- Muhammad Ali
Chapter 6
The Fine Art of Imagination
When Nick got to Mimi's the next morning, the rain was coming down in buckets. He turned off his windshield wipers and ran for the door, pulling his jacket up over his head as he ran, clicking the button for the lock. He stepped through the door of the house without knocking and kicked off the red Converse sneakers at the door. "Hello? Mimi?" he called out into the house.
Mimi came out of the kitchen, carrying a box of cinnamon toast crunch and a tiny carton of orange juice. "There you are," she said, "I was wondering if you were coming today."
Nick was an hour later than he'd come the past three days. "The traffic was just -" Nick shuddered for dramatic effect. He motioned at the cereal and juice, "What's that?"
"Max hates the rain."
Nick paused. "Okay then."
"Come on," Mimi led Nick up the stairs. The house was so familar to Nick, though, that he could've navigated to the boys' room by himself. He smiled when they stepped inside. Nothing had changed since he'd left, except that Jake had settled in quite comfortably on what used to be Nick's side of the room. The bunk beds, which Nick, too, had once slept on when he was the youngest at Mimi's house, were just as they'd always been. Nick couldn't help but smile at those... Ah the adventures those bunk beds had provided...
And there in the center of the room was the cardboard box.
Mimi knelt down and knocked on the door, "I have your cereal Max, and guess what? Nick's here to see you."
The box door opened ever so slightly and Mimi slid the box of cereal and the juice into the gap before it closed. She got back up with a groan and looked around the room, as Nick was doing.
"Look different?" she asked.
"It looks exactly the same," he answered.
Mimi smiled. "Well, make yourself at home, then. But don't expect too much. Max hates the rain."
Nick waited until he heard Mimi step off the very last of the stairs before he went over to the box. He sat down and knocked. "Max, it's me, Nick, can I come in?"
Max opened the box flap.
Nick crawled inside. He watched as Max pulled a handful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch out of the box and start licking the cinnamon off. "Can I have some?" he asked.
Max held out the box.
Nick reached in and pulled out a handful of cereal too, but he skipped the licking and started chewing.
Frantic, Max counted his chews. Only eight! Max's eyes grew wide.
"What?" Nick asked.
Max waited. Surely Nick was about to die! A horrorsticken look had covered his entire face.
"What's the matter, buddy?" Nick asked.
"You didn't chew it!" Max said.
Nick contemplated this. "I chewed," he said.
"No! You only chewed it eight," Max said.
"Eight?" Nick laughed, "Well how many times am I supposed to chew it?" he asked.
"Twenty-five."
Nick blinked in surprise. "Twenty-five?" he said, "Wow, that's a lot of chewing. Stuff like cereal would be nothing by the time I chewed it twenty-five times."
Max stared at Nick.
"I think if it's really small and swallowable that you should be okay with less than twenty-five chews," Nick said.
Max shook his head.
"Sure," Nick said, "If you got it all chewed up and you're only at twenty-one, don't you think that's okay?"
Max kept shaking his head.
Nick took some more cereal and started chewing. He was careful to chew it twenty-five times, even though by the time he got past fifteen there wasn't much there to chew.
Max relaxed considerably.
"You know," Nick said, "That's the second time you've talked to me."
Max looked away.
"It's not so bad, is it Max? This talking stuff?" Nick smiled, "I mean, just think, if you didn't talk, I wouldn't have learned that I should chew twenty-five times, right?" He patted Max's knee.
When Max didn't react, Nick decided to try another tactic. "Hey Max," he said, "Did you ever see a pirate ship before?"
Max looked at him out f the corner of his eye, trying not to seem interested.
Nick pushed the box doors opened and pointed at the bunk beds. "See that right there?" he said, "The bunk beds make a great pirate ship."
Max peeked out of the box at the old bed frame.
Nick crawled out of the box. "See," he said, "The bottom bunk is like the deck, and the captain stands here..." Nick knelt down by Max's pillows, his stocking feet stretching out behind him. It was funny, he could remember being able to actually stand when he did this. "And this..." he crawled over to the ladder to the top bunk, "This is the mast, and the look out can go up to the crows nest..." he crawled up the ladder to the top bunk and perched himself on the edge of the mattress, "And can look around for enemy ships."
Max inched a little bit out of the box.
"And - oh! Oh no! Guess what, Max?" Nick gasped.
Max came out a little bit more.
"Look, there's one right over there!" Nick pointed to Jake's bed. "And they have a cannon!"
Max stood up and looked over the top of his box at Jake's bed. Jake hadn't made his bed. It was all messy.
"Quick, Max, you gotta be captain."
Max hesitated.
"Max! Hurry!"
Max crawled onto the bottom bunk by his pillows and sat down on them, but leaned so he could still look up at Nick. "Turn to starboard! We got ourselves a full on attack!" Nick called out. He grabbed one of Sam's stuffed animals. "Load the cannon!" he called. Then, "Ba-BOOM!" he launched the stuffed animal across the room and watched it land a couple feet to the left of Jake's bed.
Max's eyes widened. Sam never let Max play with his stuffed toys. He wondered if he should warn Nick that Sam was very, very mean when Max played with his toys or if Sam would let Nick play with them, since Nick was a grown up.
A very strange grown up, but still a grown up.
"Hoist the mainstays!" Nick called. "Got the helm, Max?"
Max nodded, even though he wasn't sure what a helm was.
"Ba-BOOM!" cried Nick, launching another of Sam's stuffed animals across the room.
The door opened and Jake came in the room, carrying his book bag, just as the stuffed animal landed at his feet. He looked up. "Nick!" he cried, a smile breaking across his face, "Hey!"
"Argh!" Nick called, winking, "It's Longjohn Nick to you, swabbie!" He waved his arm at the bottom bunk, "And this harrr is my cap'n -- Cap'n Max Sparrow."
Jake's eyes widened as he noticed Max. "How did you -"
"Are ye friend or foe, matey?" Nick demanded.
Jake looked at the bunk bed and at his bed. "Foe!" he cried, dropping his book bag to the floor. He scooped up the stuffies Nick had already thrown over and jumped up onto his bed, "Beware of Jakey Jones!" he cried and threw one of the stuffed animals back across the room.
"Enemy fire, Cap'n Max!" called Nick, "Enemy fire!" Nick rolled onto the top bunk the rest of the way and grabbed another stuffed animal and threw it. "Ba-BOOM!" he called as it missed Jake by a mile.
"Argh, I'll get you Cap'n Max Sparrow! And your crew!" Jake called, tossing a stuffed teddy bear at Nick, which hit him square in the head.
"Oh! OH!" Nick cried, kicking his legs. He rolled to the ladder, "Cap'n-- he - he - he got me," Nick wailed dramatically. He slid down the ladder, and hit the floor and leaned against the bed, "Oh cap'n, my cap'n," he gasped, then he dropped to the floor and rolled under the bed.
Max leaned over the edge and looked at him.
"You have to avenge me, Max," whispered Nick.
"Aye!" called Jake, "Are ye going to avenge your crew, Cap'n Max?"
Max looked over at Jake, who was standing in the middle of his unmade bed, his school books spilling across the carpet from his bag. He looked down at Nick, who had his eyes closed and his tongue sticking out, laying half under the bed, holding the offending teddy bear to his chest.
Max stood up on the bottom bunk. He hesitated.
Nick peeked.
Max took hold of Gake the Giraffe and threw him at Jake the pirate.
Mimi was sitting downstairs in the kitchen when she heard a bang and several loud shouts from upstairs. She stared at the ceiling. She hadn't heard those kinds of sounds in quite awhile... but she had a feeling she knew exactly what was going on.
Mimi trotted up the stairs and opened the door to the boys bedroom to find Max standing triumphantly on Jake's bed, both Jake and Nick laying on the floor with their tongues hanging out, and every stuffed animal in the room somewhere on the floor. All three beds were a mess and Max, dear little Max, had left little red Converse sneaker-sized footprints all over the bedspreads.
Mimi wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry.
Nick's eyes popped open. He stared up at her from the floor. He smiled sheepishly.
"Don't worry, we'll clean it up," he mumbled.
"You don't even live here anymore and I still have to come up here to check on you," Mimi said, shaking her head. "I thought you were --"
"About to come through the ceiling?" Nick asked, grinning.
