Chapter 1 L ucas Sanchez couldn’t help but laugh at his best friend as he watched Evan jog to the front of their fifth-grade classroom waving a lime-green Frisbee Hey guys your attention pullllleease Evan shouted We’ve got eleven fun-filled minutes before school starts Enough time you guessed it to play Olympic Frisbee Cheering voices arose from all four corners of the room Who’s psyched enough to race this spinning glow-in-the-dark Frisbee Who can calculate the speed you have to beat he continued with his usual half-smile Who’s swift enough to catch it before it sails through this stuffy room and reaches the front of our class I need two volunteers Any two will do Lucas shot out of his desk surprised he could move that fast He chuckled Maybe the day wouldn’t be a total bore after all Connor jumped into the next aisle and took a runner’s starting stance Evan headed toward the back of the room We have two qualified players at the starting gate I want to hear a little applause for these two contestants A smattering of clapping spread across the room I’ll give you both a head start Let the games begin On your mark Get set go Evan hesitated a few seconds With a twist of his shoulder he shifted and tossed the Frisbee in the air Whoosh
The spinning disc whirled above Lucas’s head It aimed straight toward the front of the room and that huge painting of the shipwrecked Edmund Fitzgerald Lucas eyed the Frisbee totally aware of Connor’s size-ten sneakers slamming down on the creaky wooden floor in the next aisle Lucas his legs muscular from running bases whizzed past four desks jumped over a math folder a navy book bag a foot in the aisle and sprinted ahead of Connor This picture’s not a print he thought It’s an oil What’s an oil of a famous ship doing in McKinley Elementary School Doris Sampson yeah she was one of the artists who painted the freighter At least he remembered one name from all those trips to Keeping his eye on the Frisbee spinning higher and higher Lucas pushed off the floor with a burst of speed and leaped onto Ms Thompson’s worktable He gasped as the Frisbee slammed into the picture of the Great Lakes freighter In a split second his hand shot up He caught the Frisbee as it ricocheted off the painting and bounced into his palm Lu-cas Lu-cas classmates chanted behind him Math papers twisted under his Nikes and fluttered to the floor Lucas cringed at the disastrous scene if Ms Thompson caught them Go man go Evan yelled from the rear of the room seeming to congratulate himself on his well-thrown Frisbee Toss it back here But Lucas had stopped playing the game He blocked out the din of cheers swallowed hard and stared in shock at his hand still holding the Frisbee A fleck of reddish-brown paint clung to his wrist With a weird sinking feeling he knew big trouble had found him once again
Lake Superior’s North Shore with Nana Lou He’d read about the unsolved mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank November 10 1975 People proudly called her the Mighty Fitz Lucas turned and whipped the Frisbee back to Evan glad the guys never found out he’d taken art lessons Still hitting a home run was more fun than drawing Lucas glanced back at the painting and scanned the frightening scene of the freighter struggling to stay afloat He couldn’t panic but where had that reddish chip come from The pilothouse looked creamy white That wasn’t it then Those waves held all shades of blue to gray to inky black The bow partly out of the water appeared reddish-brown Lucas studied the hull above the waterline Hurry his mind blared Come on come on He didn’t have a ton of time before the bell would ring Finally he saw a small area on the hull Yes that was where the Frisbee blasted the freighter His fingers itched to brush that spot to smooth out a loose chip It was only the size of a dime but he held back Lucas narrowed his gaze and studied that gray area surrounding it What the While the class cheered behind him Lucas stared in disbelief at a thin green line painted underneath the Fitz Lucas Sanchez called a shrill voice of authorityfrom the doorway Get down this instant Lucas spun around His dark hair flew in his face as he met Ms Thompson’s furious glare What had he been thinking He searched for Evan His friend stood beside the globe twirling it slowly as if he’d been studying it all morning As if he had no idea who threw that Frisbee A hush fell over the kids who had cheered him on Lucas
