It’s not every day that you see a giant pumpkin boat driving down the highway on the back of a milk truck, not least because it was probably highly illegal, but this wasn’t just any day. Marty thought they might get a bit of attention, but he certainly wasn’t expecting this. There was a convoy of cars behind them. Cars of well-wishers and newspapermen and people curious about what was going on. It really was quite the circus. And it was a fairly long drive, long enough for Marty to start getting nervous. What if they’d calculated everything wrong? What if they placed HMS SS in the water and she just sank to the bottom with a great big bubble of a burp? Marty broke out in a cold sweat. What if they did actually sink in the middle of the sea? He could swim, sure, but not for nearly a hundred miles … Grandad sensed his quietness.

“Marty, don’t worry…”

“I’m not…,” he lied.

“Yes, you are…”

The milk truck engine had started to smoke by now. It was billowing into the cab, making Marty and Grandad and Colin cough.

“You’re doing this for all of us,” said Colin. Marty hadn’t really spent much time up close with him before. He was huge—of course, Marty had noticed that—but there was a real softness in his eyes.

“All those things I used to think up…,” Colin said with a sad little smile, “never came to anything … I used to want to be a nurse.”

Marty was shocked by that.

“Everyone laughed, said I couldn’t do it. So I did the really stupid thing and listened to them.”

Grandad shook his head.

“And the funny thing is, I don’t even like milk…”

He now stuck his chin out.

“I’m going to get you to that harbor if it’s the last thing I do…”

The harbor was already jam-packed with cars. They’d overtaken the milk truck on the highway and had tried to get themselves in the best position for taking pictures. Colin backed the milk truck down onto the slipway. The sea looked calm and perfect. It couldn’t have been better. Grandad and Marty jumped out.

“How are we going to do this?” asked Marty.

Grandad hadn’t actually worked this one out. There was a step. If they pushed the pumpkin off, then they’d run the risk of smashing it. It would be too heavy, even for a whole crowd to lift. Grandad looked distressed.

“We’re almost there! We’re almost there!”

Colin puffed out his chest.

“Get in it,” he said.

“What?” asked Grandad.

“Get in it, you and Marty.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll back her up to the edge of the water, jump out, and let her sink.”

“The milk truck? You sure?”

Colin looked like he’d never been surer of anything in his whole life.