The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis Read Online Free

then . . .
    . . . a small adventure came floating down the creek.

6
    ELVIS JUMPED UP. “What’s that?” he said.
    Popeye leaned forward so he could get a better look at whatever it was floating toward them.
    A tiny boat!
    A yellow and brown and blue boat that dipped and bobbed as it made its way down the creek, bumping into rotten leaves that floated on the water and gliding smoothly over tiny waterfalls that flowed over the slippery rocks.
    Popeye felt a swirl of excitement as the boat got closer.
    A boat!
    He had played in this creek about a bajillion times and had never, not once, seen a boat.
    Elvis didn’t even take his sneakers off before stepping down into the water to scoop it up. Then he climbed back onto the sloping creek bank, holding the little boat out in the palm of his hand.
    Popeye peered at it with his good eye. “A Yoo-hoo box!” he said.
    The boat was made out of a waxy cardboard Yoohoo chocolate drink box. Someone had made the box into a perfect boat, without a single piece of tape or staples to hold it together.
    â€œI wonder where it came from,” Popeye said.
    Elvis looked up the creek. “Where does this creek start?”
    Popeye lifted his shoulders and let them drop. “I’ve been a pretty far ways up there,” he said, “but I’ve never been to the end.”
    â€œHow far’d you go?”
    â€œNot that far, I don’t reckon.” Popeye didn’t want to tell Elvis that Velma wouldn’t allow him to go farther than hollering distance from home.
    Elvis peered inside the boat. “Hey!” he hollered. “There’s something in here!”
    He pulled out a tiny square of folded paper.
    Popeye hopped from foot to foot while he watched Elvis unfold the paper.
    Once.
    Twice.
    Three times.
    Then he peered over Elvis’s shoulder and both boys read out loud together:
    Â 
    â€œYoo-hoo! Ha! Ha!”
    Â 
    Elvis looked at Popeye and Popeye looked at Elvis.
    â€œWhat the heck kind of dang ignoramus talking is that?” Elvis said.
    But Popeye’s heart was thumping in his chest, and he felt an odd surge of love for the person who had written the note and sent it down the creek in that perfect little boat.
    Well, maybe not love.
    But
like
.
    Popeye
liked
the person who had sent the note down the creek in the Yoo-hoo box.
    He studied the note in Elvis’s hand. The words were scrawled in big, sloppy letters with a blue colored pencil.
    â€œSerendipity,” he said.
    Elvis’s eyebrows squeezed together, and he frowned at Popeye. “What are you talking about?”
    â€œSerendipity,” Popeye repeated. “It’s like when something good happens all of a sudden when you’re not expecting it.”
    Serendipity
had been last week’s word from Velma, so Popeye knew all about it.
serendipity:
noun
; the occurrence of events by chance in a happy way
    Elvis nodded. “Yeah.”
    They both leaned over and looked up the creek.
    Popeye tried to imagine who in the world had sent that little Yoo-hoo boat down the creek.
    Elvis brushed his hair out of his face and lookedat Popeye with narrowed, serious eyes. “We got to find out who sent this boat,” he said.
    Popeye nodded solemnly.
    â€œLet’s hide it,” Elvis said.
    The boys raked up a pile of rotten leaves with their hands. Elvis placed the boat on the ground beneath a crooked oak tree and they pushed the leaves over it, covering it completely.
    â€œWe got to keep this a secret from Calvin and them,” Elvis said.
    A little tingle of excitement ran through Popeye. He and Elvis had a
secret
!
    As they made their way back down the path through the woods toward the field, Popeye called out, “Hey, Elvis, is this our small adventure?”
    But Elvis just kept on walking in that way of his—head down, fists jammed in his pockets. Taci-turn.
    So Popeye turned to Boo and whispered, “Boo, I think