1 A FOGGY DAY THIS IS A BASEBALL STORY but it seems when I remember it to have started the day Mr Entwhistle arrived Most sports stories begin with a game or a race but this one is different It starts with a foggy morning Susan and I were sitting on the dock dangling our feet in the water We heard a rowboat looked at each other and giggled Susan and I had listened to thousands of fishermen row hundreds of dinghies from their anchored boats to our dock at New Auckland British Columbia We knew the rhythmic splash that oars make when they are working together That was not the sound we heard We couldn’t see the rowboat or who was trying to guide it to our village It was too foggy Hello called out a man’s voice Did I hear somebody Over here yelled Susan
Oh thank the Lord above said the man calmly Are you on a boat We’re on a dock I yelled A dock Land The man in the boat stopped rowing and let his dinghy glide forward He began to laugh Land he said again I could see the bow of the dinghy now and I could see the misty shape of a man sitting in the middle The dinghy was drifting closer to us The rower had swiveled around and was facing us Look I whispered to Susan pointing Doesn’t that man look like Sherlock Holmes said Susan slowly Exactly my dear Susan I replied but Susan didn’t laugh The man in the rowboat was wearing the kind of hat that Sherlock Holmes wears a hat that looks like a baseball cap with two front ends and flaps that usually tie on the top It was a damp cool morning and the flaps were pulled down over his ears The rowboat glided to a stop gently bumping into the dock I leaned over grabbed the bowline and tied the
dinghy to a mooring anchor Susan pulled on the stern line guiding the boat snug against the dock The man stood up holding onto a gold-tipped cane He wore a long Burberry coat and smoked a curved white pipe He wobbled and then placed one hand on the dock and pulled himself up My name is G H Entwhistle he announced I am of course at your service He didn’t try to shake our hands but he did bow Mr Entwhistle was tall and thin His nose was bigger and redder than any nose I had ever seen His voice was loud each word precise and accompanied by a broad gesture He moved like an actor performing in front of thousands of people My name is Susan said Susan She bowed slightly too so I bowed and said that my name was Thumb Thumb asked Mr Entwhistle My real name is Leon Mazzei but I am called Thumb because I lost the top half of my right thumb in an accident I said raising my hand But I can see your entire thumb Thumb said Mr Entwhistle
The end is a fake I said I can take it off You have an accent Mr Entwhistle Young lad said Mr Entwhistle with a chuckle pausing as he pulled out a white handkerchief and wiped his forehead Everyone has an accent I in fact would find your accent hard to understand if I hadn’t been living in this country for seven years Where are you from asked Susan England said Mr Entwhistle pointing out into the fog It is hard for me to say that I am actually from England since I have not seen the sacred soil of my beloved country for too many years It’s my work It brings me here alas If only I had chosen some lovable English creature such as the dormouse I might not have faced near doom today on this almost uninhabited coast of British Columbia Not that I was frightened for a moment you understand I am English and was taught from an early age that one should never show fear Why asked Susan I don’t know I only know that I am more frightened by what might happen if I show fear than by any fearful thing I might face My boat seems to have sunk I barely had time
