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

things he had never heard of. But there was plenty of stuff that seemed easy enough and made Owen think he really could do this.
    He
could
drive the submarine around Graham Pond.
    He tucked the manual under his shirt, climbed down out of the hayloft, jumped on his bike, and raced over to Tupelo Road.
    Travis and Stumpy were building a skateboard ramp in the middle of the road while Joleen Berkus hollered at them.
    “I’m gonna call the police,” she hollered from her front porch.
    Stumpy looked a little nervous, but Travis just hammered away without even a glance in her direction.
    Owen’s bike skidded to a stop, sending gravel and dirt flying.
    Travis stopped hammering.
    “Hey,” Owen said.
    Travis just lifted his eyebrows.
    “Guess what?” Owen grinned at them.
    “What?” Stumpy said.
    “Leroy found the operator’s manual for the submarine.” Owen took the wrinkled book out from under his shirt and held it up for them to see.
    Stumpy tossed his hammer aside and said, “Cool!”
    But Travis stayed quiet.
    So Owen took a deep breath and went to work on Travis.
    He told him how the submarine only needed three feet of water to float.
    How those air tanks were already filled and ready to go.
    How there were just three switches to flip on the control panel.
    Owen sort of hurried over some of the stuff, like about flooding the ballasts and adjusting the buoyancy control, since he didn’t really get that part yet, and then he slowed down so he could be real dramatic when he told the part about using the joystick to go up and down and forward and back.
    “It’s easy!” Owen said.
“And,”
he added, jabbing his thumbs at himself, “I figured out how to get the sub down to the pond.”
    Travis kept his mouth set tight and his eyes narrowed.
    Owen waited.
    Stumpy looked from Travis to Owen and back to Travis.
    “So . . .” Owen said. “You in or you out?”
    “I’m in,” Stumpy said.
    Then Owen and Stumpy looked at Travis and waited.
    Joleen Berkus hollered something from her front porch, but the three boys just ignored her.
    “What about Viola?” Travis said.
    “Oh, yeah,” Stumpy said. “What about Viola?”
    “Look,” Owen said. “We need her to help us. It’s gonna take four people. Besides . . .” Owen looked down at the operator’s manual in his hand. “She
does
know a lot about some of this stuff.”
    Then Owen tossed in a heartfelt “Come on, Travis,” and waited.
    A dog barked.
    A fly buzzed.
    Joleen Berkus slammed her front door.
    And Travis said, “Okay.”
    That night, the train rumbled along the tracks behind the house, while Owen stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom.
    His grandfather’s rhythmic snores drifted through the dimly lit hallway outside his door.
    And from way down at the pond came the low, steady
r-u-u-u-m-m-m
of a bullfrog.
    Tooley.
    Owen was sure of it.
    Then he took a flashlight out of the drawer of his bedside table and studied the operator’s manual for the Water Wonder 4000 late into the night.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
    Owen and Travis sat inside the Water Wonder 4000, while Viola and Stumpy stood beside it, peering in the window.
    Viola read from the operator’s manual. “Before launching your Water Wonder 4000,” she read, “there are a few simple tests to perform.”
    “Just get to the directions,” Owen called through the window.
    “Turn on the two breakers,” Viola said.
    Owen found the switches labeled BREAKER and pushed them on.
    Click.
    “Now flip the switch marked CONTROL PANEL .”
    Owen flipped the switch, and the control panel litup, filling the little compartment inside the submarine with a soft orange glow.
    Owen and Travis high-fived each other.
    Stumpy danced around in a circle, chanting, “It works! It works! It works!”
    “Now flip on the Auto Depth Control and the Electronic Buoyancy Control switches,” Viola said.
    Owen did each thing that Viola read from the operator’s manual.
    He pushed the joystick forward, making the