It wasn’t nearly as much fun searching without Travis and Stumpy.
But Owen was not a quitter.
While he searched, he thought about Tooley, and the niggle he had had earlier that day came back. The more he thought, the bigger the niggle got. It grew and grew until it became a tangled-up mass of worry. And in the center of the tangled-up mass was the biggest worry of all:
Maybe Tooley really was sad.
And then, just as Owen’s stomach was beginning to ache, something caught his attention.
Something big.
Something red.
Down among the tangled bushes and scrub pines at the bottom of the ravine beside the tracks.
Owen hurried down the slope, slipping and sliding on the loose dirt and rocks, pushing through clumps of brush and weeds.
And then he stopped.
He stood in gape-mouthed wonder.
“Whoa!” he said out loud.
The tangle of niggling worry in his stomach disappeared.
Poof!
Because lying there before him was the thing that had fallen off the train.
Owen was sure of it.
CHAPTER TEN
Owen scrambled through the thick brush, ducking under low-hanging branches and climbing over rotting logs. Prickers scratched his legs and snagged his clothes as he made his way toward the thing.
The thing that had fallen off the train.
The thing that had made the thud.
It was big and red and made of metal.
But what was it?
Next to it, jammed between two scraggly oak trees, was part of an enormous wooden crate. Scattered here and there among the brush and weeds surrounding it were pieces of wood, splintered and broken.
The crack of wood.
The red thing lay nestled at the bottom of the ravine, where it had rolled down the slope from the railroad tracks.
The tumble, tumble, tumble sound.
One last push through the weeds and Owen was standing next to it.
His mind raced.
What was this thing?
One end was rounded, like the nose of an airplane.
On the other end was a small propeller.
On each side was a short, stubby wing.
There was a small propeller on each stubby wing.
Was this an airplane?
Owen didn’t think so.
The wings weren’t big enough.
There were no wheels, just a flat, box-shaped bottom.
Besides, it was surely too small to be an airplane. Owen could stand on tiptoe and see right over the top of it.
Then what was it?
Owen walked around it, studying it carefully. There was an enclosed compartment with three large windows in the front and one round, bubble-shaped window on each side.
In back of the enclosed compartment was a hollowed-out space. Strapped inside the space were four large tanks, like the kind that scuba divers use.
Painted on one side of the red thing, just under the bubble-shaped window, was a dolphin. A silvery dolphin swimming through blue ocean waves.
Above the dolphin, in swirling black letters, was written:
Water Wonder 4000
“A submarine!” Owen whispered.
This red thing that had fallen off the train was a submarine!
Owen peered through the windows. Inside was an instrument panel with a few glass-covered dials, some switches, and a joystick. In front of the instrument panel were two small seats.
A submarine just big enough for two people!
Owen had never seen anything like it.
He ran his hand along the side of the submarine, feeling the smooth metal, tracing the dolphin, brushing dirt off the rounded nose up front, turning the little propeller in back. He examined the top. There were a few small dents here and there. Some scratches in the shiny red paint. But other than that, the Water Wonder 4000 looked perfect.
Owen’s heart was racing.
Wait . . .
. . . just wait . . .
. . . until Travis and Stumpy saw this!
Owen dashed across the yard toward the woods, followed by Travis and Stumpy. Pete and Leroy galloped along beside them, barking happily.
“Where are y’all going?”
Viola’s voice sliced through the air.
Owen stopped.
Travis and Stumpy stopped.
Pete and Leroy ran in circles around them.
Owen’s face twitched.
His fingers fluttered.
His feet bounced.
Why, why, why did Viola always have to show up at the wrong time?
He could hardly wait to show Travis and Stumpy the little red submarine.
He had told them he’d found the thing that had fallen off the train, but he hadn’t told them what it was.
He wanted to surprise them.
But now Viola was here, ruining everything like she always did.
“We’re going to the pond to catch some snakes,” Owen said. “Wanna come?”
Viola marched toward them, clomping across the yard in flowered rubber rain boots. “You are not,” she said.
“We are, too,” Travis said. “And then we’re gonna dig up some big, fat worms for Tooley. Those slimy gray ones that live in the mud down there by the pond.”
Viola narrowed her eyes and set her mouth in a thin, hard line. “Fibber,” she said.
Owen couldn’t keep still. He bounced from foot to foot.
“Come on with us, Viola,” he said. “You can stick your arm down in the water and touch Tooley. If you’re lucky, you won’t get any leeches stuck on you.”
“There’s no leeches in that pond,” Viola said.
Owen made a little pfft sound and rolled his eyes. “You think you know everything, but you don’t,” he said.
He nodded toward Travis. “Tell Viola about the leeches,” he said.
Travis stared at Owen.
Owen winked a teeny tiny little wink and said, “You know, the leeches?”
“Oh!” Travis said. “You mean them nasty, slimy, squishy, juicy leeches that stick on you and suck all your blood out?”
Owen nodded solemnly. “Yep. That’s the ones.”
“There’s leeches down there, all right,” Travis said. “Gerald Asher’s brother went fishing down there once and got a leech this big stuck on him.” Travis held his hands out about a foot apart, then widened them a tad, then widened them a tad more until that leech was about a yard long.
Stumpy snorted with laughter and Owen shot him a look.
“Y’all must think I’m stupid,” Viola said, resting one hand on her hip and cocking her head. Her voice had that usual know-it-all sound to it, but Owen was delighted to see that she had turned a little pale.
“We might even feed some leeches to Tooley,” he said.
“Bullfrogs don’t eat leeches,” Viola said. “Besides, that frog does not want to be named Tooley. Trust me.” She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and added, “And he should not be living in a cage.”
Owen couldn’t stand it another minute. The only thing left to do was to holler “Rocket!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Just when Owen thought he could finally show Travis and Stumpy the submarine, Earlene’s voice came thundering through the trees.
“Owen Jester!”
“Dang.” Owen peeked out from under the branches of the oak tree tepee.
“Owen Jester!”
“Dang,” Owen said again. Just when they had finally ditched Viola, here was Earlene messing things up.
“Owen Jester!” Earlene’s voice was harsh and sharp.
“Coming!” Owen hollered.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Owen kicked the leg of his chair.
Swirl.
Swirl.
He circled his fork around on his plate, leaving a trail in the cold gravy.
“But why can’t I just go check on Tooley?” he said.
His father s
hot him a stern glare.
His mother let out a heaving sigh.
Earlene harrumphed by the stove.
Owen hated Wednesday nights.
On Wednesday nights, the Jesters went to Fork Creek Baptist Church for Bible study.
Owen didn’t care for Bible study.
He could never remember the Bible passages that he was supposed to recite.
He felt stupid acting out the parts in the Bible story skits.
He hated standing in a circle around the piano singing hymns.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Owen kicked the leg of his chair again.
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Owen glanced around him.
All the other children were singing.
Miss Nora Haskins was playing the piano.
A couple of the goody-goody girls were clapping their hands and swaying from side to side.
Owen tugged at the stiff collar of his shirt and moved his mouth, pretend-singing.
He was good at pretend-singing.
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine.
Owen’s mind wandered.
Actually, it wasn’t so much wandering as it was darting.
Back and forth.
Sometimes his mind darted to Tooley. Owen pictured the bullfrog sitting on the log inside the cage in the pond.
All alone.
Sad?
There was that niggle again.
Other times, his mind darted to the submarine.
The Water Wonder 4000.
Nestled there in the bushes below the train tracks.
Then the niggle about Tooley turned into a whir of excitement about the submarine.
Owen could hardly wait to show it to Travis and Stumpy.
But here he was, standing in a circle, pretend-singing.
“Amen!” Miss Nora Haskins sang out with one last, grand flourish of her fingers on the piano keys.
“Amen!” all the other children echoed.
“Amen,” Owen muttered under his breath.
“Tell Grampa about the frog,” Owen’s mother said.
“Um, well . . .” Owen glanced at his grandfather’s brown-spotted hand, resting on top of the pale blue blanket. Every now and then, his gnarly fingers twitched.
“I finally caught that big ole bullfrog down at Graham Pond.” Owen’s grandfather hadn’t felt well enough to have visitors for a while, so Owen hadn’t been able to tell him about Tooley.
He watched his grandfather’s face.
Was he sleeping?
His grandfather took a wheezy breath in.
He let a wheezy breath out.
“And me and Travis and Stumpy made a cage for him out of that chicken wire in the barn,” Owen said.
The stale air in the bedroom smelled like medicine and furniture polish.
Owen’s mother fiddled with the blanket and fluffed the pillow.
Owen’s grandfather’s mouth turned up a teeny bit at the corners.
A smile?
“His name is Tooley Graham,” Owen said.
His grandfather drew in a sharp breath and let out a gravelly “Huh!”
Then he opened his eyes and looked at Owen and nodded a little bit.
“Viola says he’s sad, but you know how dumb she is.”
“Owen!” His mother frowned over at him.
“Well, she is.”
Owen’s grandfather said “Huh!” again.
So Owen spent the rest of the evening sitting beside his grandfather’s bed, telling him about Tooley.
He told him how there were a lot of bullfrogs in Graham Pond but that Tooley was the biggest and greenest and had a heart-shaped red spot between his eyes. He told him about how long it had taken to catch him and how he had made the two frog houses (the inside one and the outside one) and then the perfect chicken-wire cage down in the pond. He told him about how he and Travis and Stumpy caught crickets and flies and mosquitoes for him, but how Tooley didn’t seem to have much of an appetite.
Owen’s grandfather seemed to enjoy the conversation.
He even chuckled one time.
Owen told his grandfather everything he could think of to tell him . . .
. . . except . . .
. . . he did not tell him about the Water Wonder 4000.
That submarine was the biggest, most fantastic secret Owen had ever had in his whole life and he wasn’t sharing it with anyone except Travis and Stumpy.
Owen was relieved when he finally saw the moon glowing in the darkening sky outside the bedroom window, signaling the end of the day.
First thing tomorrow, Owen was taking Travis and Stumpy down to the tracks to see the submarine.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Whoa!” Travis said, thwacking his forehead with the palm of his hand.
“Whoa!” Stumpy said, arching his eyebrows in surprise.
Owen crossed his arms and grinned. “Know what it is?” he said.
Travis studied the little red submarine, peering in the windows, examining the scuba tanks.
Stumpy walked around it, patting the smooth metal sides, pushing on the propeller in the back.
“It’s a submarine!” Owen said.
Travis shook his head in wonder.
Stumpy’s jaw dropped.
The three boys chattered excitedly as they examined the Water Wonder 4000.
The rounded nose in front.
The stubby wings with the propellers on the sides.
The windowed compartment on top.
The little propeller in the back.
The scuba tanks.
Owen climbed up onto one of the stubby little wings and then crawled onto the top of the submarine, grinning down at Travis and Stumpy.
He was sure he had never, not ever, not even once, seen anything as perfectly, fantastically cool.
He jumped down off of the submarine, landing in the leaves with an oomph.
“Hey, wait a minute!” he said. “Where’s the hatch?”
“The hatch?” Travis said.
“Yeah, you know, the hatch.” Owen stood on tiptoe and ran his hand along the top. “How do you get in this thing?”
The boys looked and felt and studied, and then Owen dropped to his hands and knees and examined the bottom of the submarine.
“There!” he said. “You crawl up in there!” He pointed to an opening in the bottom.
The three boys knelt in the dirt and weeds and peered into the opening.
“I’m going in,” Owen said.
He crawled in and pulled himself up inside the Water Wonder 4000.
“What’s in there?” Stumpy called through the opening.
The inside of the submarine was small and cozy. There was just enough room for Owen to sit on one of the seats and reach the instrument panel in front. He touched the joystick. Ran his fingers over the dials.
“Can you see me?” Owen called, pressing his face against the bubble-shaped window.
Travis and Stumpy appeared beside the submarine and gave Owen a thumbs-up.
Owen grinned out at them. He tried to imagine being underwater, zipping along the ocean floor, maneuvering in and out of coral reefs, gliding among the dolphins, zooming up and down with the sharks.
He let out a satisfied “Ahhh.”
Pure joy.
But Owen’s moment of pure joy came to a sudden, screeching halt.
Outside the window of the submarine, Travis and Stumpy were gesturing wildly, pointing up toward the train tracks, and mouthing the one word that Owen, in his moment of pure joy, most definitely did not want to hear:
Viola.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Owen scrambled out of the submarine.
The boys poked each other and gestured and scurried behind a tangle of bushes.
“Owen, Travis, and Stumpy!” Viola called.
Owen put his finger to his lips and peeked out from behind the bushe
s. Viola was up on the train tracks above them.
He ducked back behind the bushes, his heart pounding and his stomach knotted with dread. He sent a silent message up through the trees to Viola:
Please, please, please . . .
Please don’t see the submarine.
He peeked out again. Viola took a few steps.
Owen waited.
Was she leaving?
Viola stopped.
Owen waited.
“Your frog is sick, Owen,” Viola called out, pushing at her glasses.
Owen’s dread-filled stomach did a somersault.
Tooley!
He had been so excited about showing Travis and Stumpy the Water Wonder 4000 that morning that he hadn’t even thought about checking on Tooley.
Niggle.
Niggle.
Owen looked at Travis and Stumpy. They stared back, wide-eyed, waiting.
Owen put his finger to his lips again.
And then he heard the sweet sound of Viola’s sandals on the gravelly ground beside the tracks . . .
. . . walking away.
Phew!
When Owen was fairly certain that she was gone, he motioned for Travis and Stumpy to follow him. Then he scrambled up the side of the slope to the edge of the tracks. Viola was way off in the distance, running toward home.
“She’s been to the pond!” Travis said with an indignant stamp of his foot. “I thought you said she wouldn’t never go down to the pond.”
Owen let out a sigh and shook his head. “I didn’t think she would.”
“And you said she wouldn’t never come back here to the railroad tracks,” Travis said.
Owen shrugged. What could he say?
“What if she goes back to the pond and lets Tooley out of the cage?” Stumpy said.
“Naw, she wouldn’t do that,” Owen said. But his voice didn’t sound nearly as convincing as he wanted it to.
Owen could only hope that the one good thing about Viola—her allergies—would kick in big-time and keep her away.
“Okay, listen,” he said. “Here’s what we gotta do. We gotta cover the submarine with branches and leaves and stuff so nobody will see it.”
Travis and Stumpy nodded.
“Then,” Owen said, “we gotta go check on Tooley.”
Owen stroked Tooley’s back. The bullfrog blinked.
The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester Page 4
