The Wooden Ship and Iron Crew

The appearance of the Old Man of the Sea signaled the end of summer. The sun began to sink lower in the sky and days grew shorter. Helen's mother said that it was something known as the autumnal equinox, but she had been saying a lot of things lately that didn't sound like anything Helen had ever heard before.

The arrival of autumn was also the beginning of the new school year. This morning, Helen's father had driven her to school with a large pile of books on his lap. He'd been talking nervously about "A Very Important Book" and how she was going to be late for first period if she didn't hurry. She'd gathered her things and stepped out of the car, but he'd turned back to her, saying something else about not forgetting that she couldn't bring her phone or tablet to class. Then he'd backed away from her and pulled out into traffic, leaving her standing on the sidewalk.

Her heart felt heavy as she pushed through the glass doors and headed for her locker. It was September 1st - Labor Day - and normally there would have been a long weekend before school started back up again. But this year there wasn't any time off at all; all summer holiday seemed to do now was give people an opportunity to get sick at the end and ruin their vacation instead of enjoying it properly.

Someone called out her name, and Helen looked over to see Baula walking toward her down the hallway. He held his hand up in greeting, but when he noticed she wasn't raising hers in return he stopped short just before bumping into someone who was walking by him. "What's wrong?" he asked her once they were standing face-to-face. His eyes were wide with worry behind his glasses, which were covered with smudges from working on his ship all day - or night, since that's what sailors did, even though they lived on land when they weren't at sea.

"My dad," Helen told him with a sigh. "He tried to give me a bunch of books for my new classes, but I don't know how I'm going to carry them around." She held up one of them for emphasis: it was thick enough that it probably could double as a club if necessary, and heavy enough that it felt like it might be possible if you could swing it hard enough. "I don't even know if I can fit everything into my locker."

"Oh yeah," Baula said with understanding before glancing over at Helen's locker. "Why don't you put those in there?" He pointed down the hall toward where most lockers were located before turning his attention back to Helen's pile of books. "How are you supposed to carry all these your first day back? Your arms will fall off."

Helen sighed again then glanced back down at her books before looking up at Baula with a smile on her face as she thought about what he'd suggested earlier: "You know what we should do? We should steal some wheels from one of these lockers and attach them onto mine so I can roll everything in here instead." She gestured toward the ones next door to where they stood -- two rows each containing four large metal boxes with a door that locked shut -- then looked over at Baula expectantly, waiting for him to agree with her plan like he always did whenever she came up with something clever.

Instead, he lifted one eyebrow skeptically and cocked his head, considering what she'd just said for a moment before shaking his head slowly from side-to-side and replying: "No way."