Spring According to Humphrey Read online

  I couldn’t risk being caught outside of my cage, so I raced back and closed the door behind me.

  When Joey returned from breakfast, he took some photos of the specks.

  ‘I want to show Dad what they look like,’ he said.

  Then he took a picture of me. I stood still and smiled. I’m not sure he could tell I was smiling, but Joey said, ‘Great!’

  He raced out of the room again.

  ‘I haven’t seen him so excited in a long time,’ I squeaked out loud.

  The specks had nothing to say.

  On Monday, Joey’s mum threw a small blanket over the aquarium and another one over my cage and I began my dark journey back to school.

  ‘Mrs Brisbane was excited about having the tadpoles,’ she said. ‘But I’m not sure we need the blankets. It’s a beautiful day!’

  ‘Really?’ I squeaked. Because I couldn’t see anything.

  Once my cage was uncovered, I was back on the table by the windowsill in Room 26.

  ‘BOING-BOING!’ Og’s strange voice rang out.

  ‘Be prepared, Og!’ I squeaked back at him.

  ‘You’re going to see something surprising.’

  Joey’s mum set the aquarium on the table between Og’s tank and my cage, then hurried off to work.

  Soon, all my classmates were crowded around the table, asking Joey what was in the aquarium.

  Mrs Brisbane told them to take their seats. ‘After the bell rings, we’ll talk about our signs of spring. Then Joey will explain what’s in the tank.’

  My friends looked disappointed as they went back to their tables.

  I was pretty sure they’d be even more disappointed when they found out that there was nothing in the tank but two specks.

  The bell rang and Mrs Brisbane took the register.

  ‘Now can we see what’s in the tank?’ Slow-Down-Simon asked.

  Mrs Brisbane smiled and said, ‘Try to be a little bit patient. Now, raise your hand if you’d like to share a sign of spring that you found this weekend.’

  A lot of hands went up. Mrs Brisbane turned to Rolling-Rosie first.

  ‘It’s staying light longer in the evening. And it was so warm today, I didn’t have to wear my winter coat – just a light jacket,’ she said.

  ‘Yes.’ Mrs Brisbane nodded. ‘The days start to get longer in the spring. Remember, we set our clocks forward an hour for daylight-saving time. So the skies are light a lot longer now.’

  Hurry-Up-Harry raised his hand. ‘But it’s darker in the morning. It’s hard to get out of bed when it’s dark.’ He yawned a big yawn.

  Some of my friends laughed, but Mrs Brisbane agreed. ‘I have to admit, it’s hard for me to get up, too, Harry.’

  Lots of my classmates had seen leaves budding on trees, grass springing out of the ground and flowers growing.

  Helpful-Holly said her mum had taken her shopping for spring clothes.

  ‘That’s a great sign of spring,’ Mrs Brisbane said.

  ‘The stores are full of Easter eggs,’ Thomas said. ‘But my mum won’t buy one for me. She says Easter is a long way off.’

  His comment brought more giggles.

  Small-Paul got up and showed the class a new chart he’d made of spring temperatures over the last ten years. ‘We’ve been having average temperatures for spring,’ he said as he pointed to wavy lines and explained them.

  At last, it was Joey’s turn. ‘My dad sent me two signs of spring. May I show them now?’ he asked Mrs Brisbane.

  Our teacher said yes, and Joey walked over to our table.

  ‘In the spring, lots of animals come out of hibernation and have new babies,’ he said. ‘Including these!’

  All eyes were on Joey as he pulled the small blanket off the aquarium.

  I heard a gasp, then silence.

  The only one who made a sound was Og. ‘BOING-BOING-BOING!’

  ‘These are tadpoles,’ Joey said. ‘I mean, they’re going to grow into tadpoles. And tadpoles grow into frogs. They just look like dots now, but pretty soon they’ll grow tails and legs and start to become frogs.’

  Everybody was quiet until Og twanged, ‘BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!’

  That made everybody laugh.

  Stop-Talking-Sophie’s hand shot up. ‘Was Og a tadpole once?’

  Joey nodded. ‘Sure. All frogs were.’

  My friends started chattering away. I knew why, because I couldn’t believe that Og was once a tiny speck, either.

  ‘Can we see them?’ Felipe asked.

  Mrs Brisbane asked my friends to queue up so that each one could have a good look.

  ‘You might be disappointed!’ I squeaked. ‘They don’t do much!’

  One by one, they came up to the aquarium to look at the specks with Mrs Brisbane and Joey.

  ‘What’s that goo?’ Not-Now-Nicole asked.

  ‘It’s like the inside of an egg,’ Joey said. He looked up at Mrs Brisbane. ‘Right?’

  ‘Yes, I think so,’ she replied. ‘But we will all study tadpoles to learn more about them.’

  Suddenly, Og dived down in the water side of his tank and began splashing loudly.

  ‘What’s wrong with him?’ Joey asked.

  ‘Maybe he doesn’t want any competition,’ Mrs Brisbane said with a smile. ‘Or maybe he’s excited to have new friends.’

  What’s so exciting about two new friends when they’re only specks? Having a hamster friend is much more interesting.

  When Tall-Paul came up to the tank, he just shook his head. ‘It’s hard to believe those two dots will become frogs like Og.’

  ‘BOING-BOING!’ Og said.

  ‘Right!’ I agreed.

  Joey explained that they wouldn’t be exactly like Og, because he was a green frog and they were leopard frogs.

  ‘Wow!’ Tall-Paul said. ‘Will they have spots?’

  ‘Yep,’ Joey replied.

  Helpful-Holly asked, ‘Will they be our classroom pets, like Humphrey and Og?’

  ‘NO-NO-NO!’ I squeaked. ‘They are nothing like Og and me!’

  I’m sorry to admit it, but I didn’t like the idea at all.

  ‘They belong to Joey,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘For now … let’s just watch them grow.’

  I watched the specks that night, but I didn’t see any changes.

  ‘Nothing yet,’ I squeaked to my neighbour.

  Og stayed strangely silent.

  When Aldo came in to clean Room 26, he was surprised to find a new aquarium on the table between Og’s tank and my cage.

  ‘What is this?’ he asked, peering at the specks.

  ‘Two tadpoles!’ I squeaked. Of course, I knew that he didn’t understand me.

  Aldo stared and stared and then he chuckled. ‘Tadpoles!’ he said. ‘Twin tadpoles.’ He kept chuckling as he swept the floor. ‘Twins, twins everywhere. I think I’m seeing double!’

  He turned in Og’s direction. ‘How do you feel about twin frogs, Og?’

  But Og just sat there like a rock.

  Og was silent all night long.

  The specks didn’t change one bit. Were they really alive?

  Although I’m usually active at night, Room 26 was so boring, I fell asleep. And I didn’t wake up until sunlight was streaming through the window and Mrs Brisbane opened the door.

  ‘Morning!’ she said in a cheery voice.

  ‘Morning,’ I squeaked.

  Og was still silent.

  I glanced over and saw that Mrs Brisbane was carrying a vase with some very colourful flowers in it. They were red, yellow, orange and purple.

  ‘How are these for signs of spring?’ she asked as she set the vase on her desk.

  ‘Very nice!’ I said.

  By the time she had taken off her coat, Thomas and Felipe had run into the room.

  ‘Look at this sign of spring.’ Thomas spread his arms wide and turned in a circle. ‘My mum didn’t make me wear my winter jacket. I was getting really tired of that old thing. Besides, the arms were getting way too short! I won’t be wearing that jacket any more.’

  Mrs Brisbane held up the vase of flowers. ‘Here’s my sign of spring. Tulips!’

  ‘Wow, look at all the colours,’ Felipe said.

  Soon, other friends hurried into Room 26.

  Slow-Down-Simon raced through the door, and instead of heading to the cloakroom to hang up his jacket, he ran straight towards our table.

  ‘Whoa! I can’t believe it!’ he shouted as he gazed down at the aquarium. ‘This is amazing!’

  Felipe, Thomas, Nicole and Sophie joined him.

  ‘Wow!’ Thomas shouted. ‘You’ve got to see this!’

  ‘Oh!’ Sophie said.

  ‘I can’t believe it!’ Nicole added.

  Felipe just laughed.

  ‘WHAT-WHAT-WHAT?’ I squeaked as I scurried up to the tippy top of my cage to get a better look.

  Soon, Mrs Brisbane joined them. ‘Oh!’ she said as she peered into the aquarium. ‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’

  They all stared at the aquarium.

  I stared, too. Instead of two specks stuck in some strange gel, I saw two specks swimming.

  ‘Og, can you see?’ I squeaked.

  Og was still strangely silent. I hoped he wasn’t sick with some kind of frog flu.

  More of my classmates gathered around the aquarium. Mrs Brisbane made sure they all got a good look at the swimming specks.

  ‘Oh!’ Calm-Down-Cassie said. ‘Oh, I’ve never seen anything so – oh – oh!’

  I noticed that her hands were shaking.

  ‘It is something to see, Cassie,’ Mrs Brisbane said.

  I had to admit, swimming specks were more interesting than specks sitting in goo. But were they really that interesting?

  Joey thought they were. While my friends rushed out for playtime, he asked Mrs Brisbane if he could stay inside and sketch.

  ‘I want to draw the tadpoles at every stage,’ he said. ‘I want to get my drawings just right.’

  Mrs Brisbane smiled. ‘Everybody is supposed to go outside at break. Mrs Wright wouldn’t like it if you stayed inside.’

  Joey looked SO-SO-SO disappointed.

  ‘Maybe just this once, she won’t notice,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘Go ahead and sketch.’

  Joey worked really hard. He’d look at the swimming specks and then back at his drawing.

  ‘Good work, Joey!’ I squeaked.

  Joey didn’t look up, but he said, ‘I want to get it just right, Humphrey. Understand?’

  Of course I understood. I hoped his drawing would help me see what everyone was so excited about.

  As the day went on, I realised that all my human friends thought the specks were unsqueakably interesting.

  So interesting that Mr Morales came in to see them after lunch. ‘Amazing,’ he said.

  I was getting a little tired of that word.

  ‘To think that Og started out like this,’ he said.

  Everyone looked over at my neighbour, including me.

  Og just sat there on his rock, silent.

  When Mr Morales left, Mrs Brisbane led my classmates to the library to learn more about tadpoles.

  Once we were alone in the classroom, I jiggled my lock-that-doesn’t-lock and ran over to Og’s tank. ‘Og, did you see the specks swimming?’ I asked. ‘Mrs Brisbane says they’ll be frogs like you. Does that make you happy?’

  Og didn’t answer, but he stood up and dived into the water side of his tank with a gigantic splash!

  Had the specks made him speechless?

  I returned to my cage and started spinning on my wheel. That’s what I do when I need to think.

  Suddenly, I realised that swimming was what Og did when he wanted to think.

  We both had a lot to think about.

  Late in the afternoon, Mrs Brisbane said, ‘Class, it’s time for us to think about Family Fun Night. We had a meeting about it yesterday and I found out that the theme is “Circus Night”. Each class is supposed to come up with a circus-themed game or activity.’

  ‘I think we should string a rope across the gym and all do tightrope walking,’ Tell-the-Truth-Thomas said.

  ‘Do you know how to walk a tightrope?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.

  ‘No,’ Thomas answered. ‘But I’d like to try it. Or fly on a trapeze.’

  ‘Not me!’ Calm-Down-Cassie exclaimed. ‘Those sound dangerous.’

  Mrs Brisbane nodded. ‘They sound dangerous to me, too. Let’s think of other circus activities.’

  ‘Clowns!’ Rolling-Rosie shouted. ‘We can all be clowns!’

  Other classmates agreed that her idea was GREAT-GREAT-GREAT.

  Mrs Brisbane nodded, but then she said, ‘I know that would be fun. But Ms Mac already signed her class up to be clowns.’

  My classmates groaned. I was disappointed, too.

  ‘Juggling,’ Small-Paul said. ‘We could teach people to juggle.’

  ‘Are you good at juggling?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.

  ‘No,’ Small-Paul said. ‘But I’d like to learn.’

  Stop-Talking-Sophie waved her hand. ‘My dad can juggle. He can juggle three balls really fast and never drop them. He can even juggle knives!’

  ‘I’m not sure about knives, but I think we’d all like to see him juggling, Sophie. Let’s keep on thinking,’ Mrs Brisbane continued. ‘We have some time to figure it out.’

  I kept on thinking long after my friends had left Room 26 for the day.

  Once Longfellow School was empty, I opened my lock-that-doesn’t-lock and hurried out of the room to visit Gigi. If I wanted to swing up to her table to see her, I’d have to get there before Aldo closed the blinds.

  ‘Hello, friend!’ I greeted her as I slid under the door of Room 12.

  ‘Humphrey!’ she answered. ‘I was hoping you’d come. I have some questions.’

  I swung my way up to the table and hurried over to her cage. It was still light outside, so I could see her better than I could during the winter. I was very impressed with her dark brown fur coat. It wasn’t golden, but it was SHINY-SHINY-SHINY.

  ‘Did you hear about Family Fun Night?’ she asked. ‘We’re going to be clowns.’

  ‘I know,’ I answered. ‘My friends were disappointed. They wanted to be clowns, too.’

  Gigi shook her head. ‘I don’t think I’ll make a very good clown.’

  ‘Of course you will,’ I said. ‘Just act silly.’

  Gigi was silent before she finally said, ‘I’m not sure guinea pigs are silly.’

  I wasn’t sure, either. ‘Ms Mac will help you. She always does.’

  Gigi cheered up a little. ‘That’s right. She’ll help. What is your classroom doing?’

  I explained that we were still trying to decide. ‘But I wanted to tell you about our signs of spring,’ I said.

  Gigi listened carefully as I told her about the specks who were now swimming.

  ‘Wow,’ she said. ‘They sound strange and amazing.’

  Amazing. There was that word again.

  ‘I’m worried about Og,’ I explained. ‘He’s so quiet.’

  ‘Maybe he’s remembering when he was a tadpole. Maybe he had tadpole brothers and sisters that he misses,’ Gigi suggested.

  I hadn’t thought about that at all. She might be young, but Gigi is pretty clever!

  The sun was beginning to set and I knew that Gigi was ready to go to bed. Also, Aldo would start his cleaning rounds soon, and the last thing I wanted was to be caught outside of my cage.

  ‘You’ve been very helpful!’ I told Gigi as I slid down the table leg and raced towards the door. ‘Thanks!’

  ‘Thank you, Humphrey,’ she answered. ‘Come back soon!’

  When I returned to Room 26, I told Og about my visit to see Gigi, but he was still unusually quiet.

  Before I opened my cage door, I glanced at the swimming specks.

  ‘Good night, specks,’ I said.

  The next day, Joey told the class, ‘I’ve been reading the book that came with the tadpoles. They have breathing gills, like fish, but skin will grow over them. And then, after a while, they’ll grow legs.’ He held up a bag. ‘These tadpoles came with food. But if they were living in a pond, they would eat algae.’

  ‘Ewww!’ Kelsey said.

  ‘It’s natural,’ Joey said. ‘I don’t think it’s “ewww”. It’s kind of wonderful.’

  ‘I agree, Joey,’ Mrs Brisbane said.

  I heard a groan from across the room.

  ‘What is it, Nicole?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.

  ‘I don’t want to wait to see their legs!’ Nicole complained.

  Nicole doesn’t like to wait. I guess that’s why I call her Not-Now-Nicole.

  ‘But it will be fascinating to watch each stage,’ Mrs Brisbane said.

  My teacher was almost always right, but this time I wasn’t sure.

  When Aldo turned on the lights that night, he was strangely quiet.

  He didn’t say ‘Never fear, ’cause Aldo’s here!’ or ‘How are you, my favourite friends?’

  He just pushed his cart into the room and started sweeping.

  Once, he stopped to yawn – loudly.

  ‘Sorry, guys,’ he said. ‘I’ve been studying for two tests tomorrow. These are the big ones,’ he said. ‘And I have a history paper due.’

  ‘You can do it, Aldo!’ I said.

  He laughed. ‘Thanks for the encouragement, Humphrey!’

  I looked over at the tadpoles swimming round and round in circles until my tummy started to hurt.

  Aldo swept faster and faster, but he suddenly stopped when he reached Mrs Brisbane’s desk.

  ‘What’s this?’ he said as he stared at the desktop.

  ‘WHAT-WHAT-WHAT?’ I squeaked.

  Aldo picked up an envelope. ‘It has my name on it.’

  He had a puzzled look on his face as he opened the envelope and took out a piece of paper. He stared at the paper for a few seconds.

  Then he said, ‘Wow!’

  ‘What’s the “wow”?’ I asked.

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Brisbane,’ he said.

  He stared at the paper some more and shook his head. ‘Wow.’

  After a while, he came over to our table and said, ‘I just want you to know that Mrs Brisbane is the nicest human being on earth!’