The Polar Bear Express
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
1. SPLAT!
2. SHAKE YOUR TAIL
3. VISIONS
4. NESTOR
5. DOWN TO BUSINESS
6. PUFFER FISH
7. A SHELL WASH
8. LAST HOPE
9. THE BEST IDEA EVER
10. TOTALLY WAVY
CLASS POEMS
THE MERMAID TALES SONG
AUTHOR’S NOTE
GLOSSARY
WISH UPON A STARFISH EXCERPT
ABOUT DEBBIE DADEY
To Nancy Crowther, Sybil Johnson, Pete Brunner, Marijane Meckling, Sue Goldsworthy, Bob Scof ield, and all my Moland House friends
Acknowledgment
Thanks to summer intern Hannah Frank for haiku brainstorming.
Splat!
“Five arms stretch out wide
No brains; no blood; velvety
Starfish cling to life.”
“I really like that,” Kiki Coral told her teacher.
“It’s a haiku,” Mrs. Karp explained. “Five claps for the first line, then seven, then five for the last line.”
“Boring,” Pearl Swamp whispered under her breath. Mrs. Karp peered through her tiny glasses at Pearl, who slid down in her seat.
“Do you think the Rays’ music is boring?” Mrs. Karp asked Pearl.
Pearl sat up straight and tossed her long blond hair behind her shoulder. “Of course not!” The Rays were the most famous boy band in the ocean. They had sung at Pearl’s last birthday party.
“Did you know that many of the Rays’ songs are poems?” Mrs. Karp said. “Of course, they are different from a haiku.”
“Really?” asked Shelly Siren. Shelly was the only student at Trident Academy who had actually performed with the Rays at Pearl’s party. When their backup singer had gotten sick, Shelly had filled in for her.
Mrs. Karp nodded and surprised her entire third-grade class by singing one of the Rays’ songs.
“Shark, the sharpnose sevengill, lived near to me.
We swam together every day
And became the best of friends.
Then someone told Shark he should eat me.
And now I miss him terribly
But our friendship had to end.
Shark, the sharpnose sevengill, lived near to me.
I’ll always treasure our friendship
And hope someday he’ll see
That sharks and merfolks can be friends.
One day it will be.
But until that day, I guess I’ll say
Shark, I miss you still.”
Pearl rolled her eyes, but most of the class tapped their tails in time to Mrs. Karp’s voice. When she finished, everyone clapped except Pearl.
“That was totally amazing!” Echo Reef said.
Mrs. Karp grinned and took a little bow. “What do you think about poems now?” she asked Pearl.
Pearl shrugged. “I guess some poems are pretty wavy.”
“I think poems should be silly,” Rocky Ridge said before singing to the class in a funny voice:
“Food fights can be fun.
Especially at lunchtime.
Splat! Right in the face!”
Rocky acted out the splat and fell onto the floor.
Mrs. Karp hid her smile behind her hand, but Kiki couldn’t help laughing just a little. “That was very creative,” Mrs. Karp told Rocky, “but I hope you don’t plan to have a real food fight.”
Rocky shook his head, but Kiki noticed the grin on his face. Kiki knew Rocky would love to throw anything, especially food.
“You’ve given me a wonderful idea,” Mrs. Karp told Rocky. “Everyone will write their own poem for our next class assignment. It can be a haiku or a song or whatever type you’d like. We’ll talk about other kinds of poems in class tomorrow.”
Pearl frowned at Rocky. “Thanks a lot!” she snapped. “More homework!”
Shake Your Tail
AT LUNCHTIME KIKI SLID into a round table in a corner of Trident Academy’s cafeteria. Shelly and their merfriend Echo joined her.
“Wasn’t it fun when Mrs. Karp sang in class?” Kiki asked.
Shelly smiled. “I didn’t know she had such a nice voice.”
“I love that Rays song,” Echo said. “Have you heard their newest one?”
Kiki shook her head, pushed her long black hair out of her face, and took a bite of her crab casserole.
“Sing it for her, Shelly,” Echo said, giving Shelly a little nudge with her shoulder.
Shelly sang,
“Shake your tail
Shake, shake, shake your tail
Let’s bubble down and make like a whale
Shake, shake, shake your tail.”
Shelly was probably the best singer in the whole school—maybe in the entire merkingdom. She was so good that everyone in the cafeteria stopped to listen to her. When Shelly finished, Kiki clapped and the rest of the school joined in. Everyone but Pearl.
Shelly’s face turned red. She quickly scooped up a big bite of her longhorn cowfish and ate it without looking up. Her long hair partly covered her crimson cheeks.
Pearl floated over to their table and pointed her nose up in the water. “Did you know that the Rays are performing a concert in Poseidon tomorrow?”
“Really?” Echo asked. Poseidon was the town right next to Trident City, where they lived.
Pearl nodded. “Yes, and my father is taking me to see them. I bet I’m the only one in the whole school who will go. The tickets are very expensive.”
Shelly, Echo, and Kiki looked at one another without saying a word. Pearl’s parents were rich, and they lived in one of Trident City’s biggest shells. Everyone knew Pearl always got want she wanted. Many Trident City merfolk thought Pearl’s parents spoiled her.
Kiki felt like telling Pearl that it wasn’t nice to brag, but Pearl wasn’t finished. “I’m going to write the Rays a poem song. I’ll give it to them, and I bet they’ll sing it just for me.”
“That’s great idea,” Echo said.
Kiki looked at Echo in surprise. Kiki knew Echo didn’t like Pearl’s bragging either.
“I’m going to write a poem song too,” Echo continued. “Maybe the Rays will like mine and make it famous throughout the merworld.”
Pearl frowned. “But I thought of it first!”
Pearl’s friend Wanda swam up beside Pearl. “It is a great idea. I’m going to write a song for the Rays too.”
Pearl gave Wanda a dirty look and swam off to her own table, leaving a trail of bubbles behind. Wanda followed with a worried look on her face.
“Let’s meet at my shell after school,” Shelly told her friends. “We can work on our poems and poem songs together.”
“I can bring the snacks,” Kiki suggested. “I just got a trunk full of treats from home. My mom sent lots of sea cucumbers.”
Unlike Shelly and Echo, who lived close to Trident Academy, Kiki’s family lived far across the ocean, so she stayed in the school’s dormitory. Kiki’s mom often sent her care packages filled with goodies.
Shelly grinned. “Yum! I love those!”
“Oops!” Kiki said. “I forgot that I have vision practice with Madame Hippocampus after school today.”
“Just come over when you’re done,” Shelly said.
“Hey, do you know the best part about writing a poem song for the Rays?” Echo asked her friends.
“What?” Kiki asked.
“Making Pearl mad without even trying,” Echo replied with a giggle.
All three girls turned to look at Pearl. She was staring at them from across the room with a big frown on her face.
“Oh my Neptune!” Shelly said. “We don’t want to mak
e Pearl angry at us.”
Kiki nodded. “Pearl does seem to like trouble.”
Echo shrugged. “I know, but how much trouble could she really cause us?”
Visions
I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE to stay after school,” Kiki told Shelly and Echo as the conch shell sounded to end the day. They floated into the huge front hallway of Trident Academy. Students in grades three through ten zipped past them on their way to after-school activities, their dorm rooms, or home.
“Well, I wish I could see the future like you,” Echo said. Only a few mermaids actually had the gift of foresight.
“You are lucky to be able to have visions,” Shelly agreed. “And we’ll see you at my shell after your lesson.”
Kiki sighed. She wasn’t sure that being able to view the future was a good thing. After all, she only had visions every once in a while. Plus, sometimes they were scary, like the time she thought she saw Rocky getting hurt by a huge turtle. Luckily, it turned out that the turtle was actually saving Rocky, not hurting him!
“See you soon,” Kiki said as she floated away from the main hall, past the library, and toward Madame Hippocampus’s classroom.
Madame Hippocampus chuckled when Kiki swam into the room. “I knew you were coming!” Madame said.
Kiki smiled. It was their usual joke, since Madame could see the future too. During the school day, Madame taught merology, the study of merfolk life, including history, government, and society. After school, she gave vision lessons. Some merstudents were shocked by Madame’s looks—she had a horse’s head and dolphin’s tail—but Kiki had been taking vision lessons for several months. Now she was used to being taught by a hippocampus.
“Today we will work on making your visions come whenever you want,” Madame said. “First you need to close your eyes and concentrate. Clear your thoughts. Open your mind.”
Kiki shut her eyes. She tried to clear her head, but thoughts kept coming. She imagined going over to Shelly’s shell. She wondered what kind of poem she should write for class.
Madame neighed. “Kiki, stop thinking and make your mind blank.”
“I’m trying,” Kiki said. She knew Madame could sometimes read her mind. Kiki did try not to think, but she didn’t have much success at making a vision appear. She only managed to see that the Trident Academy cafeteria would serve ribbon worms for lunch tomorrow. Anyone could have guessed that!
After a half hour, Madame tapped a hoof on her marble desk and said, “That’s all the time we have for now. Let’s try again next week.”
Kiki popped open her eyes. “Thanks!” she called as she darted out of the room. She couldn’t wait to get to Shelly’s apartment.
Kiki loved any chance to get away from school. Living in the dorm was fun, but it could get lonely being so far away from her family. She dashed to her room, grabbed the small trunk of treats her mom had sent, and scooted out the front door.
Kiki swam through MerPark without a thought in her head. Just as she passed the Manta Ray Express Station, where enormous manta rays took merpeople anywhere in the whole wide ocean, Kiki’s eyes grew cloudy and her ears clogged up. She was so startled she stopped short. She was having a vision!
In her mind she saw something unusual in the water above her. When the vision was over, Kiki couldn’t resist looking up. When she did, she got the surprise of her life!
Nestor
A STRANGE SHAPE SPLASHED in the water overhead. Kiki squinted her eyes to make out a furry white foot with black toenails. She was so startled she started to scream, but one word stopped her. “Help!”
Kiki knew she had heard that language before. She thought very hard and said, “Can I help you?”
Immediately the foot stopped moving. In seconds a white face with a black nose appeared in front of Kiki. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a baby polar bear!
“You can speak my language?” the little bear asked.
Kiki nodded. She tried to remember whether polar bears ate mermaids. She was pretty sure they didn’t but decided not to get too close just in case.
“Are you a mermaid? You won’t hurt me, will you?” The little bear sniffed the water.
Kiki smiled. “I’m Kiki and I am a mermaid, but I won’t hurt you.”
“My name is Nestor, and I’m lost,” said the little bear. “Can you help me find my home?”
“But I’ve never heard of a polar bear in Trident City before,” Kiki said slowly, still keeping her distance.
“I fell asleep on a piece of ice. When I woke up, I had floated far away from home. Now my ice has almost melted, and I have nowhere to go. I’m really hungry and scared.” Nestor’s eyes filled with tears, and Kiki knew he wasn’t dangerous.
Without hesitation she opened her trunk of goodies. “Here, take these.” Out floated the sea cucumbers that Shelly liked so much, some crab popovers, octopus legs, and delicious-looking sea-slug sushi. Kiki hoped her merfriends wouldn’t be mad that she’d given away the treats, but she felt sorry for the hungry little bear.
Nestor took one sniff and opened his mouth wide. Kiki floated backward as he gobbled the goodies down in a mersecond. Nestor then swam up to the surface and Kiki thought he was gone for good.
“Thanks,” Nestor said, swimming back beside her. “I feel better now. Do you know the way home?”
Kiki shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t.”
Nestor’s lip trembled, and tears rolled down his furry white cheeks. “But I want to see my mommy.”
Even though Nestor was almost as big as a mermaid, Kiki could tell he was still very young. She wanted to help him, but how?
“I don’t know how to get you home, but I’ll find out. Can you wait for me while I get help?”
Nestor nodded. Kiki darted to Shelly’s apartment as quickly as she could.
“Fin-tastic,” Echo said as Kiki swam through the door. “You’re here! Where are the snacks?”
“I don’t have them anymore,” Kiki explained. “I gave them away.”
“You gave away the sea cucumbers?” Shelly asked. “But I’m starving!”
“I gave them to a polar bear,” Kiki said.
Echo laughed. “No, really, where are they?”
“I’m serious,” Kiki said. “On the way over here I saw a baby polar bear in the water. He was lost and hungry, so I gave him my snacks.”
“A real polar bear?” Shelly asked. “I’ve never seen one.”
Echo’s eyes grew wide. “Are you teasing us?”
Kiki shook her head.
“Aren’t polar bears dangerous?” Echo gasped.
Shelly nodded. “You shouldn’t get close to one. It could eat you for a snack.”
“This one was really little,” Kiki told them.
“But polar bears and mermaids don’t live anywhere near each other,” Echo said. “It must be some other creature.”
Kiki shook her head. “No, it was definitely a polar bear.” She turned to Shelly. “Is your grandfather here?”
“No, he’s downstairs in the museum,” Shelly said. “He has a very important meeting with a humanologist and told me not to interrupt.”
“Oh my Neptune!” Kiki exclaimed. “What are we going to do now?”
Shelly’s grandfather ran the Trident City People Museum, and he was quite wise. Kiki had hoped he would know how to get Nestor home.
“What’s wrong?” Echo asked.
“The bear is in trouble! His patch of ice is melting, and soon he’ll have nowhere to go. I think he needs our help,” Kiki explained. “He’s not dangerous. He’s just a baby. I promise.”
“Then we’d better go see him right now,” Shelly said. “Show us the way!”
“Come on,” Kiki said, forgetting all about the poems they were supposed to write. Helping the little bear was much more important. The girls dashed back to the place where Nestor had been, but he was gone!
“Where is he?” Kiki cried. She hoped that nothing terrible had happened to the little bear.
KIKI LOOKED ALL AROUND the Manta Ray Station, where she had seen Nestor. Several manta rays were lined up, waiting to take merfolk to their destinations. But the little polar bear was nowhere to be found. “Where could he be?” she asked her merfriends.
“If Nestor is a polar bear, then I don’t think he can breathe underwater,” Shelly said slowly. “He probably had to go back to the surface for air.” All three girls looked up toward the top of the water, but they couldn’t see anything that looked like a polar bear.
Echo nodded. “I think Shelly is right, but we can find out for sure at the library. I bet they have lots of books about polar bears.”
Shelly grabbed Kiki’s hand. “Come on, the Trident City Library is this way.”
The three mergirls swam through MerPark to the back of Trident City Hall. They passed between the marble pillars that lined the entrance to the oldest library in the merworld.
Shelly and Echo were used to the splendor of their local library, but Kiki had never seen it before. She couldn’t help staring at the pink marble walls and the sparkling diamonds that lined the ceiling in different sea-creature shapes. But most impressive of all was the vast number of rock and seaweed books that filled the shelves at the back of the library.
“I thought the front hall of Trident Academy was beautiful,” Kiki gasped. “But this is shell-tacular!”
“Shhh!” said an older librarian from behind a massive granite counter. She frowned at the mergirls.
“Hey, that’s Lillian!” Echo whispered.
“Who is Lillian?” Kiki asked quietly.
“Mr. Fangtooth’s sweetheart,” Shelly murmured. Mr. Fangtooth was their school’s grumpy cafeteria worker. Recently Echo and Shelly had found a love letter that Mr. Fangtooth had written to Lillian long ago.
The girls giggled at the thought of crabby Mr. Fangtooth being in love, but then Kiki got down to business. “Where are the books about polar bears?” she asked.
Shelly knew just where to go. She led Kiki and Echo to the library’s animal section. Each mergirl chose several titles about polar bears and began reading.