Baby-Sitters on Board!

by Ann M. Martin

  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:

  One more ride on Cinderella’s Golden Carousel.

  One more ride on Dumbo, the Flying Elephant.

  The parade. (We kept missing it. We still hadn’t seen it.)

  AND!!

  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 anything 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. “Tomás,” he said. “And how old are you today?”

  “Eight.”

  “Let’s all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Tomás.”

  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. “It’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.

  David Michael and Andrew and I shook our heads.

  So we got on a bus and headed back to the Magic Kingdom one last time.

  “What shall we do first?” asked Elizabeth as we walked down Main Street.

  “The carousel?” I said. “Could we ride on the carousel?”

  Elizabeth looked at my brothers. “Is that okay with you guys?”

  “Sure,” said Andrew.

  David Michael shrugged. He was still mad because all those people had sung “Happy Birthday” to me and thought I was seven.

  We walked toward Fantasyland. Andrew said he had to go to the bathroom.

  “I’ll take him,” said Daddy. “We’ll meet yo
u at the carousel.”

  “Okay,” replied Elizabeth. “Hey, David Michael! Don’t wander off. Come back!” Elizabeth ran after David Michael.

  My socks were falling down. I stopped and pulled them up. When I looked around, I couldn’t see Elizabeth or David Michael or Daddy or Andrew.

  “Elizabeth?” I called.

  I was in a big crowd of people.

  “Elizabeth? … ELIZABETH!”

  “Are you lost, little girl?” asked a popcorn vendor.

  Even though I hate being called “little girl,” I said, “Yes.” I wanted to cry. But do you know what? I wasn’t really too scared. My ghost was with me, and suddenly I imagined that he was a friendly ghost instead of a scary one. After all, he hadn’t done anything mean to me, and besides, he was the only person I knew here. I imagined him saying, “Don’t worry. We’ll find Elizabeth and your daddy.” And I felt better!

  The popcorn vendor asked someone who worked in a store to sell his popcorn for him for awhile. Then he began asking me all sorts of questions, like where was I supposed to meet Elizabeth, and which bathroom did I think Daddy had taken Andrew to?

  I tried to answer him as he walked me to the carousel.

  “What’s your stepmother wearing?” he wanted to know.

  “A pink dress, I think.” But I wasn’t sure. I’d been so excited about breakfast that I hadn’t paid much attention.

  “Well, we’ll look for pink dresses,” said the man pleasantly.

  He reached out his hand. I held onto him with my left hand — and onto my hitchhiking ghost with my right hand.

  “Is that your stepmother?” the popcorn vendor wanted to know. He was pointing to a fat woman in a pink sundress.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  We kept walking.

  “What if Elizabeth isn’t at the carousel?” I asked. My voice was trembling.

  “Then we’ll look for your daddy. He’s supposed to go to the carousel, too. Don’t worry. I’ve worked at the Magic Kingdom for three years and I’ve seen lots of lost kids. Don’t you worry about a thing. I never got one whose parents I couldn’t find. It always works out. Trust me.”

  “Always?” I asked. (My ghost squeezed my hand.)

  “Always.”

  When we reached the carousel, guess what we saw first thing?

  Elizabeth!

  “There she is!” I cried. (She was wearing blue jeans and a yellow shirt.)

  “Where?” asked the popcorn vendor. (I guess he was looking for a pink dress.)

  “There.” I ran to Elizabeth and threw my arms around her.

  “Oh, thank heavens,” she said. “I was hoping you’d find your way here.”

  We hugged a long time. Then Elizabeth thanked the popcorn vendor.

  And I thought about my new secret: My hitchhiking ghost really was friendly. He wasn’t scary. I decided I wanted him to come back to Stoneybrook with me. Maybe he could get to know old Ben Brewer, the ghost of the third floor at Daddy’s house.

  It was our last day at Disney World, and guess where I was going to spend it — at Epcot Center. (By the way, in case you’re wondering, Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. I have no idea what that means. Maybe I will after I look up “prototype,” but I’m not going to bother with that until I get back to Stoneybrook.) Anyway, Claire and Margo wanted to go. They were the only Pike kids who did. The others preferred the Magic Kingdom. So I volunteered to take them. I was pretty curious about Epcot myself.

  As usual, after breakfast we boarded a bus outside the hotel. This one took us to Epcot. Claire and Margo were excited. After two days at the Magic Kingdom they’d done everything they wanted to do. Now they were ready for something new.

  While we were on the bus, we looked at a pamphlet about Epcot Center.

  “Which is the ride with the dinosaurs?” Margo wanted to know. “My friend Betsy said that’s the funnest.”

  “Let’s see,” I said. I began leafing through the pamphlet.

  While I was looking, Claire spoke up. “What is Epcot, anyway?”

  I tried not to smile. Why had Claire wanted to go to Epcot Center so badly if she didn’t know what it was? “What’s Epcot?” I repeated.

  “No,” said Margo. “Which is the dinosaur ride?”

  “Whoa!” I exclaimed. “One question at a time. Okay. Margo, the dinosaurs are in the Universe of Energy. We’ll try to go there first. Now, Claire. Let me see, Epcot is a place where we can learn about our world and about the future.”

  Claire frowned. “That sounds like … like …”

  “School,” supplied Margo.

  “But it won’t be,” I said. “I promise. It’ll be fun. In school do you get to ride through a land filled with dinosaurs?”

  “No,” replied both girls.

  “Do you get to see a new, really cool three-D video starring Michael Jackson?”

  “No,” said Claire.

  “Three-D?!” cried Margo. “You mean we wear those funny glasses?”

  “Yup.”

  “All right!”

  “And what else?” asked Claire. “What else is there?”

  We looked through the pamphlet together. There was Journey Into Imagination, which sounded like a lot of fun. And World of Motion and Spaceship Earth. Then there was the World Showcase, with food and souvenirs from ten different countries.

  “Oh, boy!” said Claire. “Pretty exciting.”

  But as far as the girls were concerned, the most exciting thing happened just as we were walking toward the geosphere (that’s what it’s called) that stands at the entrance to Epcot Center. It looks like a gigantic golf ball, and inside it is the Spaceship Earth ride. Anyway, we were walking toward it, and suddenly Claire let go of my hand and began running away from us.

  “Claire!” I shouted. “Come back!”

  But she didn’t hear me. She was calling, “Marc! Marc!”

  “Hey, look!” exclaimed Margo. “It’s Marc Kubacki and his parents.”

  Sure enough, Claire ran straight to the Kubackis. She greeted Marc exuberantly. Then she looked back at us. “Stacey!” she called. “Come here!”

  Margo and I were already on our way. When we reached the Kubackis, there were hellos all around. Margo and Marc grinned at each other, and I shook hands with Marc’s parents.

  “We just got here,” Claire announced.

  “So did we,” replied Marc from his wheelchair. “Are you going to stay all day?”

  “Almost all day,” I informed him. “We’re going to try to get back to the Magic Kingdom in time for the parade and the fireworks. We keep missing them, so tonight’s our last chance.”

  “Same here!” said Marc. “We’re going to go to the parade, too. Hey, Mom,” he said. “I have to ask you something.”

  Mrs. Kubacki leaned over and Marc whispered in her ear. Then, “Sure,” we heard her say. “If they want to.”

  Marc looked at Claire and Margo and me. “Do you guys want to come with us today?” he asked. “We could go around together. Guess what — I can go on every ride here. There isn’t a single one that’s too wild.”

  “Can we, Stacey?” Margo asked me.

  “Of course,” I replied. “That would be great.”

  And that was the beginning of one of the most interesting, surprising, and eventually sad days of my life. The interesting and surprising parts were the rides and exhibits. It was also pretty interesting to find out how well Epcot Center was equipped to deal with someone like Marc — a kid in a wheelchair. I’d seen plenty of kids in wheelchairs at the Magic Kingdom. And I’d seen people carefully putting them on some of the easy rides, like Peter Pan’s Flight. But I hadn’t paid much attention, I guess. Now, spending a day with Marc, I paid a lot of attention. Not only was everyone nice to him (not gooey-sweet nice, just regular-kid nice), but they acted as if a person in a wheelchair wasn’t at all unusual and certainly wasn’t any trouble. At most places, an attendant would see us and say something like, “And ho
w many are in this wheelchair party?”

  One of us would reply, “Six,” and then they’d give us any help we needed. It was all so easy and pleasant and natural.

  The very first place we went was the Universe of Energy. It turned out that Marc was just as crazy about dinosaurs as Claire and Margo were.

  “I know all about dinosaurs,” he said as we waited in line. “Tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, brontosaurus, allosaurus —”

  “And the birds were called dactyls,” Claire interrupted.

  “Pterodactyls,” Margo informed her.

  When we were finally inside, we were shown into a “traveling theater” with huge long seats that are more like train cars. We sat on a special one at the back that was designed to have enough room for Marc’s wheelchair. The lights went out, just like in a regular movie house, and we watched films about energy and the long-ago times in which fossils were created.

  And then our seats began to move! They turned around until they’d formed a sort of train, and we rode right out of the theater — and into a primeval forest. Soon we were in dinosaur land.

  The kids were beside themselves as we rode through the darkness with the moving dinosaurs towering over us.

  “Look!” Margo exclaimed. “It’s a brontosaurus!”

  “Hey, there’s an allosaurus and a stegosaurus having a fight!” said Marc, awed.

  Nothing impressed them more than that fight. It was all they talked about as we waited on line for the World of Motion.

  After the World of Motion, they were laughing so hard that the Kubackis had to warn Marc to calm down.

  “But did you see those accident scenes?” he said. “The bike accident? And the car accident with the boxes of fruit knocked all over the street?”

  The World of Motion is about transportation, and the kids loved it (although not as much as they loved the dinosaurs). The ride was a lot of fun, and practically every scene made them giggle.