03-26-2004
By
Elizabeth Correa
It
was a sunny crisp Saturday morning and Davie, Abbigania, and Liza were on a
mission. They all knew how important it
was. Each had something to use on the mission. Davie, being the middle sized,
had a bucket of nails. Abbigania, being the smallest had a hammer. Liza, being
the biggest and oldest, held a bag with tape, rope, and most importantly the
candy and water.
The
three had asked Mom if they could go out to play and she had agreed. Of course
she had no idea of the plan they had, and even if she did she wouldn’t have
understood it. Adults can’t understand the really important things in life.
They
headed towards the beach. The air was cool still since the sun had only just
come up. They trooped along single file silently. The birds were chirping
loudly on the telephone wires above them. The palm trees grew along the side of
the broken sidewalk. In Key West the side walks and streets are broken with
cracks. The children stepped over large cracks as they made their way towards
the big blue sea.
They
were three blocks from the shore, when they turned right and began walking down
a street with big old houses. Davie was sure that it was in the trashcan of the
3rd house on the left. Abbigania trusted that Davie was right. Liza
thought that it was unlikely to still be there. But if it were, what a find it
would be! Of course they were looking for the main piece for their mission. The
pallet.
The
3rd house was a big white house with an old gray brick wall in front
of it. The wall was only three feet high and was crumbling into pieces. They
stood in front of the house searching for it.
“I
knew it wouldn’t still be here. Someone else snatched it first! We should have
come last night.” Liza said in a despairing voice. It was true. The pallet
wasn’t there. But Davie went into the yard and walked behind some thick green
waist high bushes. Then he came out.
He
said, “Its right here.” He smiled big while Liza and Abbigania came over to
look. There it was. A six-foot by six-foot wooden pallet covered in other
trash. The pallet was made up of six planks side by side with two inches
between them attached to an identical set of 6 planks. There was a gap of 4
inches between the two sides. Often pallets were used to carry high piles of
items such as grass or banana boxes. The three smiled. Things were working out
very well. Abbigania began to move the trash off of the pallet. Liza and David
joined her. The three then took a side to lift. Just then a loud voice alarmed
them saying, “What are you kids doing in my yard!”
They dropped the pallet and stood stricken with fear at the big bearded man in the second floor window of the house. His gray-white beard was long and full. His big blue eyes looked fiercely at them, and he shook his hand while pointing. Cords of fear ran thru the children’s tiny frames and they shook violently wondering if they should run for it. But they were all too stubborn. They needed the pallet. They had been searching for one for weeks. It was the perfect piece to complete their mission.
“Please sir, we just need to use this piece of trash. Do you need it?” It was Abbigania little voice, which broke the silence. The man stood there in the window leaning out so precariously. The children held their breaths. Finally after so long he said, “I guess you guys can have it. But next time ask before you start going thru someone else’s trash!” He disappeared from the window and left a white current billowing in the light sea breeze.
They looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. Lifting the pallet again, they began to make their way out of the yard. Back on the sidewalk, their progress was very slow because of how heavy the pallet was. They had thrown their belongings on the pallet so they could hold it.
The last three blocks to the beach seemed like a lifetime. Finally they got there and they set their burden down on the sand. The beach was beautiful with blue green waves lightly crashing against the rocks. The rocks form a natural sea wall full of nooks and gullies filled with seawater. Inside these little pools swim little tan-brown fish. Thousands of hermit crabs crawl over the rocks falling into the gullies and scrambling under rocks. Sea gulls screamed overhead and searched for food. On a dock near by, brown pelicans perched lazily looking for fish. Small black/brown birds with long beaks hopped long the seaweed pecking for sea lice.
All this was lost on the children who were busy putting together what soon would be their grand master piece. Or at least they thought it would be. They were moving about tying ropes and taping things when Liza said, “We are missing the last piece. The foam!”
The others nodded in agreement. Davie rushed away the way they came. Liza knew Davie would find what they needed. She and Abbigania tightened ropes. Ten minutes later, Davie came back with a huge piece of foam rubber in his arms.
“That’s perfect!” cried Liza. “Now our raft will float!” The three children pulled and pushed the foam rubber between the two sides of the pallet. The three children step back and admire their raft.
The raft had three sealed buckets tied on each of the four sides. Then in the middle the foam rubber was securely taped in. Ropes then tied around the whole thing to secure the vessel. The children were filled with pride and decided to go for a trial trip right away.
They dragged the raft towards the ocean. This proved a hard task. The sand was thick and hard to walk in. The buckets were awkward and kept moving the wrong way stopping the progress. They had to stop and pull the buckets back on top of the raft so they could continue towards the water.
When they finally got to the water, they were all completely exhausted but filled with joy and expectation of their adventure on the high seas. Once they got it to the edge of the water, they got behind it and pushed it into the water. The water was warm as it always is in the summer in Key West. The water was also quite shallow, so they got into the water and pushed it out till they were waist deep in water. Because of the reef, the waves in the Keys are very small. So they didn’t have to deal with much trouble from the surf.
The bottom was clearly visible, white sand covered the floor in little sand dunes. With difficultly they each tried to pull themselves onto the raft. Davie fell off three times before managing to get on. Abbigania, being so small and light, easily climbed on and hooked her feet under a rope to secure her position.
Liza was the last to get on. As she pulled herself up, she began noticing some disturbing things. First, the foam rubber was filling up with water. And second, the raft was not floating; it was beginning to sink. The raft sunk deeper and deeper only being held up by the buckets. Abbigania and Davie were yelling at once. “We are sinking! SOS! SOS!” They screamed. Liza who was not yet all they way on the raft climbed off as quickly as she could. She tried to understand why the raft was sinking while she grabbed Abbigana’s hand and pulled her off. Davie was already off on the other side. The three children now stood looking at their sunken raft. The buckets were all that could be seen of it now since the raft was pulled down by the water.
“What happened?” asked Abbigania. She looked at Liza, who was the oldest and of course knew all things. Liza looked shocked and tired to pull herself together. “Lets pull it back to shore and investigate.” She said. So they did. This was harder then any of the other tasks they had undertaken so far this morning. When they had it half way on shore they all lay down in the sand exhausted. After a few minutes rest the sat up and looked at the flunked experiment.
“I think what happened,” Liza said after a pause, “Is we got the wrong kind of foam. We were supposed to get Styro Foam, not foam Rubber.” She walked over to the raft. She squeezed the foam; water poured out of it. “See, the water is absorbed into the foam. It’s like a sponge. The water makes it really heavy and it sunk.”
The other two children sat there nodding. They saw what she was saying was true. They had made a miscalculation. Their mission was over. It had failed miserably, but they had all learned an important lesson. There is a big difference between Foam Rubber and Styro Foam! They ate some candy and watched the surf hit the beach feeling melancholy and thinking about their next plan…