“They probably hoped they’d see the bear,” said Jessie. “But it went back to the wild.”

  “Exactly,” said Ms. Freeman. “We couldn’t keep a live, wild bear in town. That wouldn’t be fair to the bear, or safe for us. Instead, some local artists had the idea of making bear statues. The artists would have each bear wearing or holding something different.”

  “Like your bear’s ice-cream cone,” said Benny. “It tells people this is an ice-cream shop.”

  “I saw another bear holding a kite,” Jessie said. “That was in front of a toy store.”

  “There must be twenty bears in town,” Ms. Freeman said. “Each one is different.” She sighed. “I sure did like that bear. Oh well, it’s gone now.” She turned aside, blinking away tears.

  “Let’s finish with the ice cream,” Henry said. He motioned his brother and sisters to follow. Behind the counter, he whispered to them. “That statue meant a lot to Ms. Freeman. Maybe the storm didn’t wash it out to sea. If so, we should find it for her.”

  “We’re good at finding lost things!” said Benny.

  Jessie smiled. “If we find it, it might give us a clue to what happened here.”

  Benny bounced on his toes. “Hooray! We have a mystery, and we get to help. I like mysteries and helping almost as much as I like ice cream.”

  CHAPTER

  Shipwreck on Main

  The children finished pouring out the ice cream. They put the empty cardboard containers into the garbage out back. Then Henry said, “We’d like to look around town.”

  “I’d better stay here in case Sarah shows up,” said Ms. Freeman. “I’m not sure how else to contact her.”

  “I’ll wait with you, Marie,” Grandfather said. “You children have fun, but be careful. The storm might have left debris in the streets. Watch your step, and don’t touch any garbage without gloves on.”

  As the children walked down the street, Henry said, “If the storm washed away the bear, the water might carry the statue toward the ocean. Let’s head to the marina.”

  Benny looked at the map. And before long, he was leading them back to the marina.

  “It should be a left turn here.” But when Benny got to the corner, he stopped and said, “That’s not on the map!”

  As Henry, Jessie, and Violet got to the corner, they saw what he was talking about.

  In the middle of Main Street, a large boat sat on its side, surrounded by a group of people.

  “A real shipwreck!” said Benny, bouncing with excitement. “I bet there’s hidden treasure inside!”

  Jessie giggled. “What makes you think that?”

  Benny stared at the boat with wide eyes. “Every shipwreck should have hidden treasure.”

  “I hope everyone is okay,” said Henry. “Let’s take a closer look.”

  The boat was not one of the tall ships from the festival. It looked like someone’s private boat. The cabin roof was red. The rest of the boat looked white underneath the mud.

  Jessie gasped. “That’s the boat from the other day! Henry pointed it out, remember? It was floating in the water by itself.”

  The Aldens joined the crowd around the boat. A woman said, “I have a trailer you can use. I’m not sure how we’ll get the boat onto it though.”

  Someone else said, “You’ll need a crane to lift that boat. You should have moved it yesterday.”

  The marina manager, Mr. Valencia, studied the boat and shook his head. “Where were you before the storm, Eric? Why didn’t you take your boat out of the water?”

  A stocky man with dark hair threw his arms into the air. “Leave me alone, why don’t you? I don’t need advice. I can take care of my own boat.”

  Jessie whispered to the others. “That must be the boat’s owner. Mr. Valencia called him Eric.”

  “He’s not very grateful about people wanting to help,” said Violet.

  Benny gasped. “Look!” He pointed at the boat.

  The others studied the boat for a moment, but they did not see what Benny was talking about. “What are we looking at?” Henry asked.

  “It’s gone now. Someone was looking out of one of those little windows. There’s someone hiding inside…” Benny paused. He got a serious look on his face. “Or maybe it’s a ghost ship!”

  Henry smiled. “There’s no such thing as ghost ships, Benny. The boat is partly filled with water. You can see it through the windows on the side of the boat. You probably just saw something floating in the water.”

  “It was a person!” said Benny. “They were bald with big, red earrings.”

  “Whatever it was, it’s not there now,” said Jessie. “Let’s get a closer look.”

  As the Aldens moved toward the boat, the man named Eric hurried over. “What are you looking at?” he demanded.

  Jessie gave him a friendly smile. “We’ve never seen a boat in the middle of the street before. I hope you can get it fixed and back in the water.”

  He waved her away. “Yeah, yeah, everyone is sorry. But I’m the one who has to deal with it.” He turned away and then swung back. “You kids keep away from this boat! I don’t want anyone on it.”

  “Of course not,” said Henry. “We wouldn’t do anything so dangerous. The boat is on its side, and it might have been damaged by the storm. Besides, we wouldn’t come aboard without permission.”

  “Right, that’s it,” said the man. “It’s dangerous. Keep back.” He stomped away.

  Jessie frowned. “I don’t think anyone is inside that boat. Still, that man acted very strange.”

  “He doesn’t want us to find his hidden treasure,” Benny said.

  Henry laughed. “I just remembered something. In nautical terms, ‘main’ means the high seas. Like in that old song, ‘Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main.’ Instead of a shipwreck over the main seas, we got a shipwreck on Main Street.”

  “That’s funny,” said Violet. “Let’s keep looking for the bear.”

  The children walked down Main Street toward the marina. On the way, they saw seaweed, branches, even big logs. And a lot of trash.

  “Some of these things could have blown on the wind,” said Violet. “The boat must weigh a lot. Did the wind push it into town?”

  “I think I know what happened,” said Henry. “You know that normal tides go in and out each day.”

  “When the tide is out, we can walk on the beach,” said Violet. “When the tide is high, it might cover the beach.”

  Henry nodded. “People build their houses well above the high-tide line. They wouldn’t want to get flooded every time the tide comes in.”

  He pointed toward the marina, which wasn’t far. “The water usually stays below the docks and the marina. During a tropical storm like a hurricane, the winds push more water to shore. It’s called a storm surge. The sea level can rise a lot higher than usual. It might be fifteen or twenty feet higher than a regular high tide.”

  Jessie turned to look back at the boat. It was hard to believe the water rose so high it carried the boat up the street. “When the water went down, it left the boat behind,” she said.

  “Imagine leaving your boat in the ocean and finding it on Main Street,” said Violet. “I feel bad for that man.”

  “I still think he’s hiding something,” said Benny.

  “There’s Hector Valencia up ahead,” said Henry. “Let’s see what he knows.” Henry called to the marina manager, who was headed back to the marina. The man waited for the children.

  “Mr. Valencia,” said Henry, “do you know why that man didn’t move his boat yesterday?”

  Mr. Valencia shook his head. “Everyone knew about the storm warning, including Eric Pruett. I don’t know why he didn’t take care of his boat.”

  “Maybe he didn’t get the message,” Violet said.

  Mr. Valencia thought for a moment. “That can’t be it,” he said. “I saw him yesterday afternoon. I remember telling him that the officials needed to inspect all the boats. I warned him to be ready so he could leave as soon as they finished with his boat. I don’t remember seeing him after that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do at the marina. The storm surge flooded everything.”

  The Aldens thanked Mr. Valencia, and he hurried off.

  “Eric Pruett made a big mistake yesterday,” Henry said. “I wonder why.”

  “Maybe he didn’t think the storm would be so bad,” said Jessie. “Ms. Freeman didn’t seem too worried yesterday.”

  “I still think he’s hiding treasure,” said Benny. “He doesn’t look like a pirate, but maybe he is!”

  “What about the bear?” Violet asked. “Do you think the storm surge carried it away?”

  “I’m afraid it might have,” Jessie said. “Poor Ms. Freeman. We won’t find her bear if it’s in the ocean.”

  Violet gasped and pointed downhill toward the marina. “The next street down is still covered in water. Look, someone is walking through the water!”

  The children hurried to get a better view. “I don’t think that’s a person,” Jessie said.

  “It’s too big to be a person,” Henry said. “It almost looks like…”

  “A bear walking on its back legs!” said Benny.

  CHAPTER

  Follow That Bear!

  As the Aldens got closer, they saw that it was a bear, but it was not walking. It was one of the town’s bear statues, bobbing along in the water.

  “We should try to rescue it,” said Violet. “Before it floats out to sea.”

  Henry studied the street. “It’s too dangerous to walk in the water. It might not be deep, but it’s dark and murky. You can’t see the ground. Let’s stay on the sidewalk, where you can see the ground.”

  Benny jumped onto the sidewalk, laughing as water splashed up. “Let’s go!”

  The bear statue floated slowly along the street. They could only see the backside, but they could tell it was not Ms. Freeman’s bear. Hers wore a blue overalls. This one was wearing a red jacket.

  At the end of the block, the bear statue drifted downhill to a park on the waterfront. For a moment, Benny thought they had lost it. Instead, when he got to where he could see the waterfront, he saw a whole group of bear statues in the water.

  “Look at all of them!” said Violet. Some of the bears were on their sides. Others were upright. It was strange to see all of the smiling, lifelike bears bobbing up and down.

  “That railing is keeping them from floating out to sea,” said Henry. “Let’s go see if Ms. Freeman’s is there.”

  Suddenly, one of the shapes in the water stood up straight.

  “Someone is down in the water,” said Jessie.

  “It’s Sarah from the ice-cream shop,” said Violet. “What is she doing?”

  “Maybe the water washed her down here too,” said Benny.

  They waved and called out to her, and Sarah swung around and jumped at the sight of them.

  “Are you all right?” Henry asked.

  “Oh, it’s you.” Sarah looked around. “Where’s Ms. Freeman?”

  “She’s waiting for you in the ice-cream shop,” Henry said. “You didn’t show up this morning, and the phones are out.”

  Sarah waded toward them. The water came up to her knees in places, but she wore rubber overalls to stay dry. “We can’t open the store without power,” she said. “Anyway, there’s too much else to do.”

  “The town is a mess,” said Jessie. “What are you doing here?”

  Sarah shrugged. “I thought the ice-cream bear might be in that group, but it’s not.” She bit her lip for a few seconds. “I really hope it didn’t wash out to sea. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Ms. Freeman is sad about losing the bear too,” Violet said. “But it will be all right. The town has survived worse storms than this one, right? Ms. Freeman told us about the real bear who came to town after the last storm, and how it helped everyone work together to rebuild.”

  “Yeah, right,” Sarah said. “The town will be fine. I’m not worried about the town.” She sighed and looked back at the floating bears. “I just really, really need to find that bear.”

  The children looked at each other. They were surprised that Sarah was so upset about the statue. It was a great statue, but people were more important than things.

  “We’ll keep trying to find the ice-cream bear,” Violet said.

  All the children nodded. Henry said, “The other business owners will want their bears back. We should go get them.”

  Sarah smiled at the children. “Maybe someone will offer a reward for the return of their bear!”

  “We don’t need a reward,” said Jessie.

  “Unless it’s food!” Benny said. “Is there a pizza shop bear? Let’s save that one first.”

  Sarah chuckled. “You can have the pizza. I’ll take money. You kids better wait here where it’s dry. I’ll pull the bears over one at a time.”

  Sarah waded back to the floating bears and grabbed one by the ears and dragged it through the water. At the sidewalk, she got behind the bear. “You’ll have to help me get it onto dry land.”

  “Violet and Benny, please stand back,” said Henry. “Jessie and I can take the bear from this end.”

  Sarah bent over and started lifting the bear. She grunted with the effort. Henry and Jessie grabbed on where they could. They got the bear standing upright on the sidewalk. “We’ll push it back out of the way,” Henry said. He and Jessie shuffled the bear away from the water.

  “This bear must be from a bookstore,” said Jessie. The bear was holding a stack of books and had reading glasses perched on its nose. “Or maybe a library.”

  Sarah came back with another bear statue. They got that one onto land.

  “That bear has flowers,” said Violet. “It could be from a flower shop.”

  “The bears are holding clues,” said Benny. “We can use them to figure out where the statues belong.”

  Next Sarah brought the bear they had followed down the street. “I don’t know what this one is,” said Violet. “It’s wearing a red jacket. Its white curly hair looks like a wig.”

  “That’s like a judge’s wig from long ago,” Jessie said. “The jacket is old-fashioned too. Maybe it’s from a museum or the courthouse.”

  Sarah simply shrugged and headed back into the water.

  Jessie whispered, “Do you think it’s strange that Sarah is working so hard to get the bears out of the water? Yesterday at the shop she could hardly be bothered to scoop our ice cream.”

  Henry nodded. “I know what you mean,” he said. “Maybe the storm gave her a change of heart.”

  The Aldens lined up the bears on the sidewalk. Soon Sarah brought the last one to where they were standing. It was the statue for the marina. The bear was holding a fishing pole with a big fish on the end.

  Sarah used one hand to push loose hair out of her face. As she did, the bear slipped away from her other hand. The current of the water pulled it toward the ocean.

  She grabbed at the bear. But it seemed to jump away from her hands. She wobbled and stumbled backward. In a few seconds, the bear would float out of reach.

  Henry stepped into the water to help, but after a few steps, his foot slipped. He waved his arms, trying to find his balance. Then he fell into the murky water.

  “Henry!” Violet yelled.

  Benny ran forward.

  “Stay back!” called Jessie. She carefully knelt at the edge of the water. “It’s so dark, I can’t see him. Maybe if I reach in—”

  Just then, Henry’s head popped up. He coughed and wiped water from his face. He smiled at his worried siblings. “I’m all right. I see why they say not to wade in floodwater after a storm. I tripped on something big under the surface.”

  “You scared us,” Jessie said. “Come out.”

  “Just a minute,” said Henry. “I’ll help Sarah with this last bear. I’m already wet, and I have a good place to stand now.”

  Sarah caught up with the bear before it got back to the railing. She pushed it to the sidewalk where Henry helped lift it out. They scrambled from the water and hauled it to dry land.

  “Now what do we do with them?” Violet asked.

  Sarah shrugged. “I have to go. Let me know if you get a reward.”

  Before the Aldens could thank her, Sarah sloshed to the corner and started up the hill.

  “Henry needs dry clothes,” said Jessie. “Let’s get Grandfather and Ms. Freeman. They will know what to do next.”

  Back at the ice-cream shop, they explained what had happened. Ms. Freeman said she’d take the bears to her house, where they would be safe and out of the way. That evening, she drove her truck to the waiting statues. The Aldens loaded up the bears, with the help of some other people who passed by.

  The children unloaded the bears in Ms. Freeman’s yard. Henry changed into dry clothes. After a hearty dinner, they cleaned up some of the fallen branches outside.

  Before going to bed, the children met in the room Henry and Benny shared. “We found a lot of bears today,” said Violet. “But we didn’t find Ms. Freeman’s bear.”

  “We don’t know who damaged her generator either,” Henry said. “Or if it has something to do with the missing bear.”

  “We have a lot of mysteries,” Benny said happily. “The bears, the generator, and the man with the boat in the street.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a mystery,” Jessie said.

  “I’m sure I saw someone in his boat!” said Benny. “That’s mysterious.”

  “We’ll learn more tomorrow,” said Henry. “We’ll find out where all these bears belong. Maybe we’ll find some more clues to our mysteries.” He yawned.

  Jessie and Violet went to their room. Henry fell asleep quickly, but Benny was too excited to sleep. When he finally did drift off, he had strange dreams about bears sailing boats.