GEMMA

CHAPTER 4: SERPENTINE

“No, Milo!” urged Gemma. “You are not playing him in checkers for it. You’ll end up losing the
boat.”

Milo pouted and turned back around.

“He’s never won,” whispered Gemma to Captain Bucket. “And I don’t mean that as an
exaggeration. I mean not a single time. And he played a chicken, twice.”

“Bad luck I’m sure,” said Captain Bucket sweetly. Then his eyes lit up, as if an idea had just
struck him. “Why don’t we trade instead! You give me that elegant purple ribbon in your hair,
and I’ll give you the answer. It will add nicely to my collection,” he said.

Gemma touched the ribbon in her hair. “My ribbon?” she questioned, undoing the knot and
holding it in her hands. “I suppose. I just got it back, though.”

“Then you won’t miss it much.” Captain Bucket reached out and grabbed it from her hands, then
secured it in his own, wavy hair. 

He retreated to the steering wheel of the Dusty Rust Busket and waved Gemma farewell.

“Goodbye Gemma! A chance encounter I won’t soon forget!” he said, pulling away.
Milo arrived back and sat on the railing, looking out. 

“Wait!” shouted Gemma. “What’s the answer to the riddle!”

Captain Bucket gave one last smile and cupped his hands to his mouth.

“Sometimes what we just need room to explore. That ship you found is looking for a bigger
pond!” And with that, he spun The Dusty Rust Busket towards the horizon and sailed away.

Gemma stood watching for a moment longer.

“We make deals with some interesting people, Milo,” she said to a nod. 

Milo picked up the tiny ship and handed it to Gemma. It was hardly the straightforward answer
that Gemma had wanted, but it was still a step in the right direction. The tiny ship needed more
room. 

“It needs a bigger pond.” The pair peered over the edge of the boat into the water and watched
low waves slap the hull. “It doesn’t get much bigger than that,” she said. It was the best, and
only, idea that she had. Gemma took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and dropped the tiny ship
over the edge of the Mystic Reed. “I sure hope it floats,” she added. 

The ship plopped down below the surface, sending out ripples, then bobbed back up. A small
cylinder in the back of the boat, that Milo had assumed was a miniature barrel, became
electrified by the salt water ocean. It whirred and wizzed until a propellor protruded out of the
end. It turned slowly at first, and then built up steam, until it was spinning so fast that the blades
couldn’t be seen. With a gentle hum, the tiny ship sped off in a direction only it knew. 

“Milo! That ship is getting away!” Gemma jumped back to the steering wheel. Using all of her
might, she grabbed a peg on the wheel and pulled hard to spin the boat around. Milo wrapped
his tail and hands around another one and pulled alongside her. 

“That’s it!” she shouted.

The boat had turned almost all the way around by the time they were on course to follow. Milo
climbed up the mast and used their spyglass telescope to spot the tiny ship. Whenever Gemma
veered too far in one direction Milo would squeak and point to the starboard or port. The Mystic
Reed had a great size advantage over the tiny ship that it was tailing, however a sailboat is at
whim of the wind, and must, at times, take a more indirect route to get where it’s going. So, it
was with both luck and skill that Gemma and her first mate, or ‘first primate’ as she liked to joke,
caught up to the ship in time to see it find the lightning current.

Gemma had heard tales of a current of electric blue, so powerful and full of life that it lit up the
surface of the sea, but she had never seen it. She didn’t truly believe anyone else had either.
But as they approached the tiny ship, there was no denying that it was riding down the center of
a glowing blue stream the very shape and color of lightning. The tiny ship zigged and zagged
with the turns, and Gemma did her best to stay the course. She no longer needed Milo’s
navigation, since the sea itself was showing her the way. The lighting pattern got slimmer and
slimmer as the two vessels approached a sandy shore. 

The tiny ship stopped dead just before the break of the waves on the shore. Gemma dropped
anchor and watched from above as it let out a few bubbles and flipped over. The hull opened up
just before the ship sank out of sight. In its place, it left a message in a bottle floating on the
water, waiting to be opened.

Source: https://www.freechildrenstories.com/gemma