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“Mad aliens are landing on the island!” I shouted up to Donald.
“They’re aiming their photon torpedoes right at us!” he shouted back from the crow’s nest.
“Then we’ve only got seconds.”
I started to jump over the side, but on second thought I moved back to the stepladder. “Follow me, crewman.”
Donald climbed slowly down from the crow’s nest and caught up with me on the stepladder. “Do you think we can sneak aboard their spaceship?” he asked.
“No,” I said, instinctively, leading him down to the sand. Then I turned to see his disappointed face and corrected myself. “You know what? Yes. Yes! That’s a great idea. Let’s attack!”
I tightened the knot in the bandanna around my neck and pointed the way. We ran as a team to the top of the strange alien ship and slid into the tunnels. Immediately Russell and his older brother, Alex, came out the bottom and pretended they’d dived into the ocean. Quickly, they “swam” toward the edge of the sandbox with Donald and me in hot pursuit.
“We have phase guns that work underwater!” Russell bluffed.
“No such thing!” I called, aiming for him.
“I’ve got a harpoon,” Alex shouted.
“Whoo-hoo!” Donald shouted as he pretended that the harpoon had jutted through his shoulder. “Help me!”
I “swam” to Donald and tugged at the imaginary harpoon. Russell swam and pulled me off of my brother. We fell backwards into the sand, where Russell immediately cheated by tickling me.
“Stop it!” I cried. “You can’t tickle action heroes!”
“I can’t?” Russell said, tickling me some more.
Alex went to Donald and pulled out the imaginary harpoon. “I need that for fishing,” he said.
“Fishing?” the rest of us questioned.
“Sure,” Alex said. “Why not?”
“Yeah,” Russell agreed. “Why not?”
“Anything goes, right Donald?” I said, slapping my brother’s shoulder.
“Brrru-whip!” he agreed.