They stood in front of the throne and glared back at her, except Zia, who whispered “Oh dear, oh dear” quietly to herself.
When Clara had licked away all the ice cream and chewed up the whole cone, she announced, “You do want me to be Queen. You just don’t want to say so. It will be Rule Eighteen: Everybody has to want Clara for Queen.”
“I don’t think so,” said Peng, and “Not me, I don’t,” said Mr. B.
“I’m sorry to say—” Teddy started, and Sid added quickly, “I agree with Teddy.”
“Actually, I don’t want any queen,” said Umpah, and Zia said, “Oh dearie dear, this is so troubling.”
“Maybe, if you were a good queen?” Prinny suggested hopefully.
“I’m being as good as I can be,” Clara said, and started to sniffle.
Teddy thought it was time to change the subject. “My idea is about the palace.”
Clara stopped sniffling. “What about my palace?”
“I was thinking maybe we could build it out by the apple trees,” Teddy said. “I was thinking it would be white, like the apple blossoms in spring, with a red door, like the apples in the fall. And I was thinking,” he hurried on, “maybe you could be Queen sometimes, but not all the time. And maybe there could be no rules. And Umpah could paint a gold crown right over the door of your palace,” he concluded, happy at having gotten all of his ideas out without being interrupted.
Imagining this palace made Clara feel better, and she had to admit—but only to herself—that actually, it wasn’t much fun being Queen, just sitting on your throne making rules. “When would I be Queen?” she asked.
“When we ask you and you say Yes, or when you ask us and we say Yes,” said Teddy.
“Will we still have our same titles?” asked Sid.
“When we want to,” said Teddy.
“But without rules, how will things work?” asked Clara.
Teddy thought about this. While he was thinking, Zia went to get herself an ice cream cone—a strawberry one, since now she, too, was feeling more cheerful.
“I’m leaving,” said Peng, but he didn’t move.
Mr. B said, “I’ll go with you,” but since Peng wasn’t going anywhere, they both stayed where they were.
Finally Teddy said, “If we all agree about how to do something, that will be a rule.”
“Like we all agree about never swimming alone?” asked Zia. “Is that a rule?”
“But what if we don’t all agree?” asked Sid. “We almost never all agree,” he reminded them. “That’s why we needed a queen, to make rules.”
Teddy thought some more. They waited some more.
“If more than half agree,” he suggested.
“But what if more than half agree and I still don’t?” asked Peng, who knew that most of the time he wouldn’t.
“Everyone doesn’t have to agree, but if more than half do, then that’s the way it will be,” decided Teddy. “That could be our One and Only Rule.”
He looked at each one of them, one after the other, Umpah, then Zia, Sid, Peng, Mr. B, Prinny, and finally, Clara. He asked everybody, “Agreed?”
And everybody did agree, including Clara.
Clara was having a Queen Day and she had told Umpah she wanted a picnic lunch of strawberry pie with whipped cream and peach pie with ice cream and apple pie with cheese. However, when Umpah brought down two big baskets filled with blueberry muffins, Clara didn’t complain. “You are a very fine baker, Umpah,” she said.
“Thank you, Queen Clara,” Umpah responded.
Clara had told Sid to announce that her throne and umbrella would be out on the beach so she could watch the swimming. She had told Prinny to tell everyone that there would be a picnic, on a green and purple plaid blanket. She had put on a bright red dress with gold trim at the neck and wrists, and a wide straw hat with a gold ribbon down the back. She told Mr. B he could rest on the blanket, since Teddy was using the life ring to keep his wagon afloat.
Except Clara and Mr. B, everybody was in the water. Teddy’s wagon bobbled about wherever the waves took it, and Prinny swam beside. “Look at me!” she cried. “Watch me swim, Teddy! Look, Zia!”
Zia always looked. “Good swimming, Prinny,” she called, and, “Aren’t you clever?” But Teddy sometimes got tired of paying attention to Prinny. He wanted to think what it was like to swim under the water, like Peng. He wanted to watch the way Sid’s bright colors slid through the water as the long snake returned to dry land.
When he got to the beach, Sid called out to Teddy, “Today is perfect!” With a snap of his neck he tossed a muffin up into the air, opening his mouth wide to catch it on the way down and swallow it whole. Ordinarily, Sid ate off a plate, but a picnic was different. “Swimming and sunshine and picnic muffins,” he called. “Isn’t it perfect?”
“Almost,” Teddy called back happily. “Almost.”
“What do you mean almost?” Sid objected.
Teddy meant that something was missing, although he couldn’t say exactly what and he didn’t know if it was important or not. Important or not, its being missing made things only almost perfect.
Although, almost perfect was awfully good. From his wagon on top of the life ring he called back, “It’s pretty wonderful!”
“I’m putting my face in, Zia!” cried Prinny. “Watch me put my face in the water!”
Umpah stood in water up to his shoulders. He filled his trunk and then sprayed cool water down over his back and tail, over his head and ears.
“Spray me!” cried Prinny. “Look, Teddy, Umpah is spraying me! Look, Zia!”
“Isn’t Umpah clever?” said Zia. “Don’t you look wet and cool, Prinny. Oh dearie me, I’m glad we learned how to swim.”
Teddy floated along, watching all this, and then he watched Peng dive down under the water. Then he heard Zia squeal, “Oh!” and there was Peng’s head, rising out of the water right beside her.
“What are you doing there?” asked Peng. “Sorry,” he added, and dove back down.
“How would you like to be sprayed, Teddy?” called Umpah.
“Not one bit,” Teddy said. “But thanks anyway.” He didn’t want water in his eyes, making it hard to see, or in his ears, making it hard to hear. He wanted to see and hear everything.
Umpah lifted his trunk up into the air and sprayed a tall fountain of water. Sunlight flashed through the drops, sometimes making small pale rainbows, sometimes making a shower of bright bits of light. Zia swam under the shower and it rained a white brightness down on her pink brightness.
Teddy watched Clara watching the swimmers, and he watched Mr. B napping at her feet with his long ears flopped back and his ruff fluffing out from under his chin. As he watched, Clara in her red dress on the white wicker throne seemed to grow smaller, and so did Mr. B, who turned into a white blob, and so did Sid, who now looked like a many-colored pile of rope and not at all like his long snake-self.
Something interesting is going on, thought Teddy as the beach, too, grew smaller. The voices were still clear, but they seemed thinner.
What was happening?
An adventure? Maybe.
Now Teddy’s day was perfect.
Besides, he did know what was happening: He was floating off. He was floating away.
“Look, Umpah!” cried Prinny’s high voice.
“That’s too far, Teddy!” he heard Clara say. Her dress was now just a bright red streak. “I order you to come back!”
“What a good swimmer you are, Prinny,” said Zia, from far away
They’re like voices in a remembered dream, Teddy thought. The waves pushed him gently along and swung him gently around so that now he was looking ahead, toward open Sea, and now looking back, across to a distant, dark stretch of—was that the mainland?—and now—
Now he was looking right straight across at his own island, and all he could see were trees. Even when he stretched as far around as he could get, he couldn’t see the beach. But he knew that when the wav
es swung him in another direction, he would be able to see the beach, and everyone on it, so he didn’t worry. Instead, he looked carefully to know what his island looked like from out on the water.
Looking so carefully, he could see things he hadn’t noticed before: the bright red door of Clara’s palace peeping out between the trunks of apple trees, and its white walls shining through the green of the leaves. “Come look at me,” the palace seemed to be saying. “Come admire me.”
Teddy wondered what his own house looked like when seen from offshore. He tried to picture the bright red walls of his house, and the open windows.
Teddy’s wagon swung slowly around as he imagined things he couldn’t see and saw things he hadn’t imagined were there. Then he saw something new, right in front of his eyes. He saw a silver road. He saw a silver road leading away in among the trees, going into his island.
Almost immediately Teddy realized that the road was the stream he and Umpah and Sid had walked alongside of, and crossed. However, even though he now knew just what it was, it remained something mysterious and new, so Teddy stared and stared at it, to see it and remember it.
He wondered what it would be like to travel that silver road. He thought that if he looked at the bushes and stones and trees and grass of his island while he was traveling along that silver road, he would see more things he’d never noticed before. He would understand things he’d never understood before. He would have lots of new ideas.
One new idea he was already having was: That stream wasn’t just an obstacle to be gotten across. It was also another path to travel.
Teddy began to think hard about how he could travel it.
Question followed question across his brain as he floated on the water, rocking gently, swaying in slow arcs. Teddy was having a very good time, seeing all these new things, thinking all these new thoughts.
He saw how each tree on his island grew out of earth, its trunk like a neck holding up its head of leafy branches to collect the sunshine, or like a leg holding up its body, with branches like arms reaching leafy fingers up to grab at the sky. He saw how the Sea stretched all the way out to the edge of the sky. He saw fluffy white clouds floating in the sky the way he was floating in the water. And he wondered what a cloud felt like when you touched it.
Teddy thought about how the trees on his island were like a tall fence. He wondered if he and everyone were all being kept inside that fence of trees. Then he saw how far the Sea stretched beyond the northern end of the island, and now he wondered if the waves rushed up against the island, trying to wash it away, in which case the fence of trees was keeping them all safe.
He wondered if floating and thinking were a new kind of exploring.
The wagon kept swinging around, and Teddy was half asleep from the rocking of the wagon and the wondering of his round brown head. It seemed to him that he had been drifting and dreaming for a very long time. He opened his eyes wide and looked around to see that he had floated past the farthest northern tip of the island and that the curved, rocky beach there was growing smaller as it drifted away behind him.
Uh-oh, thought Teddy, a little frightened now, and a little excited, too.
He wondered, What might happen to me floating off and away like this?
Anything could happen.
“Be brave,” Teddy said to himself, speaking out loud to make sure he listened to the good advice. “Be patient.”
He thought he could do both of those things, for a while at least.
“Keep your eyes open,” he added, being brave and patient, and frightened and excited, all at once.
He looked across to the far-off maybe-mainland and he looked at all the water ahead. He kept his eyes open. The wagon rocked and rotated. Teddy waited patiently and bravely for whatever might happen. He tried to get ready for anything that might come next.
But he was still surprised enough to gasp “Oh!” when—
Out of the waves close beside his floating wagon, a black-and-white thing burst up into the air, showering water all around before it splashed back down into the water—smack!—right next to Teddy and—
Uh-oh, uh-oh, Teddy thought, closing his eyes as cool, salty water splashed up into his face. He needed to be braver than he knew how for this. He forced his eyes open to see what the thing was.
It was Peng. It was only Peng. Peng looked over one shoulder out to the open Sea, then over the other shoulder back to the island, and said, “I don’t know what you were thinking of, Teddy, floating off like that.”
This was just the kind of question Teddy liked. He said, “Well, at first I was thinking about—”
“Don’t even start telling me,” Peng interrupted. “I can’t pay attention to your ideas. I’ll have my hands full pushing you all the way back to the beach.”
“You don’t have hands,” Teddy pointed out.
“Against the tide,” Peng continued. “All of this exploring doesn’t get you anywhere,” he said.
But Teddy knew better.
When Teddy woke up to the sound of rain falling on the roof and the sight of rain sheeting down his window, he did not feel cheerful. “What am I going to do all day?” he asked Umpah, who was making lemon muffins.
At that moment, Sid slid in. “Are those lemon muffins? Because I especially like lemon muffins.”
“I know,” said Umpah, and he smiled, because cooks especially like cooking things for people who especially like to eat them.
“You especially like every muffin,” grumped Teddy.
“What’s wrong with you this morning?” Sid asked.
“Nothing,” grumped Teddy.
“It’s raining,” Sid announced, as if he thought that might cure Teddy’s grumps. “Raining hard,” he added.
“I know that,” Teddy grumped.
“I bet the rain goes on all day,” Sid predicted cheerfully.
Teddy sighed.
Umpah decided, “After muffins, let’s go over to the pink house. We can all do something together there.”
“Do what?” asked Teddy.
“We’ll see when we get there. There’ll be something,” he promised.
At the pink house, Prinny and Teddy played checkers while Sid and Zia and Umpah put together a puzzle, to make a picture of children playing in a garden. It wasn’t long before Clara arrived, with Mr. B at her heels.
“Where’s Peng?” asked Mr. B. “I guess I better tell him where everybody is,” and he went out into the rain again.
For a few quiet minutes, Clara sat and watched the game of checkers. The board was on the floor, so Prinny needed to get up and keep Teddy from falling out of the wagon when he reached down to move a checker from one square to the next. Clara hadn’t watched for very long before she wanted to play too. “I could play your black pieces for you, Teddy,” she offered.
“I’m doing it,” Teddy said.
“But Prinny has to get up to hold you, so the game is awfully slow,” Clara told him. “Also, because you stretch way over and out, you have to get all the way back up to be comfortable again.” She looked at him with sly sympathy. “That must be really hard.”
“We could try,” Teddy said. “I guess. For this turn you should move that last black checker on the back row forward one square,” Teddy said.
“You don’t want to do that,” said Clara. “You want to do this,” and she moved a different black piece. “Your turn,” she told Prinny.
Prinny jumped her red piece over that black piece and captured it. “Your turn,” she said.
“Move the piece I said before, please,” Teddy said. It was the grumpiest please that had ever come out of his mouth.
“Are you sure?” asked Clara. “It’s not a very good move.”
Mr. B came slouching back into the room. His ruffled collar was so wet he had to untie it and hang it over the back of a chair to dry. He sat down beside Prinny. “Peng doesn’t want visitors, not even today.”
Clara moved the black piece she wanted to move, not the on
e Teddy had asked her to move. “Your turn,” she reminded Prinny, who was thinking about what she wanted to do next.
Mr. B reached out and moved a red piece.
“But—” said Prinny.
“Your turn,” said Mr. B.
Clara jumped the black piece over his red piece and captured it. “I win!”
“No you don’t,” said Mr. B. “I still have pieces on the board.”
“Oh,” said Clara. “Move over, Teddy. You’re in my way,” she said. She pushed the red wagon a little bit away from the board.
“It’s my turn now,” said Mr. B. He reached out.
“Don’t take that one!” Clara cried. “I don’t want to lose it!”
“King me,” said Mr. B.
Prinny sighed, and stood up, and went to stand by Teddy. After a while, by pushing her hardest, she moved the wagon over to join Sid and Zia and Umpah, where they were working on the jigsaw puzzle on a table.
When the puzzle and games of checkers were done, Zia suggested a card game. “Go Fish,” she said.
“War,” said Clara.
“Oh dear, oh dearie me, Clara. War is a game for just two players and I want to play Go Fish with everyone. And it’s my house,” Zia said.
They played three games of Go Fish. Then they played three more.
After that, they had a tournament, to decide who was the checkers champion. Everybody had to play everybody else, and the player with the highest number of wins was named champion. That turned out to be Mr. B. Teddy had thought he would be the winner, so he was disappointed. Clara wanted to win everything, so she was cross. “I’m the best of everyone,” Mr. B announced happily. “I’m the champion.”
“Yes, you are,” Umpah agreed.
“I’m getting better at games,” Prinny said. “Aren’t I, Zia?”