It rained the next morning, with thunder rolling across the sky, and even though Sam and Eric ran from the bus across the schoolyard, their shirts were soaked.
Sam went into the classroom, stamping the water out of his sneakers. Caroline was standing at her desk, squeezing the ends of her hair, drops of water spraying the desk in front of her.
A sub was there today. Caroline motioned to Sam and whispered, “Let's go down to the Media Center.”
They slipped out and went down the hall. “Great to have a sub,” Sam said. “She'll never miss us.” He jumped up to touch the ceiling light. “Ellie was talking last night—” he began.
“Yes. She said something about thousands of islands. Maybe ten thousand.”
They pushed open the doors. A kindergarten class was having a story hour, and Mrs. Hurd, the librarian, glanced up absently. “You might have dried yourselves off.”
“Just using the computer,” Caroline said. “We'll be careful.”
They sat next to each other, Caroline's notebook between them. “You know how to use the computer?” she asked.
“Anyone can press a button.” He grinned at her, but he was shivering. Maybe it was because his shirt was still wet, sticking to him, or maybe it was because of what might be there on the computer.
Caroline tapped his arm. “Punch in ‘ten thousand islands.’ ”
Easy to punch in 10,000. He hesitated, but how to spell islands7.
She didn't wait; she leaned over to type it in for him, and instantly, a page of blue came up with numbers that stood out and were repeated over and over among the words.
“Florida,” she said.
He whispered it, closing his eyes. Florida?
Mack's driver's license.
Caroline began to read. “Everglades, vacation paradise, boating. There are pictures here too, Sam.” She pointed with the mouse to bring the pictures up: mossy green trees reflected in swampy water, fishing boats under blue skies, and sails on the horizon.
Could he remember any of that? Could he picture sailing that little toy boat there, holding the string as it bobbed along on the edge of the water? “Big fish,” he said. “Game fish, I think you call them. Do you see anything—”
She scrolled down and clicked. Immediately there was a photo of a huge fish coming up out of the water, glinting silver, its tail a fan. The fisherman, back arched, at the stern of a sailboat—it even had a double mast—strained to bring in the fish.
Florida.
The kindergarten class moved out of the Media Center and Mrs. Hurd wandered over to them. “What are you working on?”
Caroline's face flushed. “We have a project on the Middle Ages in Mrs. Stanek's room. We have to build a castle, knights…” Her voice trailed off. Her fingers were crossed.
Mrs. Hurd squinted at the screen. “I don't think Florida had anything to do with the Middle Ages. I'm not sure the Europeans had even gotten to the Everglades yet.”
“We just—” Sam said.
“I think you'd better go back to your classroom. And find some towels, dry yourselves off.”
They went out and stopped at the fountain for water. “Wet inside and out,” Caroline said.
“It's not right.”
“What? Walking out of the classroom without permission? Getting the library floor wet? Mrs. Hurd sending us back? What, Sam-I-Am?”
He ran his hands over his arms. He was still cold. “Florida doesn't feel right.”
She wiped her mouth. “But Mack's license—”
“I dream of cold. The water is gray, not blue; it's almost black.”
She nodded uncertainly.
He raised one shoulder. “Dreams aren't always right, I guess, but still—”
She sighed. “So maybe the legend doesn't fit.”
The door of their classroom opened and the kids barreled out, the sub in back of them.
“Art,” Caroline said. “I forgot.”
“Do you two belong to this class?” the sub said as they fell into line.
“They were probably in the Media Center,” Marcy said.
“Thank you, Marcy,” the sub said.
“Yes, thank you,” Sam echoed under his breath.
By that time they were filing into the art room. The teacher gave out paper. Free drawing.
Sam began to sketch. A sailboat with a double mast that looked like eleven. Water that was gray, the boat almost over on its side. Was he drawing the boat in the photo from the attic? Was it the toy boat? Or maybe it was a boat he'd like to build someday.
Which one ?
He couldn't be sure.