The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner by Walter Dean Myers

Author:Walter Dean Myers
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780061975059
Publisher: HarperCollins

FOURTEEN

THERE WERE TWO boats docked side by side, and I found out that one was going to Seattle, which was on my uncle’s list, and the other one was going to New York City. It did not take me long to decide which one I would take.

“Captain,” I said, “please take me to New York City so I can once again see my Dear Sweet Mother.”

“I will do no such a thing,” he said. “For you look like a diseased man and I do not want the likes of you on my ship.”

I held down my temper and, drawing myself up to full stature, told him what had happened to my ear and my backside, and said that it was Villains and Evildoers that had done me in and not Disease.

“Then you are a jinx,” he said, “and worse than the scurvy!”

I went to a small place that sold hard liquor and eats and ordered a plate of beans and a soda. When I looked up in the mirror and saw myself, I knew that the Captain was right. I looked more pitiful than a one-eyed mangy cat peeping in a seafood store.

But then a Voice come to me and said it was Fate that made me look so bad that I could not go home to New York. I was Destined to go on to the next place on Uncle Ugly’s list, and the ship that would take me was waiting at the dock. It was an iron-bottom three-master that used to belong to the White Star Line and was now named the Eastern Star. I finished up my beans and soda water and went right out to make inquiry as to passage.

“For fourteen American dollars you can go all the way to Seattle if you are willing to sleep in the hold,” the mate said. He was a red-faced man with chin whiskers that were neatly trimmed and an Honest cast to his eye.

“That suits me just fine,” I said.

I looked to see what money I had left and saw that it was thirty-two dollars and nine cents. I knew what I had to do.

“How soon before the ship sails?” I asked the mate.

“Within the half hour,” was his ready answer. “If you are not on board then, we will not wait for you.”

“Be that as it may,” I answered, “I must go find a friend and see that he has enough money for a decent meal and a place to stay.”

“You’re not talking about that fellow over there that’s been watching you, are you?” the mate answered.

I turned around and saw that it was Frolic Brown himself. I walked over to him and saw that he was doing poorly, and that his handsome face was shaded with sadness. When I put my right hand on his shoulder, he lifted his chin and twisted his mouth up in his peculiar manner.

“Frolic, I have decided to go on to Seattle, Washington. I do not know what dangers lie there for me, or what Fate has in store,” I said.

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