Dark Day in the Deep Sea

There was a small skylight overhead. Rain pounded against the glass.
    Henry struck a match and lit a couple of oil lamps. Shadows danced around the room.
    Jack smiled and let out a deep sigh. He loved the sea lab. Shelves were lined with hundreds of different-size bottles. The bottles were filled with floating blobs. In the middle of the room was a wooden table. It held maps, rulers, thermometers, bowls with gooey-looking stuff, and a big microscope.
    Henry pointed at the microscope. “Would you like to see something remarkable?” he asked.
    “Oh, yes!” said Annie. She peered through the eyepiece. “Whoa—that’s amazing,” she breathed.
    “Let me see,” said Jack. He put his backpack down on the table and looked in the microscope. He saw the tiny skeleton of a sea horse. “Cool …,” he said.
    “That sea horse is no bigger than a grain ofsugar,” said Henry. “But of course I’m fascinated by larger creatures as well. Why, just yesterday I spent several hours studying the ear bone of a dolphin and the tooth of a shark.”
    “And what’s in all those bottles?” asked Annie. She pointed at the rows and rows of bottles on Henry’s shelves.
    “Many curiosities,” said the scientist. “That large one, for instance, holds a creature that looks like a giant sock. Some call it a blubber fish. But it’s not a fish at all! It is made up of millions of tiny sea creatures.”
    “Eww,” said Annie.
    “And there’s a rare sea slug,” said Henry. He pointed to a bright yellow blob floating in a clear liquid.
    “Nice color,” said Jack.
    “We study whatever we bring up from the deep,” said Henry. “We measure the specimens and identify them. Then we preserve them in bottles of alcohol and label the bottles.”
    “So all those bottles are full of dead sea creatures?” said Annie.
    “Oh, no. Many bottles are simply filled with ooze from the bottom of the sea,” said Henry.

    “Ooze?” said Jack.
    “The official name for mud,” said Henry, smiling. “Here, feel it.” Henry picked up one of the plates on the table and held it out to Jack and Annie. They rubbed the sticky, wet mud between their fingers.
    “Ooze
is a good name for it,” said Jack.
    Henry gave them a cloth to wipe their hands.Then he picked up a large book from the table. “And here is the notebook where I transfer my drawings of natural history specimens,” he said. He opened the book. Inside were beautiful watercolors of shells, plants, and butterflies.
    “These are great,” said Jack. Henry’s notebook reminded him of the notebooks he’d seen in Leonardo da Vinci’s studio.
    “This is beautiful,” said Annie. She reached across Henry’s table and picked up a gleaming, round seashell. The shell was white with curved reddish brown lines.
    “Yes,” Henry said softly. “My nautilus shell.”
    “Is this one of your specimens?” asked Annie.
    “No,” said Henry. “I don’t consider that a specimen. It’s more like a treasure. I’m afraid I grew quite fond of the little creature who once lived inside that shell.”
    “What did he do?” asked Annie.
    “Oh, he just swam around a small tub I had for him,” said Henry. “But he moved backwards.Rather funny. He filled himself with water and then squirted it out—all over me!” Henry smiled. “I was quite sad when he died. I wished I had returned him to the sea.” Henry put the shell down and let out a quiet sigh. “Silly to think that way, I know.”
    “Not silly at all,” said Annie.
    The ship’s bell rang.
    “Ah, time to go,” said Henry. “The captain runs a tight ship. It’s against the rules to be late. So let us be off to the wardroom.”
    “What’s the wardroom?” Jack asked.
    “That’s where the scientists and naval officers eat,” said Henry.
    “Eat?” Jack said weakly. The thought of food made him feel queasy again.
    “Yes,” said Henry. He blew out the two oil lamps. “Come along! You must join us! It’s lunchtime!”

H enry led Jack and Annie out of the sea lab, locking the door behind them. Then he led the way through the hall and down another flight of steep steps. In the faint light of the lower deck, Jack saw naval officers and scientists streaming through a door ahead. He, Annie, and Henry lined up behind them and filed into the wardroom.
    Still wearing their bulky life vests, Jack and Annie sat awkwardly on a long bench in front of a table. Many of the men stared at them withcuriosity. The professor smiled, but the