Swimming Magnet

By John K. Owhonda - Illustrated by Nancy S. Holliday  I left the sweet morning air and the warm African sun outside when I entered the old shack. My friend Anuko did not look up. He was busy.I peered over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages of his thick book. He stopped on page twenty, jabbed his finger at it, and growled, “Magnets! Here is our answer.”“I don’t see how magnets can pay back Akeem and his friends for not letting us ride their bicycles,” I said. “Or for laughing at us in front of everyone because we didn’t know how to swim.”Anuko held the book to my face. “Read for yourself!” he said.I read aloud: “How to build a magnet.”“Not that. The middle. Read the middle part.”I followed his finger. “If you already have magnets, you can pick up nails with them, find lost pieces of metal, hold up signs, attach metal birdcages to metal walls.”  “That’s right,” Anuko chuckled. “And we can use them to fill our own needs.” He reached under the rickety bed on which he sat and pulled out an old dusty chest. “There!” he said, flipping it open. “Feast your eyes!”
Through the fingers of light that filtered in from the roof of the old shack, I made out several rusty slabs of metal, square, round, and wedge-shaped. Some were three inches thick and as long as my foot. I paused, scratching my head, and asked how we were going to use this treasure.
“Simple!” Anuko cried, his voice blending with the bleating of the goats and the song of the okri bird outside. “We’ll find a cart with wheels, the kind that Osundo carries his yams in, only smaller. We’ll stack our magnets in the front part and sit in the back. When Akeem and his gang ride by on their bikes, we’ll point our magnets and follow. They’ll be our servants, driving us around the village.” “Anuko,” I exclaimed, “you’re a genius! They’d have to take us everywhere.” “Everywhere,” Anuko agreed. I leaped up, clicked my heels and danced around the chest, then knelt and kissed a magnet. “But what if they ride to their homes?” I asked. “It’s there in the book. We can turn the magnet off and on.” “Perfect!”
The thought of making Akeem and his friends unwillingly tote us around for free in front of the villagers warmed my heart. “I can hardly wait,” I said. “I can smell the dust rising behind their wheels. I can hear the girls giggling, cheering us and laughing at them. Thanks, Anuko. Of all the ideas from your book of scientific hobbies, the magnet is the best.” We went to work. We quickly found a discarded wooden cart with a broken side panel. We patched it, stacked our magnets in it, and secured them with a rope. Then Anuko built a slot in front of the magnets for a wooden plank to fit into. “That’s to turn it off,” he said. “Time for action,” I cheered. I tried to move the cart, but it wouldn’t budge.
"It’s too heavy,” I complained. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Anuko replied. “There will be lots of bicycles.” With the cart clunking, creaking, and swaying like a horse-drawn sleigh, we dragged our invention to the village square, spreading the word as we went that we were going to make fools of Akeem and his gang. Anuko and I were ready. We climbed in, pointed the front of the cart at the road, and waited for the clangs and jangles of their bicycles. But Akeem and his friends did not come. Hours went by. Then from the distance came the faint sound of a large engine. At first it was just a murmur. In a few moments it grew into a deafening roar, with clouds of dust that reached the leaves on the trees. We waved at the khaki-clad construction workers in their giant blue-and-white truck as they swept by. The ground shook beneath the seat of our pants. Then, without warning, our cart surged forward into the dirt road, racing behind the iron-clad truck. We held on. The villagers chased after us, jumping and clapping, cheering us on. The workers hailed us from the back of their truck. But my heart pounded hard, as though it were about to explode. I was scared. I turned to Anuko. He was plastered to the backboard, his knuckles pale. “Switch it off!” I yelled. “Throw in the plank!” “I can’t! It’s going too fast!"
I held on to the sides, too scared to let go or to flag down the truck. “Help! Help!” I hollered, but the noise of the cheering workers, jubilating villagers, and roaring truck swallowed my voice. Then the truck came to the river and veered left onto the highway. The cart skidded on two wheels, tossed me into a bush, and leapt into the water, taking Anuko with it. The next thing I knew, Anuko was paddling to the riverbank. The heavy cart had sunk to the bottom of the river. Akeem and his friends were gathered on the shore, smiling. “We didn’t know you could swim,” one of them called to Anuko. Anuko looked at me and laughed. “Neither did I,” he said.   http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/Fiction/F0297_magnet.asp
Previously published in Highlights for Children