The Boy in the Paper Boat
by Alessandro Cima

There was once a boy named Jack who knew how to make paper boats. He could fold boats out of newspapers, notepapers, wrapping papers, and even paper towels.

One evening, Jack folded the most worthy boat out of a magazine page. It was shiny. It had words and pictures all over it. Its sail was truly the tallest and best Jack had ever seen on a paper boat.

Jack put his new boat on the table next to his bed and went to sleep.

As Jack slept, small noises began to come from the paper boat. Soon the boat had a little paper crew that was preparing to set sail. There was a little captain with a blue hat and three crewmen with striped shirts.

The captain shouted "Let loose the stern line and prepare to sail!"

Jack awoke and noticed the fact that his best paper boat was about to set sail across his bedroom. "Hey!" he whispered. "Where are you going with my boat?"

"Well climb aboard, mate," the paper captain shouted.

Jack found himself inside his paper boat as his bedroom filled with the ocean. The paper boat slipped off the bed table and sailed across the room, down the hall, out the front door and into the street toward the shopping mall.

The water rushed the little boat along the gutter and Jack saw the curb whizzing by. He saw fire hydrants and bus stops and automobile tires as the boat sailed on.

"Don't you think we might get soggy and sink?" Jack asked the paper captain.

"Oh no, my boy, she's made of the toughest stuff for boats," replied the captain.

"Where are we sailing to?" Jack asked with some amount of worry.

"Pirates, my lad. Pirates are in the parking lot!"

Jack was afraid as the paper boat turned a corner, narrowly missing a bottle. Up ahead he could hear a roar. It was the mouth of a very large drain. The little boat was sucked in and nearly turned upside down as it raced through a long dark pipe.

When the boat came out into the light Jack could see that they had sailed all the way to the giant shopping mall. The parking lot was a vast and rolling sea.

"Pirates!" shouted the paper sailors. "Pirates ahead!"

The scariest paper boat Jack could have imagined sailed toward them. The boat had big yellow sails and Jack could see paper pirates waving their swords.

There was a fierce battle and Jack fought the pirates like a true hero. When the pirate ship sank with many holes in its side Jack and the sailors yelled "Hooray!"

The paper boat brought Jack safely back to his bed table and, after wishing the paper sailors good luck, he climbed back into his bed for a good night's sleep.

Jack kept the paper boat on his bed table always, just in case the paper captain and crew should ever need his help again.

THE END