Free Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas by Cary Fagan Page A

It’s called the SS
Spring-a-Leak
. Just think, kids, five days on thehigh seas. It’s going to be splendid. I plan to spend the whole time sitting in a deck chair, drinking pineapple juice and reading the newspapers.”
    Jacob Two-Two wasn’t so sure that it would be splendid, but he decided not to say anything, as his brothers and sisters would only make fun of him. The one good thing was that they would be on the ship for his birthday. Maybe, just maybe, everybody would forget about it.

CHAPTER 2
    verything that Jacob’s family owned had to be packed. Soon, the house was filled with boxes. There were boxes in the living room, boxes in the dining room, boxes in the kitchen, and boxes in all the bedrooms.
    Jacob’s brothers and sisters found more interesting uses for them. Daniel and Marfa used two empty flattened boxes to slide down the stairs. “Get out of the way, Jacob!” Daniel called out. “We’re learning how to toboggan, like they do in Canada.”
    “Can I try, can I try?” Jacob asked excitedly.
    “You’re too little. Now move out of the way or you’re going to get knocked down. Yahoo!”
    Jacob had to move fast because Daniel came whooshing down the stairs at breakneck speed. He wandered into the living room, where he found none other than the intrepid Shapiro and the fearless O’Toole, otherwise known as Emma and Noah. The duo wore Day-Glo blue jeans and flying golden capes, and they had the spine-chilling
Child Power
emblem emblazoned on their chests. They were inside a large wardrobe box, hanging a flashlight from the cardboard ceiling and taping a transistor radio to the wall.
    “What are you doing?” asked Jacob. “What are you doing?”
    “We’re building our headquarters,” said the intrepid Shapiro.
    “How neat. Can I come in? Can I come in?” Jacob asked.
    “These headquarters are for superheroes only,” said the fearless O’Toole. “Are
you
a superhero?”
    Jacob had to admit that he wasn’t. Head lowered, he walked slowly away – and bumped right into his mother.
    “Well, young man,” she said. “I can see that youneed something to do. How about you pack up your own toys?”
    “I can do that, I can do that,” Jacob said.
    “You must pack only what you really need,” his mother said. “You’ve got to decide what toys and games to take and what to leave behind.”
    Jacob hurried up to his room, glad to have a big kid’s job to do. He stood among his stuffed animals, his toy cars and aeroplanes, his games and puzzles. How could he possibly decide what to take and what to leave behind? Did he need his Captain Crinkle secret decoder ring? Should he take his stuffed kangaroo with the missing eye? Jacob pondered these difficult questions. When he couldn’t come up with the answers, he decided to ask his father.
    So many boxes filled the house that it took Jacob a long time to even
find
his father, who was lying on the sofa in the library, reading the news paper. When he saw Jacob, he put down the paper. “Son, perhaps I better tell you a few things about Canada,” his father said.
    “Tell me, tell me.”
    “First of all, the winter is very cold. It’s so cold that everyone has to carry an ice pick. That way, ifyour boots become frozen to the ground, you can chip yourself free.”
    Jacob was astonished. “What else? What else?” he asked.
    “You have to watch out for polar bears and mountain lions on the way to school. The polar bears will steal your lunch, but the mountain lions want your satchel of books. They’re very eager to learn. Now, at home, before you take a bath, you may have to remove a seal from the tub, which is quite hard to do because they’re so slippery. Don’t try to take your bath with the seal because it will be sure to hog the soap.”
    Jacob was so amazed by these facts that he forgot what he had meant to ask his father. In the end, it was his mother who ended up packing his toys. A big moving van came, and two hefty men took all the boxes