Secrets According to Humphrey (2 page)

I scampered over to Og's tank. “Someone's leaving!”

“BOING-BOING-BOING!” He sounded unsqueakably upset.

“Who could it be
?
” I asked.

Og didn't answer. He just stared straight ahead.

He has a very wide mouth that usually looks like a smile, but that night, he wasn't smiling at all.

He was the saddest frog I've ever seen.

(Yes, he's the only frog I've ever seen up close, but he did look sad.)

“What can we do
?
” I asked.

Og just sat there, as still and silent as the rock he was sitting on.

After a while, I went back to my cage and closed the door behind me.

Then I took out my notebook and began to write.

“Secrets can be VERY-VERY-VERY bad,” I wrote.

And I meant every single “very.”

HUMPHREY'S TOP SECRET SCRIBBLES
There's just one thing I want to know:
Which of my friends is about to go?

More and More Secrets

T
he Nile
?
” Aldo looked up at the map when he came into Room 26 to clean that night. “You must be studying Egypt.”

“YES-YES-YES!” I squeaked. “Can you tell us more about it
?
”

Aldo didn't answer.

Instead, he went right to work, sweeping the floor the way he does every night during the school week.

After a while, he said, “Pyramids.”

“That's on our word list!” I shouted.

“Pharaohs,” he added. “Mummies. King Tut.”

“That's right!” I agreed. “Tell me more!”

Aldo stopped sweeping and leaned on his broom. “I wonder if I'll ever get to see the Nile River,” he said with a faraway look in his eyes.

So the Nile was a river! I finally learned something about Egypt.

“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og twanged.

Frogs like watery things more than hamsters, I guess.

“I'd like to teach students about Egypt someday,” he said.

I scrambled up to the highest point on the tree branch in my cage. “You will!” I squeaked.

“Humphrey, now that I'm getting closer to finishing school, I can hardly wait until I can start teaching,” he said.

Aldo cleaned at Longfellow School at night. But during the day, he went to school so he could become a teacher, like Mrs. Brisbane.

Well, maybe not exactly like Mrs. Brisbane. After all, Aldo has a nice, big mustache and Mrs. Brisbane doesn't!

Still, I think he'd make as good a teacher as she is.

Aldo got out a brown paper bag and pulled a chair up close to my cage and Og's tank.

“Let's see what Maria packed for me,” he said as he opened the bag. “Oh, a cheese sandwich, an apple and . . . I think maybe this is for you, Humphrey,” he said.

Aldo pulled a carrot stick out of his bag and pushed it through the bars of my cage.

“Thanks, Aldo! And thanks to Maria, too!” I squeaked.

I didn't eat all of the carrot stick right away. I hid some of it in my cheek pouch, which is a handy way for hamsters to store food. I also slipped part of it in my bedding for a lovely midnight snack.

Aldo ate part of his sandwich. Then he said, “You know, Humphrey and Og, Maria's going to have a baby.”

I DID know that. “Yes, that's GREAT-GREAT-GREAT!” I told him.

“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og agreed.

“Thanks, guys. I'm a little nervous about being a dad. And I have some news . . .” Suddenly he stopped.

“What news
?
” I asked.

Og splashed noisily in his tank.

“Well, I want to tell you, but I can't,” Aldo said. “It's a secret.”

Another secret
?
I was beginning to dislike secrets a lot!

“I mean, Maria told me not to tell anybody yet,” Aldo continued. “It's a pretty big secret.”

“Tell us, Aldo,” I said. “We're your friends. We won't tell anybody.”

Aldo pushed the uneaten part of his sandwich back into the bag. “I know it's silly. Who would you tell
?
” he said. “Still, I promised Maria I'd keep it a secret, so I will.”

I was feeling a little upset with Aldo. After all, if I told his secret to my friends in Room 26, all that they'd hear would be “SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK.”

Still, I guess a secret is a secret. And a promise is a promise.

I hopped on my wheel and began to spin.

“Sorry, Humphrey,” Aldo said. “I'll tell you as soon as I can.”

My wheel was spinning like crazy, so I didn't even answer.

“BOING-BOING,” Og twanged.

He sounded as curious as I felt.

Soon, Aldo turned out the lights and left Room 26.

I kept quiet until I saw his car pull out of the parking lot.

“What do you think Aldo's secret
is
?
” I called to Og. “And which student is leaving
?
”

Og splashed around and didn't answer.

“And what are the secrets of the Nile
?
” I asked.

I knew better than to expect an answer from Og.

Then I remembered the film that my classmates had seen earlier in the day.

I had a long night ahead of me, so I decided to take a little trip to the library. If I couldn't find out who was leaving our class, maybe I could at least learn some more things about Egypt.

As usual, I jiggled the lock-that-doesn't-lock, slid down the leg of my table and scampered across the floor to the door.

“I'll tell you everything when I get back, Og!” I squeaked just before I scrunched down and slid under the door.

From the sound of Og splashing in his tank, I think he was happy, too.

At night, only the dimmest lights are on in the halls of Longfellow School, and it's unsqueakably quiet. But I knew the way to the library, so I hurried as fast as I could.

It's a tight squeeze under the door—EEEK!—but I made it. There I was, in the library with its shelves and shelves of books and its big glowing fish tank.

During the day, the fish tank probably isn't eerie at all. But at night, the water is a ghostly blue.

There are brightly colored fish bobbing in the water and lots of bubbles. And then there's the little sunken ship, lying at the bottom of the tank.

I didn't like to look at the sunken ship.
I
was in a boat once and it almost sank!

“Hi, guys,” I squeaked to the fish. “It's me, Humphrey from Room Twenty-six. Hope you don't mind me dropping in!”

They didn't answer, of course, but their mouths moved. Were they trying to tell me something
?

I can't imagine what it's like to be a fish and live in the water all the time.

Just thinking about it makes me feel all shivery.

But I wasn't in the library to see the fish. I was in the library to learn about the secrets of the Nile.

I needed to get to the big table, so I scurried over to a series of shelves next to it.

The shelves were like steps and I climbed UP-UP-UP until I reached the top.

I remembered from an earlier visit that there was a big, bumpy remote control on the desk with buttons. If I pushed the right buttons, the big screen in the front of the room lit up.

Whew—it was still there. As soon as I pushed the top button, the big screen lit up brightly.

YES-YES-YES!

The words “The End” came up on the screen and stayed there.

NO-NO-NO!

I didn't want to see the end until I'd seen the beginning and the middle!

The remote control had lots of buttons in different colors, with arrows going in every direction. And when I pushed the arrow that pointed this way
, the picture started to move—backward!

It went unsqueakably fast, so I could hardly tell what I was seeing.

There were people riding camels and lots of sand and a strip of water that must have been the Nile River.

There were some odd-looking buildings, too.

Finally, the picture stopped moving.

Then I pushed the “Play” button.

“
Secrets of the Nile
,” a deep voice said.

I hunkered down on the desk and watched in amazement. Soon, I'd know the secrets of the Nile, just like my friends did!

And oh, what I saw was pawsitively amazing.

Egypt is a country in Africa, located on the Nile River—the longest river in the whole wide world! It runs through ten countries and that's not all—there is a White Nile and a Blue Nile.

Ancient Egypt was quite a place.

Thousands of years ago the Egyptians built pyramids, which are buildings shaped like huge triangles, in honor of their kings. The kings were called
pharaohs.
(“Pharaoh” rhymes with “arrow.”)

The pyramids held a huge secret—there was treasure inside. Lots and lots of treasure!

But there were also mummies, which were bodies all wrapped up from head to toe.

“EEEK!” I squeaked when I saw pictures of them. These mummies were not like mothers or fathers or anything I'd seen!

That's not all. There was also a strange-looking statue of a very odd creature. It had a body like a huge lion, but the head was like a human!

This was a
Sphinx
. (Which rhymes with “inks,” “pinks” and “winks.”)

The voice said that in ancient Greece, they had a legend about a Sphinx.

The Sphinx guarded a city. When a traveler wanted to enter the city, the Sphinx asked him a riddle. If the stranger didn't know the answer, then he couldn't come in—or worse!

By the time the words “The End” came up again, my tail was twitching, my whiskers were wiggling and my fur was standing up on end.

I hit the top button on the remote control and the screen went black.

I scurried down the shelves, slid under the door a little more easily and RAN-RAN-RAN through the halls of Longfellow School.

Believe me, I was happy to get back to Room 26, where there were no mummies or pyramids and not one single Sphinx.

Of course, there was a frog waiting to hear all about my adventure. He greeted me with a “BOING-BOING-BOING!”

I scurried across the room, grabbed the cord of the blinds and swung myself back up to the table.

By the time I got to Og's tank, I was out of breath.

“Og!” I panted. “Desert, treasure, Sphinx, a riddle! And a mummy is
not
somebody's mother!”

My froggy friend splashed loudly. “BOING-BOING-BOING!”

I guess frogs don't like the desert, where it's very dry.

I yawned. “I'll explain it all tomorrow.”

I was unsqueakably tired and the sky was getting light outside. So I hurried over to my cage and was very happy to close the door behind me.

I checked to make sure that the lock-that-doesn't-lock was fastened tightly.

Then I dived under my soft, warm bedding and fell asleep right away.

Humans might think that hamsters don't dream, but they'd be wrong.

In my dream that night, I rode a camel with a huge hump across the desert, past the pyramids and right up to a gigantic Sphinx.