Derek went back in the house and saw his grand daddy.

"Granddaddy, come look at this," he said.

When granddaddy went outside with him, Derek asked, "Where did all of the water come from, Granddaddy?"

Granddaddy smiled at him, "Remember all of that rain that we just had? Well all of that water came from that rain."

Derek could tell that the water was moving, there were leaves and sticks and other things floating in it and they were all moving. "Where is the water going, Granddaddy?" Derek asked.

Granddaddy said, "Oh, it will go on along the ditch until it comes to a storm sewer. Then it will go into the storm sewer."

"Granddaddy, what is a storm sewer?" Derek asked.

Granddaddy smiled again and said, "A storm sewer is like a big pipe that is buried in the ground. It can carry the water away."

Derek watched the water for a little while then asked, "Granddaddy, where does the storm sewer take the water?"

"Do you remember," said Granddaddy, "when you and Mommy and I went to the beach?"

Derek did remember. There had been a lot of sand for him to run on and dig in, but what he really remembered was the water. There had been big waves that kept coming up to the sand, and the water went as far as he could see. Derek told his grand daddy that he did remember.

"All of that water that you saw at the beach is called the ocean. The storm sewer will take all of the water in the ditch to the ocean."

Derek thought about the leaves and other things that were floating in the ditch and asked, "Are there things in the ocean, Granddaddy?"

Granddaddy laughed. "There sure are. There are fish and plants and octopuses and sea shells and sharks and all sort of things. Even a few sunken pirate ships."

"Can I play in the water in the ditch, Granddaddy?" Derek asked.

"No, Derek. I don't think so." Grown-ups always told little kids that they couldn't do the things that would be the most fun.

Derek looked at the water for a while then he had an idea. He went and got his magic stick. You knew that Derek had a magic stick, didn't you? He had found it at the edge of the deep woods one day and it was a very magical thing. It could become anything that Derek wanted it to be, a nut cracker, a bow and arrow, a big red balloon or anything that he could think of. Sometimes, it was just a stick.

Today, Derek had a special job for his stick. Suddenly, his magic stick became a green submarine. It was green because, today green was his favorite color. Derek got in his new submarine and it rolled over to the water and jumped in. Derek knew all about submarines because he had seen a movie that had one in it. Derek knew that the captain of a submarine had magic words that he had to say, and since Derek was the captain of his green submarine, he had to say the words. "Ten dillies around the bubble!" he said. Those were the magic words that made a submarine go down under the water. At least those were the magic words that the captain in the movie that he had seen had used. "Full seeds on my head!" Derek said. Those were the magic words that made the submarine go.

Derek's submarine went very fast and soon he saw the leaves and sticks that he had seen earlier. He passed those slow pokes. All of a sudden, the water went over a waterfall and Derek could feel himself falling. Then he was in a dark place, so he turned on the lights so that he could see where he was going. He could see that he was in a big pipe and the water was going really fast, but his submarine was going faster. This must be the storm sewer that Granddaddy had talked about.

It wasn't long before the pipe ended and Derek could see the waves over his head. This must be the ocean! That meant that it was time to explore!

Then Derek saw it, one of the sunken pirate ships that Granddaddy had talked about. He made his submarine go over to explore the pirate ship. Then he found it, the pirate's treasure chest! His submarine stuck out it's robot arm with the big claw on it and picked up the treasure chest. Then it brought the treasure chest into his submarine.

When Derek opened up the treasure chest, he saw the pirate's parrot standing on a bunch of gold coins. The parrot said, "Pieces of eight! Awk! Pieces of eight."

Derek picked up one of the coins and found out that it wasn't really gold, it was chocolate wrapped up to look like money. So he ate it. It was good, so he ate the rest of it. Then the pirate's parrot said, "Aw, no more pieces of eight. Awk!"

Derek thought that he would do some more exploring with his submarine, so he started looking around under the water. He saw a big cave and thought that it might be fun to look in there. But when he got close to it, a big old octopus came out of the cave after him. He wasn't afraid of the octopus, he was much too brave for that. But he didn't see any sense in fighting the octopus if he didn't have to. So he turned his submarine around and headed the other way, with the octopus chasing him. The octopus couldn't catch him, his submarine was too fast for that, and he soon left it behind.

Then, up ahead of him, he saw a great big shark coming after him. This could be a pickle. He had an octopus behind him and a shark in front of him. That gave Derek an idea. He turned his submarine around and headed back for the octopus. He made sure that he didn't go too fast for the shark, he wanted it to keep up.

Just before Derek got to the octopus, he turned to the side real fast, and the shark and the octopus bumped their heads together. Derek turned and looked. The shark and the octopus had forgotten all about Derek and were fighting with each other. That would teach them to try to bother Derek.

Then Derek saw a school of fish, and the teacher fish was saying, "You have to be careful of fishermen. They like to catch fish, because fish are good to eat."

Derek saw a giant clam and its shell was open. Sitting inside the shell was a pearl as big as Derek's head. Derek thought that Mommy would like that, so he made his submarine go over and pick it up. When he did, the clam snapped its shell shut. Derek was trapped! But Derek was too smart for that old clam. He just happened to have some pepper with him. He opened the porthole of the submarine and sprinkled some pepper on the clam.

The clam said, "Ah, ah, ah." Derek closed the porthole real fast and the clam said, "Ah...chooo!" and sneezed Derek and his submarine right out.

Then Derek decided that it was time to go back home, so he went back up the storm sewer, and back up the waterfall, and back up the ditch. When he got back to his house, he rolled out of the ditch and across the street to his house. Of course, he looked both ways before he crossed the street. When he was back in his front yard, his submarine turned back into a stick again.

Derek went in the house and found Mommy in the kitchen cooking supper. "What are we having for supper, Mommy?" Derek asked.

"We are having fish," Mommy said. That was good, Derek liked fish.

While they were eating their fish that night, Derek told them all about his adventures with his submarine. He even showed them the pearl that he had found. When Derek had finished, Granddaddy said, "What an imagination. That pearl looks just like a soccer ball to me."

Mommy said, "I always said that Derek had a good imagination."

Derek still didn't know what an imagination was, but whatever it was, he was glad that he had a good one.