The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester (9 page)

Dang it!

Viola was right again.

“We need Travis and Stumpy,” she said.

“No way,” Owen said. “They’re quitters.”

“Then we’ll have to find somebody else.” Viola squeezed her lips together and came close to making that smug face that Owen hated.

He shook his head. “If we tell anybody else, some grownup is gonna find out, for sure, and then everything’ll be messed up.”

“Then we need Travis and Stumpy,” Viola said.

Owen sighed.

Then, as if Viola hadn’t irritated him enough, she said, “You
are
going to make sure that submarine works before you try to move it, right?”

“Well, um, yeah, um, sure,” he said.

Viola lifted her eyebrows and looked at Owen with her fly-eyes.

“Then do it now,” she said. “Go on in there and start that thing up.”

Owen looked over at the Water Wonder 4000. He had crawled up inside it lots of times now. He had studied the switches, examined the gauges, fiddled with the joystick. But could he actually
start
that submarine? Could he really make it run? Maybe he was just going to have to float around inside the submarine in the pond and not actually drive it.

“I will,” Owen said. “As soon as we get Travis and Stumpy back down here.”

Owen wasn’t in the mood for Earlene’s grumpiness.

When she snapped at him about the dirt he had tracked into the house, he shrugged.

When she lectured him about the dangers of the rotting floorboards in the hayloft, he nodded.

And when she gave him the evil eye for spilling milk on the kitchen table, he just said, “Heh.”

Then he wiped up the milk, swept up the dirt, motioned for Pete and Leroy, and went outside to sit on the back steps and hope that Viola stayed away.

But Owen only sat on the back steps for about a minute. His insides were just too wound up to sit still.

It had been more than a week since he had first heard the thud, the crack of wood, the tumble, tumble, tumble sound.

The sound of the submarine falling off the train.

Somebody was going to be looking for that submarine. Owen was sure of it.

If he was going to get the Water Wonder 4000 into Graham Pond, he was going to have to do it soon.

But there were so many problems.

How was he going to convince Travis and Stumpy to help him when they were so mad at him for letting Tooley go?

And even if they agreed to help, could the four of them actually get the submarine to the pond?

And if they
did
get the submarine to the pond, would he really be able to drive it?

Problems.

Problems.

Problems.

But Owen was determined.

If he didn’t do this now, when would he ever have another chance to drive a little submarine around in a pond?

Never.

He would never have a chance to do something like that ever again.

Owen strolled around the yard, kicking at dirt and tossing sticks for Pete and Leroy to chase.

Then he headed down to the woods and made his way along the path toward the train tracks. Pete and Leroy darted in and out of the woods, eager to chase anything Owen happened to throw, pinecones, sticks, even rocks.

Then, just as Owen neared the fork in the path, Leroy came leaping out of the woods with something in his mouth.

Not a pinecone.

Not a stick.

Not a rock.

But something made of paper.

“What’s that?” Owen said, clapping his hands for Leroy to come to him.

The dog trotted happily over and sat in front of Owen, his tail swishing back and forth in the pine needles on the path.

“Let me see that, fella,” Owen said.

Leroy had brought Owen a warped and wrinkled paperback book.

Owen brushed dirt off the book and examined it.

On the cover was a picture.

A picture of the Water Wonder 4000.

Above the picture were two words that made Owen let out a whoop that echoed through the trees.

The two words were

OPERATOR’S MANUAL

Owen lay on his stomach in the hayloft and read the operator’s manual for the submarine . . .

. . . starting with “Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your Water Wonder 4000” . . .

. . . and ending with “Chapter 6: Safety Tips and Troubleshooting.”

Owen didn’t understand some of the stuff.

Actually, Owen didn’t understand a
lot
of the stuff.

There were sections on ambient pressure and buoyancy and ballasts and lots of other things he had never heard of. But there was plenty of stuff that seemed easy enough and made Owen think he really could do this.

He
could
drive the submarine around Graham Pond.

He tucked the manual under his shirt, climbed down out of the hayloft, jumped on his bike, and raced over to Tupelo Road.

Travis and Stumpy were building a skateboard ramp in the middle of the road while Joleen Berkus hollered at them.

“I’m gonna call the police,” she hollered from her front porch.

Stumpy looked a little nervous, but Travis just hammered away without even a glance in her direction.

Owen’s bike skidded to a stop, sending gravel and dirt flying.

Travis stopped hammering.

“Hey,” Owen said.

Travis just lifted his eyebrows.

“Guess what?” Owen grinned at them.

“What?” Stumpy said.

“Leroy found the operator’s manual for the submarine.” Owen took the wrinkled book out from under his shirt and held it up for them to see.

Stumpy tossed his hammer aside and said, “Cool!”

But Travis stayed quiet.

So Owen took a deep breath and went to work on Travis.

He told him how the submarine only needed three feet of water to float.

How those air tanks were already filled and ready to go.

How there were just three switches to flip on the control panel.

Owen sort of hurried over some of the stuff, like about flooding the ballasts and adjusting the buoyancy control, since he didn’t really get that part yet, and then he slowed down so he could be real dramatic when he told the part about using the joystick to go up and down and forward and back.

“It’s easy!” Owen said.
“And,”
he added, jabbing his thumbs at himself, “I figured out how to get the sub down to the pond.”

Travis kept his mouth set tight and his eyes narrowed.

Owen waited.

Stumpy looked from Travis to Owen and back to Travis.

“So . . .” Owen said. “You in or you out?”

“I’m in,” Stumpy said.

Then Owen and Stumpy looked at Travis and waited.

Joleen Berkus hollered something from her front porch, but the three boys just ignored her.

“What about Viola?” Travis said.

“Oh, yeah,” Stumpy said. “What about Viola?”

“Look,” Owen said. “We need her to help us. It’s gonna take four people. Besides . . .” Owen looked down at the operator’s manual in his hand. “She
does
know a lot about some of this stuff.”

Then Owen tossed in a heartfelt “Come on, Travis,” and waited.

A dog barked.

A fly buzzed.

Joleen Berkus slammed her front door.

And Travis said, “Okay.”

That night, the train rumbled along the tracks behind the house, while Owen stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom.

His grandfather’s rhythmic snores drifted through the dimly lit hallway outside his door.

And from way down at the pond came the low, steady
r-u-u-u-m-m-m
of a bullfrog.

Tooley.

Owen was sure of it.

Then he took a flashlight out of the drawer of his bedside table and studied the operator’s manual for the Water Wonder 4000 late into the night.

Owen and Travis sat inside the Water Wonder 4000, while Viola and Stumpy stood beside it, peering in the window.

Viola read from the operator’s manual. “Before launching your Water Wonder 4000,” she read, “there are a few simple tests to perform.”

“Just get to the directions,” Owen called through the window.

“Turn on the two breakers,” Viola said.

Owen found the switches labeled
BREAKER
and pushed them on.

Click.

“Now flip the switch marked
CONTROL PANEL
.”

Owen flipped the switch, and the control panel lit
up, filling the little compartment inside the submarine with a soft orange glow.

Owen and Travis high-fived each other.

Stumpy danced around in a circle, chanting, “It works! It works! It works!”

“Now flip on the Auto Depth Control and the Electronic Buoyancy Control switches,” Viola said.

Owen did each thing that Viola read from the operator’s manual.

He pushed the joystick forward, making the little propeller on the back of the submarine spin.

He pushed the thumb switch on the joystick, making the little propellers on the wings spin.

The soft hum of the motor made Owen’s stomach flip with excitement.

Next, he opened the valves in the air tanks, while Viola continued to read.

“Now you have to open the ballast blow valves,” she said.

Travis turned the valves, and both boys jumped as a blast of air entered the tanks.

“Turn on the flow meter so air for breathing flows into the cockpit,” Viola called through the window.

Owen and Travis studied the labels on the switches and valves on the control panel.

“Here,” Travis said, flipping a switch. There was a soft hissing noise.

Viola held the wrinkled operator’s manual close to her glasses and read, “You are now ready to experience an amazing underwater world, safe inside your Water Wonder 4000.”

“Okay, on the count of three,” Owen said as he gripped one end of the water pipe. “One, two, three.”

He and Viola lifted the pipe out of the ditch and made their way along the side of the road toward the train tracks.

“Hurry up,” he snapped at Viola. If anyone saw them taking these pipes, they’d be in big trouble.

Travis and Stumpy huffed and puffed as they struggled with a pipe ahead of them.

They had all decided that four pipes should be enough to roll the submarine down to the pond.

When they turned off the main road and entered the woods, Viola whined, “Stop, Owen. I’ve got to rest.”

Viola was so aggravating.

But Owen was trying to be patient.

Because no matter how many times he read the operator’s manual, Owen was never going to understand half the stuff that Viola knew about submarines. He had let her read the manual, and she had tried and tried to explain things to him and Travis and Stumpy. But they had stared at her with openmouthed confusion until she just flapped her hand at them and said, “Oh, never mind.”

By the time they finally got the last water pipe down to the submarine, Travis and Stumpy were checking the knots in the ropes they had tied to the stubby wings on both sides of the Water Wonder 4000.

They had played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would pull the ropes and who would move the pipes.

Owen and Stumpy would pull the ropes.

Travis and Viola would move the pipes.

“There!” Owen said, dropping his end of the pipe and lining it up with the others. He wiped his hands on his shorts. “Now how do we get the pipes under the sub?”

“Easy,” Viola said. “Y’all push down on the back end and make the front end go up. Then I’ll roll the pipes up under it.”

So that’s what they did.

On the count of three, the boys pushed on the back end of the submarine.

The front end lifted slightly off the ground.

Viola grunted as she scrambled to roll one of the water pipes up under the submarine.

It took a few tries.

Counting.

Pushing.

Rolling.

First one pipe. Then two.

Then they all had to pull on the ropes to move the submarine forward a bit.

Then more counting and pushing and rolling.

Finally, the little red submarine was perched on top of the water pipes.

Owen’s head was spinning with excitement. “Okay, let’s do it!” he hollered, racing to the front of the submarine and grabbing one of the ropes.

And so it began.

Owen and Travis and Stumpy and Viola maneuvering the submarine down to the pond.

Owen and Stumpy pulling on the ropes while Travis yelled, “Slow down! Not so fast!”

Travis and Viola scrambling to the rear of the submarine to pull out a pipe and carry it back around to the front.

Every now and then, they had to stop to saw a tree stump that was too high or clip a branch that was in the way.

But inch by inch . . .

. . . foot by foot . . .

. . . yard by yard . . .

. . . they rolled the Water Wonder 4000 closer and closer to Graham Pond.

“On the count of three,” Owen said.

His heart pounded in his ears and his hands shook as he placed them against the back of the submarine.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

Owen and Travis and Stumpy and Viola pushed the submarine into the pond.

It glided into the water with barely a splash.

Owen and Travis scrambled to grab the ropes so the submarine wouldn’t float out into the middle. Then they all four stood on the bank of the pond in silence.

They had done it!

The little red submarine was floating in Graham
Pond, bobbing in the water, sending out ripples across the surface.

“Let’s tie it to the pier,” Owen said.

He and Travis tied the ropes to the pier while Viola and Stumpy watched. Then Viola whipped the wrinkled, rolled-up operator’s manual out of her back pocket and said, “Okay, y’all promised.”

Owen groaned.

Travis rolled his eyes.

Stumpy said, “Aw, shoot.”

“Y’all promised,” Viola repeated.

The boys had promised Viola that before they tried to take the submarine for a ride in the pond, they would go to the hayloft for a submarine lesson. She had nagged and nagged and nagged them about how they couldn’t just climb in that thing and take off.