Teething Ring

Melinda Adams opens her door in scarlet nails and a Chinese-red housecoat—and finds a bald little peddler offering force fields, anti-gravity sandals, and a neural distorter. He thinks her television is a monitor; she thinks he’s working his way through college.

In a modest home where the TV soaps and a crying baby set the rhythm of the day, Porteous is collecting notes on what he calls a primitive culture. Melinda puts up with his questions for the sake of a remarkable hair-growth tonic, until he takes an interest in her son, Harry Junior. His proposed remedy for the baby’s teething—and his ideas about the child’s intelligence—bring Melinda’s patience to an abrupt end. But the strange crystal he leaves behind keeps Harry Junior quiet, and the peddler’s visit may have consequences neither of them expects. How much trouble can one curious housewife and one alien gadget cause?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.