Adventure According to Humphrey (6 page)

Mrs. Morgenstern also moved around to each group. She was wearing a green and gold flowered tunic with gold pants tucked into her red boots.

“Color is the key!” she told Seth and Tabitha. “Choose your colors carefully.”

“The sail’s the thing,” Mr. Brisbane told Art and Mandy. “Remember, that’s what powers your boat. The Vikings were great sailors. Good choice.”

Vikings! My whiskers wiggled with excitement and I strained my neck, hoping for a glimpse of their drawing.

Mrs. Morgenstern moved to the table where Gail was working with Heidi.

“Come on, Gail,” she said. “You can be more creative than that! Think color!”

Gail wasn’t giggling. She wasn’t even smiling.

Kirk, who was almost always joking, was also very serious as he worked on his boat with his friend Richie.

“I’ve got a great idea,” Kirk said as he quickly sketched a drawing. “I know all about boats. We’ll make it a tall ship . . . like this!”

My heart thumped a little faster. Tall ships were amazing with MANY-MANY-MANY sails billowing in the wind!

“That’s cool.” Richie picked up his pencil. “What if we put a thing on the front, a whatchamacallit?”

He started to draw on the paper, but Kirk reached out and stopped Richie’s hand. “A figurehead? I don’t want to take the chance. It might throw the ship off balance and sink it.” Richie stopped drawing, but he didn’t look very happy.

“It would look good,” he complained.

“Yep,” Kirk agreed. “But you want to
win,
right?”

“Sure,” Richie said, although he didn’t sound completely convinced.

“Hey, Richie, what did the ocean say to the boat?” Kirk asked.

“What?” Richie asked.

“It didn’t say anything. It just waved!” Kirk joked, and Richie laughed.

Just then, Mr. Brisbane came to their table. “This is a happy group,” he said.

He studied the sketch of the tall ship. “It’s a fine-looking craft, boys,” he praised them. “Good work.”

Kirk and Richie beamed with pride.

“Mr. Brisbane, want to hear a joke?” asked Kirk.

Mr. Brisbane smiled. “Always.”

This time, Richie started. “What did the ocean say to the boat?”

“It didn’t say anything. It just waved!” Kirk responded. Then he and Richie exploded into laughter.

They were a good team. Or so I thought.

 

 

Mrs. Morgenstern’s voice rang out. “Now that’s what I call original!” She was standing by the table where Sayeh and Miranda were working.

“Gail? Heidi?” she said. “Look at this! Stunning.”

Heidi and Gail came over to look at the drawing.

“It’s a swan boat,” Miranda explained. “I saw one once in a park.” She sounded very proud. Speak-Up-Sayeh didn’t say anything, but she looked proud, too.

“Okay,” said Heidi. “We’ll make ours really pretty. Right, Gail?”

Gail didn’t answer. She just followed her friend back to the table and stared down at her drawing. I wished I could see it from my cage, but I couldn’t.

After Mr. Brisbane and Mrs. Morgenstern left, Mrs. Brisbane pulled her chair to the front of the room, took out my new favorite book and began to read. Uncle Jolly Roger and Vic and Vi finally reached the tropical island where there was supposed to be buried treasure. But when they arrived, they discovered that a band of pirates had gotten there right before them. The very thought of meeting a real pirate gave me the shivers. But it was the good kind of shivers, where you feel happy and scared all at the same time.

When Mrs. Brisbane stopped reading, my friends all begged for more. “I’d like to read another chapter,” she said. “But I don’t think there’s time.”

Just then, the bell rang, announcing the end of school. The day had gone so quickly, none of us had noticed. Not even Wait-for-the-Bell-Garth, who was always the first one heading out the door.

 

 

Usually, after school was finished for the day, I looked forward to Aldo’s arrival. It was the high point of my evenings. But that night, I was anxious for Aldo’s visit to be over as fast as possible.

For one thing, I liked regular Aldo better than pirate Aldo, despite his hornpipe dance. For another thing, I was still thinking about
Treasure Island
and Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins, the boy who went to sea. I stared out the window until I saw Aldo’s car pull out of the parking lot. Then I threw open the door to my cage, slid down the table leg and zoomed across the floor. I was so excited, I almost forgot to tell Og what I was doing. I felt a little guilty having so much fun without him, but I couldn’t resist the chance to see that movie again.

I squeezed under the library door and headed straight for the remote control. I punched it and—boom—the monitor lit up. I was all ready to set sail on the open sea.

I was SO-SO-SO surprised when instead of a pirate movie, there was some kind of program about how the human eye works! I guess Mr. Fitch had showed it to some other class. I must admit, I learned a lot about the cornea and the iris and cones and rods.

But believe me, it was nothing—
nothing
—like sailing to Treasure Island.

B
y the time class started the next morning, my mind was spinning as fast as my hamster wheel, thinking about pirates, sailboats and the sailing contest.

Once class began, however, there was too much going on to think about any of those things. The vocabulary test came first. I’d had boats on my mind all week but
not
spelling. I took the test with my friends (sneaking into my sleeping hut to write in my notebook), but I managed to miss three words, including
squall
. For some reason, I thought there was a
w
in there. Like
sprawl
. Or
bawl
.

I must admit, I had a little doze during math period. As soon as that was finished, Mr. Brisbane and Mrs. Morgenstern returned and the sailboat building was in full swing again. I perched near the top of my cage and watched my friends at work.

Oh, what lovely boats they were! The boat Miranda and Sayeh were working on really looked like a graceful swan. It was a sailboat that curved up high on each end. The front part looked like the head of a swan. The back part looked like the tail feathers. The girls were carefully gluing colorful feathers to the sides of the boat. It was quite a sight!

A.J. and Garth designed an impressive sailboat that had a skull-and-crossbones pirate flag (which is called the Jolly Roger, like the uncle in the book Mrs. Brisbane was reading to us).

Tabitha and Seth were building a Chinese junk. It had several sails. The biggest one was red, with a dragon painted on it. And the Viking ship designed by Art and Mandy was beginning to take shape. It was long and low with a square sail with blue and white stripes.

But the sailboat to end all sailboats was the one Kirk and Richie were building. It was still early, but I was already thinking they had a good chance of winning the race. Richie was sanding the hull, and Kirk was working on the sail.

SCRITCH-SCRITCH-SCRITCH! went the sandpaper. Richie was really throwing himself into his work when suddenly Kirk pulled the boat out of his hand.

“Hold it, Richie. You have to sand it evenly. You’re taking way too much off this side, see?” Kirk pointed to one side of the boat.

“Okay, okay. You don’t have to grab it like that.” Richie, who was usually a happy-go-lucky guy, looked grumpier than I’d ever seen him before. “Give it back.”

“I’ll sand it,” said Kirk. “I know how to do it.”

He started sanding while Richie glared at him. “I know how to do it, too,” he told Kirk.

“Look, Richie, just let me do this. I can practically promise we’ll win because I know just what to do,” Kirk assured his partner. “My dad and I built one of these last year.”

“I can at least
sand
it,” Richie protested, but Kirk didn’t give in.

“I’ll do it,” Kirk said. “And we’ll get the prize.”

Kirk kept sanding. He didn’t even seem to notice how upset Richie was.

After a while, Kirk said, “Hey, where do you take a sick boat?”

“Who cares,” Richie muttered.

“To the dock!” Kirk replied with a big laugh. “Get it? To the doc!”

Richie didn’t answer, and he certainly didn’t laugh.

 

Gail didn’t seem to be enjoying the assignment any more than Richie. Heidi painted the hull while Gail was supposed to design the sail. Mrs. Morgenstern loved all of Heidi’s ideas.

“Oh, those squiggles look like waves! That’s a wonderful theme for the boat,” she exclaimed. Then she turned to her daughter. “Gail, why don’t you do something like that for the sails?”

Gail didn’t smile, and she didn’t answer.

Mrs. Morgenstern didn’t seem to notice. “Let your mind go wild. Think mermaids! Think seagulls! Think lighthouses!”

I don’t believe Gail was thinking about any of those things. Luckily, Mandy had a question for Mrs. Morgenstern, who moved away from the table.

“Why don’t you listen to your mom?” Heidi asked Gail. “If you do what she says, maybe we’ll win the prize for Most Beautiful Boat.”

Gail stared at the big poster of a sailboat for a very long time.

“See that picture on the wall?” she asked Heidi at last.

“Sure,” Heidi answered.

“What does it look like?”

Heidi thought for a moment. “Well, it’s a wooden boat with big white sails.”

Gail nodded. “And doesn’t it look beautiful sailing across the water with those white sails against the blue sky?”

“I guess so,” Heidi said.

“I don’t think there’s anything more peaceful than a sailboat with white sails,” Gail explained. “I hate to mess it up with mermaids and seagulls.”

“But the contest . . .” Heidi protested.

Gail sighed. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll try.”

She didn’t sound as if she meant it.

 

I was GLAD-GLAD-GLAD when Mrs. Brisbane had my friends put their boats away until school was over. After the students left, Mrs. Brisbane stayed to tidy up her desk. It was quiet for the first time all day, so I guess I dozed off. I wasn’t asleep for long, though, because I was awakened by a familiar voice, loudly saying, “I think we need to talk about your field trip.”

The voice, which belonged to Mrs. Wright, said “field trip” in the same way she might say “bad smell” or “chicken pox.”

“Oh, you mean the trip to Potter’s Pond?” Mrs. Brisbane asked. Her voice was friendly, but I knew our teacher well enough to know that she was on her guard. With Mrs. Wright, it’s always a good idea to be on your guard.

“Yes, I see you filed the proper form, but I did have some questions,” Mrs. Wright explained. “And some
concerns
.”

I was concerned that Mrs. Wright was sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.

“What concerns?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

Mrs. Wright leafed through a stack of papers she had in her hand.
“Safety concerns,”
she said. “I need to know that you will have the required number of parent volunteers.”

“Of course. That’s never a problem with this class,” Mrs. Brisbane assured her.

“And all students must have permission slips. No exceptions,” Mrs. Wright said in an ominous tone of voice. “Not one.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

“I am also concerned about
water safety,
” Mrs. Wright continued. “I’m not sure whether or not we’ll need a lifeguard.”

“If we need one, we’ll get one,” said Mrs. Brisbane. “But the students aren’t swimming. They’re just sailing boats.”

Mrs. Wright shuffled her papers some more. “Yes, well, these are
model
boats, I hope.”

I don’t think Mrs. Wright saw Mrs. Brisbane roll her eyes, but I did.

“Very small model boats,” she answered.

“Yes, yes, I see,” said Mrs. Wright. “We’ll also have to make sure the students are properly dressed. They will need sweaters. Possibly boots.”

Mrs. Brisbane sighed, but Mrs. Wright kept on talking. “Then there’s the matter of food. All of the snacks must be on the approved list.” She whipped out a piece of paper and handed it to Mrs. Brisbane.

“Mrs. Wright,” our teacher said. “I have been taking students on field trips for many, many years and I’ve never had a problem so far.”

Mrs. Wright smiled, but it wasn’t a nice smile.
“Of course,”
she said. “But regulations have changed over the years.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I just had to squeak up. “Leave her alone!” I shouted. Even if it sounded like SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK to her, I figured she could tell I wasn’t happy.