Friendship According to Humphrey Read online

  Og began splashing like I’d never heard him splash before. “BOING!” he croaked. “BOING!”

  “Calm down, Og,” said Mrs. Brisbane. “Are you hungry or something?” She told Art to feed him some of his beloved bugs.

  Og had made Mrs. Brisbane switch her attention to him, so she’d forget about the cord. For the first time, I was pretty sure that the frog was talking to me—even helping me. Maybe he was friendlier than I’d figured. He’d helped me get back safely, thank goodness, although my mission had failed.

  Once my heartbeat had returned to normal, I squeaked a big “Thanks” to Og and looked over at Tabitha’s table. Seth’s study guide was still lying on the floor near her backpack.

  Mrs. Brisbane talked about something called “helping verbs” for the rest of the afternoon. When it was almost time for the bell to ring, Mrs. Brisbane reminded the class about their math study guides.

  “Tabitha, I believe yours is on the floor. Put it in your backpack, please.”

  “Yes!” I squeaked out loud. This was too good to be true! The bell rang. Seth grabbed his backpack and headed to the cloakroom.

  Tabitha didn’t bother to look at the paper. She just stuffed it into her backpack pocket. Hooray! She also put Smiley into her bag as the other students streamed out of the classroom.

  Soon, Tabitha’s mom—her foster mom—arrived to pick us up for the weekend.

  When I glanced over at Og, he looked a little gloomy, despite that stupid grin plastered on his face. Maybe he wished he could go home with our classmates on the weekends, too. Maybe Og was jealous of me. I had a bad feeling just thinking about that old green-eyed monster again.

  Suddenly I felt SAD-SAD-SAD about leaving Og alone for the whole weekend.

  “A friend is what the heart needs all the time.”

  Henry Van Dyke, American clergyman, educator and writer

  11

  Study Buddies

  Tabitha’s mom looked like a regular mom, even though Tabitha said she wasn’t her real one. Tabitha called her Carol.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” said Carol, with a smile that showed she meant it. I liked her enthusiasm. “You’ll have to show me how to take care of Humphrey. I’ve never had a hamster before.”

  “It’s a snap!” I squeaked.

  “I think Humphrey’s trying to tell us something,” Carol said. Smart lady!

  Once we were home, Carol set my cage on the table and made some hot chocolate. “How was your day?” she asked.

  Tabitha shrugged her shoulders. “Just like any other day.”

  If she only knew!

  She opened her backpack and pulled out some papers. “I’ve got math homework.”

  Carol examined the paper. “Honey, this isn’t yours. It belongs to somebody named Seth Stevenson.”

  Tabitha grabbed the study guide. “We must have switched.” She rummaged around in her backpack and pulled out another study guide. “Hang on. This one’s mine.” She showed Carol the study guide with her name on it.

  “Is this important?” asked Carol.

  “Very,” said Tabitha.

  “VERY-VERY-VERY.” I couldn’t help squeaking up.

  “Seth will need this. We’d better try to call him,” Carol said.

  It looked as if things were working out according to my Plan, but you can never be sure with humans.

  Seth and his mom arrived the next morning.

  “Thank you for calling,” said Mrs. Stevenson. “Seth was in a panic when he couldn’t find his homework.”

  “It took me a while to get your number. I finally called Mrs. Brisbane,” Carol explained.

  “I’m sorry we never met before. I didn’t even know there was a new girl in the class,” Seth’s mom said.

  Seth and his mother—whose name is June, I found out—took off their coats, and Carol made hot chocolate again.

  “I’m so happy to meet somebody from Tabitha’s class,” said Carol.

  “Did Tabitha get invited to Richie’s birthday party?” June asked.

  Carol shook her head.

  “I’ll call his mom. She invited everyone in the class, but I’ll bet she didn’t know about Tabitha, either. I’m sorry no one called to welcome you. We’d love to have you at the parent-teacher meetings.”

  Carol poured out the steaming chocolate. “I’d like that. I’m kind of new to the mother business.”

  “Looks like you’re off to a good start,” said June. The two mothers moved into the living room, while Seth and Tabitha sat by my cage. Smiley the bear lay on the table.

  “Hey, Humphrey,” Seth greeted me.

  I spun on my wheel to show him I was happy to see him.

  “If Richie invites you to his party, will you go?” he asked Tabitha.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe.”

  Seth rubbed his nose. “Well, if you do, could you leave Smiley at home?”

  Tabitha looked surprised. “Why?”

  Seth sighed. “Well, I know you’re not weird, but the other kids think you are because of the bear. If you’d leave him at home, they’d know you’re—you know—regular, like them. Then they’d like you.”

  Tabitha thought it over. “Are you going to be there?”

  “Sure. Richie says he’s planned a cool surprise!”

  Tabitha frowned. “I don’t like surprises.”

  “This will be a good surprise. A great surprise,” said Seth.

  Tabitha didn’t answer right away. “Okay. If you’ll be there, I’ll come. And I’ll leave Smiley at home.”

  Seth looked relieved. “Great.”

  They watched me spin on my wheel and talked about the math test. After a while, Tabitha said, “The basketball game’s on. Want to watch it?”

  The two of them raced out of the room and I didn’t see them again for the rest of the afternoon. June went home, but Seth stayed and she picked him up later. I didn’t care because I wasn’t worried anymore.

  Tabitha left Smiley on the table next to my cage. He seemed to be smiling even more than usual.

  It looked as if a nice, shiny, silver friendship had begun.

  I felt warm inside all weekend, especially when Seth called Tabitha on Sunday night to ask her some questions about math.

  But it was COLD-COLD-COLD on Monday. Shivering, quivering cold.

  It was even chillier if you were standing near Heidi and Gail. Even when she wasn’t around Heidi, Gail hardly ever giggled anymore.

  Then came Tuesday, the day of the big math test. It was probably the quietest day of the year as my classmates were very serious about this test. Kirk groaned a few times during the test. Seth got up three times to sharpen his pencil. Everyone seemed glad when it was over. Especially me.

  Aldo was unusually quiet that night, too. Instead of talking to me while he ate, he spent a lot of time writing in a big notebook. Sometimes he’d stop to stare at me, then go back to writing.

  It started to snow on Thursday. When the students got to class, they were all bundled up in heavy hats and scarves and they all had red noses. (A few of those noses were runny, I’m sorry to say.)

  After class began, Mrs. Brisbane rubbed her hands together as if they were still cold. “I have finished grading your math tests,” she announced. “Every single grade went up. Most of them a lot. I know how hard you all worked and I’m proud of you. Now we can get back to preparing for the Poetry Festival.”

  When she handed the tests back, there were sighs of relief this time and not one groan.

  “Now I have a big surprise for you. Today we’re going to have a guest teacher.”

  “Is that like a substitute?” asked Heidi. Of course, Mrs. Brisbane reminded her to raise her hand.

  “No. He’s coming in to teach one class. And many of you already know him. It’s Aldo Amato.”

  “You mean my uncle Aldo?” asked Richie.

  “Yes, your uncle—Mr. Amato,” said Mrs. Brisbane.

  And there he was at the door. A
ldo had become Mr. Amato. He wore a white shirt, a red vest, dark pants and a plaid tie. He looked almost as spiffy as Principal Morales, and his cleaning cart was nowhere in sight.

  “Come on in,” Mrs. Brisbane said.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Misbane . . . Mrs. Bisbrain . . . Mrs. Brisbane,” Aldo stammered. It might have been cold outside, but Aldo was sweating. I was pretty nervous myself.

  He turned to the students and said, “Hi, folks. I spend a lot of time in this classroom when you’re not here, so it’s nice to see real people sitting in these chairs for once. A good-looking group, I must say.”

  A few students chuckled, and Aldo relaxed a little.

  “I was talking to my pal Humphrey the other night and I started thinking about what the world looks like from his point of view. I mean, here he is, a small animal in a room full of much larger animals. Namely—you!”

  When everybody laughed, Aldo looked a lot more relaxed.

  “Anyway, Humphrey gave me a funny idea for something we can all try together today.”

  Who, me? Aw, shucks!

  Aldo held up a pencil. “Can anybody tell me what this is?”

  “A pencil!” answered Heidi.

  “Oops. Hands, please,” said Aldo.

  Heidi’s hand shot up.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Aldo.

  I was impressed. Mrs. Brisbane never called anybody “ma’am.”

  “It’s a pencil,” said Heidi.

  “Really? What do you think?” Aldo pointed at Pay-Attention-Art, who was staring up at the ceiling.

  “Who, me? What?”

  Aldo walked toward Art, holding the pencil up. “I ask you, sir, what does this look like?”

  Mrs. Brisbane never called anybody “sir,” either.

  “A pencil?” answered Art.

  Aldo stared at the pencil for a second. “I think you’re right. But what does it look like to Humphrey?” Aldo asked.

  To tell you the truth, I thought it looked like a pencil, but that clearly wasn’t the answer Aldo wanted.

  He approached my cage and held the pencil up right in front of me, very close. “What do you think Humphrey sees?”

  The class was quiet for a few seconds before hands began going up. Even Heidi remembered to raise her hand.

  Aldo picked Kirk this time.

  “He probably sees a big strip of yellow,” he said.

  “I think you’re right. What do you think?” Aldo pointed to Sayeh.

  “Maybe something grainy. Like a yellow tree trunk,” she answered.

  “Yeah. If you look closely, you can see the texture.” Aldo turned to me. “Right, Humph?”

  “Whatever you say, Aldo,” I squeaked.

  That sent Gail giggling until she caught Heidi’s eye. Heidi made a face at her and Gail turned serious.

  “So today we’re going to look at the world from a Humphrey’s-eye point of view. Ready to start?”

  My classmates all smiled and nodded. Aldo opened a briefcase—I’d never seen that before—and took out an envelope full of tiny squares that were open in the middle, like picture frames.

  “These little squares will help us look at things more closely.”

  Aldo must have spent a lot of time cutting out those one-inch squares. He handed one to each student. Next, he took out all kinds of things from his briefcase and spread them on Mrs. Brisbane’s desk. Colored leaves, pieces of lettuce, tomato and broccoli, lemon peel, onion skin, heavy paper, a purple feather, pieces of bread—many interesting and yummy things!

  “I want you to draw what you see with your colored pencils or crayons and answer a few questions,” said Aldo. “Okay, you can start exploring now.”

  Soon my friends were wandering around the room, examining things through their square inch. They were so BUSY-BUSY-BUSY, no one seemed to notice that Mr. Morales had slipped into the room. He and Mrs. Brisbane both watched Aldo. They were nodding and smiling.

  The kids were smiling, too.

  “Ooh, you should see this!” A.J. yelled as he viewed his glove through the square.

  I was the only one who noticed that Sayeh went over to Tabitha and asked her if she could borrow Smiley and study his fur.

  “He’s not here,” Tabitha answered. “He’s at home.”

  You could have knocked me over with a purple feather!

  While my friends looked at the world from a different point of view, I looked at Og. How did he see the world? His goofy eyes pointed in two separate directions. Perhaps I looked like two hamsters. Or a much bigger hamster than I am. Maybe that’s why he leaped at me the first night. It would take more than looking through a little square for me to figure out Og.

  After a while, Aldo asked the kids to return to their seats.

  “What did you see?” he asked them.

  They couldn’t wait to share their discoveries. A.J. said his gloves had a million little squares where the lines of yarn crisscrossed. Art’s green leaf had a lot of yellow in it and although it seemed smooth, when you saw it up close it was covered with wrinkles. Og’s green skin had black dots in it. According to Mandy, my beautiful golden fur was actually brown and white as well as yellow!

  “And what did you learn?” asked Aldo.

  Gail raised her hand. “That things look different when you look at them more closely.”

  Aldo smiled broadly. “Good! You learned to observe.” He wrote the word on the board. “And observation is what scientists do. Sometimes they use microscopes or telescopes to get a closer look. The more you observe, the more you learn. Today, you took a first step toward being a scientist.”

  Wow, I never knew I was in a classroom full of scientists!

  The recess bell rang. As they hurried to get their coats, my classmates thanked Aldo one by one. Finally no one was left except Aldo, Mrs. Brisbane and Principal Morales.

  “Excellent job,” said Mrs. Brisbane. “I wish you’d come back and get them excited over math.”

  “Now are you going to send in that application?” asked the principal.

  Aldo nodded. “I’m going to do it.”

  “I’d like to add something to that application. A letter of recommendation,” said Mrs. Brisbane.

  I thought Aldo would faint. “Would you?”

  “I’d be proud to write one, too,” said Principal Morales.

  “I can’t thank you enough,” said Aldo.

  “Do me one favor,” added the principal. “When you graduate and are ready to start teaching, you come to Longfellow School first.”

  Aldo shook his hand. “I wouldn’t go anywhere else,” he said.

  Whew! That was a relief. I was SAD-SAD-SAD when Ms. Mac left for Brazil. I’d be even sadder if Aldo left, too.

  “Tell me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.”

  Assyrian proverb

  12

  Party Hearty

  That week, there was plenty of chatter about Richie’s upcoming birthday. All that excitement gave me a wiggle in my whiskers and a pounding in my heart.a What was this big surprise Richie talked about all the time?

  On Friday, Mrs. Brisbane announced that Richie would be taking me home for the weekend.

  “Yay! Humphrey’s coming to the party, too,” A.J. yelled.

  I’d never been to a party outside of Room 26 before. Overjoyed, I jumped on my wheel and spun as fast as I could.

  “BOING!” Og croaked.

  Oops! I realized that Og had not been invited to the party.

  “What about Og?” asked Richie. “Can he come, too?”

  Mrs. Brisbane shook her head. “I think you have all you can handle. Besides, I’m taking Og home with me. My husband is working on a surprise for him.”

  “Eeek!” I squeaked. It just slipped out. Mr. Brisbane, whom I hadn’t even seen since Christmas, was working on a surprise for the frog? I could feel that green-eyed monster inside me again. I was jealous of a large lump with a ghastly grin and I wasn’t proud of myself.

  Richie was hopping from on
e foot to another, like a frog, by the time his mom came to pick us up after school. “We’re going to party hearty, Humphrey!” he shouted.

  “Try to relax, Richie,” Mrs. Rinaldi told him as we got in the car. “If we’re going to have this party, you’ll have to calm down.”

  The Rinaldi house was in quite an uproar that night. First of all, there were so many aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas there, I wasn’t sure which was which.

  Everyone was hustling around, moving chairs and putting up decorations in the basement or bustling around the kitchen, cooking. As busy as they were, they all managed to stop and say, “Hi, Humphrey.” Or “Isn’t he a cutie?”

  Uncle Aldo and his wife, Maria, stopped by to help. When Aldo announced he was starting college again, his relatives slapped him on the back and said, “Way to go!” They were as HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY about it as I was!

  On Saturday morning, there was even more commotion as Richie’s family hurried up and down the stairs, preparing for the party. Aldo and Maria came back to help. Early in the afternoon, Aldo put on a top hat and picked up my cage.

  “Okay, Humph. Time for us to party on!”

  He carried my cage downstairs to the basement.

  What sights I saw there! The ceiling was covered with balloons of every color. Along the walls were brightly colored booths made out of big cardboard boxes. A circle of chairs surrounded a large platform. Happy circus music was playing and I could smell popcorn and lemonade.

  Aldo set my cage on a big table and said, “Welcome to Richie Rinaldi’s Crazy Carnival! Step right up, one and all!”

  Soon my friends from Room 26 made their way down the stairs. Gail and Heidi (not together, of course), Kirk, Garth, Mandy, Sayeh, A.J. and Art, Seth and Tabitha.

  As soon as Sayeh saw Tabitha arrive, she hurried over to greet her. “Oh, I’m glad you came!” she said.

  Then, down the stairs came Marty. Marty? I blinked hard and looked again. Sure enough, Martin Bean, the guy who’s REALLY MEAN, was right there in Richie’s basement!

  “My mom made me invite him,” I heard Richie tell Garth. “He’s in my Sunday school class.”