by Suzy Kline
“Yahoo!” we all yelled as we pulled them down over our heads.
During the bus ride, Harry and I chatted.
“Have you ever gone to sea before?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Me neither,” I said.
Mary stuck her head over the back of our bus seat. “We’re not really going to sea,” she snapped. “We’re going on the river. The Connecticut River.”
“The Connecticut River empties into Long Island Sound and that goes right into the ocean,” Harry snapped. “It’s all the same thing. We’re going to sea!”
Mary rolled her eyeballs, “Okay, Captain Spooger, I’m going to sea for a second time.”
Harry grinned. He liked being called Captain.
“What do you mean second time? You’ve gone to sea, Mary?”
“Once I took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. That’s where a lot of our ancestors sailed to.”
Miss Mackle beamed. I could tell she was glad the word “ancestors” had popped up in our conversation.
“There were lots of waves,” Mary added. “The boat really rocked back and forth, like this.” Everyone watched Mary jostle Song Lee and herself backward and forward.
“It was kind of... scary,” she added in a soft voice.
Song Lee joined the conversation. I wondered why she was wearing just one gold hoop earring, but I didn’t ask. “When I was four,” she said, “I sailed on a ship from Korea to San Francisco.”
“Whoa,” Harry groaned. “That’s going to sea big time!”
“What was it like crossing the Pacific Ocean?” I asked.
Song Lee smiled. “I felt safe sitting on Mother’s lap. I smelled sea air and watched our ship make big waves. Once when we had dinner, my plate slid right off the table.”
Sidney interrupted. “Hey, you guys, maybe we’ll discover Captain Kidd’s pirate treasure. They say it’s buried somewhere along the shore of the Connecticut River.” Suddenly, Sidney leaned over and tied his boots. When he sat back up, he was beaming like he had just found a treasure himself!
“You know Sid,” Harry replied, “if you were a pirate captain, they’d call you Captain Squid!”
Just as Sidney held up a fist, Mary screamed, “Song Lee’s gold earring is missing!”
Miss Mackle immediately turned around. “I’ll tell the bus driver,” she replied. “If we don’t find it, the bus company will.”
“It’s okay,” Song Lee said.
When Harry and I noticed her eyes filling up with tears, we knew she was sad about it.
“Hey, Song Lee,” Sidney called. “Now you can be a pirate going to sea with one earring!”
Mary made a face. “Thanks, Sid. That really cheers her up.”
Room 3B Sets Sail!
When we arrived at Essex, we could see the big riverboat docked at the pier through our bus window. It was exciting to see the red, white, and black smokestacks.
“I’m sorry about your earring,” Mary said to Song Lee. “I bet it fell off when we were rocking on the bus.”
“I’ll look for it while you’re gone,” the bus driver said as we walked by. “You’d be surprised what I find on my bus.”
“Thank you,” Song Lee replied.
Ida changed the subject. “Look,” she said. “There must be ten other classes here. Don’t you feel like you’re boarding the Titanic? We even have our own green passenger tickets.”
Song Lee nodded as she pulled her sailor’s hat further down over her head. Harry pointed to the top deck. “Let’s make sure we get up there so we can see stuff. We want to go first class!”
“Single file please,” Miss Mackle ordered.
Mr. La Fleur followed at the rear of the line with Sidney. He kept calling, “All aboard! All aboard!” Mrs. Burrell was in the middle. She had a first aid kit. As we stepped onto the gangplank, I started to get excited. “Just think, we’re going on a ship just like the Pilgrims and those people on the Titanic.”
“And like the pirates!” Sid added.
“Downstairs, please,” one of the ship-men said. “The top deck is full.”
“Rats!” Harry groaned. “That’s no fair. I wanted to be on the top deck. That’s where the action is!”
When we walked down the stairs, I made a face too. “Gee, it’s like being in third class on the Titanic.”
“Most people were,” Ida replied, “including my great-great-grandmother. She went third class.”
Mrs. Burrell smiled as she put a Band Aid on Mary’s finger. Mary’s ticket had just given her a papercut.
“Everyone take a seat please, we’re ready to cast off!” the captain announced over the loudspeaker.
Harry and I scooted into a row of chairs next to a porthole. “Can you see the water?” I asked.
Harry pressed his nose against the glass. “Look, Doug! It’s like a war movie. There are floating bombs all over the place.”
“Bombs?” I pushed Harry aside and looked out the porthole. “Those aren’t bombs, they’re buoys.”
“Well, they look like bombs,” Harry said in a disappointed voice. “And they look like they’re moving.”
“We’re the ones moving,” I explained.
“All clear,” the captain said over the loudspeaker. “You can leave your seats now.”
Song Lee and Ida jumped up and started walking across the lower deck.
“Some voyage,” Harry grumbled. “I can’t even smell the sea air down here.”
“Look,” I said, peering out the window. “There’s a big water bird’s nest on top of that buoy.”
Harry shined his flashlight on it. “Cool,” he said. “Maybe we’ll spot another one down the river.”
“Want to get postcards?” Ida asked Mary and Song Lee. “They sell them on the ship. I want to add them to my collection.”
“Yes!” the girls replied. Mrs. Burrell followed the girls to the souvenir and snack shop.
Harry made a face. “Postcards, shmostcards. I want to go on the top deck.”
“I’ll take you up there,” Mr. La Fleur said.
“I’m hungry,” Sidney complained. “Can I get something at the snack shop first?”
“Tell you what,” Mr. La Fleur said. “Mrs. Burrell is over there now. Go get your snack and then join us upstairs on the poop deck.”
Sidney cackled. He loved that word. “Okey dokey, Dad. See you in a jiff,” Sid replied.
The crowd slowed us down as we tried to move up the narrow stairway When we finally got to the outside deck, there were a hundred people squished together. Harry and I snaked our way through the crowd to where the anchor was hoisted.
“Wow!” I said, pointing out three things. “Look at the wake the ship makes! See Gillette’s Castle on the hill up there! Look! There’s a swinging bridge up ahead!”
Harry looked like he had just stepped on glass in his bare feet. “Man, this stinks! There’s no room. I can’t see anything.”
“Look at that cemetery, boys!” Mr. La Fleur said, pointing to the hill overlooking the river. “Lots of ancestors there!” He took a small camera out of his pocket and snapped some pictures. After a while, he checked his watch. “What’s keeping Sid? We’d better go check on him at the snack shop.”
After we followed him to the lower deck, I spotted Miss Mackle and Mrs. Burrell and our classmates. They were eating lunch and looking out the portholes.
“Isn’t Sidney with you?” Mr. La Fleur asked as the ship dipped to the right.
“No. I thought he was with you,” Mrs. Burrell answered. She was putting a wet towel over Dexter’s forehead.
While Mr. La Fleur headed over to the snack shop, Harry and I stayed and talked to Dexter. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“Aaaaaaugh,” Dexter groaned.
“He’s seasick,” Mrs. Burrell explained.
“That’s too bad,” I said.
“Hey, Dex,” Harry added, “if you can barf, you’ll feel a lot better.”
Suddenly, Mary an
d Ida screamed.
When we looked up, Song Lee was pointing at something floating in the water.
“Come and see!” they yelled.
Harry and I ran over to the portholes and looked.
There it was... bobbing in the water.
A sailor’s hat.
The name Sidney was printed on it.
Sid the Squid, Lost at Sea?
Miss Mackle came over immediately. When she saw the sailor hat floating in the water, she shuddered.
Harry didn’t waste a second! First, he spotted the life jackets. They were stuffed inside the ceiling beams. Quickly, he hopped onto a chair, stood on his tiptoes, and reached the end strap of one life jacket. When it came tumbling down, he caught it with both hands. “I’ll throw this to Captain Squid,” he said jumping to the floor.
Miss Mackle stopped him. “Harry Spooger, what are you doing with that life jacket? You already have one on!”
“I’m throwing it to Sid in the sea.”
“Oh Harry!” Miss Mackle replied. “His father will find him. Sidney is probably just wandering around and his hat blew off. In the meantime, I’m asking the captain to page him. Now give me that life jacket, please. It’s supposed to stay tucked in the ceiling for an emergency.”
Harry reluctantly handed the teacher the life jacket. “Okay,” he groaned.
Miss Mackle shook her head. “You know, Harry, you remind me a lot of your great-grandfather Sam Spooger. You really want to save someone.”
Harry flashed his white teeth. “I do!”
Then Harry and I walked over to the boys’ bathroom. We had to go. When we got there, we found a long line.
“Whoever is in there has kept us waiting now for five minutes,” a father complained. He was holding a toddler who was pulling his hair.
Suddenly, Harry cut in front of everyone and banged on the door with his knuckles. “Sid the Squid?”
I smiled. Somehow that nickname seemed to fit Sid on the sea.
“Yeah?” a weak voice called back.
“That you?” I asked.
“No ... it’s ... me.”
When the door opened, we saw Dexter hobble out. His face looked sea green.
“I think... I feel... a little better,” Dexter said. “I barfed.”
As we took his arm and led him back to our class, we heard a voice come over the loudspeaker: Will Sidney La Fleur please report to the snack shop immediately.
Dexter ignored the announcement. “I guess... I can’t rock at sea... like I can rock with Elvis,” he mumbled.
“Speaking of music,” I said. “Do you hear that?”
We stopped in our tracks and listened.
A pirate’s tough but he can sing.
He wears a patch and a gold earring.
He climbs up rope and sails the sea
With a yo ho ho and a yo ho hee!
“Sidney!” we shouted. There he was, about five yards from the refreshment stand. A crowd of kids made a circle around him. You couldn’t see Sid at all. You could just hear his sea chantey!
Mr. La Fleur, who was waiting by the refreshment stand, looked over at us immediately. When he saw us pointing to the circle of kids, he ran right through it. “Sidney! We’ve been looking all over for you. Didn’t you hear the loudspeaker?” Then after he scolded him, he hugged him.
Sidney hugged him back. “I... didn’t hear it.... I was singing.”
“You shouldn’t wander off like that!” Mr. La Fleur said as we all walked him back to our class.
When we returned, Dexter quietly sat down next to Mrs. Burrell. Everyone else yelled, “Sidney!”
Mary pointed to his ear. “You stole Song Lee’s earring!”
“No! No I didn’t!” Sidney replied. “I found it under the bus seat. I was just going to borrow it. I was planning all along to return it. I was just checking it out... like a library book.”
Most of us rolled our eyes.
“So what do you say to Song Lee?” Mr. La Fleur asked.
“Sorry,” Sidney said taking off the earring and handing it to Song Lee.
Mary shook her head. “If you really were a pirate like your ancestor Rupert, you would be marooned! Pirates aren’t supposed to steal from each other.”
Sidney wiped his eyes. “You’re right. I should have asked first. Would you like a hot dog, Song Lee? I still have some allowance left.”
Song Lee took a moment to think about it. “Yes, please,” she said. “With mustard, relish, and ketchup.”
“Okey dokey,” Sid replied. Then he looked at the teacher. “Do you have an extra sailor’s hat? I can’t find mine.”
Miss Mackle and Sid’s stepdad exchanged a long look.
The last ten minutes of our trip, Mrs. Burrell asked, “Anyone want to see the view from the top deck?”
“Yeah!” Harry shouted.
Just as we were going up the winding stairwell, tons of people were coming down.
“It’s raining!” they called.
Mary stopped in her tracks. “I’ll stay downstairs. I don’t want to get my new sailor’s hat wet.”
Sidney didn’t have a choice. He was grounded next to his stepdad.
Dexter was asleep.
Mrs. Burrell looked at Song Lee, Ida, Harry, and me. “Do you mind a little rain?”
“Nah,” Harry said. “Sailors like us are used to rain. Let’s go!”
“My great-great-grandmother Persis sailed through icebergs and icy wind. Rain can’t keep me from doing anything!” Ida exclaimed.
When we got to the top deck, we had the whole place to ourselves. What a view of the Connecticut River Valley!
“You know what, Harry?” I said. “I think we would have made it if we were on the Titanic or Mayflower. We’re tough sailors.”
“Yeah, we are tough sailors.”
Ida handed her camera to her mother. “Please take a picture of Song Lee and me singing in the rain. I want to add it to Great-Great-Grandmother Persis’s scrapbook.”
“Good idea,” Ida’s mother replied.
While Mrs. Burrell snapped a picture of the girls, Harry and I looked over the railing. The raindrops hit the water like grains of sand.
“I love the sea,” Harry said, taking a deep whiff of fishy air.
“Me too,” I said, watching a bird flap its wings.
And then Harry yelled, “Thanks Ida!”
I don’t think she heard Harry. Ida was too busy singing and dancing on the deck with her mother and Song Lee.