Sam, Bangs & Moonshine
by Evaline Ness
On a small island, near a large harbor, there once lived a fisherman’s
little daughter (named Samantha, but always called Sam), who had the
reckless habit of lying.
Not even the sailors home from the sea could tell stranger stories than
Sam. Not even the ships in the harbor, with curious cargoes from
giraffes to gerbils, claimed more wonders than Sam did.
Sam said her mother was a mermaid, when everyone knew she was dead.
Sam said she had a fierce lion at home, and a baby kangaroo. (Actually,
what she really had was an old wise cat called Bangs.)
Sam even said that Bangs could talk if and when he wanted to.
Sam said this. Sam said that. But whatever Sam said you could never
believe.
Even Bangs yawned and shook his head when she said the ragged old rug on
the doorstep was a chariot drawn by dragons.
Early one morning, before Sam’s father left in his fishing boat to be
gone all day, he hugged Sam hard and said, “Today, for a change, talk
REAL not MOONSHINE. MOONSHINE spells trouble.”
Sam promised. But while she washed the dishes, made the beds, and swept
the floor, she wondered what he meant. When she
asked Bangs to explain REAL and MOONSHINE, Bangs jumped on her shoulder
and purred, “MOONSHINE is flummadiddle. REAL is the opposite.”
Sam decided that Bangs made no sense whatever.
When the sun made a golden star on the cracked window, Sam knew it was
time to expect Thomas.
Thomas lived in the tall grand house on the hill. Thomas had two cows in
the barn, twenty-five sheep, a bicycle with a basket, and a jungle-gym
on the lawn. But most
important of all, Thomas believed every word Sam said.
At the same time every day Thomas rode his bicycle down the hill to
Sam’s house and begged to see her baby kangaroo.
Every day Sam told Thomas it had just “stepped out.” She sent Thomas
everywhere to find it. She sent him to the tallest trees where, she
said, it was visiting owls. Or perhaps it was up in the old windmill,
grinding corn for its evening meal.
“It might be,” said Sam, “in the lighthouse tower, warning ships at
sea.”
“Or maybe,” she said, “it’s asleep on the sand. Somewhere, anywhere on
the beach.”
Wherever Sam sent Thomas, he went. He climbed up trees, ran down steps,
and scoured the beach, but he never found Sam’s baby kangaroo.
While Thomas searched, Sam sat in her chariot and was drawn by dragons
to faraway secret worlds.
Today, when Thomas arrived, Sam said, “That baby kangaroo just left to
visit my mermaid mother. She lives in a cave behind Blue Rock.”
Sam watched Thomas race away on his bicycle over the narrow strand that
stretched to a massive blue rock in the distance. Then she sat down in
her chariot. Bangs came out
of the house and sat down beside Sam. With his head turned in the
direction of the diminishing Thomas, Bangs said, “When the tide comes
up, it covers the road to Blue Rock. Tide rises early today.”
Sam looked at Bangs for a minute. Then she said, “Pardon me while I go
to the moon.”
Bangs stood up. He stretched his front legs. Then he stretched his back
legs. Slowly he stalked away from Sam toward Blue Rock.
Suddenly Sam had no desire to go to the moon. Or any other place either.
She just sat in her chariot and thought about Bangs and Thomas.
She was so busy thinking that she was unaware of thick muddy clouds that
blocked out the sun. Nor did she hear the menacing rumble of thunder.
She was almost knocked off the doorstep when a sudden gust of wind drove
torrents of rain against her face.
Sam leaped into the house and slammed the door. She went to the window
to look at Blue Rock, but she could see nothing through the grey ribbed
curtain of rain. She wondered where Thomas was. She wondered where Bangs
was. Sam stood there looking at nothing, trying to swallow the lump that
rose in her throat.
The murky light in the room deepened to black. Sam was still at the
window when her father burst into the house. Water streamed
from his hat and oozed from his boots. Sam ran to him screaming, “Bangs
and Thomas are out on the rock! Blue Rock! Bangs and Thomas!”
As her father turned quickly and ran out the door, he ordered Sam to
stay in the house.
“And pray that the tide hasn’t covered the rock!” he yelled.
When her father had gone, Sam sat down. She listened to the rain hammer
on the tin roof. Then suddenly it stopped. Sam closed her eyes and
mouth, tight. She waited in the quiet room. It seemed to her that she
waited forever.
At last she heard her father’s footsteps outside. She flung open the
door and said one word: “Bangs?”
Sam’s father shook his head.
“He was washed away,” he said. “But I found Thomas on the rock. I
brought him back in the boat. He’s home now, safe in bed. Can you tell
me how all this happened?”
Sam started to explain, but sobs choked her. She cried so hard that it
was a long time before her father understood everything.
Finally, Sam’s father said, “Go to bed now. But before you go to sleep,
Sam, tell yourself the difference between REAL and MOONSHINE.”
Sam went to her room and crept into bed. With her eyes wide open she
thought about REAL and MOONSHINE.
MOONSHINE was a mermaid-mother, a fierce lion, a chariot drawn by
dragons, and certainly a baby kangaroo. It was all flummadiddle just as
Bangs had told her. Or had he told her? Wouldn’t her father say that a
cat’s talking was MOONSHINE?
REAL was no mother at all. REAL was her father and Bangs. And now there
wasn’t even Bangs. Tears welled up in Sam’s eyes again. They ran down
into her ears making a scratching noise. Sam sat up and blew her nose.
The scratching was not in her ears. It
was at the window. As Sam stared at the black oblong, two enormous
yellow eyes appeared and stared back. Sam sprang from her bed and opened
the window. There sat Bangs, his coat a sodden mess.
“Oh Bangs!” cried Sam, as she grabbed and smothered him with kisses.
“What happened to you?”
In a few words Bangs told her that one moment he was on the rock with
Thomas and the next he was lying at the foot of the lighthouse tower a
mile away. All done by waves.
“Nasty stuff, water,” Bangs grumbled, as he washed himself from his ears
to his feet.
Sam patted Bangs. “Well, at least it’s not flummadiddle….” Sam
paused. She looked up to see her father standing in the doorway.
“Look! Bangs is home!” shouted Sam.
“Hello, Bangs. What’s not flummadiddle?” asked Sam’s father.
“Bangs! And you! And Thomas!” answered Sam. “Oh, Daddy! I’ll always know
the difference between REAL and MOONSHINE now. Bangs and Thomas were
almost lost because of MOONSHINE Bangs told me.”
“He told you?” questioned Sam’s father.
“Well, he would have if he could talk,” said Sam. Then she added
sadly, “I know cats can’t talk like people, but I almost believed I
did have a baby kangaroo.”
Her father looked steadily at her.
“There’s good MOONSHINE and bad MOONSHINE,” he said. “The important
thing is to know the difference.” He kissed Sam good night and left the
room.
When he had closed the door, Sam said, “You know, Bangs, I might just
keep my chariot.”
This time Bangs did not yawn and shake his head. Instead he licked her
hand. He waited until she got into bed, then he curled up at her feet
and went to sleep.
The next morning Sam opened her eyes to see an incredible thing! Hopping
toward her on its hind legs was a small, elegant, largeeyed animal with
a long tail like a lion’s. Behind it strolled Bangs and her father.
“A baby kangaroo!” shouted Sam.
“Where did you find it!”
“It is not a baby kangaroo,” said Sam’s father. “It’s a gerbil. I
found it on an African banana boat in the harbor.”
“Now Thomas can see a baby kangaroo at last!” Sam squealed with joy.
Sam’s father interrupted her. “Stop the MOONSHINE, Sam. Call it by its
REAL name. Anyway, Thomas won’t come today. He’s sick in bed with
laryngitis. He can’t even talk. Also his bicycle got lost in the storm.”
Sam looked down at the gerbil. Gently she stroked its tiny head. Without
raising her eyes, she said, “Daddy, do you think I should give the
gerbil to Thomas?”
Sam’s father said nothing. Bangs licked his tail.
Suddenly Sam hollered, “Come on, Bangs!”
She jumped out of bed and slipped into her shoes. As she grabbed her
coat, she picked up the gerbil, and ran from the house with Bangs at her
heels. Sam did not stop running until she stood at the side of Thomas’
bed.
Very carefully she placed the gerbil on Thomas’ stomach. The little
animal sat straight up on its long hind legs and gazed directly at
Thomas with its immense round eyes.
“Whaaaaaaaaaa sis name!” wheezed Thomas.
“MOONSHINE,” answered Sam, as she gave Bangs a big wide smile.
Evaline Ness has written and illustrated many books. One you might like
is Do You Have the Time, Lydia? It is about a girl who is involved in
so many projects she can never finish anything she starts. And if you
have ever had a day when nothing went right, you will enjoy Alexander
and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.
