Well, it’s been an interesting week. I have this little perch that I like to sit on when I’m trying to think. Audrey’s father, Edwin Brewer, a very fine artist, made it for me, and it reminds me of the village where I grew up in the rain forests of Central Mexico. I had promised Mitzi, my manicurist, that I would include her in the book I’m writing called "Max: A Hero’s Story, Part III" and I was trying to decide which chapter to put her in. At first I was going to tell the story of how she helped me win the land speed record, but I decided instead to tell the story of how the two of us sailed from Australia in a research submarine called the Can O’ Worms.
For some reason Audrey is always piling up newspapers under my perch. I don’t mind because I’m very ecology minded (after all, most of my relatives live in the rain forest), but today I was trying to think and the headlines were distracting me. Slowly my focus went from my mind to my eyes as the headline I had been staring at began to make sense. SHIPWRECK FOUND OFF COAST - RUMOURED TO CARRY MUCH GOLD. Well, that got my attention! I began to picture my limo with a coat of solid gold paint. I could buy the salon Mitzi the manicurist works at and give it to her for Christmas. I could buy my friend Angus the seagull a nice little house on the beach. My imagination began to go crazy, I was overwhelmed by the possibilities.
I ran to the phone and dialed the number of Harley Halyard; the Captain of the Can O’ Worms research submarine I’d helped sail from Australia. Mrs. Halyard answered the phone. " I’m sorry Max, but Harley is in the North Atlantic, guiding a pod of whales through some treacherous territory. He probably won’t be home for another month or so."
"Oh Man! Isn’t there any way to reach him?"
"Not really. He’s pretty far under water, so his cell phone doesn’t work."
I hung up the phone as Angus the scruffy seagull walked into the room. I explained to him about the treasure and that the submarine was unavailable. "We’ve got to think of something, Angus, If we can recover that treasure, we’ll both be rich."
"Well I don’t know," he said, scratching his head with a tattered wing, "I’m a seagull, so I can swim pretty good, but I never spent much time underwater. And besides, that shipwreck’s got to be pretty deep."
"We can do it, Angus. We’re a couple of pretty smart guys, I know we can do it if we just put our heads together."
Well Websters, it took us all day to figure out a plan, but we didn’t waste any time putting it into action. We got up with the first ray of sun and took my limo to the harbor. We borrowed the dingy from Don and Audrey’s boat and began rowing out toward the shipwreck. When we arrived at the spot I climbed into a glass five gallon water bottle while Angus tossed in enough rocks to make it sink. Then Angus tied a rope around it, stuck a big cork in the top and threw the whole thing overboard. There was a little hole in the cork with a hose attached that went up to the surface. Every once in a while Angus would blow in the hose and force air into the bottle.
I ‘ve never been underwater before and everything was fascinating. Dozens of interesting sea creatures swam past my little glass house on the way to the bottom. An octopus attached itself to the glass for a moment, but once it caught sight of me it departed in a hurry. As I strained my eyes watching it glide away through the murky water, I was surprised by a loud THUMP! I was on the bottom of the ocean.
There was a lot of seaweed so I couldn’t see very far, but as the tide shifted the seaweed drifted in the other direction . . .and there it was, The shipwreck.
Angus and I hadn’t figured out how to get the treasure off the ship because we didn’t know exactly what we would find at the bottom of the sea. I decided it was time to improvise. If I could get out of the bottle, I could make some short trips into the ship and bring out the treasure a little at a time. I pushed the cork out of the bottle and immediately water came rushing in and air went flying out. I had forgotten to turn the bottle upside down and all my air was gushing out of the bottle neck and up to the surface. For a moment I panicked, what would I do for air, what would I breathe? My lungs are not very big so it didn’t take long for the little bit of air in them to go bad. Then I had an idea, straining my eyes once again, I spotted the hose that, hopefully, Angus was blowing into. There it was, only a short distance away, with bubbles streaming out of the end. I quickly swam to it and forced the end into my mouth. Ah, sweet fresh air, even if it did smell like seagull breath. I tried to yell for help through the hose, but Angus later told me it sounded like "Yelp Yelp". As he tried to figure out what I was saying, he stopped blowing into the hose. That’s when I really began to panic. I dropped the hose and swam toward the surface as quickly as I could.
Soon, though, fatigue began to overwhelm me and I felt myself blacking out.
I don’t know how long I was out, but I instantly recognized my surroundings when I awoke. "Captain Halyard," I exclaimed, "I’m on the Can O’ Worms! You’re not supposed to be home for another month."
"Ahh," said Captain Halyard, " I see you’ve been talking to my wife. Mrs. Halyard is a wonderful woman, but she has one bad habit. At the end of every month she forgets to turn the page on the calendar. She’s almost always surprised when I return from a voyage."
"Well, I’m glad you’re here, Captain Halyard," I said, "Now we can use the Can O’ Worms to retrieve the treasure from the shipwreck and we’ll all be rich."
"Max, there’s no treasure in that shipwreck."
"Of course there is! I read it in the newspaper that Audrey placed under my perch. It said SHIPWRECK FOUND OFF COAST – RUMOURED TO CARRY MUCH GOLD. That’s just exactly what it said!"
"Let’s go pick up your friend Angus, max, and when we get back to your house I’ll show you something. My wife’s not expecting me for another month, so there’s no hurry."
A soon as we arrived at my house I stormed over to my perch and pointed to the newspaper. "See there, Captain Halyard, look at that headline. It’s just like I said it was, the shipwreck, the gold, everything!"
"Everything but the date, Max," he said with a smirk. "Look in the upper left-hand corner."
"May 20th," I said defiantly, "See, May 20th …Oh…"I grew sheepish, "1984"
Well, Websters, Captain Halyard had a good laugh at my expense. "That old wreck has been picked cleaner than the squid platter at a tuna convention." Angus was a little upset because he already had his beach house picked out. In the end, though, we all shook hands and agreed to stick to treasures that are buried on the land"
Thanks for joining me on this adventure, Websters. We’ll see you next time!
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