Day Without Numbers 1958

he kept looking out the window and thinking how much more fun it would be to be outside playing baseball or some other game I heard him Mumble to him sh didn't have to do arithmetic well I couldn't let him go on feeling that way so I decided to teach him a different kind of let without a sound I made myself appear on his desk he certainly was surprised he wanted to know who I was I told him that my name was Johnny numbers and that I had magic powers I could even make numbers disappear Bob said that if he had that kind of magic he'd do away with all numbers I promised to do that for him he wouldn't see any more numbers all that day without disturbing any of the others we left the classroom you never saw anyone as happy as Bob was when we got outside school first we just walked around a while it was a wonderful day then Bob saw some boys playing baseball in a field he suggested that we watch them for a while I thought that would be fun too so we stopped and watched the game suddenly there was an argument about the score the boys tried to settle it by looking at the scoreboard that's when I made all the numbers disappear and the boys couldn't settle their argument in fact they decided they couldn't finish the game because a baseball game without keeping score isn't much fun and you can't keep score without numbers Bob was disappointed but I told him him that I had to keep my promise of no numbers today B suggested that we look in the window of his favorite store it was always full of trains and other things he liked I wondered if he had enough money saved to buy a train that was on sale but I had to make the prices disappear before he could figure it out without numbers of course you can't show prices well believe believe me being without numbers wasn't exactly what Bob thought it would be we talked about other things that we could do Bob said that there were many things to play with in his house so that's where we went but let me tell you something I don't think that Bob was having as much fun as he thought he would have because Bob kept most of his things in the basement we went down there first he suggested that I watch him while he planned a new track for his train well the first thing he thought that he should do would be to find out how much new track he would need he said he was going to measure to find out I had to laugh when he said that I knew that yard sticks needed numbers and if he wasn't going to have any numbers that day he couldn't have any yard sticks either when I made the yard stick disappear Bob knew that things weren't the way he thought they would be without numbers he was disappointed I agreed that numbers helped us a great deal but I suggested that we tried to get along without them for the rest of the day the way we had planned to do Bob wondered what time it was but when he looked at the clock to find out I just had to make the numbers disappear he thought that a game of shuffle board would be fun he asked me if I'd like to play I said sure but can we we'll need numbers and today remember we're not going to have any numbers and Bob asked me if there was anything we could do without numbers I told him that there were many things but before I could suggest something he said that he wanted to listen to the radio but and I had to make them go away before I could even find the station he wanted when that happened Bob almost became angry I really believed that he was sorry for making his wish about numbers but he didn't say so instead decided to telephone his aunt his mother was visiting her he knew that his mother would want to know that he was at home but he soon found out that even telephoning depends on numbers things just seem to go from bad to worse for him Bob thought that we had better walk over