The Town That Floated Away

By Sandra Birdsell

Things are proceeding normally during the annual Spring Break in the town of Wellington (major industries: donuts, grapes and toy boats). Chunks of ice as big as bulldozers flow down the river and Madame Galosh, owner of the Galosh Boot Manufacturing Company, prepares to sell a boatload of new rubber boots. At the same time, the lucky winner of the annual Spring Break Free Trip draw, Virginia Potts, is eager to embark on a long-awaited journey. Clang! Clang! Clang! A bell rings in the town square and an amazing series of events unfolds: too much lemonade is consumed, there's a little too much enthusiasm for the pursuit of profit and the town fails to mark the age-old "Batten Down the Hatches" holiday -- and the town of Wellington floats away. Ginny Potts is left behind, slowly shrinking from loneliness. In the tradition of Roald Dahl, Sandra Birdsell's debut children's novel is outrageously delicious reading, a clear-eyed and often poignant child's-eye perspective on an adult world -- where the adults are often the silly ones who don't always know what to do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781443403412

Sandra Birdsell

Sandra Birdsell is an award-winning writer, the author of The Two-Headed Calf (shortlisted for the 1997 Governor General's Award), Night Travellers, Ladies of the House, The Missing Child and The Chrome Suite. Among other awards, she has won the WH Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Gerald Lampert Award for New Fiction. The Town That Floated Away is her first children's book. She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, but grew up in Morris, Manitoba -- a town that truly did, one day, float away.

Book preview

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THE TOWN THAT FLOATED AWAY

Sandra Birdsell

Illustrations by Helen Flook

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Map

Cast of Characters

Chapter One—The Potts Family Album

Chapter Two—Orientation Day for Caterpillars

Chapter Three—Waiting for Something to Happen

Chapter Four—Spring Break & Various Schemes

Chapter Five—Louise Makes an Astonishing Discovery

Chapter Six—Cats on Rooftops

Chapter Seven—Mr. Edgar Calculates

Chapter Eight—Madame Galosh Is Not Amused

Chapter Nine—The Hyperometer Gets Hyper

Chapter Ten—Tragedy Strikes!

Chapter Eleven—Pandemonium

Chapter Twelve—Where Is Virginia?

Chapter Thirteen—Having Too Many Blankets Is Better Than Not Having Any Blankets at All

Chapter Fourteen—Emergency Measures

Chapter Fifteen—Lamb Kebobs

Chapter Sixteen—Loneliness Is: Virginia Potts

Chapter Seventeen—Emergency Plan 13 & the Louise Solution…

Chapter Eighteen—Causes and Effects of Morphanism

Chapter Nineteen—An Important Discovery

Chapter Twenty—Where There Is Hope…

Chapter Twenty-One—Operation Red and White

Chapter Twenty-Two—Good News! (Or, Is it?)

Chapter Twenty-Three—Attracting the Wind

Chapter Twenty-Four—At last!

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Dedication

For Richard Birdsell, who said,

How about writing a little book just for me, please?

And for Ryan, Louise, and Liam

Acknowledgements

The Town That Floated Away originated with the CBC as part of a radio drama series, A Story for a Child, produced and directed by Barbara Nichol.

The Town That Floated Away radio drama is distributed by BMG Music Canada Inc. as part of the series renamed The Child’s Play Collection.

The author wishes to thank the Manitoba Arts Council and the Saskatoon Writer-in-Residency program for their financial assistance during the writing of the novel.

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Cast of Characters

THE TOWN OF WELLINGTON

Population at the time it floated away: 389

Major industries: donuts, grapes, toy boats

VIRGINIA POTTS who got left behind

MR. AND MRS. POTTS Preposterously Protective Parents

MR. BRUNO the principal, and also the mayor

RICHARD BIRDOLETTO Virginia’s best friend

LOUISE from New Brunswick

MR. EDGAR river engineer, first class

MADAME GALOSH boot manufacturer

RÉJEAN a thinker

MR. BIRDOLETTO a vintner

MIRIAM BRUNO wife of Mr. Bruno, mayor and principal

SEARCH AND RESCUE the bravest people in the world

MR. F. DUDDLE head of the Federal Bureau for the Investigation and Rescue of Missing Towns

STUDENTS

FACTORY WORKERS

SHEP

THE WILD SHEEP

THE CITY OF ST. BONIFACE

MRS. LILY

THE CATS

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Chapter One

The Potts Family Album

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, before VCR machines or pink or lime-green shoelaces were invented, a girl named Virginia Potts was born. She was born in a town called Wellington. The town that floated away.

Do you solemnly promise to raise Virginia to be a good citizen of the town of Wellington? Mr. Bruno, mayor of the town of Wellington, asked Virginia’s parents on her Baby Dedication Day service.

We do promise, Mr. and Mrs. Potts promised solemnly.

Until death do us part, Mrs. Potts added.

Virginia squirmed impatiently in Mrs. Potts’s arms during the Baby Dedication service. She flailed her tiny fists, punching at a blanket that covered her face until—at last!—she had pushed the blanket aside.

Virginia’s cheeks began to tingle with a crisp breeze that blew in from the Caprice River and across Town Square. The breeze smelled delicious, of briny muck and slippery fish. Virginia squinted up at the sky. She thought the sky was really a blue ceiling, high above her. Something moved across the high blue ceiling, Virginia noticed, something large and white and graceful looking. Virginia was only six weeks old and had never been outdoors before that day, and so she had never seen the sky or a bird flying across it.

Gummy gummy googly, perfect, Virginia cooed.

Oh dear! Oh my! Mrs. Potts said anxiously when she saw the pelican flying oh, so slowly above the bell tower in Town Square. Mrs. Potts worried that the bird might swoop down, pluck Virginia from her arms, and steal her away. In a zip, Mrs. Potts had put Virginia back into the baby carriage, whipped off her coat, and slung it over the carriage hood.

Shoo! You get along now! Mr. Potts shouted, and shook his bouquet of flowers at the curious bird.

Mayor Bruno watched Mr. and Mrs. Potts leaping and running and shouting and flinging their arms about to intimidate the pelican and make it fly away. Aha! muttered Mayor Bruno. It looked as though Mr. and Mrs. Potts had come down with a serious case of the PPPs.

Mr. and Mrs. Potts, Mayor Bruno had noticed, were showing early signs of being Preposterously Protective Parents.

When Virginia found herself back inside the baby carriage, and saw that the pelican bird and the lovely blue sky had vanished, she began to wail.

Googly gummy da da, darn! Virginia wailed.

Every day, when Mr. Potts came home from the donut factory where he worked sprinkling sprinkles on donuts, he leaned over Virginia’s playpen to say hello and tickle her face with his bushy grey beard.

Ya ya num num, delicious, Virginia said. She loved the sugary taste of the donut sprinkles clinging to her father’s moustache and beard.

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Dearest, Mrs. Potts warned Mr. Potts. Germs.

Boo! said Mr. Potts to Virginia, and put his cap over her face.

Boo! Virginia said, and snatched the cap away.

Honey, it isn’t wise to play scary games. Ginny’s hair could turn white from fear, worried Mrs. Potts, even though Virginia gurgled with pleasure.

As Virginia grew older, she began to crawl, and Mr. Potts made a pair of shin pads out of newspapers so she would not scuff or bruise her tiny knees. Wherever Virginia crept in the house, she left behind a trail of newsprint headlines on the floor. Headlines such as GALOSHES 50% OFF! Or, MAYOR BRUNO DECREES! And, SPRlNG BREAK ARRIVES LATE THIS YEAR!

When the day arrived for Virginia to venture a first wobbly step, Mrs. Potts plopped a plastic salad bowl on her head.

No, Virginia howled angrily. She snatched the bowl off and flung it across the kitchen. Galoshes 50% off! she cried.

But darling, it’s very important that you wear it, Mrs. Potts said patiently.

No! Mayor Bruno decrees! Virginia shouted.

But honey, you might take a tumble.

Nooo! Virginia said, as she stamped her foot and tumbled backwards with a crash.

You see? Mrs. Potts cried.

You see what can happen? Mr. Potts clucked.

What did we tell you? they both said.

Spring Break 50% off! Virginia cried. Mayor Bruno arrives late! Galoshes! Galoshes! Galoshes! she hollered angrily, and shook her head as Mr. Potts plopped the salad bowl back onto it.

When Virginia hid the salad bowl in the broom closet, Winona, the Potts’s ginger tabby cat, led Mrs. Potts directly to it.

When Virginia turned the salad bowl right side up and stuck a geranium plant into it, Mr. Potts tripped over it in the garden and sent it flying. He picked it up, dusted it off, and set it back on Virginia’s head.

When Virginia whacked the salad bowl with a rolling pin, Mrs. Potts mended the crack with Band-Aids and then dropped the bowl back onto Virginia’s head.

When Virginia was five years old and about to become a student at school, Mr. Potts came home from work one warm autumn evening and said to Mrs. Potts, You know what, honey? It has just occurred to me. None of the other children in Wellington wear a salad bowl. Not even Ginny’s best friend, little Richard Birdoletto.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Virginia thought. At last! No more salad bowl.

Perhaps now that our Ginny is about to become a student, Mr. Potts continued, we should buy her a proper helmet. What do you think? he asked Mrs. Potts.

Virginia groaned. How about a bicycle to go with the helmet? she said for the fun of it, but without much hope. Although Mr. Potts earned a very good salary at the donut factory and could afford to buy Virginia the spiffiest bicycle in the Wellington Cycle and Surf Shop, she knew he probably wouldn’t.

A bicycle? Please tell me I’m not hearing this! Mrs. Potts exclaimed.

You could get struck by a streetcar, said Mr. Potts. "There are no cars, trucks, or streetcars in Wellington, Virginia said as she sprawled on the floor beside a pile of new school supplies. So how could that happen?"

There was no need for motorized vehicles in Wellington because it was a small town, the size of ten by ten. There were only ten twisting cobblestone streets and ten twisting cobblestone avenues, which all led to Town Square, Town Hall, and the bell tower.

Lord knows, there’s always the fire engine, Mrs. Potts said.

It has a bell, Virginia said. I’d be sure to hear it.

Virginia fiddled with a packet of coloured pencils that she would likely need for drawing maps at school, Mr. Potts had explained. She liked the dry, clean smell of the new paper in her school notebooks. She loved the shape of the newsprint words that trailed across the floor where she lay. GALOSH BOOT MANUFACTURING COMPANY. VISIT OUR SHOWROOM IN ST. BONIFACE an advertisement said.

Then Virginia spotted a smudged photograph of students standing next to a wall. Underneath the photograph was a caption: Students Measure Up For the Annual Free Trip Draw. Virginia had long ago learned to read the newspaper headlines, but she could not recall seeing that particular picture and caption before.

What’s an annual free trip draw? Virginia asked, and saw Mrs. Potts glance rather nervously at Mr. Potts. She noticed her father suddenly become interested in something outside the dining room window and then begin whistling a lively tune.

Oh, I see, Virginia realized. This is something I’m not supposed to ask.

She read the caption aloud. It says, ‘Students Measure Up for the Annual Free Trip Draw.’

A free trip is a trip that is free, Mr. Potts said as he broke off whistling and tugged nervously at his grey beard. And annual means something that occurs every year.

And a draw is a draw, said Mrs. Potts. And that’s all you need to know for now.

Eeny meeny miney mooch, catch a chicken by the beak, said Mr. Potts, who could not rhyme. He swooped down and tweaked Virginia’s nose.

Virginia knew that when her father composed rhymes that did not rhyme or tweaked her nose, he was trying to divert her attention.

And besides, you’re not old enough for the annual free trip draw. Now, what about that new helmet? Mrs. Potts said.

"But I am old enough to ride a bicycle, Virginia said. Everyone my age has one." A free trip is a trip that is free, but what does it mean to measure up? she pondered.

You are Virginia Potts. Our only daughter. You are not everyone, said Mrs. Potts. There will be no murdercycles in this family.

You mean bicycles, Virginia said.

People have been killed riding bicycles, said Mrs. Potts, although that had never happened even once in the town of Wellington.

And people have been injured walking, Mr. Potts said as he took a tape measure from his pocket and measured Virginia’s head so that he could order a made-to-measure helmet from the Cycle and Surf Shop.

PPPs, Virginia thought. Preposterously Protective Parents.

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Chapter Two

Orientation Day for Caterpillars

Virginia’s best friend was Richard Birdoletto, an across-the-street neighbour. Richard’s father and two grown-up brothers were vintners, and, like most grape workers, their feet and hands were the colour purple. Richard had a Border collie dog named Shep to keep