The Flight of Mehetabel

From WATER STREET PRESS President Kennedy is entertaining some now-forgotten head-of-state in the White House and eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway and his best friend Bobby Schindler are in New York City entertaining themselves—tossing water balloons, pennies and one Spanish melon off the fifteenth-floor terrace of the Schindler’s apartment building over looking Fifth Avenue. Bobby’s cat, Mehetabel, wanders out to sun herself and—inspired by the blustery day—the boys decide to fashion a parachute of Mrs. Schindler’s pink damask tablecloth and send Mehetabel for a twelve-foot sail from the balcony of the water tower to the terrace. The phlegmatic Mehetabel cooperates like a flight cadet as they fit her with the parachute, but the wind is unpredictable and the experiment goes awry. Mehetabel takes flight over Central Park with the boys—along with a Park Avenue matron, a couple of winos, a retired veterinarian and the New York City Fire Department—in hot pursuit. James Howard Kunstler’s charming tale takes us back to an age when NYC was a natural playground for two little boys on a breezy afternoon, a native would lend you a dime to make a phone call, and cats could fly. The Flight of Mehetabel is the third in Mr. Kunstler’s series of children’s books for adults. Collect all of his enchanting Jeff Greenaway tales at www.waterstreetpressbooks.com.