Horrible Harry Goes to Sea (4 page)

“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 and 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.

M
iss 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.