Baby-Sitters On Board (12 page)

"No way," replied Stacey. But she looked pretty green by the time we'd ridden Space Mountain the second time.
"Now — on to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!" cried David Michael Thomas. "That's my favorite ride. You have to look around while you're on it. It's like you're really in the wild, wild wrest. Did you guys see the bones? And the possums hanging from the tree? And the chickens and the goat? How about the mine shaft? I liked going up, up, up and then — " "Oh, please!" said Stacey. "I know I told you we had to go on the roller coasters first, but I take it back. Let's find a tamer ride. We'll go on the railroad at the end of the day — if you haven't eaten too much." "Pirates of the Caribbean!" I cried. "Let's go, you guys. Off to Adventureland!" "Pirates of the Caribbean," Stacey repeated weakly. "Isn't that a water ride? I don't know. A boat . . . All that swaying and rocking . . ." But we were already way ahead of her.
Stacey caught up to us as we were following the line through the caverns that lead to the beginning of the ride.
"This ride isn't bad," I whispered to Stacey, pulling her aside. "It's not like being on the water at all. The boats run on tracks, I think. They don't really float." Stacey smiled at me. "Thanks, Byron," she said. "I'm feeling better already." Pirates of the Caribbean is a cool ride. You tour around in these dark cavelike tunnels and watch these scenes that move. They show a band of really good pirates (eyepatches, black hats, striped stockings, the works) raiding a little town in the Caribbean. You feel like you're actually there.
In one place, the pirates set some buildings on fire. The buildings really, really look like they're on fire, too — all red and yellow and glowing. In another place, you pass under a pirate sitting on a bridge or something and you can see that he has hairy legs! There are drunk pirates, there's a gunfight between two ships, with the exploding shells splashing the water all around your boat, and there are funny pirates in jail. A dog has the keys to their prison, but he won't give them up! "Boy, some ride!" said Adam as we climbed out of our boat.
"I'll say," said Stacey. "I'm not a bit seasick. That was great." We were all talking and asking questions as we walked outside.
"How did they make that fire?" asked Nicky. "Was it real?" "What about that gunfight?" said Jordan.
"I liked the drunk pirates," said David Michael. "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!" Jordan began to get silly. David Michael's song had reminded him of another one. "How dry I am," he sang. "How wet I'll be, if I don't find, the bathroom key!" "Jordan," warned Stacey.
"How about this one?" I added. "Comet, it makes your mouth turn green. Comet, it tastes like Listerine. Comet, it makes you vomit. So get some Comet and vomit to — " "Oh, wow!" Nicky suddenly cried. "Would you look where we are?" I stopped singing. We all stopped walking. We had gotten off the ride and exited right into a gift shop. And we were surrounded by pirate stuff. There were black, three-cornered pirate hats. There were fake hooks for in case you lost your hand in a swordfight. There were necklaces with skulls on them and pirate flags and rubber daggers.
"Awesome," I said. "Totally awesome." We all wanted to buy something. And we decided we should each buy something different so that when we got together in Sto-neybrook we'd have a really good collection of pirate stuff.
It took us ages to decide what to get. Finally I bought a hat, David Michael bought a skull necklace, Jordan bought a hook, Adam bought a dagger, and Nicky bought a flag.
"You know," I said when we'd finished paying for all the stuff, "we should really hunt for treasure now. We're all set for it. Do you guys want to?" "Sure!" they replied.
"And," added Nicky, "where we find treasure, we might find the stowaway from the ship." I wasn't following Micky's thinking on that one, but it didn't matter.
I pulled the map out of my pocket. It was more crumpled than ever. You could still read it, though. Then I pulled out a map of the Magic Kingdom. "Let's see," I said. My brothers and David Michael crowded around to look at the maps. "We should probably search somewhere near water, right?" "Right," they said.
"What about Tom Sawyer's Island in Fron-tierland? You have to take rafts to get over there. And we wanted to go anyway." "We're there!" cried Adam.
Most of us had already been to Tom Sawyer's Island, which was why we wanted to go again. It was almost as awesome as the pirate gift shop. We liked firing off the air guns at the fort.
But this time we were going there to hunt for treasure. We set to work as soon as we got off the raft.
"Should we split up or what?" asked Adam with a sly grin.
"Oh, no! No you don't! You can't fool me," said Stacey. "You guys stick together and I stick with you. Got it?" "Got it," we said glumly.
We began our search. It wasn't as much fun as being on Treasure Cay, where we could dig up sand and turn over rocks and stuff. And where we didn't need a baby-sitter. At least — it wasn't as much fun at first.
But then ... I found it! Treasure! A real treasure*. I was crossing the floating barrel bridge and thought I saw something shiny. I leaned over and took a closer look. Something gold was snagged on one of the barrels. Very carefully, I picked it up. It was a bracelet and it was real old. The clasp was broken, but otherwise it looked okay. I wondered just how old it was. As old as pieces of eight? As old as a jewel from a pirate-raided town in the Caribbean?
I held it up and examined it in the sunlight.
The golden links looked worn and kind of dirty.
And valuable.
"You guys! You guys!" I yelled.
The others were ahead of me. They'd reached the end of the bridge. I ran to catch up.
"I found treasure!" I shrieked.
Everyone crowded around me — even a few people I didn't know.
"Look at this bracelet," I said. "It must be as old as pirates. They could have stolen it off some poor lady when they raided a town." It was right then that I noticed Stacey looking at me kind of strangely. "What?" I said. "What did I do wrong?" "Nothing," she said sadly. She held out her hand. "May I see the bracelet, please, Byron?" I handed it to her.
"I'm really sorry to say this," she went on (and she sure did sound sorry), "but this bracelet is Dawn's. She lost it yesterday. Did it have a glass charm on it shaped like a unicorn?" "No," I replied. "Are you sure this is Dawn's bracelet? That's a pretty big whaddyacallit — a pretty big coincidence." "Amazing but true/' said Adam in this eerie voice.
"The charm must have slipped off," Stacey went on. The bracelet is old, though, Byron. You were right about that. It's an antique. It belonged to Dawn's great-aunt. Dawn liked this bracelet a whole lot. She was upset when she lost it. I think it's a family heirloom or something. She'll be really grateful that you found it." I nodded. I felt good about that. Honest I did. But not as good as if I'd found a treasure. And Nicky was disappointed that we hadn't seen the stowaway, either, although how he thought we were going to find him in the middle of Disney World was beyond me.
That night, my brothers and David Michael and I presented the bracelet to Dawn. She was so happy she cried. For a moment, I thought she was going to kiss me. (Disgust.) I'm glad she didn't.
Us guys decided to quit looking for treasure at the Magic Kingdom, but somehow I just couldn't make myself throw the treasure map away. I stuck it in the back pocket of my jeans.
Karen.
I am so sad. I'm happy . . . but I'm sad. Do you know what I mean? It's that feeling you get when your birthday finally comes and you're really happy that the waiting is over. And you're going to get presents and a cake and a party. But you're also really sad that the waiting is over. Because when the day ends, your birthday will end, too. And you won't have it to look forward to anymore.
That is how I felt on our last day at Disney World. I had a million things to look forward to — but when the day was over, our trip would be almost over, too. We were all flying home the next day.
Here are the things I was most especially looking forward to: 1. One more ride on Cinderella's Golden Carousel.
2. One more ride on Dumbo, the Flying Elephant.
3. The parade. (We kept missing it. We still hadn't seen it.) AND!! 4. Breakfast with the Disney characters! I am not joking! Mommy and Daddy and Andrew and David Michael and I were going to go on a steamboat called the Empress Lilly and eat breakfast. And guess who was going to walk around in the dining room: Pluto and Tigger and maybe some other characters! The breakfast began at 9:00 a.m. and Andrew and David Michael and I were just a smidge excited. Oh, all right. We were really really really really really really really excited.
When we got to the Empress Lilly we waited in a long line outside. A lady took our names, and another lady gave name tags to Andrew and David Michael and me. We stuck them on our shirts. I wanted a name tag for my hitchhiking ghost who was still with me, but I didn't know what his name was. So I didn't say anything. I wondered if I should, though. That ghost still made my skin creep, so I thought I should be nice to him. He hadn't done any- thing mean to me yet, though. He was just hanging around.
After lots and lots and lots of waiting, the line began to move and we walked toward the Empress Lilly. It was a beautiful white boat with a big paddle wheel.
"Daddy, where are we going to go?" I asked. I was looking beyond the boat to the water.
Daddy cleared his throat. There are only three times he does that: 1) When his throat is tickly. 2) When he's embarrassed about something. 3) When he has to tell us something he knows we won't like to hear.
"Well," he began, "we're not going to go anywhere. The Empress Lilly is just for show. It's not a working boat." "Really?" I said. I felt disappointed. And I hoped my ghost wouldn't be mad. Maybe he'd been looking forward to a boat ride.
"Yes," Daddy told me. "But still, you get to go on board a paddle wheeler. And you get to see Pluto." "Right! Oh, Daddy, if Pluto comes to our table, you'll take his picture, won't you?" "Of course," said Daddy.
We filed onto the boat and a waiter showed us into a dining room. He pointed to a table with five seats, and Daddy and Elizabeth and my brothers and I sat down. A basket of donut holes was in the middle of the table. Andrew and David Michael and I all pounced on the chocolate donuts. We left the cinnamon ones for Daddy and Elizabeth.
The room was very nice, but it looked like any old dining room. You'd never have known we were on a steamboat, except that you could see water out the window. I didn't have much time to think about that, though. As soon as the tables were filled up, a man strode into the middle of the room. He welcomed us to the breakfast. Then he asked if anybody was having a birthday.
"I am!" called a boy.
"Well, that's wonderful," said the man. He walked over to the boy and looked at his name tag. "Tomas," he said. "And how old are you today?" "Eight." "Let's all sing 'Happy Birthday' to Tomas." The man raised his arms and began to sing. Everyone joined in. The grown-ups smiled at him. The kids looked at him like he was really special. Boy, what a lucky duck, I thought.
When the song was over, the man said, "Any other birthdays?" I couldn't help it. I stood up. "Me!" I called. "It's my birthday!" I have always wanted a whole dining room full of people to sing to me and smile at me and look at me like I'm special.
"Karen!" my father whispered loudly. "If s not — " Too late. The man had come over to our table.
"Another birthday!" he exclaimed. 'Two in one day. That doesn't happen very often." Daddy and Elizabeth smiled nervously.
"How old are you?" the man asked me.
"Seven," I told him.
David Michael snorted. It was really rude of him.
But the man didn't seem to notice. He just looked at my tag and announced that my name was Karen. Then everyone began to sing again.
I beamed. I loved it. I loved being right in the middle of things, with everyone thinking about me. I didn't care that it wasn't my birthday. It was probably my only chance ever to have about a hundred people sing to me.
The song ended. While the singing had been going on, the waiters had been busy serving up plates of bacon, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. I looked down at my food. Then I lifted my fork.
"Karen," my father said in a low voice. "Don't you ever do that again, young lady. You told a lie." "I know. I'm sorry." "I have half a mind to make you wait outside with me until breakfast is over." "Oh, no! Please, Daddy." "But I'm not going to. Not here. Not on the last day of our vacation. Besides, everyone thinks it's your birthday." "I know," I said. I squirmed uncomfortably. I hate making Daddy mad. "I just wanted everyone to sing to me. Besides, my ghost made me do it. My hitchhiking ghost. He's with me all the time." Right away I wished I hadn't said that. I knew it wasn't true. He hadn't made me do it. Would I make the ghost mad? I waited for something to happen. Nothing did.
Nothing ghostly, anyway.
But David Michael scowled at me from across the table. "You are such a baby," he said.
"I am not." "Are too." He began to sing, "Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy. Wash it off with — " But Daddy stopped him.
"David Michael. Karen. That is enough. Both of you." David Michael didn't finish the song. But when Daddy and Elizabeth weren't looking, he stuck his tongue out at me. I stuck mine back out at him.
Then, from across the room, I heard a cheer. Andrew and David Michael and I craned our necks to see what was going on. Tigger the tiger from Winnie-the-Pooh had bounced into the room! "Oh, it's Tigger!" I exclaimed.
Tigger began walking from table to table. Nearly everyone wanted to take his picture. While that was happening, someone began handing out comic books to all the kids. The comics were about Epcot Center, and they were called "Mickey and Goofy Explore the Universe of Energy." Stuck in each book was a yellow Empress Lilly pennant.
I saw a kid ask Tigger to sign his pennant. So when Tigger finally got to our table, I handed him my pennant and a pen. Tigger signed his name! "Thank you!" I cried.
After awhile Tigger left the room. I looked down at my food. I was much too excited to eat. Andrew and David Michael were too excited, too.
"Eat up, kids," said Elizabeth. But just then, Pluto came in.
"Yea!" I cheered. Pluto walked from table to table with his long red tongue hanging out. Daddy snapped a picture of Pluto with his arms around my brothers and me.
Soon it was time to leave.
"Can't any of you kids eat even one more bite?" asked Elizabeth.