The Intrepid Canadian Expedition

by jeff brown

  Flat Stanley’s

  Worldwide Adventures Book No. 4

  The Intrepid Canadian Expedition

  Created by Jeff Brown

  Written by Sara Pennypacker

  Pictures by Macky Pamintuan

  Contents

  1. Stanley Goes Skiing

  2. Arthur’s Accident

  3. Up, Up, and Away!

  4. The Northwest Territories

  5. Mountie Martin

  6. The Stanley Cup!

  7. Over the Falls!

  8. Together Again

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  Other Flat Stanley Books

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  Stanley Goes Skiing

  “Ha, ha!” Arthur Lambchop crowed as he skied past his older brother, Stanley. “Last one to the bottom is a frozen pancake!”

  Stanley grunted as he dug his poles into the snow and strained against the frosty Canadian wind. Ever since he had awakened to find himself flattened by a bulletin board, Stanley had been putting up with Arthur’s teasing about his shape. He didn’t really mind—Arthur was a good brother: cheerful and loyal and a lot of fun.

  And so what if being flat made it nearly impossible to ski? It had some mighty big advantages! For instance, Stanley could now travel by mailing himself anywhere in the world for a fraction of the cost of airfare. And he’d sure had a lot of adventures that would not have been available to a rounder boy!

  His shape had been a big help to others, also. Stanley allowed himself a little smile of pride as he flapped another few feet down the slope. Wasn’t his mother wearing her favorite ring because he had been able to slip down into a storm drain to retrieve it? Wasn’t Abraham Lincoln’s nose still in place at Mount Rushmore because he had turned himself into a human Band-Aid? And right now, weren’t there a couple of museum sneak thieves playing poker in the city jail who were very sorry indeed they’d ever run into a boy flat enough to pose as a painting?

  Just then Arthur whizzed by for a second time. “See you a-ROUND!” he shouted.

  Stanley struggled harder against the wind and reminded himself even more firmly he should not feel sorry for himself. Why, already on this vacation his flatness had been an advantage: Because he could simply bend his legs at the knees, he had not needed to rent skis. With the money this had saved, the Lambchop family had enjoyed a hot chocolate party in the lodge the night before.

  Stanley paused to catch his breath. Really…so what if he wasn’t aerodynamic anymore? The sun was shining on the snowcapped mountains, and the air felt fresh on his cheeks. The scene spread below him was straight out of a winter wonderland postcard! Over on the expert trail, daredevils were enjoying the jumps, leaping and twisting in the air. In front of him, brightly dressed skiers swooshed by tall, frosted pines.

  By the color of their parkas, Stanley recognized a band of kids he and Arthur had met the day before. He watched as his brother dashed down the mountain to them now. Everyone waved merrily to one another, and their shouts of greeting drifted up the mountain.

  And there, in the middle of the trail, Stanley sank to the snow in defeat. He couldn’t deny it anymore: Lately, his flatness had made him feel he just didn’t have much in common with other people. Lately, it had made him feel lonely.

  Tears froze on his eyelashes. Stanley brushed them off to watch Arthur and the other kids weave in and out of each other’s paths, gliding gleefully down the mountain. Suddenly, though, Arthur shouted something and broke off from the group. He was heading toward the daredevil skiers!

  Stanley scrambled to his feet. “No, Arthur!” he cried. “There are jumps!”

  Too late! Stanley watched in horror as his brother flew up in the air and then crashed in a pinwheel of skis and poles and flying gloves!

  Without a second thought, Stanley angled his body edgewise into the wind, like the blade of a knife. He ripped down the mountain at a terrifying speed, and within seconds he was at his brother’s side.

  “Are you all right?” Stanley asked. He offered Arthur his hand to help him up.

  Just then a boy about Stanley’s age skidded to a stop in a spray of snow beside the brothers. “Don’t try to move him!” he warned. “He may have a broken bone. I’ll go to get my father…. He’s a doctor; he’s on ski patrol today!” And then, just as suddenly, the boy took off on his snowboard again.

  Stanley bent down beside his brother. “Does it hurt awfully?” he asked. “Do you want me to go get Mom and Dad?”

  Arthur shook his head. “Just stay here with me until that fellow’s father comes, all right?”

  “Of course,” Stanley promised. “I won’t leave you.”

  2

  Arthur’s Accident

  “Ah! Just breathe this fresh Canadian air, Harriet!” marveled George Lambchop to his wife. “I feel like a new man!”

  Before Mrs. Lambchop could reply, a boy on a snowboard slooshed to a stop in a cloud of sparkling snow in front of them. “Are you Arthur and Stanley Lambchop’s parents?” the boy asked.

  “Oh, dear,” Mrs. Lambchop fretted. “Is everything all right with the boys?”

  “Arthur’s had an accident. Follow me.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop hurried to follow the boy. In the lodge, they were alarmed to see Arthur on a couch, looking quite pale. His ankle was the size of a cantaloupe. A man in a white coat was bending over him, while Stanley looked on anxiously.

  “Good gracious!” Mrs. Lambchop cried, flying to her son’s side. “Are you all right, dear?”

  Arthur winced. “It hurts a lot,” he admitted. “But the doctor says it’s just a bad sprain.”

  At this, the man in the white coat straightened and shook hands with the Lambchops. “The boy’s lucky,” he said. “He’ll have to stay inside and heal for a few days, but then he’ll be good as new.”

  “Stay inside?” Arthur cried. “No fair! Stanley and I have tickets for the World Snowboarding Championships this afternoon!”

  “Out of the question, I’m afraid, young man.”

  Arthur slumped down with a groan, and the doctor turned back to Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop. “I’m Doctor Dave, by the way. It was my boy, Nick, who fetched you.”

  “Thank you so much for tending to our son,” Mr. Lambchop said. “Perhaps we should give a call to Doctor Dan, the boys’ regular doctor back home, to let him know what’s going on….”

  “Doctor Dan? Not Doctor Dan of America by any chance?”

  When the Lambchops nodded, Doctor Dave smacked his forehead. “Well, it’s a small world indeed!” he exclaimed. “Doctor Dan and I were roommates in medical school. What a cutup! And he’s still got quite a sense of humor. Why, not long ago he wrote to say he was treating a most unusual case—Sudden Flatness Syndrome. As if anyone would believe he’d run into that!” Doctor Dave chuckled as he packed his bag. Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop looked at each other in confusion. “Our son Stanley is—” began Mr. Lambchop.

  Doctor Dave ignored him and turned to Arthur. “Remember—complete bed rest, and get lots of exercise. Stay inside and breathe plenty of fresh air. Keep the leg up, and soak it in ice water—as hot as you can stand it.”

  “Hot ice water? Exercise and bed rest? I’m confused!” began Mrs. Lambchop.

  “Perfectly natural,” Doctor Dave said kindly. “Don’t worry about it. After all, you’re not a doctor.” And then he left.

  Stanley couldn’t stand to see Arthur looking so glum. “I’ll stay with you,” he said. “We can play checkers.”

  Arthur heaved a big sigh. “No, you go. One of us might as well be there.” He took a ticket out of his ski pants
and held it out. “And take that boy Nick in my place. To thank him for helping me.”

  Stanley was moved by his younger brother’s good sportsmanship. And, as he left to find Nick, he thought maybe this was just the opportunity he needed: Flat or not, he would make a new friend today!

  3

  Up, Up, and Away!

  When Stanley and Nick arrived at the course, they noticed that most of the crowd was huddled near the bottom of the run. “The wind’s picked up,” said Nick. “It’ll make for some fantastic boarding. But I wish we could get to the top to watch.”

  “Stay behind me and we’ll fly right up,” Stanley told Nick. With the wind at his back, Stanley towed his new friend to the start line.

  “Thanks!” said Nick. “We’ll have the best view in the place!”

  The competition began and Nick was right—the conditions were perfect for some astonishing snowboarding.

  “Did you see that fellow? That was an epic jump!” Nick said.

  “You sure know a lot about this,” Stanley said admiringly. “You must be really good.”

  “I’m better than good!” Nick bragged. He looked longingly down the trail. “In fact, if only I had my snowboard, I’d show them a thing or two….”

  Stanley grinned. “Well, there are some things I’m really good at, too….” Then he stiffened, perfectly straight, with his arms at his side. “What do you think?”

  Nick got the idea at once, but he smirked. “Are you serious? I only use the best boards! Very expensive…like the pros!”

  “Oh, come on, let’s try it,” Stanley urged.

  Nick rolled his eyes. “All right. Let’s go!”

  The boys edged their way to a spot alongside the starting gate. Nick pulled on his goggles. “Ready?”

  Stanley lay down in the snow and wrapped his scarf around his middle for foot bindings. “Ready!”

  Nick jumped on top of him, and the starting gun went off. The boys shot down the slope, parallel to the other snowboarders. Nick called out commands, and Stanley positioned himself accordingly.

  They made quite a team.

  They started on course, weaving through packs of snowboarders as they fired over some moguls. “Are we in control?” Nick asked.

  “I think so,” Stanley replied as they approached a ten-foot kicker jump.

  “I hope so!” Nick hollered as they accelerated through the kicker, getting enormous air. The view from thirty feet above the slope was spectacular, peaceful, and still. Stanley caught a snowflake on his tongue, and then Nick said, “Stanley, we’re going down now!” It was time for the landing, something that neither Nick nor Stanley had considered until that moment. They braced themselves for a rough impact, pleased when they glided gently into some thick powder, skidding away in a wake of snow. “That wasn’t so bad,” Stanley reflected.

  “Stanley! Stanley!” Nick was pointing ahead, trying his best to keep Stanley on course as they veered off the trail and into the woods!

  “Look, a jib!” Nick said. He guided them toward a fallen tree where snowboarders were sliding over the trunk. They glided up and over the length of the log, spinning as onlookers admired their flair. “Wheeeeeee!” Stanley and Nick shouted together. They landed and sped back to the course, going faster than ever.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we have a new challenger!” shouted the sports announcer. “And he’s giving the professionals some competition!”

  The wind blew even stronger now. “I’m going to cut you into it now,” Nick told Stanley. “If we can catch a current, I bet we can kill it!”

  “Are you sure?” called out Stanley. “We’re going higher than anyone else already!”

  “That’s just where I should be!” yelled Nick. “Bombs away!”

  Stanley strained upward to catch the wind, remembering what he’d learned when Arthur had flown him like a kite. Up and up he went, while Nick crouched to hold on to Stanley with one hand. The crowd below roared in delight. Even the other snowboarders, finished with the run now, cheered in awe.

  Stanley realized the problem first. “I can’t come down!” he yelled to Nick. “I’ve caught the current, and I can’t get out of it!”

  Nick shouted, “No way, dude! I’ve got it under control.” He tried to guide the Stanley-board down, but it was no use…. Suddenly, an even stronger gust of wind flipped them completely over. “Grab my hands and feet!” Stanley called to Nick.

  Nick did, just in time, and Stanley allowed himself to billow in the wind like a parasail. The boys floated even higher over the course.

  Far down below in the crowd, Stanley caught sight of his father, standing with Doctor Dave, looking very worried.

  “We’re going to fall!” Nick screamed.

  Both fathers gestured wildly with puzzled looks.

  “No, we’re not,” Stanley tried to assure Nick. “Just don’t let go!”

  But Nick was panicking. “We’re going to fall!” he screamed even louder down to the dads. “We’re going to fall!”

  “No, not unless the wind were to stop all of a sudden,” Stanley told Nick. “I’m not shaped for skiing anymore, but I’m just right for riding the air currents. Just hold on tight until the wind dies down, all right?”

  Nick remained nervous, but he held tight. Up so high, it was curiously quiet, in spite of the wind.

  Stanley decided to take Nick’s mind off the situation by chatting. “My family is going to a wedding next week. It’s somewhere near the Canadian border, so we decided to get a ski vacation in before it.”

  “That’s nothing,” Nick said. “I’m the ring bearer for a wedding next week!”

  “We had a hot chocolate party at the lodge last night,” Stanley tried.

  “I drank four mugs yesterday,” said Nick. “With extra marshmallows!”

  “Then we watched a good show—about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”

  “I’ve seen every episode,” Nick bragged.

  No matter what Stanley mentioned, Nick had done it better, faster, or more times.

  Stanley began to feel a little discouraged, but he kept talking all afternoon because it was working—Nick was relaxing.

  As the sky darkened, the two boys grew tired. “You sleep a little first,” Stanley offered. “One of us should always stay awake in case we come down.”

  Stanley steered them over the darkening mountains for a few hours as Nick dozed, then when the moon rose, Nick awoke and let Stanley close his eyes.

  Stanley would have preferred to have his pillow and warm blankets at the lodge, with his brother in the next bed. But within minutes, he was sound asleep.

  4

  The Northwest Territories

  Stanley awoke to a poke in the ribs. The sun was shining brightly, and the wind had nearly stopped.

  “We’re coming down!” Nick shouted. “Fast!”

  Stanley looked down…. Nick was right! They were hurtling toward a frozen landscape at a dangerous speed.

  “Three, two, one…Roll!” Stanley cried. He arched his back even more—like a parachute—and they crashed softly to the ground, tumbling head over heels through snow and brush.

  When they gathered themselves enough to sit up, they were stunned to find a man in a coat with a huge fur collar towering over them.

  “An Eskimo!” Nick breathed.

  “That’s Inuit,” the man corrected him, smiling.

  “We’re native people. I am Tulugaq.” He extended one hand to each boy and pulled them to their feet easily. Beside them, a furry dog was yapping and dancing around.

  “This is Amarok. It means ‘wolf,’ but he’s very friendly. He watched you fall from the sky…. He’s never seen birds as big as you!”

  Nick straightened up. “I’m bigger than he is!”

  Tulugaq frowned a little. “Well, no matter, you both look half frozen—follow me.”

  Nick and Stanley followed the Inuit man across the frozen tundra and into a little wooden house.

  “Hey—you don’
t live in an igloo?” Nick asked.

  Tulugaq rolled his eyes and laughed a hearty laugh. “There is a lot you don’t know about my culture,” the man said. “Come inside and you will see that we are very modern.”

  Inside the house, Stanley and Nick were grateful to warm themselves by a roaring fire. Tulugaq introduced the boys to his wife, his grandmother, and half a dozen children who were scampering about, passing around bowls of caribou stew. The boys ate as Tulugaq told stories about his people.

  Then, everyone was eager to hear the story of how Nick and Stanley had arrived.

  “You traveled so far!” Tulugaq’s grandmother marveled. “You floated right over the Rocky Mountains and into the Northwest Territories!”

  “I steered,” boasted Nick.

  Tulugaq’s wife patted Stanley’s hand. “Your family must be very worried. Here, use our phone to call them, to let them know you are safe.”

  Stanley called the ski resort, eager to hear his parents’ voices and to tell Arthur all about his adventure. “I’m sorry,” the receptionist said. “The Lambchop family checked out yesterday.”

  Nick grabbed the phone. “How about my family? Connect me to Doctor Dave’s room—it’s the VIP suite!”

  “Sorry,” said the receptionist. “Doctor Dave and his party checked out yesterday also.”

  Stanley and Nick were too stunned to speak.

  Tulugaq turned to his wife and said something in Inuit. Then he put his hand on Stanley’s shoulder. “We must visit the shaman now. Come.”

  Stanley and Nick left with Tulugaq, still quite upset. Why would their families have left without them? And where could they have gone?