Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 112: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Chill’ Play by hice Mary Schnirring Everyone familiar with children knows the phenomenon of the imaginary playmate. The brains of children, being evidently far more imaginatively fiex- ible, carry on the creation and development of invisible companions to an extent adults cannot conceive of. In some gifted cases, such as the Brontés, the creations of childhood encompassed whole worlds of people and events... out of which in the case of the authors of “Wuthering Heights’ and “Jane Eyre” came great adult literature. In this different story of the operations of this psychological phenomenon comes a sense of growing uneasiness and culminating terror. ENRY bent lower over the dice board as the twilight deepened. With a dark-red crayon, he filled in the out- lines of another city; then, with a pen dipped in India ink, drew—rapidly and with remarkable delicacy and skill for a twelve-year-old—a temple, a palace, and a barracks; and sketched in hastily some ambiguous dwelling places. He | muttered to himself as he worked. “This ll keep old Charley Anderson in his place, I bet,” was the tenor of his mumblings. “His barracks only have room for about two hundred warriors, and my Royal Guards can clean them up with one hand tied behind their backs. Anyway, the Thorvians are a bunch of sissies.” In large letters, he labeled the city “THORVIA,” and sat back with a little smile on his face, wiggling his fingers to uncramp them. A voice called from somewhere downstairs. “Hen-reeee. Hen-reeee! Your dinner is ready! Why aren’t you ever around to help me set the table or any- thing, instead of sulking up in your room all the time? Why—” the voice trailed off into peevish, whining incoherencies. The boy stood up, scowling; but prepared, laggingly, to go downstairs. He paused, however, for one more look at the map. . It was drawn with eae precision. It appeared to be a map of a mountainous country, dominated by one large city, built on the top and upper Comicdooks.co