Dad read books and sang songs to me when it was bedtime. He told me it was the favorite part of his day, to sit in the wood rocking chair across from my bed and together get \u201clost in a good story\u201d, and then \u201craise our voices in song\u201d.<\/p>\n
We finally finished reading the Tom Sawyer book. I was sad when it was done, because I liked hearing about all the things that Tom did. I did my best to keep pretending I was Tom sometimes down in the basement or out in the backyard. I knew that Tom was special because his life was an adventure that was in a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Coop\u201d, dad asked as he sat in the rocking chair, \u201cWhat should we read next?\u201d<\/p>\n
So much thinking was going on inside my head that I was shy to try to say any of it in words. I wanted something that I couldn\u2019t say the words for, so I said nothing and did not even shake my head for yes or no. Dad looked at me and nodded like he knew what I was thinking and then he got a big smile and his eyes got bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost forgot about the books you got for your birthday\u201d, he said, like that was something really special.<\/p>\n
I remembered the books. They had the interesting pictures with all the colors on the front part.<\/p>\n
Dad reached over to the dresser next to the rocking chair and opened the door to the top part where there were a bunch of books next to each other the same way the books on his shelves were in his office in the basement. He pulled books out with one hand and put each on top of the other on his other hand. He brought them over to my bed and laid them out on my blanket. Then he picked up the rocking chair and put it next to my bed. He sat back down on it so we could both look at the books at the same time.<\/p>\n
I looked at all the books with their words and pictures on the front and counted six of them. The words all started with the \u201cTom\u201d word, which I knew from the Tom Sawyer book. When mom used to read to me she would point out each word when she said it, so I knew some of the other small words, like \u201cand\u201d, \u201chis\u201d, \u201cin\u201d and \u201con\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see what you have\u201d, Dad said, pointing at each book as he read the name. \u201cTom Swift and his Jetmarine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad pushed his lips together because he was thinking as he looked hard at the picture. It looked like two people inside some sort of tube thing, one of them holding a wheel like you hold to drive a car. They were looking out a window at something with a head and big eyes and a bunch of tails but no body.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks like two guys in some sort of submarine being attacked by a giant octopus\u201d, he said. I had heard those words, \u201csubmarine\u201d and \u201coctopus\u201d, before but didn\u2019t really know what they were. I figured the tube thing with the window and the people inside must be the \u201csubmarine\u201d and that weird thing with the eyes and all the tails was the \u201coctopus\u201d.<\/p>\n
He touched the next book. \u201cTom Swift and his giant robot\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
I figured right away that the thing in the picture that looked kind of like a person but was gray and shiny with a can shaped head and buttons on its stomach must be the \u201crobot\u201d. The one person next to the robot was scared, but the other one, maybe that was Tom, was not. I remembered seeing older boys talking about \u201crobots\u201d and pretending that they were robots by walking and talking in a strange way.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks like Tom is controlling the robot\u201d, dad said, and he seemed happy about that.<\/p>\n
He touched the next book and said, \u201cTom Swift and his rocket ship.\u201d<\/p>\n
I really liked the picture of the long tube with wings and a window with Tom and someone else inside looking out as they went up in the air through the clouds. I had just seen a rocket shooting up in the sky on the television, so I knew that the fire coming out the bottom of the tube was making it go up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s quite an impressive rocket ship\u201d, dad said, and when I looked at him he looked more like a kid than a grownup, and I could tell in his eyes that he was pretending things.<\/p>\n
His finger touched the next book. \u201cTom Swift and his diving Seacopter\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
It was another different sort of round thing with windows with Tom and someone else inside, one holding a wheel for driving and the other holding some sort of poles. Outside it looked like there were strange fish so I guessed they were going under water. I guessed that the bubbles coming out of the top were making it go down in the water, like the fire coming out of the bottom of the rocket ship made it go up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow a sea copter\u201d, dad said. \u201cI wonder if it can go up in the air like a helicopter as well as underwater like a submarine.\u201d I looked at him when he said that, and though he seemed to like it, he looked more like a grownup than a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cTom Swift on the phantom satellite\u201d, he said, touching the next book.<\/p>\n
The picture looked like people in silver boots and gloves and bubbles on their heads were running on some strange dark place with a big circle thing above them with lots of holes in it. I had heard some grownups talking about a \u201csatellite\u201d that the Soviet Union, the new bad guys instead of the Germans, had put way up in the sky going around the \u201cEarth\u201d, whatever that was. I wondered if that big circle thing was that satellite and they were scared. Suddenly I felt kind of scared. Dad didn\u2019t say any more about that one and his finger moved to the last book on my blanket.<\/p>\n
\u201cTom Swift and His Outpost in Space\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
There were a bunch of what looked like rocket ships around a small thing that looked like a ball with maybe windows. There were maybe robots with bubbles on top and heads like people inside the bubbles. Some were standing on a rocket ship and others were flying above it. There was a big orange and yellow ball like thing in the back that looked like it was maybe on fire. I stared at the picture trying to make sense of it. Dad saw that I couldn\u2019t figure it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks like people in space in spacesuits\u201d, he said, \u201cOutside their spaceships by some sort of space station, orbiting another planet, maybe Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was that \u201cspace\u201d word that I kept hearing but I couldn\u2019t figure out what it meant. There was space in the closet or the refrigerator, but also way up in the sky above the clouds. And like ships sailing in the sea, spaceships would sail in space and people would wear space \u201csuits\u201d instead of regular clothes. And now people were wearing spacesuits and this space \u201cstation\u201d thing.<\/p>\n
I had gotten a \u201cspace helmet\u201d for my birthday, which I put on my head sometimes when I was playing and wanted to pretend I was somebody special. Even older boys in the park talked about \u201cspace\u201d and they were pretending to be a \u201cspaceman\u201d. I knew the word \u201chelmet\u201d because dad said that soldiers wore them in the war to keep their heads from getting hurt. He had shown me pictures from his big red war books of soldiers with those round things on their heads. But they did not have the part in front that you looked through like the space helmet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich one should we read first?\u201d dad asked.<\/p>\n
All the pictures on the front of the books were making me think about so many different things, some of them scary, so I felt shy and didn\u2019t know what to say, so I shook my head. I wondered if we would also have to run away from the Soviet Union satellite, but I didn\u2019t say anything because I thought dad might not like it if I said I was scared. He might tell me I had to be brave because he had been brave in the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, dad said, nodding his head, \u201cWhat about the rocket ship one?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded, my head moving up and down really quickly. The picture on the front looked more fun than the \u201cphantom satellite\u201d one.<\/p>\n
Dad carefully put the other five books back in my dresser. He was always careful when he did things with books. He moved the rocking chair back across from my bed and sat down on it. I was hoping I would see that look like he was a kid again, but I didn\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n
He held the book in one hand and put the fingers of his other hand on the front part and slowly moved them down, finally grabbing the bottom of the front part with his thumb and opening it up. I knew he was looking at the picture of Tom just inside the front part, because I had looked at it before. I saw his eyes move back and forth to look at every different thing in the picture. I remembered that Tom was in a strange looking room looking out the window. There was a toy rocket and a toy boat. There were other toys in the room or maybe they were tools. And on the walls were circle things that looked like the ones in the car around the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must be Tom\u2019s laboratory\u201d, dad said, turning the book to show me the picture, \u201cWhere he does experiments and builds things.\u201d I had heard those words \u201claboratory\u201d and \u201cexperiment\u201d before because Molly\u2019s dad said them, but I didn\u2019t know that was a place, and a place where you built things.<\/p>\n
Dad turned the book back toward him and turned pages. He found the next picture, and his eyes moved again looking at it. I remembered that one too, and I remembered that I could not figure it out. Tom was wearing strange clothes and had one of those bubble things over his head. Maybe the bubble thing was a space helmet but it was different than mine. And Maybe Tom was wearing a spacesuit. He was standing on a circle thing with lots of smaller circles in it, or maybe it was a window.<\/p>\n
\u201cTom\u2019s hanging on\u201d, dad said, \u201cSo he doesn\u2019t fall into space.\u201d<\/p>\n
So that circle thing might be an opening that Tom could fall through into space. But what were those round things in space? There were so many things that I didn\u2019t know yet!<\/p>\n
Dad turned more pages and then stopped and looked at me for a moment and said, \u201cChapter one. A vanished pilot.\u201d Then he looked back at the book and started reading it\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody\u2019s flying into our restricted area!\u201d Tom Swift cried as an alarm bell broke the midnight stillness of his rocket laboratory on Fearing island. The blond, eighteen-year-old scientist, tall and rangy, laid two wrenches beside the freshly machined, titanium metal column, the heart of the rocket, on which he had been working.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There were words that I didn\u2019t know but I wanted to. But I did understand that Tom had a place, a laboratory, a rocket laboratory on an island. I knew about islands from Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island. They were places with the sea all around them or a river all around them. I had drawn islands with chalk on the basement floor or made one out of dirt in the backyard.<\/p>\n
So Tom was building a rocket. He was a \u201cscientist\u201d, a word that I had heard before but didn\u2019t know what it was. I knew I was three years old and he was a different years old, and seeing him in the pictures, that was a lot older than I was. That was why he was able to know so much. I knew what \u201ctall\u201d was, mom and dad were tall and I was shorter but would be tall too when I grew up. \u201cBlond\u201d was the color of some people\u2019s hair, Molly\u2019s hair, but not mom\u2019s, dad\u2019s, David\u2019s or mine.<\/p>\n
Dad kept reading and I hoped I knew enough to follow the story, and was excited thinking where it might take me. If some parts didn\u2019t make sense I was okay with that as long as there was enough so I could play Tom Swift down in the basement or out in the backyard.<\/p>\n
I knew about airplanes from watching and playing Sky King with Molly. So some sort of airplane that was not supposed to was coming to the island where Tom\u2019s laboratory was. So Tom and his friend Ben used their laboratory machines to capture it. But when it landed there was no one flying it. The pilot flying the plane had \u201cbailed out\u201d, whatever that meant, and might get to the island in the water. So \u201cspeed boats\u201d from the laboratory went out in the water and \u201ccopters\u201d went up in the sky looking for the pilot. Tom and some of his other helpers looked on the beach.<\/p>\n
Tom was building a rocket ship to use in a race. Those two words together made sense because a regular ship had people on it and went on the water. A \u201crocket ship\u201d had people on it but went up in the sky or maybe space. Airplanes went up in the sky too, but they looked different. They had big wings and went sideways instead of up.<\/p>\n
So Bud flying in the copter saw the pilot who had been in the plane. Tom swam in the water and got the pilot who was wounded and had to go to the doctor. Then Tom called his dad to tell him what happened. Tom thought it was a \u201csabotage attempt\u201d. I had heard that \u201csabotage\u201d word on Sky King but did not really know what it meant. When dad read the word he stopped and looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what \u2018sabotage\u2019 is?\u201d dad asked.<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s when you secretly try to wreck something your enemies are building.\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoop\u201d, he said \u201cYou can always ask me when you don\u2019t know a word. I\u2019m happy to tell you!\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded again, faster this time.<\/p>\n
So Tom had \u201cenemies\u201d. I knew what those were. Like pirates, or Germans, or Soviet Unions. Bud said that Tom was too important to be \u201cbumped off\u201d. Dad didn\u2019t stop to tell me what that meant and I didn\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n
Tom and Bud were driving in their jeep and saw another man who had sneaked on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the end of the chapter\u201d, dad said, looking at me. \u201cShall we read some more?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded again, almost without even thinking first.<\/p>\n
The story continued. Tom and Bud finally figured out that the man who flew the plane to their island was a bad guy, an enemy. He was trying to steal Tom\u2019s \u201cinvention\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know what an invention is?\u201d Dad asked.<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s when you figure out how to make something no one has ever figured out how to make before.\u201d<\/p>\n
I liked that. I wanted to make an invention. I would tell Molly about it and we would make inventions together. And dad read that Tom had a giant airplane that was a \u201cflying laboratory\u201d that helped him make inventions. I would tell Molly about that too. We could pretend that her bedroom was a giant flying laboratory for making inventions.<\/p>\n
Mom was at the door, peeking into my bedroom. \u201cDavid finally fell asleep\u201d, she said, looking at dad, \u201cI\u2019m exhausted and going to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she turned and looked at me and had a big smile. \u201cYou like the new Tom Swift book?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded, and before even thinking said, \u201cTom makes inventions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does, does he?\u201d she said, \u201cI bet you\u2019ll be making inventions too someday\u201d.<\/p>\n
I nodded and smiled too.<\/p>\n
She looked at me but was not smiling anymore. \u201cYou know Coop, if you ever have an idea for an invention, you tell me or your dad and we\u2019ll write it down for you so you won\u2019t forget your idea later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad laughed just a little bit. Mom turned her head to look at him. \u201cEric, I\u2019m convinced that bright young children are born with great ideas in their heads that get mostly lost because no one takes them seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGot it Liz\u201d, dad said, though he didn\u2019t look like he wanted to get it, like he thought she wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n
Mom looked at him harder. She could always tell what dad was really thinking, even when it was different than what he said he was thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Eric\u201d, she asked, \u201cHow does Tom Swift compare with Tom Sawyer, from a literature point of view?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, his face got friendly again. He looked at the cover of the Tom Swift book in his lap. \u201cVictor Appleton the second is certainly no Mark Twain, but the story is engaging enough, for pulp fiction.\u201d Then he looked up at her, \u201cBut my buddy Walter says the science is pretty good\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHunh\u201d, mom said nodding, her lips pushed together. \u201cYou read a lot tonight. Will you be coming to bed soon? I have something I want to talk to you about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure Liz. Let Coop and I sing a song first.\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded. Then she looked at me and made a pretend angry face. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair. I wish I could carry a tune like your dad, but I always go off key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her hand reached down and found my big toe under the covers and she wiggled it like dad did. \u201cGood night sweetie. I love you!\u201d She left the room and dad watched her. I could see he was doing lots of thinking.<\/p>\n
Then dad put his hands on the back of his head and looked up. \u201cI don\u2019t really know any songs about rocket ships.\u201d He continued to look up, thinking. I could see the way he opened his eyes a little bigger that meant that he finally thought of a song.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow about this one?\u201d He sang\u2026<\/p>\n
Off we go into the wild blue yonder
\nClimbing high into the sun
\nHere they come zooming to meet our thunder
\nAt’em boys, giv’er the gun
\nDown we dive spouting our flames from under
\nOff with one hell-uv-a roar
\nWe live in fame or go down in flame
\nNothing’ll stop the Army Air Corps<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt sounded like an army song from the war, but it was about flying airplanes. It was like ships shooting cannons at enemy ships only it was airplanes instead way up in the sky. It was what boys pretended to do so they could be brave when they were grown up men and fight the enemy. He continued to sing\u2026<\/p>\n
Minds of men fashioned a crate of thunder
\nSent it high into the blue
\nHands of men blasted the world asunder
\nHow they live God only knew
\nSouls of men dreaming of skies to conquer
\nGave us wings ever to soar
\nWith scouts before and bombers galore
\nNothing can stop the Army Air Corps<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBrave soldiers never stopped, I figured, until they \u201cconquered\u201d or were killed or at least wounded, though I really didn\u2019t know what \u201cconquered\u201d meant.<\/p>\n
Off we go into the wild sky yonder
\nKeep the wings level and true
\nIf you live to be a gray haired wonder
\nKeep your nose out of the blue
\nFlying men guarding our nation’s borders
\nWe’ll be there followed by more
\nIn echelon we carry on
\nNothing’ll stop the Army Air Corps<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd then he sang in a different voice like he was singing through his nose\u2026<\/p>\n
Except the ack-ack<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He laughed, looked down like he was remembering something, and shook his head. He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAck-acks are anti-aircraft guns. They were big guns they used during the war to shoot down airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered the pictures in the big red war books of airplanes in the sky dropping bombs. I remembered him telling me that story about what he did in the war. Looking for German \u201ceighty-eights\u201d so his mortars could blow them up. The Germans used eighty-eights to blow up American tanks, but also to shoot down American airplanes. I wondered if the Soviet Unions had eighty-eights too, but I didn\u2019t ask him.<\/p>\n
When he finished the song, he wiggled my toe too. He said goodnight but instead of smiling he looked like he was thinking hard.<\/p>\n
Now alone in my room, in my bed under the covers, I closed my eyes but I was thinking hard too. About Tom Swift the scientist with his laboratory where he built inventions no one had ever built before. About pretending I was Tom Swift with my space helmet. What I would tell Molly about Tom, and where she and I could pretend we had our own laboratory.<\/p>\n