The Blue Flowered Towel

Once upon a time, not so many days ago, there lived a small young gentleman by the name of James Arthur. Actually, he wasn’t very small, he was quite good sized for a kindergarten fellow, and most of the time he WAS a gentleman. James Arthur lived in a lovely town named Morning Sun, smack in the bottom right hand corner of Iowa, right in the very middle of the United States of America! He lived in a white house on the main street of town with his mother, his father and two older sister, Diane and Carol, and a small black dog named Charcoal who loved him very much, even when he pouted, and who licked his ear when he laughed. One black stormy night, James Arthur woke up suddenly. A terrible, horrid screeching sound made him pull the blanket over his head. What awful noises! The scary wind seemed to be trying to catch him and pull him into the cold blackness outside his window. James Arthur was frightened. He wished he had courage enough to throw back the blankets and run and jump into Mommy’s bed. But SOMETHING might catch him. The wind howled louder and louder. A loose can grated along the sidewalk. James Arthur pulled his legs under him, ready to spring. Suddenly, he threw the blankets off, jumped from his bed and ran pell-mell into his mother and father’s bedroom. He made a running leap and landed safely…beside Mommy. He crawled under her covers and before long he went back to sleep again. The next morning was Monday and after breakfast it was time to go to school. James Arthur, Diane and Carol put on their warm winter coats, their brown, blue and red stocking hats, wooly mittens and boots, and Mother handed James Arthur a blue flowered towel to take to school for naptime. When James Arthur and the other kindergartners lay down for their naps after lunch, they needed nice soft towels to keep them warm. “Well, James Arthur,” Mother said, “I don’t think you will need to walk to school today. There is such a strong wind that all you will have to do is hold the towel out in front of you and you will sail to school.” She kissed them all good-bye as they went out the door.James Arthur and his sisters left the house and Diane and Carol joined several other girls who were passing by. James Arthur didn’t care to be seen walking with that many girls, so he slowed down and let them go ahead. Jiminy, but it was tiresome to walk such a long way. Perhaps Mommy was right. Maybe he should sail, James Arthur thought to himself. The wind seemed friendly now. It wasn’t scary like it had been last night. He unrolled the blue flowered towel and looked at it. He thought deeply and then grabbed the two top corners of the blue flowered towel. WOOPS…before he could say, “Hey, look at me…” he was kicking his feet several inches off the ground. BUMP! He landed again. He decided he must be doing something wrong. He tucked one end of the blue flowered towel under the bottom of his brown jacket, and then waited for a good gust of wind to come along. He took a strong grip on the upper two corners, braced his feet, shut his eyes, and off he went. The feeling of the chill air rushing past his face made him open his eye, he was being carried up over the 100 year old maple trees lining Main Street. He shouted:“Diane! Carol! Look at me! Look up here!” But they didn’t hear him because the wind made so much noise. He swooped over the Methodist Church belfry. He went to Sunday School here, and his Daddy was in there right now in his study. Wouldn’t Daddy be surprised if he looked out of his window now? Daddy had often told James Arthur that he wished HE could fly. “Help”, yelled James Arthur. He was headed straight for one of the three big clocks on the tall, square Library tower. “Help!” he cried again, but no one looked up; no one heard him. He was so scared, he jerked one hand, and of course, one corner of the blue flowered towel, towards his face. Miraculously, he swerved sharply and missed the yellow brick tower by the width of a very skinny hair. Just to see what would happen, he moved the other corner, and surprise! He turned in the opposite direction. Now, he could make up his own mind where to go. Unfortunately James Arthur was only 5 1/2 years old and didn’t know his directions very well. And James Arthur didn’t have a map, although he couldn’t have read one even if he’d been lucky enough to have one. However, he had a very practical bent of mind, inherited no doubt from his father, who never got lost on a trip…well, hardly ever. He decided there was no sense in traveling towards the sun, for he had no sunglasses either. So, he turned his back on the bright sun, which occasionally hid behind the speeding clouds and set his course westward. He had long since left Morning Sun behind, had crossed a large frozen river and now was traveling swiftly over rugged prairies. A few cows were munching at a haystack and looked up curiously when the strangely shaped shadow crossed their paths. James Arthur had gained enough control over the blue flowered towel that he could ride it one-handed, that is for a second or two. Usually, he made a few funny flips and flops when he did this, so he tried to keep both hands on the driving corners. Dark, black hills disappeared beneath him and then he was passing over tall, snow-capped mountains with people skiing on them. He swooped dreadfully close to a round lady riding up a mountain in a chairlift. She stared at him, rubbed her eyes very hard, and stared again. James Arthur was a gentleman, so he smiled politely and said, “Good Morning. Isn’t it a lovely day?” Then with a graceful turn, he flew off over the mountain with his brown stocking cap flowing out behind him, leaving an extremely confused lady to ride the chairlift back down the mountain so she could go right home, take two aspirins and go to bed. The snow grew deeper and deeper beneath him, and the air grew colder. James Arthur was so glad Mommy had made him wear his new blue sweater under his jacket today. His brand new black boots helped keep his feet warm, too. Above all, James Arthur was an observant young man. Nothing escaped his eyes. If his mother forgot to use soap when she washed her hands, he would put on his best “parent” voice and remind her.“Mommy, you didn’t use soap. Please go back and wash your hands with soap.” He’d laugh and laugh when Mommy would sigh and say, “Ah! Hoist by my own petard.” Of course, he didn’t know what a petard was, but he thought it sounded pretty good anyway. Below him he saw animals: deer, moose, rabbits, and then he saw a bear! It wasn’t one of those plain brown bears, my goodness, no! It was a beautiful white polar bear leaning over a hole in the ice slapping shiny fish out of the water. James Arthur knew an old polar bear couldn’t catch him, but he was a cautious fellow and didn’t like to take unnecessary chances, so he flew just a little bit higher. Disappointingly, the bear didn’t even look up when James Arthur swooped over. James Arthur saw a great expanse of water. At first he thought it might be the Iowa River, but he knew there weren’t any polar bears there, so he decided it must the ocean that his mother was always talking about. She used to swim in an ocean when she was a little girl. There certainly weren’t any oceans in Iowa, he knew.A huge shiny patch of ice caught his attention. He lowered his flaps, or rather, he lowered the blue flowered towel and he sailed closer and closer to the ice. He swung his feet down and touched. How wonderful it was to skim across the sparkling ice with a blue flowered towel to sail him along. He saw several dark lumps ahead of him and raised his towel to catch a gust of wind just in time to sail clear over a large herd of brown seals. They barked and ha-ruphed at him, but he just smiled politely and said, “Excuse me, please. I hope I didn’t disturb your nap.” Out over the ocean, he flew and then decided he’d better follow the coastline down, for it was becoming somewhat chilly so far north. “Yipes!” he cried and wiped his wet chin and nose. “Who got me all wet?” he wondered. Then he looked down. Below him was a school of whales traveling south. One of them, the biggest he was sure, had spouted. The spray had gotten James Arthur rather wet. “No matter,” he said, “the warm air will soon dry me out.” Now he could see green grass, flowers and palm trees. The wind was quite warm and before long James Arthur wanted to take off his stocking cap, but he was afraid he’d fall down if he took both hands off the corners of his blue flowered towel. He was awfully tired of the blue ocean underneath him, so he pulled the left corner of the blue flowered towel and turned inland. He knew Iowa was in the middle of the United States of America and he was certainly on the edge of the United States of America, so he would surely find Iowa if he headed for the middle. He did wish he knew where he was! He saw a great silver train streaking along a track below him. He’d been on a train like that once when he’d visited Grandma and Grandpa in Clarinda, another pretty town smack dab in the left hand corner of the state of Iowa. Maybe this was the same train going in the other direction. Truth to tell: James Arthur was a little tired of his adventure and wished he were back in Morning Sun right this minute. Again he crossed the big tall, snow-capped mountains, and swooped down by the same chair lift. There was the round lady going down the chair lift. She gave an awful shriek when she saw James Arthur and the blue flowered towel and covered her eyes with her hands.“Oh, I am sorry. I really didn’t mean to scare you,” James Arthur apologized. She lifted one finger from her left eye, looked at him again and groaned. James Arthur politely sped off. He was in such a hurry! The black hills disappeared beneath him. He crossed the rugged prairies with curious cows that were still munching hay at the big haystacks, and he crossed a great wide, frozen river. He sailed over quite a few small towns, but none looked quite right.Then he spied a familiar yellow brick tower with three clocks on it, all telling different times. He whirled around it and headed for the old grade school. If he were lucky, he wouldn’t even be tardy. He saw the boys and girls disappearing through the big red double doors. He lowered the corners of the blue flowered towel and made an excellent landing. He quickly bunched up his blue flowered towel and disappeared inside the double doors just as the bell rang. That afternoon, when he came home from school, his mother said :“Well, James Arthur. What did you do today?” He looked out the window and up at the sky, then back to his mother and his sisters.“I sailed to Alaska with my blue flowered towel,” he replied.Mommy laughed and hugged him. Then she gave James Arthur, Diane and Carol some cookies and milk. James Arthur was so glad to be home that he slipped a piece of his cookie under the table to Charcoal. Margie Greenwood February 1970