Action & Adventure
"He's trying to portage the kayak by himself!" Herb exclaims. Before either of us can run forward to help him, Charlie stumbles. The earth beneath him gives way, and he and his boat tumble down in a small landslide. They hit the water above the falls with a splash.
"Rescue rope!" I scream.
Jake saw something very strange. Even stranger than his older sister Gladys after she dyed her hair green. There was a pirate standing on top of a teeter-totter. The pirate rocked back and forth as if he were on a ship in a stormy sea. Jake rubbed his eyes and stared. "Ahoy, my hearty!" roared the pirate when he saw Jake. "Me?" squeaked Jake. "Ahoy, cabin boy! What are you doing in those bushes?"
The long ship turned with a sweep of the oars and drifted toward them.
Out of the breeze, the sail flapped like an old shawl. The red stripes were clear against the silt brown of the river. Sunlight glinted off the knobs of metal pounded into each black shield, piled in the bottom of the ship. Leather helmets and leather straps covered the invaders' faces, shading their eyes.
One sweep of the oars brought the ship to the beach.
I feel his hand twitch and twitch again. I put both my hands around his. And then, just a tiny bit, it opens. Then a bit more, and I feel something drop out of it, small, hard, hot in my palm. A key. I can tell without even looking.
