Horrible Harry Goes to Sea (2 page)

After I sat down, it was Harry's turn.

He held up a dog tag on a long silver chain. “This belonged to my great-grandfather Sam Spooger. He was a captain in World War II. Mom said when he was in Italy, an artillery shell fell off the rack. Right in front of ten army men!

“Those huge bullets are heavier than a bowling ball! If one of those babies hit the ground, you'd be blasted to smithereens. Well, my great-grandfather caught it with his bare hands before it touched the ground. He saved his men, but he lost his thumb. He was a hero.”

Miss Mackle put her hand over her heart and sighed.

When Song Lee went up to the front of the room, she spoke in a soft voice. Slowly, she opened her big bag. “My great-grandfather Chung Hee Park was a painter. He painted this picture of the countryside in South Korea where my family lived.
Korea
means land of high mountains and sparkling streams. And that is what Great-Grandfather Chung Hee liked to paint.”

Song Lee finally smiled as she headed for her seat. I think she was relieved her turn was over.

“Thank you for sharing your ancestor's beautiful painting!” Miss Mackle said. “And thank you, boys and girls, for sharing such inspiring stories!”

Finally, Miss Mackle called the last person. “Ida?”

Ida picked up the black box and walked to the front of the room.

Everyone sat up and waited to find out what was inside her locked box.

W
e all watched Ida use the key on her gold necklace to unlock the box. When it clicked, our eyes doubled in size.

But instead of opening the box, she pulled down our world map. “My great-great-grandmother,” Ida said, “was born here in India.” Everyone looked at the country she pointed to. “It kind of looks like an ice cream cone.”

Everyone leaned forward as Ida slowly removed the lid from her black box. “Her name was Persis, and she sailed on the
Titanic
!
”

“Oooooooh,” everyone oohed.

“Did Purse die in the icy water?” Sidney asked.

“No,
Persis
was a survivor,” Ida said proudly. “The things in this black box are replicas. Mom told me that means copies. They're not the originals. But it gives you an idea of what it was like to be on the
Titanic.
There are postcards, and a menu, and even telegrams warning about the icebergs.”

“Ooooooh,” we oohed again.

Miss Mackle closed her grade book. “Amazing! Your great-great-grandmother sailed on the
Titanic
!
”

“She was a dancer like me,” Ida added with a big grin. “She danced in the
general room
until midnight. That's where the third-class passengers played instruments.”

“Rupert sang sea chanteys like
yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
!” Sidney blurted out.

“If Elvis was there, he'd be playing his guitar,” Dexter chimed in. Then he shuffled his feet and tapped his fingers on his desk.

Mary snapped at both Sidney and Dexter, “Shhhh! It's
not
your turn!”

Ida continued, “Great-Great-Grandmother Persis was 98 years old when she died. I don't remember her because I was just a baby then. But Mom showed me her scrapbook. When she finally got to America, she met my great-great-grandfather in New York City. He was an African-American. My ancestors are from India and Africa.”

Harry left his seat without permission and got the
T
encyclopedia. I knew he was looking up the
Titanic.

“When she was on the lifeboat, she sang a lot,” Ida added. “Mom told me it helped calm the people.”

Five minutes later, when we were still talking about the
Titanic,
Harry found what he was looking for.
“Here it is!”

Everyone shot out of their seat and ran over to Harry. Miss Mackle didn't say anything. She came over too.

“Look at that big baby!” Harry exclaimed. “It covers two pages. It says the
Titanic
was as long as four city blocks. Hey, Doug, that's how far it is from my house to your house.”

“Wow,” I sighed.

While some of us gathered around Harry, others gathered around Ida to look at the postcards, menus, and telegrams.

“Who would like to go to the library and check out some books on the
Titanic
?” Miss Mackle asked.

Six of us darted over to her desk for the green library passes. Little did we know that Ida's box would take us to sea,
ourselves!

T
hat morning six of us rushed to the library and checked out books on the
Titanic.
When there were no more, our librarian, Mrs. Michaelsen, suggested Harry and I look at a book on the
Mayflower.
“That's a great ship too,” she said. Then she helped Sidney find one about a pirate ship.

“Thanks!” we replied, and we took the books back to class.

The rest of that morning we drew pictures of ships and collected facts about them. Song Lee and Mary and Ida used Magic Markers to make a giant
Titanic
ship. They used a map from Ida's box to draw the rooms. They even made the Turkish bath room and the smoking room. Song Lee used a ruler.

Sidney kept singing
yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
Then he made up his own verses:

Harry and I clapped. “Not bad, Sid the Squid,” Harry said. Then we got back to work.

“Let's make a list of numbers about the
Mayflower,”
I suggested.

“Neato,” Harry said, taking a stub pencil from behind his ear.

“Here's two,” I said. “The
Mayflower
set sail in 1620, and there were 102 passengers on board.”

“Here's another: a storm lasted 14 days,” Harry said.

“The Pilgrims were on the ship for 65 days,” I added.

“Here's the poop deck,” Harry said. “See? It's this top deck. That's probably where they went to the bathroom.”

“Nope. Not there,” I said. “I read about it. When they had to go to the bathroom, they did it downstairs in chamber pots.”

Harry thought about it for a minute. Then he called out, “Hey, Ida! Did your great-great-grandmother have a chamber pot!”

Ida stopped coloring. “Yes, she did. It looked like a big porcelain vase with a lid, and had flowers on it. It was a beautiful potty.”

As soon as Song Lee started giggling, Ida and Mary did too. Then they added a chamber pot to their drawing.

“Hey Sid!” Harry hollered. “Where did pirates go to the bathroom?”

Sidney pointed at something in his pirate's book. It looked like a see-saw, but half of it was hanging over the water.