Foduck Takes A Shortcut

One afternoon, Foduck had been doing his safety patrol since 7:00 in the morning. He only stopped to help Hank bring in an oil tanker named Linda. Right now, he and Hank had just finished docking Linda. "She comes every Monday," said Foduck, "Heh, Monday, Monday." "La la, la, la la, la," Hank added in. "Right," said Foduck.

"That sounds familiar," Linda thought to herself. Once that job is done, Foduck returned to his regular safety patrol. He continued to do so for the rest of the day. The following day, Foduck had just moved Igloo, another oil tanker to another oil dock. "There you go," Foduck said to Igloo. "Thanks," Igloo answered as Foduck left to help Constance and Nautilus.

"Thanks," Nautilus said. "Happy to help," Foduck replied.

After a few hours, Constance and Nautilus had to leave Foduck to go to another port up the coast. Foduck was left by himself. "Wow, those two are in love," Foduck said to himself, "They've been going out together a lot in the past few weeks. Well, noting to do here, other than harbour time!"

So Foduck turned around and prepare to go home. But then, Foduck saw a small water path near Shipwreck Rocks. "Hmmm," Foduck thought, "Maybe." So Foduck decided to go down the pathway. "This may take me home faster than the normal way," Foduck thought to himself.

"Be careful," a voice called out to Foduck. "What was that?: Foduck asked, not knowing where the voice came from. It came from Lunenburg, the lighthouse located on Shipwreck Rocks. "There might be trouble ahead," Lunenburg called out. "Ok," Foduck replied as he went on his way.

Meanwhile, back at the Great Ocean Docks, Theodore, Emily, and George were all wondering where Foduck could be. "This is strange," said Theodore, "Where is Foduck?" "I'm not sure," George answered, "He should have been back from patrolling with Constance and Nautilus by now." "He hasn't called yet," said Emily, "I'm worried about him." "Yeah," Hank said as he returned, "Me too."

"Well," the Dispatcher said, "You all are right. So you must go and find him." "We will!" Theodore answered back, "Everyone, let's go!" And the tugboats set off. "You know," a voice said, "You could go explore an unknown place." "What?!" George exclaimed. "I know that voice," Hank said, shuddering, "Malarkey." The tugboats turned to face a small cargo ship.

The voice did came from the cargo ship, named S.S. Malarkey. "If you don't know where your friend is," Malarkey said, "Try to explore some place that you have never been to before." "Really?" Emily asked. "Just ignore him," Theodore said, "And let's go find our friend."

"You'll be in for a surprise," S.S. Malarkey called out, as the tugboats left. He then turned to Millie and said to her, "Have you heard of the story about the mermaid and an alien?"

So the tugboats began to search for Foduck. "Hopefully," Theodore thought, "He hasn't gone too far." "Hope so," said Emily. At that moment, Foduck was turning a corner the water path. "Must make it home," he said.

But he didn't realize that he was on the waterway for much longer than he though. He also didn't pay attention to an old wooden shack that is teetering off a ledge near the waterways. "What?" Foduck exclaimed, "This isn't right at all!" That is when the shack fell off and landed right in front of Foduck.

"Oh no!" Foduck exclaimed. Foduck shut his eyes. Too late. Foduck couldn't stop in time and he ran right into the old shack with a splintering crash. "Ouch!" he exclaimed as piles of broken wood crashed onto him, "Double failure!" He was only going fast enough to put a hole in the shack. He'd dare not move, in case he damages himself further.

Nearby, out of the waterway and near Shipwreck Rocks, Theodore had heard a crashing sound. "What?" Theodore exclaimed. "It sounds like it came from Shipwreck Rocks," said Emily, "Almost." "Let's go there then!" said George. And they did.

That's when Theodore noticed an unknown passage near Shipwreck Rocks. "Your friend went up that way," a voice called out. Yes, the voice belonged to Lunenburg. "Lunenburg!" Theodore said. "Well, it is a pleasure to see you," said George, "Well, sort of."

"Thanks for telling us where our friend is," said Emily. "You're welcome," said Lunenburg as the tugboat set off towards the passageway. "Maybe," George thought. The tugboats head up to see where Foduck had gone. "There he is!" Emily called out.

Soon enough, the tugboats found Foduck, stuck inside the now ruined shack. "Foduck!" Theodore said. "Theodore!" Foduck called back from inside. "Talk about a happy housewarming!" Hank called. "Ha ha ha," Foduck replied in a sarcastic tone, "Very funny." "Well, it is an inn situation," said Theodore. "Unimaginable," mumbled Foduck. "What's unimaginable?" Hank asked. The tugboats said no more.

They removed the ruined shack from Foduck and pulled him out of the waterways. One back at Shipwreck Rocks, Foduck explained what had happened. "I've decided to take a shortcut to get home," he explained, "But I didn't check it completely. And it happened."

"Ok," said Theodore, "We understand." "And I'm supposed to be 'Foduck the Vigilant'," Foduck said sadly, "Not Foduck the lost cause." "But you're not a lost cause!" Hank said, "You're our friend!" "And we care for you," said Emily, "That's why we came to your rescue." "Thank you," said Foduck, "I was so confident about the shortcut, I got lost." "Don't worry," said Hank, "We're not perfect. We make mistakes." "And we learn from them," said Foduck.

All five tugboats agreed. Then the tugboats noticed something. "It looks like we've arrived at a new place," Emily said. "What the heck is this place then?" Hank asked. They saw a marshy shore close to the water path where Foduck traveled down. The tugboats examined it. "I think," Foduck said, "It is some kind of a marshy shoreline."

"Florida Everglades?" Hank asked. "No," Emily said, "We're too far away from Florida." "This is a different marshy shore," Foduck explained. "We'll talk later," said Theodore, "Let's go home now." "Right," Foduck explained. "Well," said Theodore, "Let's get out of here then." "Right," Hank and Foduck agreed.

So once they got home, they took Foduck to get him repaired. Luckily, there wasn't too much damage done.

After that, Foduck returned to his regular harbour safety patrol. While doing so, the five tugboats decided to look at the marshy shorelines close to the pathway once more. "Amazing," said Theodore. "Yes," Foduck agreed.

"Maybe Foduck should have read 'Astrophysics For Morons'," Hank said to Theodore. "Hank!" Foduck shouted. "It was a suggestion," said Hank.