Chapter 3

Griffin

A few weeks passed, and William finally got used to school. I had reinstated him in the fashion ladder by having him turn up his collar and tie his shoes messily, so they looked cooler, and he was beginning to know a lot of people in my classes by name. Mostly, he hung out with me and Sam on weekends and after school.

It was Friday afternoon, and I was going over to William's house for dinner. While we were waiting for his foster dad to pick us up, he eyed my violin, which I was swinging casually in my right hand.

"Is that a violin?" he asked. "I didn't know you played it."

"Yeah, I do," I said, surprised that he hadn't noticed. "And Sam plays cello."

"Like the captain and the doctor…" William said softly. He narrowed his eyes like he was trying to remember something.

"Who?" I asked.

William looked up and frowned thoughtfully. "I really don't know. That just sort of came out." He glanced around and stepped closer to me. "Griffin, I have to tell you something important."

I leaned against the warm brick wall. "Shoot."

"Shoot what?"

I sighed. "It's just an expression. It means go ahead, tell me."

He shuffled his too-big sneakers. "Do you remember the first day I was here, when we did the rock wall?"

I nodded. Mixed feelings of anger at his success and happiness at mine resurfaced from that day.

"You know when I stopped, when I was about halfway up?" William asked in almost a whisper.

I thought hard, retracing his climb in my head. "Yeah, I do. What was up with that?"

"I had…you're going to think I'm crazy, but I had a vision type-thing," he said, embarrassed. "It was kind of like that memory that I told you about, remember? The first day I was here?"

Now I was interested. "Tell me about it."

"I was climbing…that's what inspired me to go so fast. I was climbing something that I remember being called 'rigging' to what was called the 'mizzen topgallant arm,' and everything was swaying."

I perked up. One of the few things I like as much as rock climbing is old fashioned warships, particularly British man-o-wars. "Sounds like you were aboard a sailing ship, maybe a three-master if you had a mizzen mast."

William frowned again. "Three-master? But I thought most sailing ships had one mast."

I was in full flow. "Yes, modern ones do. Old-fashioned ones, especially battleships, had three or more masts. The rigging is the ropes that lead up the masts so the crew can set the sails. Maybe you were in a reenactment or something."

But that didn't make sense! Why would a kid my age be in a reenactment? And they didn't allow tourists to go into the rigging either, because of liability. I was stumped.

My friend sat down, head in hands. "Let me think for a second."

I waited. I was as anxious as he was to unravel this mystery, but I guess I had to be patient. When William looked up again, his face was troubled.

"I can remember…bits. Little images, like cut up photographs all plastered together and overlapping."

"Tell me what you see, and maybe I can help."

William took a deep breath and began. "A blue coat, maybe like a uniform. The flash of the sun on the barrel of-well, perhaps some sort of gun, if it had a barrel. Then, a face, as well. Several faces, kind of blended together. A big, black dog, belonging to…"

"Think," I urged him. "Can you think of the name?"

His face was shining with sweat from the effort of thinking. "Babbington!" he burst out. "His name was William Babbington. Not the dog, the owner. He was…I don't know. He had a rank, but I don't know it."

"Well, you know that much," I encouraged him. "Maybe you'll figure it out soon."

William shrugged and stood back up. "It's just so strange. I really wish I could remember."

I didn't know what to say to that. I really felt bad for him; imagine not knowing your past! But I was determined to help him in any way I could.

Suddenly, a big red pick-up truck pulled up to the curb. A smiling man poked his head out of the window.

"Hey, buddy!" he greeted William. "Ready to go?"

William forced a smile and replied, "Sure, Dad. This is Griffin, by the way."

"Hello, Griffin!" said the man, beaming. "I'm Walker, William's dad." I returned the smile, mentally sighing. Looked like another morning person to me. Ah well-I was too used to Sam to care.

We got in the car and drove a short way down the road. We pulled up in front of a pretty yellow house with a neatly tended garden in front, stopped the car, and walked in the front door to a spacious, beautifully designed hall.

"Rachel! We're home!" called Walker. A short, plump woman came bustling around the corner, smiling as much as her husband. "Hello William!" she said kindly, greeting her foster son. "And you must be Griffin," she said to me. "William's told us so much about you! I'm glad to finally meet you."

I smiled-it was hard not to, surrounded by the King and Queen of Extreme Happiness. I mean, they were really nice, but it was weird seeing them smile so much. I wondered why William wasn't that way. Come to think of it, I'm glad he wasn't.

"Why don't you guys go upstairs and play a few video games or something?" suggested Walker. "Rachel and I might be a while making dinner. We're making homemade pizza."

"Of course," William said. "They're always like that," he muttered when we got to the top of the stairs. "Always so cheery and all. It's odd."

I chuckled. William led me to a big, sunny room overlooking the wide expanse of backyard, and we sat down on two puffy beanbags in front of the TV.

"So," I said as I made myself comfortable, "what should we do about…um…what you saw?"

William looked thoughtful. "Why don't we do some research about ships and such? That might be helpful."

He crossed the room to a small desk and began booting up a computer. I dragged a chair sitting in the corner over so I could look on. Once the computer was ready, I typed in "diagram of a three-masted ship" on Google, and we soon were gazing at a picture of a beautiful man-o-war. I sighed with happiness and scrolled down the page to read the caption. It read:

This basic drawing of an 1800s style British man-o-war does not do justice to the real thing. Unfortunately, the days of the tall ships are over, so researchers must be content with what opportunities modern technology has given them. The only known recreation of such a ship in the New England area is the "HMS Rose," a life-size model of an actual ship. The Rose is currently anchored in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, where it is part of an educational exhibition of old-fashioned ships.

Click here to see more information on British warships.

Click here to find out more about the HMS Rose.

Click here to visit the Mystic Seaport homepage.

I stared at the screen in excitement. "William, do you know what this means? The Rose is just an hour's drive away! We could go see it! That might bring some memories back, don't you think?"

William read and reread the caption over and over, as if hardly daring to believe it. "This is great!" he burst out. "Are you free tomorrow?"

"Um…" I thought for a second. "Yeah, I think so. My sister's track meet is early in the morning, but it ends at like, ten, so I'm free the rest of the day."

"I'll ask my parents," William said instantly. He ran downstairs, and I could hear him talking to his foster parents.

"May Griffin and I go to Mystic Seaport tomorrow?"

Complete silence. Then-

"Why do you want to go, son?"

"It sounds like fun. I hear they have a new exhibit starting."

"Well…" It was William's mom this time. "We're free all day tomorrow, I think." She didn't sound so happy about it.

"Great," said William at once. "So, we can go?"

"No." This firm voice belonged to Walker. "It's a Saturday tomorrow-there'll be too many people. You don't want it too crowded, do you? You know the doctors don't want you in crowded areas for another month or so. And I'm at work tomorrow, and your mother is going to California for a week, remember? No one will be able to drive you."

I hurried downstairs to stand at William's side. "My brother can drive us. He's a very good driver-got his license last year. He was voted Safest Driver in his grade. And it won't be very crowded. The exhibit has been going on for a long time now, so it won't be a big rush of people."

Walker and Rachel exchanged looks. Rachel spoke. "Well, okay, but you have to promise to stay close to Griffin's brother, and do what he says. Is it all right with your parents, Griffin?"

I nodded, grinning. "Yeah, I told them that I'd be hanging out with friends tomorrow, and my brother loves any excuse to drive."

I called my mom after dinner just to make sure. She was fine with the idea, and my brother was ecstatic. I was happy too, but for a different reason-tomorrow, more of William's past might be revealed.


I'm BACK! Huzzah for the story, everyone, drinks all around! Well...yeah...so I've been more than slightly inactive, so I decided to get up and going with my other stories...yes, that's right, the others too...

Miss Flossy-Thanks for reviewin', m'dear, I know you don't really care for younger stories, so it was indeed a bold move to review at all! hands Flossy a chocolate bar Yeah, first person is more than slightly difficult, but I think it shall remain this way...I'm workin' on it, don't worry. Gosh, was it so long ago that we were still saying ciao...? That's like from April! is aghast Even before! Well, do keep an eye on the story, I'm writing a "Mowett moment" into later chapters...And keep an eye on The Unseen Threat, there's some work happening over there if ya know what I mean. winks furiously

et-spiritus-sancti-Yes! I updated! And now I'm updating again nearly a year later! Thanks a lot for the review, I appreciate it. Mary-Sue...yeah, that's what I thought it was, still, Griffin already has a flaw, and you'll soon see he has a heck of a lot more...but not in a bad way! Well, this chapter did not really do much in the way of the plot, it's chapter four you're wanting. Coming up soon!

avalon88-Thank you! I hope you'll like the other chapters too! Thanks for your time, it always makes me smile when someone writes me a positive review...

So, lads and lassies, off we go again, get ready for a mass story explosion! (But don't try to anticipate when that will happen!)