Blastoff Books Newsletter: http://newsletter.blastoffbooks.net/

      ALSO BY ROBERT JESCHONEK

      100th Power Book 1

      100th Power Book 2

      100th Power Book 3

      Blastoff!

      Cosmic Conflicts

      Gray Lady Rising (with Annie Reed)

      In a Green Dress, Surrounded by Exploding Clowns and Other Stories

      In the Empire of Underpants and Other Stories

      Battlenaut Crucible

      Scifi Motherlode

      Sticks and Stones: A Trek Novel

      GIVE THE HIPPO WHAT HE WANTS

      The pink hippopotamus appeared in front of Thal Simoleon just as he was about to take the swing that could have won the World Series for the Bio Threats.

      As soon as the ball left the pitcher’s hand, Thal knew he could launch it out of the park.  It came in straight and steady, a little low and outside but well within his range...proof that even a genetically engineered pitcher like Phallus Fearbringer could blow a throw under pressure.

      Before the hippo appeared, Thal knew he was about to become the hero of the Series.  The Bio Threats were down by two in the bottom of the ninth with two outs...but the bases were loaded and the pitch was a home run waiting to happen.  One stroke of the bat would bring in the grand slam, assuring a Bio Threats win and a World Series title.

      At least, that was what would have happened if the hippo hadn’t popped up out of nowhere, wearing a grass skirt and hopping around on two legs between him and the ball.

      Singing opera.

      When the creature appeared, Thal’s view of the pitch was blocked, his concentration obliterated.  He took a swing anyway, aiming at the vicinity of where he expected the ball to be; to his credit, he came close...but his swing was well before the ball’s arrival.  The tip of the bat lashed into the corner of the strike zone and forward and up, passing harmlessly through the air and then the hippo.

      A heartbeat later, the ball sailed through and smacked into the catcher’s mitt.

      The hippo kept right on singing and pirouetting in front of him, long black lashes fluttering over baby blue eyes.

      The crowd roared with rage.  It was Thal’s third strike.

      The game was over.

      As the Dirty Nukes threw their hats in the air and embraced in the infield, Thal hurled his bat through the hippo, not caring who might be on the other side of the insubstantial phantasm.  The surprise visitor had robbed him of a great accomplishment; if he could have strangled it to death on the spot, he would have.

      But he knew

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