Imagination According to Humphrey

by Betty G. Birney

  I’m usually asleep for part of the night, but that night I kept my eyes wide open all night long.

  Things were quiet for several hours, and then I saw it: a pale white form floating around the room . . . just like a ghost. And it was as big as a bear. In fact, maybe it was a bear!

  First, it bent over Carlos’s bed and hovered over it.

  Then it reached up to Felipe’s bed and hovered over it.

  I crossed my toes and hoped that it wouldn’t hover over my cage!

  I remembered how I’d told Gigi there was nothing to worry about when visiting humans’ homes. I didn’t tell her there might be ghosts!

  Then the white bear shape whispered, “Sleep well, my boys.”

  The ghost floated out of the room and didn’t come back again.

  But I kept my eyes on the door all night long.

  I must have dozed off at some point, because the next thing I knew, the sun was streaming through the windows, and when I poked my head out of my sleeping hut, the boys’ beds were empty.

  “Eeek!” I squeaked, thinking the bear ghost took them away.

  But right after that, Felipe and Carlos came back into their room, fully dressed. And they were arguing.

  “Just ’cause you can’t see Bear doesn’t mean he’s not real,” Carlos said.

  Felipe was annoyed. “He’s imaginary. He’s your imaginary friend. He’s not real.”

  “Yes, he is!” Carlos argued.

  “Yes, he is!” I squeaked. “I think I saw him last night.”

  Mrs. Garcia came into the room. She was wearing a long white robe. “Boys, let’s not argue, all right?” she said. “You’ll upset Humphrey.”

  She came up close to my cage and looked down at me. “Humphrey, I hope I didn’t scare you when I came in last night to make sure the boys were warm enough. I must have looked strange with my robe and my shower cap!”

  “You looked like a big white bear!” I squeaked, but I know she didn’t understand me.

  She turned toward her sons. “Why don’t you settle down, you two? Felipe, I think you probably have some homework to do.”

  Felipe nodded.

  Mrs. Garcia led Carlos out of the room and Felipe flopped down on his bed.

  “That imaginary friend drives me loco,” he said. “Crazy. Does he actually believe Bear is real?”

  I thought for a moment. I had believed he was real.

  “I need to work on my paragraph,” Felipe said. “I’ll read you what I have so far.”

  He picked up his notebook from his desk and opened it.

  “If I could fly, I’d fly like a glowing lightning bolt and go straight to the theme park, all by myself. I’d ride the Thunderbolt roller coaster over and over again,” he read. “Then I’d ride the Raging Rockets and the swinging pirate ship. I’d move into the fun house and live there forever—and I’d never have to wait in line.”

  Felipe let out a huge sigh. “Mrs. Brisbane wasn’t sure whether lightning actually flew, but she said she liked it. I’m not sure it’s as good as it could be.”

  “It’s GREAT-GREAT-GREAT,” I said. “A lot better than mine.”

  I suddenly felt terrible, because I hadn’t even written a whole paragraph.

  “Don’t listen to Carlos and his talk about the imaginary friend,” he said. “Mom and Dad say he’ll grow out of it. They say lots of kids have imaginary friends.”

  I moved closer to Felipe. “They do?”

  “Don’t pay any attention to him,” Felipe added.

  It was hard not to pay attention to Carlos. For one thing, he was nice. And his imaginary friend was interesting, even if he was a little scary.

  For the rest of the day, Felipe and I had fun.

  He made a maze with blocks and let me roll through it in my hamster ball.

  I didn’t even mind when Carlos said, “Look, Bear! Look at Humphy go!”

  There was no Bear, except in our imaginations.

  And later that night, when the boys were tucked in bed, I realized that I had an imagination after all.

  Otherwise, I would have never seen Bear!

  MY WRITER’S RAMBLINGS

  I have to say this weekend,

  I had a great big scare.

  But I was scared of something

  that wasn’t even there!

  Beginner’s Brainstorm

  Did you have a nice weekend?” I asked Og when my cage was back on the table on Monday morning.

  “BOING-BOING!” he said. He sounded cheerful, but I’m sure he missed me.

  We started the day with language arts. We were studying words that sound exactly the same, but can have different meanings when they are spelled differently. Mrs. Brisbane wrote the word for them on the board: Homonyms. I hope that word is never on a spelling quiz!

  These are words such as groan and grown, or ate and eight.

  Mrs. Brisbane also wrote funny sentences on the board.

  The monkey ate eight bananas.

  The boat store had a sail sale.

  These words can be pretty funny if you get them mixed up.

  For instance, if you heard someone say, “Don’t touch the hair on my head,” you might think they were saying, “Don’t touch the hare on my head.”

  But that would only make sense if the person happened to have a rabbit on top of his head!

  Humans have a pretty funny language and it’s a lot more complicated than “SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK!”

  Mrs. Brisbane said there was a quiz coming up, so I made sure to write down all the words. Two, too. Blue, blew. Beet, beat.

  Hurry-Up-Harry raised his hand. “I have one for you,” he said. “My dog told the flea to flee.”

  Mrs. Brisbane liked that one. I did too. Harry has a good imagination!

  She also gave us an assignment to come up with a sentence using homonyms of our own.

  Then we moved on to science.

  I already knew about gravity, but now Mrs. Brisbane talked about force and mass. I was unsqueakably confused when she talked about pushing and pulling and weight.

  (Wait and weight would be good words for our quiz.)

  After lunch came the part of the day I’d been waiting for. Mrs. Brisbane asked my friends to open their writing journals.

  I couldn’t wait to hear how my friends had used their imaginations to make their writing even better.

  “If I could fly like a speeding jet, I’d go to Winfield to see my friend Phoebe every day because I miss her so much,” Holly read. “We’d do all our favorite things. We’d pretend to be rock stars and sing along to our favorite songs. We’d play Monopoly and make smoothies. And we’d make friendship bracelets because we’re best friends. My parents said I can go visit Phoebe on spring break, but I wish I didn’t have to wait.”

  I wished she didn’t have to wait, either.

  I loved Thomas’s story about going to three football games in one day and Simon’s description of all kinds of yummy Italian food.

  Cassie wrote, “If I could fly like a soaring seagull, I’d fly to the nearest ocean and sit on the beach. The only sounds I’d hear would be the crashing waves and the cries of the other seagulls. It would be a peaceful place.”

  I think even Calm-Down-Cassie, who is very excitable, would be calm there. But I think I’d have trouble relaxing with those seagulls around me with their sharp beaks.

  “Thank you, Cassie,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “It’s important to write about something you’d really like to do. That’s why your paragraph is coming along so well. And don’t forget to keep adding more details.”

  Joey, on the other paw, still seemed to be having as much trouble with his paragraph as I was. Mrs. Brisbane was encouraging and Joey said he’d try again.

  Why did everyone in class have a good imagination . . . except Joey and me?r />
  Then Mrs. Brisbane read from the dragon book again.

  When Gil Goodfriend asked why he was chosen to help, Goldie said, “Because of your invention.”

  Gil was puzzled.

  Goldie continued. “We have a very good view of Bumpshire from our cloud. We saw the amazing machine you built to turn snow into ice cream. We have never seen something so clever! Anyone who can figure that out is the person to help us.”

  He explained that the dragons had discovered an ancient book that held the secrets of how the last dragon war had been won, but there was a big problem. The instructions were hidden in codes and riddles that the dragons couldn’t figure out.

  “Are you listening, Og?” I squeaked to my neighbor. “Codes and riddles!”

  Og didn’t make a sound. I think he was waiting to hear what happened next.

  Mrs. Brisbane turned the page and continued.

  “If you can solve the riddles and work out the codes, we can use special swords and shields to make magic that only works in the sky,” Goldie said. “You are our only hope.”

  Mrs. Brisbane’s eyes grew wide as she read the next part.

  Gil’s hands trembled as he opened the book.

  I think my paws were trembling, too.

  Gil worked for days to figure out most of the codes and many of the riddles.

  But the most important discovery he made was this: The secret to controlling the dragons was to speak backward. (So the last part of that sentence would read: Drawkcab kaeps ot saw snogard eht gnillortnoc ot terces eht. It was funny hearing Mrs. Brisbane try to read that.)

  From then on, when he commanded the bad dragons to stop the lightning or hail or whatever horrible weather they were creating, he said it backward. That—combined with the magic shield—made everything the evil dragons did reverse direction and strike their own cloud. By the time Gil left, the bad dragons’ village was frozen solid!

  Cameron Cole, the author, must have a brain overflowing with imagination! Castles, codes, shields and secrets! But the sad thing was, we were almost at the very end of the book.

  Sophie stayed after school to ask Mrs. Brisbane a question. “I have some more ideas about the island with the parrots.” I could hear the excitement in her voice. “Is it all right if I write more than a paragraph?”

  “Of course. But make sure everything you write fits in and is important,” Mrs. Brisbane replied.

  “I will!” Sophie said. “Because I had this dream about parrots, I told you.”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Brisbane said as she turned toward the door. Sophie turned, too.

  “I’ve never had a parrot because, well, my parents said I’d have to wait,” Sophie continued.

  “Uh-huh,” our teacher said, walking toward the door. Sophie walked with her.

  “But I’d love to hear them talk,” Sophie said. “I’d like a dog, but they don’t talk.”

  Mrs. Brisbane nodded and opened the door. “Put it in your paragraph,” she said. “And have a nice evening.”

  Sometimes, even I’m surprised by our teacher. She’d managed to be a good listener and also make sure Sophie didn’t miss her bus . . . all at the same time!

  Once the parking lot was empty, I jiggled the lock-that-doesn’t-lock and slipped under the door.

  I couldn’t wait to hear how Gigi’s weekend had gone.

  Since it was still early, she was awake.

  “Oh, Humphrey, I was hoping you would come,” she said.

  I raced toward the table and looked up. “Did you have a good time?” I asked.

  “Yes!” Gigi exclaimed. “I had the best time ever! The humans were so nice and they talked to me and played with me all weekend. And they were very gentle.”

  “I told you so,” I squeaked.

  “Now I’ll never be worried about going home with a student,” she continued. “Nothing scary could happen to me.”

  Nothing scary? How about an invisible bear? Or maybe even a ghost!

  I decided not to tell Gigi about my weekend.

  “Now you see how much fun it is to be a classroom pet,” I said.

  I glanced up at the big clock on the wall. “Oops, I’ve got to get back to Room Twenty-six. Aldo will be here any minute.”

  “Come see me again, Humphrey!” Gigi called after me.

  I got back to my cage a few minutes before Aldo arrived.

  “I got an A on the test!” he shouted when the lights came on. “The best grade in the class!”

  “Congratulations!” I squeaked.

  “BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og said in his twangy voice.

  Aldo took a bow. “Thank you, my friends. And now, time to get to work.”

  I always enjoy watching Aldo at work. He always does things in the same order: dusting, sweeping, emptying the wastebaskets. He never forgets to sweep the corners of the room and underneath every desk.

  Sometimes he balances his broom on one finger. That’s his favorite trick. But that night, he amazed me by leaning his head back and balancing the broom on his chin.

  That’s talent!

  Aldo always does the best job he possibly can. I try to do the same in my job as a classroom pet.

  But I wasn’t doing a very good job on my writing.

  If Mrs. Brisbane had to give me a grade on my paragraph, she wouldn’t give me an A. Or a B. Or even a C.

  And that made me feel BAD-BAD-BAD.

  When Aldo was gone, I got out my notebook and looked at what I’d written.

  If I could fly, I’d fly like a speedy flying squirrel all over the world.

  I sighed. It wasn’t any good, but even worse, it wasn’t really true. And Mrs. Brisbane had told us to write about something we’d really like to do.

  I would not like to be a squirrel, not even a flying squirrel. I love being a hamster!

  Maybe only humans have imaginations, I thought.

  But at Felipe’s house, I’d imagined I’d seen a ghost, when all I’d seen was Felipe’s nice mother in a white robe! That took a lot of imagination.

  So if I could imagine bad things, why couldn’t I imagine good things?

  I stared and stared at the page until I heard a loud rumbling sound.

  “BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og said in a worried tone.

  The rumble was followed by a loud crash!

  Og hopped around his tank. “BOING!!!!!”

  I was too scared to squeak!

  Suddenly, rain began pelting the window next to our table. A bright flash lit up the room, followed by another loud crash.

  It was a thunderstorm!

  I don’t like thunderstorms, but at least I knew what was making all that noise. At first, I’d thought the rumbling was in my brain!

  I jiggled the lock-that-doesn’t-lock and headed over to Og’s tank. “Og, it’s all right. It’s just a thunderstorm. You know what they’re like.”

  Og stopped hopping and stared at me with his big, bulging eyes.

  Who knows what he was thinking, but he finally said, “BOING!”

  I was pretty sure he understood me. “Gigi might not know how noisy thunderstorms sound in these classrooms when you’re all alone. She’s probably afraid,” I said. “Will you be all right if I leave for a few minutes to see how she’s doing?”

  Og stared at me again, but his head moved a little. It was almost like a nod. “BOING!” he agreed.

  Soon, I was scurrying down the hallway again.

  All the rumbling, crashing and flashes of light made my whiskers wiggle, but I didn’t turn back.

  Once I was in Room 12, I raced toward Gigi’s cage. I figured she wasn’t sleeping this time!

  “Gigi!” I squeaked at the top of my lungs, but there was a huge crash that rattled the windows and I don’t think she heard me.

  So I grabbed the cord
and swung UP-UP-UP and leaped onto the table.

  “Gigi, it’s all right,” I said. “It’s a thunderstorm. It’s part of nature, like we are!”

  My friend was huddling in the corner. I think she was shaking.

  “Don’t be afraid,” I said, even though the thunder made my small ears throb. “It won’t last long. And it won’t hurt you.”

  “Are you sure?” she softly squeaked.

  “Pretty sure,” I replied. After all, I had to be honest. “I’ll stay here with you until it goes away.”

  It wasn’t long before the crashes sounded farther away and the flashes of light weren’t as bright.

  “See?” I said. “It’s moving on.”

  The rain continued, but after a few minutes, there was no more thunder and lightning.

  “Thanks for staying with me,” Gigi said. “You’re a good friend.”

  “Anytime, Gigi,” I answered. “You’re a good friend, too. But I’d better see how Og is doing.”

  “I hope to meet him someday. Tell him I said hello.”

  “I’ll do it!” I said as I slid down the table leg and headed back to Room 26.

  “Og, are you all right?” I asked when I got back to our table.

  I guess he was, because he was swimming around in the water side of his tank.

  “Gigi said to tell you hello,” I told him. “And she hopes to meet you someday.”

  Just then, Og leaped up out of the water and said, “BOING!”

  I guess he wanted to meet Gigi, too. But how could a frog in a tank and a guinea pig with a lock-that-does-lock ever come face-to-face?

  I rested for a while, and after a snack and a nice drink of water, I opened my notebook again.

  That thunderstorm had really rattled my brain. In fact, I’d felt like the thunderstorm was in my brain, like a brainstorm!

  And a brainstorm was just what I needed.

  Mrs. Brisbane had said to write about things we like to do. She also said to write down any idea that came into our heads without stopping.

  So I wrote this down:

  Things I Like to Do:

  I took a deep breath, and then there was a rumbling in my brain. Under that heading, I wrote:

  Be a classroom pet