Imagination According to Humphrey

by Betty G. Birney

  If I could fly, I would fly like a . . . what?

  I wrote in my notebook almost every night, but suddenly I couldn’t think of a thing to say.

  “Use your imagination,” Mrs. Brisbane had said.

  “Where are you, imagination?” I squeaked. “Did you fly away?”

  But all I heard back was silence. There was nothing like lightning or thunder in my brain!

  I was wide-awake, but my imagination had gone to sleep.

  “Og, where would you go if you could fly?” I squeaked.

  “BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og jumped up and down excitedly.

  I realized my mistake. The word “fly” means something special to frogs, because “flies” are things they like to eat.

  My tummy did a flip-flop just thinking about that. “Never mind,” I told him.

  I started thinking about things that fly, like birds, airplanes, rockets . . . and flies.

  Airplanes and rockets are huge and noisy things that go way above the clouds and who knows where.

  Birds are squawky creatures with sharp beaks, although it would be nice to fly anywhere I wanted to go.

  And I wouldn’t want to be the kind of fly that ends up in a frog’s mouth.

  The problem is, I’m HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY living in my cage in Room 26 and seeing my human friends every day. I really like helping my friends.

  I stared and stared at that blank page and I guess I dozed off, because the next thing I knew, sunshine was streaming through the window and Mrs. Brisbane was jiggling her key in the door.

  I barely had time to push my notebook and pencil behind the mirror before I heard her say, “Morning!”

  MY WRITER’S RAMBLINGS

  I have so many great ideas

  all through the day.

  But when it’s time to write them down—

  poof! They’ve flown away.

  Imagine That!

  As soon as class began, Nicole raised her hand. “Mrs. Brisbane, I brought a picture of my brother’s dragon,” she said. “Can I pass it around?”

  “Not-Now-Nicole,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “We’ll all look at it later. But first, we have our spelling test.”

  Lots of my friends groaned.

  I groaned, too.

  I was curious to find out if my friends’ imaginations had come up with great ideas. Mine certainly hadn’t!

  I was thinking so much about the writing assignment, I missed several words on our quiz. It turns out that the word “require” does not have a “k” in it.

  And I don’t know what I was thinking when I spelled “polite” this way: poo-lite.

  After the test, Nicole raised her hand again. “Now can I show you Pearl?” she asked.

  Mrs. Brisbane said she could. Nicole took a picture out of her desk and passed it around.

  I climbed up my tree branch to see my classmates’ reactions.

  Slow-Down-Simon’s eyes got wide as he looked at the picture. “Amazing!”

  Sophie made a face and shivered as she passed the photo to Holly. “Eww! That’s horrible,” she said. “That can’t be real!”

  Thomas laughed when he saw the photo. “Now I get it. That’s a real dragon, all right!”

  “I want one of those!” Just-Joey exclaimed.

  Cassie looked terrified as she gazed at the photo. “That’s awful! How big is it? Does it breathe fire?”

  Nicole giggled. “No. It’s not real big, but it’s a lot bigger than Humphrey. And Og!”

  “Eeek!” I squeaked.

  “I think she’s beautiful,” Rosie said.

  Was Pearl beautiful or horrible? I wished I could get a look at that picture. Or maybe I was glad I couldn’t see it.

  Mrs. Brisbane smiled as she looked at the photo. “Pearl is lovely,” she said. “When we have more time, you can tell us all about her.”

  “She’s a bearded dragon and she’s—” Nicole began.

  “Eeek!” I squeaked. It slipped out because I never heard of a girl with a beard—not even a girl dragon!

  “Not-Now-Nicole,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “We need to work on our writing. But I will be sure to give you time later. Right now, I want you all to open your notebooks.”

  I didn’t actually open mine, because it’s a secret. Besides, there was no point since I hadn’t written one word.

  But I REALLY-REALLY-REALLY wanted to hear what my friends had come up with.

  “So, who wants to share what you wrote?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

  Lots of hands went up! Mrs. Brisbane called on Do-It-Now-Daniel.

  “If I could, I’d fly like a helicopter. I’d head straight to my house, land in the front yard, and go back to bed,” he read.

  Everybody laughed—even our teacher.

  “I would fly like a kite to go to Winfield to see my friend Phoebe,” Helpful-Holly read. “If I could fly, I could see her anytime I wanted.”

  Holly really missed Phoebe, who had recently moved away.

  I missed her, too. I looked over at the place where she used to sit and so did Holly.

  “I had a hard time deciding which idea to use,” Thomas said. “But here’s what I finally wrote: ‘If I could fly, I would soar like an eagle. I’d like to go to Egypt and see the pyramids.’”

  We’d just finished studying ancient Egypt and I thought I’d like to see them, too.

  Rolling-Rosie’s hand waved back and forth.

  “Tell me, Rosie, where would you fly?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

  “I’d fly out of my wheelchair, straight up to the sky. I’d keep flying all over the world, just like a bird!” Her eyes glowed with excitement.

  “Where would you go first?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

  Rosie thought for a few seconds. “I think I’d like to see those pyramids, too.”

  Everyone’s ideas were so exciting! Just-Joey wanted to fly like a hawk to Africa, and Small-Paul wanted to fly to outer space in a space shuttle. That’s a LONG-LONG-LONG way to fly!

  Simon wanted to fly like a dragon to Italy because he likes Italian food. “Especially pizza!” he said. “I could use my fire-breathing to heat it up.”

  The whole class chuckled at that, including me!

  Kelsey wanted to fly like a butterfly to any place she could see a professional ballet.

  “I’m happy to see that your imaginations are working very well,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “Now I want you to continue the paragraph, describing exactly what you’d like to see on your trip and telling us why.”

  There was a groan from the back of the room.

  I imagined the groan was from Daniel, wishing he could helicopter back to bed.

  “You can start now,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “The paragraph is due tomorrow.”

  Some of my friends started scribbling in their notebooks right away. Others, like Kelsey and Joey, chewed on their pencils and stared at the blank pages.

  Believe me, I knew how they felt!

  Sophie turned to Nicole. “Do you think you’d have wings like a bird or more like an airplane? Even with wings, I don’t see how an airplane flies, because it’s so heavy. Or maybe wings like a butterfly. I might change my mind . . .”

  “Please Stop-Talking-Sophie,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “Believe me, there’s no way to talk and write at the same time.”

  Sophie looked embarrassed. “Sorry.”

  Later, after my friends came back from afternoon recess, Mrs. Brisbane asked Nicole to tell us more about Pearl.

  “We call her Pearl because her eyes are like shiny black pearls,” she said.

  “I think it’s a lizard,” Thomas said.

  Nicole looked frustrated. “It’s called a bearded dragon. Some people call them ‘beardies.’”

  “Which is a type of lizard,” Thomas said.

  Thomas knows a lot because
he reads so many books.

  “Bearded dragons come from Australia and they’re really nice,” Nicole said. “And pretty, too.”

  That might be true, but I wondered how BIG Pearl was.

  Mrs. Brisbane thanked her, and then came the BEST-BEST-BEST part of the day. She read to us from the dragon book.

  Gil Goodfriend and the dragon landed up on a cloud where there was a whole village of dragons. The houses were all made of stone. Gil thought they were pretty clever not to build wooden houses that could burn easily. The houses were huge and had fire-breathing chimneys. The great castle had a moat around it with water to put out fires. And the streets were made of shiny dragon scales.

  I thought clouds were pretty, fluffy things. I never thought about fire-breathing dragons living up there!

  It turns out that these were nice dragons who made it rain so the flowers would grow and also produced rainbows. (Bumpshire, however, didn’t get a lot of rainbows.)

  But on another cloud there were some very bad dragons. They made thunder, lightning, blizzards, sleet and hail. Even tornadoes. They were the reason that it snowed in the summer in Bumpshire.

  Mrs. Brisbane read:

  “Please help us, Gil,” Goldie pleaded.

  The golden dragon was named Goldie—I forgot to tell you that—sorry!

  “I’m not sure what I can do, but the people in Bumpshire would be very happy if I could help, too,” Gil said. “Just one day nice enough for a picnic would make us happy.”

  “You can help us figure out how to defeat them,” Goldie said. “And believe me, the whole kingdom will be grateful to you.”

  I tell you, that story was brilliant!

  I guess it wasn’t true, but the way Mrs. Brisbane read it made it seem true. And I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next!

  Unfortunately, the bell rang all too soon and school was over for the day.

  On his way out of the room, Small-Paul asked Mrs. Brisbane where she would fly if she could.

  “That’s easy,” she said. “I’d fly like the wind to Tokyo and visit my son, Jason, and his wife. Of course, I could take a plane, but I’d love to see all the sights on the way there.”

  After my friends had left for the day, Mrs. Brisbane let out a huge sigh. “Jason is just so far away,” she said.

  She looked a little sad.

  I don’t like to see Mrs. Brisbane looking sad.

  “If I could fly, I’d take you there!” I squeaked.

  “BOING-BOING!” Og chimed in.

  I was sorry that I’d imagined he only thought about eating flies. He cares about Mrs. Brisbane as much as I do!

  Mrs. Brisbane put on her coat. “What am I complaining about? Jason is so happy. And we’re saving up for a trip to Japan this summer.”

  “GREAT-GREAT-GREAT!” I squeaked.

  “BOING!” Og agreed.

  Mrs. Brisbane walked over to the table where my cage and Og’s tank sat. “I can always count on you two to cheer me up.”

  “Yes, you can!” I replied.

  And, I’m happy to say, Mrs. Brisbane was smiling as she left Room 26 for the night.

  “I think I did pretty well on my test,” Aldo announced when he came in to clean that night.

  Then he yawned. “I didn’t get much sleep, though. I guess I’ll have to get used to that once the twins are born.”

  Aldo yawned a lot as he cleaned, but he still did a good job.

  When he finished, he pulled a chair up to the table and faced Og and me as he ate his dinner.

  “You two are lucky to have each other for company,” he told us. “That guinea pig in Ms. Mac’s room must get a little lonely.”

  “Gigi?” I asked.

  “I think her name is Gigi,” Aldo said. “Something like that.”

  Ms. Mac was the wonderful teacher who first brought me to Room 26. Now she was teaching in a different classroom.

  I’d been a little upset when she got her class a guinea pig, but she’d told me I’d always be her favorite pet. I believe her, too. Ms. Mac would NEVER-NEVER-NEVER lie.

  “Too bad you can’t visit her,” he said.

  Aldo’s smart but he doesn’t know everything. For one thing, he doesn’t know about the lock-that-doesn’t-lock on my cage—and I hope he never finds out!

  He stood up and yawned again.

  “Time to move on, fellows,” he said as he pushed his cleaning cart toward the door. “Good night!”

  “Good night, Aldo!” I squeaked. “Get some sleep!”

  “BOING-BOING!” Og chimed in.

  Once he was gone and Room 26 was quiet, I took out my little notebook and tried again.

  If my friends could come up with great ideas using their imaginations, so could I!

  I tried to imagine myself flying.

  I looked at myself in the little mirror and tried to picture myself with wings. I think I’d look pretty silly!

  Then I stared hard at the blank page.

  It was REALLY-REALLY-REALLY blank.

  What was it Mrs. Brisbane said about a thunderstorm? No—wait! It was a brainstorm. What I needed to do was write down any ideas as fast as I could without erasing or stopping.

  “Og, I’m going to have a brainstorm, but don’t worry. I don’t think there’ll be lightning or thunder,” I squeaked to my neighbor. “At least I hope not.”

  I took a deep breath and started writing.

  If I had wings, I’d like to fly like a:

  — Bird

  — Kite

  — Rocket

  — Airplane

  — Hawk (Eeek—no!!)

  — Bumblebee (NO-NO-NO!)

  — Squirrel

  — Dragon

  — Balloon

  — Shooting Star

  — Hamster

  “Brainstorm is over,” I called to Og. “I’m still fine.”

  “BOING-BOING!” Og said, splashing in the water side of his tank.

  It was a pretty good list. It would be nice to fly like a kite, drifting along with the breeze . . . unless I got caught in a tree branch. That would be unsqueakably bad!

  I like shooting stars, but it might be a little bit too exciting for a small creature like me!

  I know there are flying squirrels. Squirrels are rodents like me. If some squirrels could fly, why not hamsters?

  I’m pretty sure I’d be the very first. I’d probably become famous for flying. Maybe I’d even be on TV!

  I picked up my pencil and started to write. At last I had an idea and I wrote it down right away.

  Hurray! The page wasn’t blank anymore!

  I glanced up at the clock.

  I’d been so busy writing, I’d forgotten that Aldo said Gigi was lonely. Luckily, there was still time left before the morning sun peeked through the window.

  I jiggled the lock on my cage and, as usual, the door swung open. I’m glad none of my human friends have discovered that it doesn’t really lock.

  “Og, I’m going to visit Gigi,” I said. “After all, she doesn’t have a friend like you.”

  He hopped up and down. “BOING!”

  I could tell he thought it was a good idea.

  I grabbed onto the table leg and slid down to the floor, then scrambled across the floor to the door.

  “I’ll be back soon!” I squeaked as I hunkered down and crawled under the door.

  Room 12 is down the hall from Room 26, and Gigi’s cage was on a table by the window, just like mine.

  I scurried toward the table and looked up. The room was dark, but I could see a large furry brown shape in the cage.

  I raised my nose and sniffed. Yep, that was a guinea pig, all right!

  “Hi, Gigi,” I squeaked. “It’s me—Humphrey.”

  The furry
shape didn’t move.

  I went closer to the table.

  “Gigi? It’s Humphrey. Remember me—the hamster from Room Twenty-six?” I asked.

  Not a sound. Not a wiggle.

  I was getting worried. Was Gigi mad at me? Was Gigi sick? Was Gigi . . . something even worse than being sick?

  “GIGI!” I squeaked at the top of my lungs. “ARE YOU OKAY?”

  Still, she didn’t budge.

  I looked around. The cord from the blinds was hanging down near the floor, just like in Room 26.

  I rushed over, grabbed the cord and began swinging. The harder I swung, the higher I went, until I was even with the top of the table.

  Then, when the timing seemed right, I let go of the cord and leaped onto the table.

  I did two somersaults and ended up near the cage.

  Gigi didn’t move.

  I moved even closer to the cage and stared at the mound of brown fur. If Gigi was breathing, I sure couldn’t tell.

  I took a deep breath and shouted, “GIGI! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?”

  Suddenly, Gigi leaped up and gave a very unhamster-like squeal. “Wheeeeeee!”

  It startled me so much, I did a backward somersault away from the cage and let out an enormous “SQUEEEEEEEAK!”

  “WHEEEEEEE!” she squealed again.

  My heart was pounding, but I managed to take a deep breath and say, “Gigi, it’s just me. Humphrey, from Room Twenty-six.” After all, we had met once before.

  “Humphrey?” she whispered. “You scared me. I thought you were a monster!”

  “And I thought you were sick. Or worse!” I squeaked back.

  Gigi yawned. “I was sleeping.”

  She sure is a sound sleeper!

  “Why aren’t you sleeping?” she asked. “It’s nighttime.”

  “Because I’m not sleepy at night,” I told her.

  “Well, guinea pigs sleep at night, like humans,” she explained.

  “Oh.” I was disappointed. After all, I had lots of free time at night.

  “It gets awfully lonely here after school.” Gigi shivered. “At the pet store, there were so many animals, I was never alone.”

  “Pet store?” I asked. “What pet store?”