The Trimoni Twins and the Shrunken Treasure

by Pam Smallcomb

  Beezel watched more and more of Gumdrop disappearing into the opening.

  “What should she be …?” Mimi’s voice drifted off.

  “MIMI!” Hector yelled. “Get this snake out of here right now!”

  “Hector! You know I can’t think when you’re yelling at me!” Mimi yelled back. She chewed on her lip.

  Wiliken tried to help. “How about a camel?”

  Mimi shook her head.

  “A fox … a porcupine?”

  Mimi shook her head and twirled her hair faster.

  “A slug,” Beezel said as she pointed to Gumdrop. Ka-poof. The snake changed into an enormous slug. To their shrunken group, Gumdrop seemed to be a two-foot-long tube of moving slime. The slug made its way slowly into the opening.

  “Wow, that’s one hefty slug,” Wiliken said. “How come it’s so big?”

  “Well, I guess the ka-poofing magic can only change Gumdrop into an animal that is on the same scale that she is,” Beezel explained. “Mimi ka-poofed Gumdrop back to her original size, which looks huge to us while we’re shrunk. When I changed her into a slug, the slug is the size it would be in relation to Gumdrop, not us.”

  “Wow,” Wiliken said. “You’re pretty smart, aren’t you, Miss Beezel?” He playfully punched her in the arm.

  Beezel blushed and stammered, “S-s-sometimes.”

  “I’ll be right there, sweetie!” Mimi called as she started to climb up the scaffolding. She stopped, glanced down over her shoulder to Beezel and smiled triumphantly at her. “See? I knew I should bring Gumdrop along. If it weren’t for Gumdrop, Fieffie would have eaten Hector.”

  Beezel shook her head and marveled once again at her sister’s logic concerning her pet boa.

  “Hey,” Wiliken said as he watched Mimi climb the scaffolding. “Is it always like this with you guys?”

  Beezel nodded and giggled. “Pretty much, yeah.”

  Mimi ka-poofed the two-foot-long slug into a ladybug the size of a small turtle. Wiliken climbed the scaffolding and helped Mimi carry Gumdrop safely to the ground. A shaken and relieved Hector appeared in the opening and began to make his way down as well.

  While Beezel waited, she studied the interior of the church. She had never really thought about how Uncle Hoogaboom had made the models. She guessed there was a lot of cutting and gluing involved. But what she saw inside the church told her a different story.

  It looks as if real people are helping to build this, she thought to herself. Why would Uncle Hoogaboom need scaffolding at all? It just doesn’t make any sense.

  Her eye caught sight of a bit of bright color on the floor against one wall. She picked it up. It was a crumpled red hat, well worn and covered in sawdust. Inside the hat Beezel found a wadded-up sandwich wrapper.

  Sawdust and sandwiches, Beezel thought. Now, that’s interesting.

  While they spent what felt like an hour untaping Uncle Hoogaboom from his chair, Beezel and Mimi took turns sitting on his shoulder and telling him about the treasure ship they had found inside the model of Pieter Riebeeck’s house.

  “Well, of course, that’s what Pieter meant,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “He couldn’t have been plainer. He said it was in his den, didn’t he, Wiliken?”

  “He just didn’t say which one,” Wiliken shouted up to Uncle Hoogaboom as he wrestled with the sticky tape Edwin had used to bind his arms to the chair.

  After they untaped his legs, Uncle Hoogaboom gratefully stood up and stretched. “Well, that was a close call all around, wasn’t it?” he said as he peered down at the diminutive group at his feet. “Would you like me to unshrink you now?”

  Beezel remembered something. “We left the treasure ship and the Shrinking Coin inside your house,” she shouted up at him. “Your little house,” she corrected herself.

  “Don’t forget the clams,” Mimi reminded her.

  “Oh, that’s right.” Beezel pointed behind her toward the corner of the Westerstraat. “They’re over there.”

  “Why don’t you unshrink the girls first, Hoogaboom?” Wiliken yelled. “Hector and I will go get the treasure ship and the Shrinking Coin.” Hector and Wiliken headed down the Prinsengracht together.

  “Ready?” Uncle Hoogaboom asked the girls. “Stand well away from each other. Farther.” He waved the twins apart.

  “Wait!” Mimi yelled. She gathered up Gumdrop the ladybug and carried her to the far edge of the market square. “I don’t want to squish her when you un-zuuft me.”

  Uncle Hoogaboom pointed to Beezel. Zuuft. Beezel was herself again. He pointed to Mimi. Zuuft. Mimi was her normal size again, too.

  Mimi pointed to Gumdrop on the floor. Ka-poof. Gumdrop was a five-foot-long boa constrictor again. Mimi picked her up and draped her around her shoulders. “You did a great job today, Gumdrop.”

  Wiliken, carrying the coin in the backpack, and Hector, holding the glass case that contained the Spanish galleon, approached Uncle Hoogaboom and the twins.

  “Your turn now?” Uncle Hoogaboom asked them.

  “You’d better take this first, Uncle!” Hector yelled as he held out the shrunken treasure ship.

  Uncle Hoogaboom lowered his hand to the ground, and Hector set the glass case on his palm. “You know, Hector, I think I’m going to call the ship Magdalena,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he stared at the tiny galleon in his hand, “since that’s what it said on her stand.”

  Hector helped Wiliken hold up the Shrinking Coin. “Take this, too, Hoogaboom!” Wiliken called.

  Uncle Hoogaboom reached down, plucked the coin from Wiliken and Hector’s hands and put it in his pocket.

  “There now,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “Are you two ready?”

  Hector and Wiliken nodded.

  “Move apart,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “Leave some room between you for unshrinking.” He nodded. “There, that’s enough.”

  Zuuft. Zuuft. Hector and Wiliken were full size again.

  “That was an amazing journey, Hoogaboom,” Wiliken said as he hugged the old man. “Thank you for that.”

  “Yes,” Hector said. “I can truthfully say I’ve never been through anything like it.”

  Mimi walked over to the two clams and picked them up. “I’ve got the bad guys,” she said. “What are we going to do with them?”

  “Clam chowder comes to mind,” Hector muttered. The twins giggled.

  “Hmm,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “I have a storage closet we can lock them in. It will keep them out of harm’s way, just until we get a chance to call the authorities.”

  “Uncle,” Hector said. “About the Shrinking Coin …”

  “Oh yes, yes,” he said, fishing in his pocket and bringing it out. “Let’s take care of that right now!”

  Hector put his hand on his uncle’s arm. “Let’s wait.”

  “Wait?” Uncle Hoogaboom gave him a puzzled look. “But nephew, it’s time for me to pass this on. I thought I’d explained, I’m getting old … and …”

  “No, let’s just wait”—Hector interrupted him, and smiled—“until after you unshrink the treasure ship.”

  Uncle Hoogaboom grinned. “Thank you, Hector.” He turned to them. “So, should we see her full size now?”

  “Yes, I can’t wait to see it!” Mimi said, bouncing on her feet.

  “We’d better go outside first,” Wiliken said. “That ship is going to be pretty big when you make it full size again. Where can we do it?”

  “Maybe we can unshrink her in the canal,” suggested Beezel.

  “That’s a good idea,” Uncle Hoogaboom said, carefully holding the ship in his hand. “But first,” he said as he opened the door to his studio and stepped out on the landing, “let’s lock those clams in a closet.”

  Uncle Hoogaboom searched in his pockets with his free hand and pulled out a key. Across the landing was a door. He unlocked it and flipped on a light. Inside the rather chilly closet were a bucket, a mop and a broom. “It’s nice and cool in here,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “This should do fine.”
r />   Mimi took the two clams and placed them in the bucket.

  “Behave yourselves,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he closed the door and locked it. “We’ll be back to get you later.”

  They hurried down the stairs and into Uncle Hoogaboom’s shop.

  “Uncle Hoogaboom,” Beezel said, “I’ve been thinking. How are we going to get a one-inch-long galleon out into the center of the canal? The tiniest wave will capsize it.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” He stroked his beard in thought.

  Hector scratched his head. Wiliken stared off into space with a puzzled expression on his face. And Mimi stared at Beezel while she twirled her hair.

  Beezel stood with her hands on her hips and tapped one foot. After a few minutes, she had it. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. What if we built a raft? We could float the Magdalena into the center of the canal, and then you could un-zuuft her.”

  “That’s a good idea, Beez,” Mimi said. “But where are we going to get the wood for a raft?”

  “Right here in Uncle Hoogaboom’s detail room,” Beezel said. “I’ll bet you have shrunken planks, don’t you, Uncle Hoogaboom?”

  “A raft!” Uncle Hoogaboom smiled. “Of course I have lumber. All sizes!” He snapped to attention. “Wiliken, hold the Magdalena for me.” Uncle Hoogaboom reached in his pocket and took out a pair of tweezers. While Wiliken held the case, Uncle Hoogaboom opened it and extracted the ship and its stand and placed them in the palm of his hand. He set the empty glass case on a shelf. “Hector, do you still have the flashlights I gave you to use inside the wall?”

  “Yes,” Hector said.

  “Good. Here, Wiliken, you hold the Magdalena. And Hector, you hold the stand. I need to get a few other things.” Uncle Hoogaboom rummaged around on a top shelf and popped several small wooden planks, no bigger than a ruler, into his pocket. “These will be good for a gangplank. We’ll take this smaller piece for a raft, I think.” He plucked a shorter piece of wood from the shelf and put it in his pocket as well.

  “Hmm.” Uncle Hoogaboom scurried over to a different shelf. “I must have one here somewhere,” he muttered. Beezel saw tiny lanterns, ceiling fans and stained-glass windows. “Ah, here it is!”

  He selected a rolled-up rope ladder and slipped it inside his pocket. “We should be able to hang it over the side of the ship. And we’ll need some rope.” He stuffed some threadlike bundles into his pocket with the lumber and ladder. “And I think… one rowboat.”

  Hoogaboom handed a rowboat, the size of a bath toy, to Beezel for her to hold.

  “And something to break any locks we run across.” Uncle Hoogaboom plucked what looked to Beezel like a paper clip-sized crowbar off a different shelf and stuffed it in another of his bulging pockets.

  “And I think, to be safe, we should secure the galleon to the raft,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. He stopped at Gaidic’s desk and grabbed a handful of pushpins from inside her desk drawer. “That should do it. I’ll unshrink everything outside.” With that, he turned, opened his red front door and stepped outside into the crisp night air.

  “Uncle Hoogaboom, don’t unshrink anything without me!” Mimi called after him. “I’m going to put Gumdrop in your bathroom! It’s too cold for her outside!” Mimi turned to Beezel. “Wait for me.”

  “All right, but hurry up!” Beezel said. Mimi ran down the hall with the big snake.

  As Beezel waited, she glanced at her watch. It was almost midnight, which was good. She hoped there would be fewer people out and about.

  After Mimi had safely secured Gumdrop in the bathroom, the twins rushed to join Hector, Wiliken and Uncle Hoogaboom at the edge of the canal.

  Uncle Hoogaboom was scrutinizing the areas to the left and right of the canal. “She should be about a hundred and forty feet long when I bring her back to her normal size,” he said. “Wouldn’t you say, Wiliken?”

  “Yes,” Wiliken said as he inspected the canal in front of them. “You’ve got plenty of room. There aren’t any canal boats near us on this side.”

  “It’s pretty quiet all around,” Hector said, checking the street for pedestrians. “There are a few people down the street a ways, but I think if you’re quick, they’ll hardly notice in the dark.”

  “Then it’s time,” Hoogaboom said as he emptied his pockets. “Stand back.” He lined up the ladder and planks on the ground in front of him and pointed. Zuuft. The ladder was full size. Zuuft. Zuuft. Zuuft. Zuuft. Three large wooden planks, and one shorter one lay next to it.

  Next Hoogaboom took three bundles of rope from his pocket. Zuuft. Zuuft. Zuuft. “Very good,” he said.

  Uncle Hoogaboom grabbed the shorter plank of wood and walked over to Hector. “Put Magdalena’s wooden stand in the center of the plank,” he instructed Hector as he set it on the ground. “Parallel to the length, and hold her steady.”

  Hector held the tiny stand while Uncle Hoogaboom secured it upright by placing a ring of pushpins all around it. To Beezel, the pushpins that held the ship’s wooden stand in place looked like a colorful plastic fence.

  “Wiliken,” Uncle Hoogaboom said, “bring the ship here. Let’s see if this holds her.” Wiliken leaned down and carefully placed the Magdalena in her pinned wooden stand.

  “Hector, hand Mimi one of the flashlights.”

  Next Hoogaboom grabbed a bundle of rope. Then he took the miniature rowboat from Beezel and, leaning over the side of the canal, placed it in the water. Zuuft. A full-size rowboat bobbed gently against the side of the canal. He secured one end of the rope to the front of the rowboat and handed the other end to Hector. Wiliken and Beezel reached down and held the boat against the canal’s side.

  “Now we’ll put our little galleon out in the middle of the canal.” Uncle Hoogaboom picked up the plank that held the treasure ship and carefully placed it on the bench of the rowboat. He climbed in the boat and sat beside it. “Give her a push out, Wiliken,” he said. “Nice and gentle. We don’t want any waves.”

  Wiliken told Beezel to push the rear of the boat into the canal. Then he gave the front of the boat a gentle push, sending it out into the still water.

  When the rowboat reached the middle of the canal, Uncle Hoogaboom carefully placed the plank down into the water.

  “Mimi!” Uncle Hoogaboom called. “Put the flashlight beam on her!” Mimi switched on the flashlight and pointed it at the floating platform that held the Magdalena. Now that it was illuminated, Beezel could just make out the tiny ship sitting safely inside its pushpin fence.

  “Now reel me in nice and slow, Hector,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he looked back at the treasure ship on its raft. Hector pulled on the rope that was attached to the rowboat, slowly drawing it closer. When the rowboat reached the canal’s side, Uncle Hoogaboom climbed back up and stood next to them. He raised his hand and pointed at the ship, waiting for just the right moment.

  “Now, Hoogaboom!” Wiliken said as the plank holding the tiny treasure ship turned in perfect parallel to the canal’s banks.

  Zuuft!

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was the most splendid thing Beezel had ever seen. Waves lapped against the side of the canal as the ship settled into the waterway. She gazed up at its rigging, shimmering in the bright moonlight, and was speechless.

  But Mimi wasn’t.

  “Can we go on board? Can we, Wil?” She tugged on his sleeve. “It’s floating, so it’s safe, right? Come on, let’s go see the treasure!”

  The treasure ship was still several feet away from where they stood on the side of the canal.

  Uncle Hoogaboom pointed to the galleon. “Wiliken, I think you’ll have to climb up the anchor cable.”

  Wiliken grinned. “That’s just the kind of thing I like to do, Hoogaboom.” He jumped down into the rowboat.

  “Take these.” Hoogaboom handed him two bundles of rope. “And this.” He placed the rolled rope ladder in the bottom of the boat. “See if you can hang the ladder over the side. We can use it to get onto the ship.”

>   Wiliken began to row the short distance to the side of the galleon.

  “Be careful!” Beezel and Mimi cried in unison.

  Beezel felt like she held her breath the whole time Wiliken was climbing the cable. When he reached the railing and pulled himself over onto the deck, she let her breath out and sighed in relief.

  “This is incredible!” Wiliken called over to them. “I’ll secure the ladder and come back to get you!”

  Hoogaboom and Hector were the first two Wiliken rowed to the galleon’s side. Hector yanked hard on the ladder. “Seems sturdy enough,” he yelled at the twins, and then he began his climb up the ladder to the deck, followed closely by Hoogaboom.

  Wiliken rowed back and got the twins. Mimi and Beezel, being used to ladders of all sorts back home in the circus, made fast work of getting on board the ship.

  As they stood quietly together on the deck, Beezel couldn’t believe her eyes. She was standing on a ship that had once sailed to the Caribbean in the sixteen hundreds. Looking out at the historic row houses of Amsterdam, she could imagine what it must have felt like to sail into its harbor hundreds of years ago.

  Mimi broke their silence. “Okay, now let’s go find that treasure!”

  Hoogaboom led them to the captain’s cabin. With help from Wiliken and Hector, the three men pushed open the door. The air that greeted Beezel’s nose smelled like time itself: a stale, wornout smell.

  They entered a small room. Uncle Hoogaboom turned on his flashlight and ran its beam around the cabin. To the left of the door on a wooden platform was the captain’s bed. Against the far wall, beneath a window with a view out the stern of the ship, was a chest.

  Beezel ran to it and inspected the lock.

  “You’ll need that crowbar,” she said to Uncle Hoogaboom.

  He nodded and rummaged inside his pocket with one hand while handing the flashlight to Wiliken to hold with the other. Placing the tiny metal piece on the floor of the cabin, he pointed. Zuuft. Uncle Hoogaboom grasped the full-size crowbar and handed it to Hector. “I’m afraid this is a younger man’s job,” he said.

  Hector wedged the crowbar into the lock. Taking a deep breath, he pushed down, putting his full weight onto the bar. The lock popped open.