Notes: Mari and Sammy – Thanks, as always, for the squeals and the ideas. Can't believe we're coming up on three years!
Readers and REAL McRollers – Thank you for your FANTASTIC response to the Weekend with Joanie chapters. I was thrilled with how much you enjoyed them. Thank you for being on this ride with us. We really do have the best readers in the world.
Hope you enjoy!
Code II: 63 (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
Wednesday, April 25
"Okay, Jacob, now that Lieutenant Catherine is here, are you ready for your special presentation?" Joni Lane, Jacob's teacher who had moved with the class from first to second grade, asked, though she already knew the answer.
Jacob had been bouncing in his seat all morning and practically exploded out of his chair before she'd even finished her question.
"I'm ready!" he exclaimed. "Come on, Aunt Catherine!" He ran toward the front of the room, waving frantically at her to follow.
She smiled in amusement, folding her arms over her growing belly. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
He paused, thinking, then clasped his head. "Oh yeah!" He ran back toward his desk.
"Walking feet, Jacob …" Ms. Lane reminded him.
He slowed and opened his desk to grab a large book and a folder of colorful papers. Holding them tightly against his chest, he hurried back to the front of the room where Catherine was waiting.
"Why don't you put your visual aids down on my cart there, Jacob?" Ms. Lane suggested, gesturing to the small cart she kept near the whiteboard.
Jacob's eyes widened, his smile growing at being allowed to use his teacher's special cart. He set the book down and placed the folder on top, then opened it to take out a few particular papers. Using the magnets on the whiteboard, he put up two of the colorful pieces of paper.
"Did you color those, Jacob?" Kalea asked.
He nodded rapidly. "Yep! Well, my sister Kaitlyn helped."
Jeremy cocked his head. "What's they suppos'd to be?"
"Almost third-graders," Ms. Lane said. "Please give Jacob and Lieutenant Catherine your attention and I bet they'll tell us exactly what they're supposed to be."
Jacob cleared his throat exaggeratedly, causing both Catherine and Joni to smile, and began. "This says 'Hi,' in a special code," he said, holding one arm up to point at the two papers behind him. "This is H and this is I. They're signal flags! Sailors use them on ships to send messages to people on other ships sometimes. There is a different flag for every letter so you can spell out words! There's even a flag for all the numbers!" He reached over for the book and picked it up to show everyone. "I learned about them in this book." He held up the Alpha Bravo Charlie book he'd first encountered at the library last September with Steve. "You can see all the flags in here." He tried opening it and pointing at the same time but nearly dropped the book.
"Here, let me," Catherine offered. She held the book open so Jacob could turn pages and explain to his classmates.
"Every flag is a letter, like this," he said, pointing to a full page flag. "This is for O. But it also means 'Man Overboard,' " he read from the opposite page, stressing the O sound. He looked at Catherine to continue.
"That's right," she said. "Every flag represents both a letter and an important message like 'Man Overboard' or 'I Require Assistance.' The flags are used if a ship can't use it's radio for some reason or if you need to communicate with someone who speaks a different language."
"Yeah," Jacob chimed in. "So all the ships have to have them. Just in case."
"Flags can also be combined in specific ways to send different messages," Catherine said. She set down the book and took out two more flags from the folder. "If the November and Charlie flags are hoisted–"
"That means N and C," Jacob said.
Catherine smiled. "That's right. In the Navy, we use words so that there is no confusion between letters that sound similar. Like B and D and P, and M and N. Instead we say Bravo and Delta and Papa, and Mike and November. Like that."
"You do?" asked Keone. "That's awesome! I've heard that on TV before!"
"You probably have," Catherine agreed. "It's called the Phonetic Alphabet."
"It's in the book, too!" Jacob said excitedly. "I'm gonna memorize it! Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Fff …" His brow knit as he struggled to remember what came next.
"Foxtrot," Catherine supplied with a smile. "You'll get it. Now back to what I was saying about the flags. You can combine certain flags to send a particular message." She held the two papers in her hands up again. "November and Charlie together mean SOS."
"Whoa," Reggie commented quietly, his eyes widening.
" 'Whoa' is right," Catherine agreed. "SOS means there is a big emergency on the ship and they need help."
"Isn't it amazing how sailors all around the world know what the flags mean?" Ms. Lane asked, looking around at her class. "And they've been using the same flags for years and years."
Catherine nodded. "There have been revisions, but the flag codes we use now are from 1901 and are based on an even earlier set of codes. There have been maritime signal flags on ships for centuries."
"Amazing," Ms. Lane said again.
Catherine looked at the class. "So would you all like to learn the signal flags?"
"Yes!" they cried in near unison.
"Okay, Jacob," Catherine said. "Tell them what we're going to do."
"We're going to send messages to Uncle Steve!"
"Commander Steve," Catherine reminded him with an amused smile.
"Oh yeah." He grinned at his classmates.
"And why are we sending Commander Steve messages …" Catherine prompted.
"Cause he's in the Navy right now!" He glanced at her, knowing that wasn't quite the right description.
"He's on reserve duty," she said.
"Yeah, on Navy reserve duty. And last year when Aunt Catherine … I mean, Lieutenant Catherine," he corrected himself, grinning. "When Lieutenant Catherine was on reserve duty, Miss Kristin at the library gave me and Uncle Steve this book … well, not this book, this one is mine, Uncle Steve and Aunt Catherine got it for me for Christmas …" He smiled at her and when she quirked an eyebrow, he realized he had gotten off track and corrected course. "When Lieutenant Catherine was on reserve duty, me and Uncle Steve … er … Uncle Steve and I, we used this book to send her special messages."
"Aww," Ameera and Kalea said together, sharing an almost wistful look.
"And I absolutely loved getting them," Catherine said sincerely, smiling.
"So since most of you know Commander Steve," Ms. Lane continued, "we thought it would be fun for you to send him a message with signal flags as a surprise."
"I know what message I'm going to send!" Ameera said and leaned over to whisper it to her best friend who giggled.
"Ladies, don't make me regret letting you sit next to each other," Ms. Lane said, a smile on her face but a hint of warning in her voice.
"Yes, Ms. Lane," they chirped back, still sharing a conspiratorial smile.
"We made a sheet with blank flags for you to color in," Catherine said, displaying the paper they created.
"And we made papers with all the flags on it and the letters 'cause we only have one book," Jacob said. "Dylan called it a 'cheat sheet' but Cody said it's not really cheating."
"Let's call them 'keys,' " Catherine said with a wink. "And there are plenty of papers." She up the stack. "So if you want to send messages to other people, you can."
They set about passing out the blank flag papers and the keys to the entire class. When everyone had begun planning their messages, Jacob looked up at Catherine, beaming.
"This is gonna be a great surprise for Uncle Steve, right, Aunt Catherine?"
She grinned. "I can already see his face."
Thursday, April 26
The following day, Carrie texted Steve to see if he could meet her for a "special delivery." He had a few minutes of downtime in the afternoon between drills and met up with her at the O Club.
"Is this gonna be a thing every reserve duty now?" she asked without preamble, handing him a large manila envelope clearly full of papers.
His brow furrowed when she didn't offer any further information, and he opened the envelope, sliding out the stack.
He grinned upon seeing the top paper, Jacob's name scrawled on top, and a message in small signal flags spelling out: "We wish you were camping too Uncle Steve" and "See you soon."
"I gotta point out," Carrie continued as he flipped through the papers, his smile growing as he realized they were all from kids in Jacob's class. "She sent a lot more messages than you did."
"Yeah, but I sent 'em first," he immediately replied, his eyes scanning the messages.
She folded her arms. "So you're arguing quality over quantity?"
He glanced up from the papers, both eyebrows raised. "No way that ends well for me," he said.
She snorted, nodding emphatically.
"No, just … timing over quantity," he said. "I had the idea first."
"I heard it was Jacob's idea …"
He chuckled. "Yeah, it was," he admitted.
"All right," she said, smiling. "I gotta get back. You enjoy your messages."
"Okay, thanks for this, Carrie," he said genuinely, holding them up.
"You're welcome, Steve," she returned in kind. She took a couple steps toward the door and looked back, eyes glinting. "For the record, I'm happy to deliver signal flag messages between you and my bestie anytime. You wanna know why?"
" 'Cause you're a good friend?"
"I am," she agreed, stepping backwards. Grinning mischievously, she continued, "And because it's just so …"
"Stagler …" he warned.
"... damn …"
"Don't say it …"
"... adorable!"
He groaned, rolling his eyes, and she pushed open the door, her laughter echoing as she went through it. His reaction was mostly show, however, because as soon as he looked back at the papers in his hands, he smiled, now even more eager to call Catherine at the end of the day.
"So you liked your surprise, Commander?" Catherine asked that night, the smile clear in her voice.
"These are pretty awesome," he said, glancing at the stack of paper next to him on his bed, grateful to have a few minutes of privacy before his roommate returned.
"Jacob wanted to send you a signal flag message like he did for me, and since I was going to his class this week, I suggested we explain how they work to everyone and have them all send you a message. Joni thought it was a great idea and the kids had a blast making them yesterday." He could hear the pride in her voice. "Jacob was beaming from ear to ear as he went around helping his friends with their messages. He loved being 'the expert.' "
He smiled. "Good for him." Shuffling through the papers, he smiled at the range of messages he'd received. Everything from "Hi" and "Come to our class soon" to "Do you have to sleep on a boat" and "You better get home before your baby is born." Though he only visited Jacob's class once or twice a year, he hadn't even needed to look at the name on that one. It was Ameera all the way.
Chuckling, he shook his head in amusement as he straightened the pile, balancing the phone between his ear and shoulder. "I did have two favorites," he admitted, pulling the last two messages out to look at them again.
"I think I can guess," she said.
The first was the numeric flag for nine from Catherine. The same as he had sent her to indicate nine more days till reserve duty was over and they'd see each other again. She'd added a second flag for the number three with a question mark, in the hopes that they might have a little time together that weekend for their anniversary.
And the second message was the flags for six and three. 63. He didn't need a name for that one, either.
Niblet.
No name was necessary because the countdown was etched into his mind.
He inhaled deeply. "Sixty-three days," he said.
She sighed happily. "I mean, I know there's no guarantee she'll come exactly on her due date, but I couldn't resist."
He paused, smiling softly. "You know, I keep thinking about how … after your reserve duty …"
"We made our baby?" The smile was back in her voice.
His own smile grew. "Yeah. And now … in sixty-three days."
"Sixty-three days …" Her voice trailed off and he could picture her running a loving hand over their daughter growing inside her.
"You know where this paper's going, right?" he asked.
"Niblet's first memory box?"
"Niblet's first memory box."
He heard her sigh again happily. "I think that's a perfect spot."
Hope you enjoyed!
Notes: My first grade teacher moved up with us and became our second grade teacher, so in honor of Mrs. Davis, my favorite teacher ever, I have had Ms. Lane (named for our wonderful reader and reviewer jmlane1966!) do the same.
Jacob's book:
Alpha Bravo Charlie: The Complete Book of Nautical Codes, by Sara Gillingham (Phaidon, 2016)
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