Imagination According to Humphrey (5 page)

Beginner's Brainstorm

D
id 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
?

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.