Spring According to Humphrey (9 page)

When class began on Monday morning, Cassie ran up to Mrs Brisbane and asked, ‘Are we going to share our signs of spring this morning?’

‘Yes,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘Did you find some?’

Cassie nodded. ‘I found something wonderful.’

Our teacher smiled and told Cassie to take her seat.

Tell-the-Truth-Thomas entered with a shocked look on his face. ‘It’s starting to snow!’ he said.

Mrs Brisbane looked surprised.

I glanced out the window and saw that it was a beautiful, sunny spring day.

Suddenly, Thomas grinned. ‘April Fools!’

Mrs Brisbane smiled and said, ‘This isn’t April the first, Thomas.’

‘I know,’ Thomas said. ‘But we were on holiday for April Fool’s Day, so I had to do it today.’

Just before the bell rang, Joey arrived, carrying the aquarium. It was covered with a cloth, so I couldn’t see inside. He walked very slowly and set it down SO-SO-SO carefully.

‘Wait till you see, Og,’ Joey whispered.

‘BOING-BOING-BOING!’ Og jumped up and down on a rock.

Rosie rolled her wheelchair towards the aquarium. ‘Let’s see!’

‘Not now,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘Joey will
uncover it when we talk about our signs of spring. Right, Joey?’

Joey smiled and nodded. He looked like he had a big, happy secret.

Normally, I wouldn’t change a thing Mrs Brisbane does. But that morning, I WISHED-WISHED-WISHED she wouldn’t make us study our vocabulary words first thing in the morning.

How could I think about words such as ‘wander’, ‘observe’ and ‘drift’ when I
observed
that my mind was
wandering
and
drifting
to thoughts about that covered aquarium?

I think many of my friends had the same problem, because they kept sneaking glances at our table by the window.

At last, it was time for break and my friends all hurried out to the playground, leaving me staring at a piece of cloth. I concentrated on looking out of the window instead, and I noticed the first drops of rain beginning to fall.

‘I guess our students will be back soon,’ Mrs Brisbane said out loud.

Suddenly, a few drops of rain turned to millions of drops of rain.

My classmates returned to Room 26 quickly, and they were dripping wet. Mrs Brisbane gave them paper towels to dry their arms and faces.

‘We still have a few minutes of playtime,’ she said. ‘What would you like to do?’

‘See what’s in the aquarium!’ Tell-the-Truth-Thomas shouted.

Everyone else loudly agreed – including me.

Even Og said, ‘BOING-BOING!’

Mrs Brisbane took her chalk and stood by our ‘Signs of Spring’ list on the board.

‘What did you find over the Easter break?’ she asked.

Holly held up a beautiful photo of a tree with white flowers. ‘It’s a dogwood,’ she said.

Which was strange, because it didn’t look anything like a dog.

My friends had seen pink trees and red birds and black birds.

Tall-Paul held up a large drawing of a nose.

‘What’s that?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.

‘I have allergies in the spring,’ he said. ‘They make my nose run.’

Everybody laughed, but I didn’t understand.
Your nose is attached to your face. How can it run? And where does it go?

‘Allergies are very unpleasant signs of spring,’ Mrs Brisbane agreed.

Calm-Down-Cassie waved her arm until I thought it would fall off. Mrs Brisbane finally noticed her.

‘Two birds built a nest right outside my bedroom,’ she said. ‘And there are eggs!’ She held up a sheet of photos. ‘I have a video, too. It was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen.’

‘I saw it, too!’ I squeaked.

Small-Paul shared his temperature chart that showed that it was continuing to get warmer and warmer.

‘What about the tadpoles?’ Rosie asked. ‘I just can’t wait.’

At the end of the day, Mrs Brisbane called on Joey.

‘I guess it’s time,’ Mrs Brisbane said.

It was time, all right. Though I was a tiny bit worried about what I’d see in that tank!

11 Uncle Og

Joey had a huge grin as he walked over to our table and stood next to the aquarium.

‘It’s not easy to take care of tadpoles,’ he said. ‘But I followed all of the directions and …’ He pulled the cloth off the tank. ‘They have little legs now, and if you study them closely, you can see their heads are changing!’ Joey looked so proud, I thought he’d burst!

The rest of our classmates jumped out of their seats and rushed towards the aquarium.

Mrs Brisbane got them to line up and calm down.

Og, however, didn’t calm down one bit.

‘BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!’
he twanged as he jumped up and down.

I have never seen him so excited.

Somehow, our teacher made sure my friends looked at the tank one by one.

‘Fan-TAS-tic!’ Thomas said.

‘Oooh, see those bumps?’ Rosie said. ‘I think that’s the beginning of their arms.’

Every single classmate said that the tadpoles were the most amazing, spectacular, wonderful, awesome things they’d ever seen in their lives!

Really? Hadn’t they seen me leap on to my wheel and leap off again without falling? Hadn’t they seen me swing across the top of my cage?

Of course, they hadn’t seen my adventures outside my cage, but if they had, they’d think I was amazing and wonderful, too! (Not to mention the fact that I can read and write.)

Growing legs and bumpy arms? That took no work at all.

Cassie wasn’t quite as excited as the other students. ‘That’s very interesting,’ she said. ‘But have you ever seen birds build a nest?’

‘I haven’t,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘But I’d like to. Thanks for sharing your pictures with us.’

‘Yes, thanks, Cassie,’ Helpful-Holly said. ‘I’d
love to see the baby birds hatch.’

Cassie invited Holly over to her house, and I could tell she felt a lot better.

I would have liked to see the baby birds hatch, too!

I’d been a little upset with Mrs Brisbane for making us wait for the unveiling of the tadpoles, but I was HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY when she let the students take time to watch the tadpoles.

Not that they did much. But they didn’t look like specks any more, and that was interesting to everybody.

I think it was especially interesting to Og.

‘BOING-BOING!’ he said. Then he jumped in the water to do some serious splashing.

After that, he went back to his rock and looked over at the aquarium.

‘BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!’ he exclaimed in a very loud voice.

‘I think Og likes them,’ Nicole said.

I wasn’t so sure about that.

Harry agreed. ‘Maybe he remembers being a tadpole, too!’

‘We should name them,’ Thomas suggested. ‘How about “Tad” and “Pole”?’

Some of my friends groaned at that idea.

Then Simon said, ‘We should call Og “Uncle”!’

Everybody loved that idea (except maybe me).

‘Uncle Og! Uncle Og!’ they repeated.

‘BOING-BOING!’ Og joined in.

I was unsqueakably relieved when it was time for lunch and my friends had to leave the classroom.

I needed a break!

Besides, I hadn’t had a chance to get a good look at the tadpoles myself.

Once the room was quiet – which it hadn’t been all morning – I moved to the side of my cage closest to the aquarium and looked.

The specks were bigger and, yes, they actually did have legs.

They had round things that looked a little bit like heads, if you used your imagination.

Luckily, I have a good imagination.

Then I looked across the aquarium to see Og.

Og had a huge head. He was green. He had strong legs.

The tadpoles didn’t look anything like him.
So why were my friends calling him ‘Uncle Og’? If he was the tadpoles’ uncle, was I their uncle, too?

Just because he was a frog, did that mean they were in the same family?

And where was
my
family, anyway?

‘So, what do you think, Og?’ I squeaked. ‘Do you like the tadpoles?’

He was completely silent, so I kept talking. ‘I can’t believe how much they changed.’

No answer.

‘Do you remember being a tadpole?’ I asked.

‘BOING!’ Og’s voice boomed.

I’m not sure, but I think maybe he didn’t remember.

‘I don’t remember being a baby hamster, either,’ I said. ‘At least I don’t think I do.’

After that, Og didn’t make any noise at all. I wondered if he’d dozed off. You can never tell with a frog.

Later that afternoon, Mrs Brisbane told the class that she had an idea for Family Fun Night.

‘Since we have animals in our classroom,
I thought we could have fun doing animal activities for the circus,’ she explained.

Helpful-Holly waved her hand. ‘Oooh, I saw a lady in a pink dress standing on the back of a horse at the circus and they were going round and round the ring really fast!’

‘Well, I don’t think we’ll be doing that.’ Mrs Brisbane chuckled. ‘Mrs Wright would not approve of horses racing around the gym.’

We all laughed at the thought of that.

‘I was thinking that we could have activities that have to do with hamsters and frogs,’ she said.

Calm-Down-Cassie waved her hand. ‘We made a hamster maze in after-school club.’

‘We could set up a maze – like an obstacle course – and people could buy a ticket to run through it,’ Harry suggested. ‘We could time them. If they beat the clock, they get a prize.’

Mrs Brisbane nodded. ‘I like that idea, Harry.’

Kelsey’s hand shot up. ‘Oooh, we could have the parents and their kids do a leapfrog race.’

The thought of my friends’ parents leaping around like frogs was unsqueakably funny to me.

‘BOING-BOING!’ I guess Og liked that idea.

‘And I thought we could have some of you take turns as ringmaster or ringmistress to draw people in,’ Mrs Brisbane said.

‘I want to do that,’ Rosie said.

‘Great! Let’s take a vote,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘Who would like Room Twenty-six to sign up to do animal acts?’

Every single hand shot up. I raised my paw.

Og said, ‘BOING!’ I don’t think he can actually raise one leg at a time.

Sophie asked, ‘Can Humphrey and Og be in the gym, too? And the tadpoles?’

Mrs Brisbane said, ‘Mrs Wright won’t like that. But I think Mr Morales will. And after all, he is her boss. I’ll see what I can do.’

There were cheers and applause.

Mrs Brisbane wasn’t finished. ‘Since we’re getting ready for Family Fun Night, I have an assignment that has to do with families and how they grow.’

She asked Holly to pass around sheets of paper.

‘We’re all going to make family trees,’ she said. ‘A family tree shows the people who live
in your family now. And it also shows your relatives from the past. You’re going to build yours branch by branch.’

I was confused. I may not remember my family, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t grow on trees. And neither do human families.

‘To start with, for your homework tonight, I want you to write your name at the bottom of the tree – there’s a space for it.’ She continued, ‘And then on the lowest branch, write the name of your mother on the right side and your father on the left side.’

Holly raised her hand. ‘You mean Janet and Steve? Those are my parents’ names.’

‘Their full names, including your mother’s maiden name,’ Mrs Brisbane replied. ‘That’s her last name from when she was a girl. Some mums keep their last name and some take their husband’s.’

Daniel frowned. ‘I have no idea what my mum’s maiden name is.’

‘Ask her,’ our teacher said. ‘Then, I want you to draw apples hanging from the tree to show your brothers and sisters, if you have any. Write their names in the apples.’

Sophie was already at work. ‘Timothy,’ she

said as she wrote on her paper. ‘Mrs Brisbane, I have a half-sister,’ Nicole said.

A half-sister? I’d never heard of such a thing! Which half was she?

‘My mum and dad got divorced,’ she continued. ‘My mum married my stepdad, and they had my sister. Where do I put her?’

Oh! So that’s what a half-sister is.

‘Make an apple on the tree for her. All kinds of sisters and brothers should be included,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘You don’t have to do it now. Bring it in tomorrow.’

As usual, I didn’t get a sheet, so I wasn’t sure what a family tree looked like
or
why brothers and sisters were apples!

My friends raced out of the room, but Thomas hung back with a worried look on his face.

‘Mrs Brisbane,’ he said when all of the students were gone, ‘I don’t know what to put on my tree because I’m adopted.’

‘That doesn’t make any difference,’ she said. ‘Do you live with someone that you call Mum or Dad?’

Thomas nodded. ‘Both.’

‘And do you love them and they love you back?’ she asked.

Thomas nodded again.

‘Then those are your parents,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘The people who love you and take care of you. Write their names on the family tree.’

‘Okay,’ Thomas said.

I wasn’t sure what
that
was all about, so I hopped on my wheel for a good, long spin to try to figure things out.

After my spin, I crawled into my sleeping hut, and by the time I woke up, it was dark outside.

It was too late to visit Gigi, even though I wanted to tell her about our Family Fun Night plans.

Og was quiet, so I sat and waited for Aldo to arrive. I was eager to see what he thought of the tadpoles. They were quiet, too.

Suddenly, the door opened and the lights came on.

‘Greetings, Aldo!’ I squeaked. After all, I hadn’t seen my friend for more than a week.

I was SHOCKED-SHOCKED-SHOCKED to see that the person pulling his cleaning cart into Room 26 wasn’t Aldo at all. It was a complete stranger!

‘You’re not Aldo!’ I squeaked.

‘BOING-BOING!’ Og chimed in.

The tadpoles didn’t make a sound, of course.

The stranger was much shorter than Aldo and he didn’t have that nice, furry moustache that Aldo has. But he did have rusty-coloured hair and a rusty-coloured beard to match.

He pulled in the cart and looked around the room. ‘Nice and neat,’ he said.

That was true. Mrs Brisbane’s room was always nice and always neat.

Then he saw our table by the windowsill. ‘Oh!’ he said. ‘Aldo left me a note about you.’

As he walked towards our table, I squeaked, ‘Where is Aldo? And who are you?’

He fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out a carrot stick. ‘Aldo told me to give the hamster a treat – I guess that’s you.’

‘Of course it’s me,’ I squeaked. ‘Does anyone else around here look like a hamster?’

He pushed the carrot stick between the bars of my cage.

‘Thank you,’ I said, even though I had no idea who this person was.

The man scratched his head and looked around. ‘He said to give the frog something.’ Luckily, he spotted the jar of Froggy Fish Sticks. ‘Ah!’ he said. He opened the jar, took out a few sticks and threw them into Og’s tank.

‘BOING-BOING!’ my froggy friend said.

The man scratched his head again as he stared at the tadpoles. ‘He didn’t tell me what to do about you.’ He leaned in closer to look at them. ‘Whatever you are.’