After school, Hugo and Winnie went to the Central Cavern District, where their mother and father and grandfather ran the Everything-You-Need General Store and Bakery. There were lots of other stores in the Central Cavern District. There was a barbershop and a toy store, where you could get things like Stink Sap. There was a bookshop and there was a post office that took your letters to caves that were as far as five hundred miles away.
The little bell on the Everything-You-Need General Store and Bakery door rang when Hugo and Winnie stepped inside. Their grandfather was behind the cash register, ringing up Mrs. Rattlebags’s order while she complained about the price of hazelnut flour.
“Your snacks are on the table,” Grandpa called to Hugo and Winnie.
Hugo and Winnie sat down at the round café table. On it, there was a stack of acorn butter-and-raspberry cream sandwiches, a bowl of walnuts with the shells still on (Hugo and Winnie like to crack the shells with their teeth), and two glasses of pale-green wild-mint juice. As delicious as it all looked, Hugo had no appetite. He was too worried about Mrs. Nukluk’s note.
“How was school?” Mom asked, as she and Dad walked out of the kitchen, their hands stained pink with gooseberries.
“Hugo got in trouble today,” said Winnie right away. Even though Winnie wasn’t in Hugo’s class, word of bad behavior always spread quickly around their school.
Hugo kicked her under the table, and Winnie screeched.
“Enough,” Mom said to them both sternly. “What happened, Hugo?” Dad asked.
Hugo dug into his backpack and pulled out the note. A note from a teacher is never a happy thing, especially when the note says that your very own squidge was not only spotted by a Human, but was spotted because he laughed at it.
“Laughing at a human, Hugo?? A HUMAN?!” Mom cried after she read the note.
“Humans are no laughing matter,” Dad said. “They’re dangerous creatures.”
“Sometimes I wish I were a Human,” mumbled Hugo.
“What did you say?” his dad asked.
“He said he wishes he were a Human,” Winnie repeated loudly.
“Nonsense,” said his mom.
“But I do wish I were a Human!” Hugo shouted. “Then I could walk around in the Big Wide World without always Sneaking. I could sail ships and see alligators and sharks and maybe even Snoot-Nosed Gints, instead of being stuck in a cave my whole entire life!”
Mrs. Rattlebags gasped at this. “The squidge has lost his mind,” she declared. “To wish he were a Human, of all things!”
“Hmmph,” grunted Grandpa. “I suppose that Humans are no worse than Sasquatches. Some are good and some are bad and some are just a pain in the tush.” He gave Mrs. Rattlebags a look.
After Hugo’s outburst, his parents sent him straight home to his room, to think about what he’d done. Miserable, he sat on the floor by the stream and watched as tiny silverfish swam into the bedroom. He dipped his hand in the water, and the fish swam between his fingers, playing.
“I wish you were sharks,” he said to the fish. They tickled his fingers. “I wish I had a boat and a Navigator and that I could have adventures of my own.” Then he thought of something. If the little Human could make a wish on a dandelion puff, why couldn’t he make a wish, too? Except he didn’t have a dandelion puff. And how could your wish be carried off into the Big Wide World without a dandelion puff to blow on?
He frowned and swished his fingers in the water, making a mini whirlpool, thinking. Suddenly he had an idea. He did have something he could send out into the Big Wide World!
He opened his toy chest and took out his little carved boat. He held it in his hand and closed his eyes, exactly like the Human had done.
“I wish I could have an adventure,” he said. Gently, he placed his boat in the stream and blew on it, just like the Human had blown on the dandelion. He blew and blew until the little boat sailed through the hole in the bottom of his wall and out into the Big Wide World.
