Island of Lost Girls - Jennifer McMahon [30]
Maybe, Rhonda thought, she could do a drawing of one of the generals. She just needed to find a good photo to work from and she could draw just about anything. She resolved to sneak into his study when she got home from school, before he got out of work, and find a picture.
GRANT AND LEEstared up at her, along with endless photos of young men in uniform. None of them were right. She thought about trying to draw an old map depicting a battleground, but that seemed sillya map is a drawing, anyway. Then, she found it. There in the pages of one of her fathers books, her subject stared up at her: theHunley .
TheHunley was a Confederate-built submarine powered by eight men turning hand cranks. While it was not the first submarine, it was, Rhonda knew from her fathers Civil War rants, the first sub ever to sink a ship in battle. TheHunley itself sank in the waters near Charleston in 1864 after tearing a hole in the side of a Union ship. The Confederate camp nearby saw the blue light from theHunley signaling that theyd been successful in their mission and were returning to shore, but something went wrong along the way. The submarine, and the crew that went down with it, were never recovered. What happened to theHunley and its crew was, according to Clem, one of the greatest mysteries in United States history.
Rhonda spent the next hour studying old drawings of theHunley in Clems Civil War books, reading everything she could find about it, and decided to do a series of sketchesher own renditions of the submarine, a composite of all she had gleaned. The top drawing would show the outside of theHunley , and the middle would be a cutaway view of the inside, depicting the soldiers working the cranks while the captain manned the controls at the front of the machine. The image at the bottom would be the same cutaway view, but without the men. Instead, Rhonda would carefully print the names and explanations for all the mechanical features of the sub: the water ballast tanks, sea cocks, steering rods, propeller, rudder, mercury gauge for measuring depth, even the candle that illuminated the controls, and warned when air was running out.
She found the submarine pictures she would work from and was flipping through a book, looking for one that showed a close-up of a Confederate uniform, when a photograph that had been stuck between the pages fell out. Rhonda leaned down and picked it up from the floor, assuming it would be some silly snapshot of her father and his Civil War dress-up pals.
It wasnt. It was a wedding photo. The groom in a tux, looking young and tan, was her father. Beside him, the bride smiled out from cascade of white lace and clutched a heavy bouquet like a club. But it was not Rhondas mother looking out at her: it was Aggie.
He wishes this would never end. He imagines going away with her, living like this forever, being this happy. He wishes there was a real Rabbit Island, a place they could go and not be bothered. Where she could go on being his Birdie and he could be her Peter Rabbit forever.
But the rabbit understands the reality of the situation. He knows his days as a rabbit are numbered. But he doesnt want her to forget him. Not ever. He doesnt want her to be lonely. He gives her a gift: a fluffy stuffed rabbit. He puts a tag around its neck.FOR BIRDIE WITH LOVE FROM PETER , it says. Hes taking a chance giving her the gift, but she is a careful girl. She understands that everything that passes between them is a secret. The little girl squeezes the soft, white bunny to her chest, then turns and hugs Peter. If she could see beneath the mask, behind the mesh eyes, shed