Free The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester by Barbara O'Connor Page A

shook his head. “If we tell anybody else, some grownup is gonna find out, for sure, and then everything’ll be messed up.”
    “Then we need Travis and Stumpy,” Viola said.
    Owen sighed.
    Then, as if Viola hadn’t irritated him enough, she said, “You
are
going to make sure that submarine works before you try to move it, right?”
    “Well, um, yeah, um, sure,” he said.
    Viola lifted her eyebrows and looked at Owen with her fly-eyes.
    “Then do it now,” she said. “Go on in there and start that thing up.”
    Owen looked over at the Water Wonder 4000. He had crawled up inside it lots of times now. He had studied the switches, examined the gauges, fiddled with the joystick. But could he actually
start
that submarine? Could he really make it run? Maybe he was just going to have to float around inside the submarine in the pond and not actually drive it.
    “I will,” Owen said. “As soon as we get Travis and Stumpy back down here.”
    Owen wasn’t in the mood for Earlene’s grumpiness.
    When she snapped at him about the dirt he had tracked into the house, he shrugged.
    When she lectured him about the dangers of the rotting floorboards in the hayloft, he nodded.
    And when she gave him the evil eye for spilling milk on the kitchen table, he just said, “Heh.”
    Then he wiped up the milk, swept up the dirt, motioned for Pete and Leroy, and went outside to sit on the back steps and hope that Viola stayed away.
    But Owen only sat on the back steps for about a minute. His insides were just too wound up to sit still.
    It had been more than a week since he had first heard the thud, the crack of wood, the tumble, tumble, tumble sound.
    The sound of the submarine falling off the train.
    Somebody was going to be looking for that submarine. Owen was sure of it.
    If he was going to get the Water Wonder 4000 into Graham Pond, he was going to have to do it soon.
    But there were so many problems.
    How was he going to convince Travis and Stumpy to help him when they were so mad at him for letting Tooley go?
    And even if they agreed to help, could the four of them actually get the submarine to the pond?
    And if they
did
get the submarine to the pond, would he really be able to drive it?
    Problems.
    Problems.
    Problems.
    But Owen was determined.
    If he didn’t do this now, when would he ever have another chance to drive a little submarine around in a pond?
    Never.
    He would never have a chance to do something like that ever again.
    Owen strolled around the yard, kicking at dirt and tossing sticks for Pete and Leroy to chase.
    Then he headed down to the woods and made his way along the path toward the train tracks. Pete and Leroy darted in and out of the woods, eager to chase anything Owen happened to throw, pinecones, sticks, even rocks.
    Then, just as Owen neared the fork in the path, Leroy came leaping out of the woods with something in his mouth.
    Not a pinecone.
    Not a stick.
    Not a rock.
    But something made of paper.
    “What’s that?” Owen said, clapping his hands for Leroy to come to him.
    The dog trotted happily over and sat in front of Owen, his tail swishing back and forth in the pine needles on the path.
    “Let me see that, fella,” Owen said.
    Leroy had brought Owen a warped and wrinkled paperback book.
    Owen brushed dirt off the book and examined it.
    On the cover was a picture.
    A picture of the Water Wonder 4000.
    Above the picture were two words that made Owen let out a whoop that echoed through the trees.
    The two words were
    OPERATOR’S MANUAL

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    Owen lay on his stomach in the hayloft and read the operator’s manual for the submarine . . .
    . . . starting with “Chapter 1: Getting to Know Your Water Wonder 4000” . . .
    . . . and ending with “Chapter 6: Safety Tips and Troubleshooting.”
    Owen didn’t understand some of the stuff.
    Actually, Owen didn’t understand a
lot
of the stuff.
    There were sections on ambient pressure and buoyancy and ballasts and lots of other