Kazoo Needed Kazoo NeededWhile all of the other children had given up hope, Ricardo knew that Kazoo Needed was out there, somewhere, trying to get back to them. He did all sorts of calculations based on the time of the Astronaut Horse’s last messages and the weather conditions. Even the wild rumors had a place in Ricardo’s mathematic formula.
And, boy, were there rumors! Some people said that he’d joined a commune in Northern California. Others said he was hiding out in rehab on the other side of the moon. Or he caught pneumonia or something worse- on Venus. There was a wild one that the children didn’t quite understand about a history teaching giraffe’s jealous husband teaching Kazoo Needed a lesson of his own.
The other children could not understand why Ricardo was so obsessed with finding Kazoo Needed. "Sure, he was fun and we learned a lot of math," said Thurston, "But when will we ever use any of that in the real world?"
All of the children agreed. Ricardo just walked away toward the television studio mumbling about how old Thurston could just hire someone to math for him.
"I have an important announcement to make to the world," Ricardo told the station manager, "I would like to have some time on your station to show everyone how I have nearly found Kazoo Needed. I need to ask the public for a little more help. Someone out there must know the missing piece to the puzzle!"
The station manager felt sorry for this little boy with stacks of papers and charts. "I’ll tell you what kid... Come back on Tuesday," said the station manager, "I’ll give you 15 minutes. Besides, I’ve almost run out of Thumby Wumby cartoons to take that old horse’s spot."
Ricardo was so happy as he ran home to tell his mother. Finally! Someone was going to listen! They were going to find Kazoo Needed. He would finally have a reason to be happy after all of this time.
When he got in the kitchen, Ricardo was dancing around and talking so quickly that it took his mother a couple of minutes to calm him down and turn him around to his father, who he had not seen in almost two and a half years, sitting at the kitchen table.
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fresh new smell
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