Baby-sitters Club - Baby-sitters On Board! Part 14

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.

"Whaf 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 s.h.i.+rt.) "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.

Stacey.

It was our last day at Disney World, and guess where I was going to spend it - at Ep-cot 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? "Whaf 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 gla.s.ses?"

"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 s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p 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 s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p 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 Ku-backis. 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 h.e.l.los 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 wheel-chair. "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 whis- pered 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 how 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, stegosau-rus, 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 bronto-saurus!"

"Hey, there's an allosaurus and a stegosau-rus 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.

After the World of Motion we went to the Magic Eye Theater at Journey Into the Imagination and saw the Michael Jackson video "Captain EO." The kids thought it was funny, exciting, and deliciously scary.

When the video was over, the Kubackis said that Marc needed some time to rest and take his medicine, so we went to a restaurant in the World Showcase for lunch. The little outdoor tables there were so small that we let the girls and Marc sit at one, while I sat at another with the Kubackis.

That was when the sad thing happened.

The kids were chattering away and I said something to the Kubackis like, "It looks as if Marc is having the time of his life."

"We hope so," replied Mrs. Kubacki. And she kind of choked on her words.

"What's the matter?" I whispered, suddenly feeling afraid.

The Kubackis glanced at each other. There was an embarra.s.sing silence. Then Mr. Ku-backi said in a low voice, "Marc is going to have major surgery in a couple of weeks. Heart surgery. It'll be very risky."

I figured out what he wasn't saying: that Marc might not survive the operation. I was stunned. "Does he know?" I managed to ask.

"He knows about the surgery," replied Mr. Kubacki, "but not the risks. There's no need for him to know that. We took this vacation together . . . just in case. And we want him to be happy. If ... anything happens, this is one of the good times Mrs. Kubacki and I will be able to look back on." Mr. Kubacki reached for his wife's hand.

I swallowed hard. I couldn't let myself cry. Not there. Not then.

I saved it for late that night when Marc's last day at Disney World was over. I lay in the darkness wondering why it was that some people are given health, and others are given trials or tests. And why such a little boy as Marc had to be given such a big test.

Claudia.

"Here they come! Here they come!" called Karen Brewer.

She meant Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

The parade was moving down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom and we were finally there to see it.

When I say "we," boy, do I mean we! Everyone was there: Kristy and her family, the Pikes, and all us baby-sitters. Plus, I was standing with Timothy, Dawn was with Parker and two little boys, the youngest Pike girls were with Marc Kubacki and his parents, and Kristy had brought along Mr. Staples. I thought I'd even seen Alexandra, that weird friend of Mary Anne, hanging around. All the kids were in front, right on the curb for the best view of the parade, and the rest of us were standing behind them. The only person who could have made the group more complete was my Secret Admirer. Since we'd been at Disney World he'd left a stuffed animal at the door to our room, and sent me some barrettes and a note saying I was "as beautiful as ever" - but he hadn't shown his face.

I couldn't dwell on him, though. Not when I was holding Timothy's hand and feeling grown-up.

"Some parade, huh?" Timothy said to me.

"I'll say," I agreed.

A gigantic upside-down birthday cake with the candles stuck in the bottom (or the top) went by and Claire, Margo, Karen, and Andrew burst into giggles.

A jolly, laughing Winnie-the-Pooh went by and waved to Marc Kubacki. It was Marc's turn to giggle. What a great sight.

So why did Stacey suddenly look like she was about to cry? Her face crumpled up - just for a second. Then she made an effort to control herself. What was going on? I'd have to ask her about that later.

Alice in Wonderland skipped down the street and I watched her blow a kiss to Karen Brewer.

"Hey, Tim! Tim!" someone called from behind me.

Karen pretended to catch the kiss and blow it back.

"Tim!" the voice called more insistently. "Timothy!"

I turned around. Did the person the voice belonged to mean my Timothy?

I nudged him. "I think someone's calling you," I said.

Timothy had turned bright red. "Naw," was all he said.