Continuation:

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The man-servant turned back and was now looking at the two gulls. This time, his approach was much smarter. “Bob One … step forward!” Bob One stepped forward. “Okay!” said the man-servant, “now I know who you both are, we need to talk.

Bob One looked at him. “So, you want to talk to Bob Three?”

The man-servant looked at him. “No! I want to talk to you two.”

“Yes,” said Bob One. “You want to talk to Bob Three!”

The man-servant was starting to get a little perturbed. “Look here, Bob One. If you are Bob One, and if he is Bob Two, then there is no Bob Three, or Bob Four.”

“Yes, there is!” said Bob One. “You can talk with me, Bob One. You can talk with him, Bob Two. If you want to talk to both of us, then you need Bob Three, or Bob Twelve depending on how you see it!”

The man-servant sighed. “Bob Twelve? Odessa, please help me out here!”

“Okay, Man-Servant,” said Odessa, “but it is really simple, at least from a gull’s perspective. If you want to talk with both Bob One and Bob Two, then one plus two equals three … hence, Bob Three. If you call out, ‘Bob Three’, they will both come and hear what you want to say. With your suggestion to name them Bob One and Bob Three, you can see why they immediately created Bob Four. It’s seagull logic.”

The man-servant thought about it for a moment, and then said “Bob Three!” and both gulls immediately gave him their attention. He turned once again to Odessa. “So where did Bob Twelve come from?”

Odessa sighed. “Gulls are like humans, in that they generally leave a lot to be desired, but in fairness, some are better educated than others. The less-educated ones will see Bob One and Bob Two as equaling Bob Twelve, with the number one in front of the number two!”

The man-servant was totally bewildered and started shaking his head. “Odessa,” he said, “would you please take over here, and explain to the Bobs where we are going, and answer any questions that they may have? Also let them know that they are welcome to stay on the boat for as long as they wish.”

Odessa smiled and nodded, while the man-servant turned to look out of the windows.

Although it was quite bright outside, there were still waves breaking over the bow and rushing past the windows. He could still hear the wind, but it did sound as if it had dropped in strength a little. “Well, guys,” he said, “can one of you wake Dewey up and introduce him to the Bobs? After that, perhaps get some food going around here? It was a long night, and if you’re anything like me, then you’re all really hungry.”

Jaxon and Odessa started opening up boxes and plastic containers, and soon everybody (including Dewey) was eating. The man-servant was eating a sardine sandwich, when a little piece of sardine fell to the floor.

“It’s mine!” said Bob One, diving to the floor.

“No, it’s not! It’s mine!” said Bob Two, also diving down, and bumping Bob One out of the way. Bob Two picked up the piece of fish, but Bob One flew past and took it from his beak.

“It’s mine!” he said.

“It’s mine!”

Bob Two flew up and then dropped down onto Bob One, who looked up to see what was happening, and dropped the piece of fish. Bob Two swooped across the floor and picked it up. “It’s mine! Told you it was mine!”

The man-servant, Odessa, Dewey, and Jaxon were watching all the activity, in amazement, as they continued scrapping over one small piece of fish.

The man-servant suddenly smiled. “I understand something now.” he said. “When I am at the coast, and watch the seagulls fighting over food, which seems to be all the time, what I used to hear as raucous gull noises, are really them all saying, ‘It’s mine, ‘No, it’s mine’, ‘Well, I saw it first’, ‘No, you didn’t’, ‘It’s mine now.’”

Just then, Bob Two dropped it again … and Dewey was right beneath him. Dewey caught it and swallowed it. “Here, gulls! Come to Dewey! Dewey has a surprise for you!”

The man-servant intervened. “No, Dewey,” he said, “these two are not for you to play with. They’re riding along with us until this storm moves on.”

The waves started to settle down as the day was coming to an end, and so the man-servant increased the Argo’s speed, pushing her quickly through the water throughout the whole night and into the following day. Bob and Bob wanted to leave the Argo and continue on their way by flying, so a door was opened and farewells offered, as they both flew out and up into the sky.

The man-servant turned to Odessa. “Who would have thought that we would meet Bob and Bob? In fact, who is going to believe the story about Bob and Bob?”

“Yes.” said Odessa. “You can talk to a Barn Owl, a cat, and a Jackalope, but who is going to believe a story about two seagulls? Humans really are quite strange. Anyway, strange human, you are looking really tired, and the steering wheel is still tied up, so why don’t you get some sleep? One of us will wake you up if anything changes up here.”

“Thank you Odessa. I think I will.”

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For more information about “The Odessa Chronicles”, please click/select the book cover in the right column, or the link below:

https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000053250745/Carolyn-Shelton-and-Colin-Chappell-The-Odessa-Chronicles