Mary Anne and Too Many Boys

  It’s times like these that make you realize how important the BSC notebook is. The “notebook” is different from the record book, in case you’ve forgotten. All of us are responsible for writing up every single baby-sitting job we go on. Then, once a week, we’re supposed to read about the jobs in the notebook. It was Kristy’s idea, and even though we complain about it, it’s really very helpful. We can find out if the kids we sit for are having problems the rest of us should know about, and we can learn how to handle sticky situations (such as Kristy’s problems with Jackie Rodowsky). Writing in the notebook is one of the few rules in the BSC.

  Kristy’s day with the Rodowsky boys started out innocently enough. (Of course, even hurricanes and flash floods start out small.) Kristy was happy to take the job, because things were getting pretty boring in Stoneybrook, and Mrs. Rodowsky offered her a whole day’s work. How could she know that a day at the community pool would turn into a scene from a baby-sitting horror movie?

  “Are you sure you have everything?” Mrs. Rodowsky asked. She was double-parked at the entrance to the pool, while Kristy and the boys piled out of the car. The Rodowsky boys are Archie (age four), Jackie (age seven), and Shea (age nine). All three boys have flaming red hair and plenty of freckles.

  Kristy did a quick check and nodded. The kids were armed with towels, suntan lotion, and lunch money.

  “We don’t have Hilda,” Archie complained. Hilda was a lime-green float with a head like the Loch Ness monster.

  “You know we can’t bring Hilda to the pool,” Kristy explained. “They don’t allow floats or rafts because they take up too much room.”

  “Floats are for babies,” Shea said firmly.

  “They are not!” Archie’s freckles stood out on his pale skin when he was angry.

  Shea shrugged and decided it wasn’t worth continuing the argument. Who wanted to fight when a day at the pool stretched ahead of them?

  The pool complex is much bigger than it looks from the outside. There are actually three pools — an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a wading pool, and a diving pool — plus a playground and snack bar. A first-aid station is off to one side, right next to the bathroom and showers.

  “I’m starving!” Jackie announced. “Can I buy one of those big chocolate chip cookies?” It was ten-thirty in the morning, and they had just walked through the gates.

  “You’re hungry already?” Kristy said doubtfully.

  “Yes.” Jackie rubbed his stomach as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

  “I guess so.” Even as she said the words, Kristy felt a little tingle of dread go through her. Something will go wrong, she thought. Something always goes wrong when Jackie is involved. She settled herself on a towel, watching as Jackie headed for the snack bar. So far, so good. Archie and Shea were playing in the shallow end of the pool, right next to her, so that was no problem. But Jackie? She just couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was about to happen.

  A few minutes later, Jackie headed back, carefully unwrapping his cookie. It looked crumbly and delicious, the size of a small dinner plate.

  “Look what I’ve got,” he called happily to his brothers.

  “Hey, gimme a bite!” Archie yelled.

  “No way, José.” Jackie stood at the edge of the pool, waving the cookie playfully in front of Archie’s nose. Archie made a grab for the cookie, Jackie stepped back, and then — the cookie fell into the pool!

  “Aw!” Jackie wailed.

  Kristy jumped to her feet and stared at the huge cookie, which was dissolving into a zillion pieces. She felt like crying. “Quick, get one of the lifeguards,” she said to Shea. She knelt at the edge of the pool, trying to scoop up the floating mess in her hands, but it was hopeless. Jackie had dropped the cookie right next to a large circulation vent (naturally!) and goo was spinning everywhere.

  “Yuck! What a mess,” a male voice said.

  Kristy glanced up to see a lifeguard standing next to her with a net. He made a face as he tried to capture some of the floating debris.

  “I’m sorry. It was an accident.” Jackie’s voice sounded very small, and his lower lip was trembling. Kristy put her arm around him. No wonder he was upset. Being a klutz isn’t much fun.

  “You’re not supposed to have food in the pool area,” the lifeguard said.

  “I know,” Jackie spoke up. “I wasn’t going to eat it here. I was just unwrapping it here.”

  The lifeguard gave Kristy an I-don’t-believe-a-word-of-this look, and walked away.

  “I want to go to the diving pool,” Shea announced. “I want to try a somersault.”

  “I want to do somersaults, too,” Archie said, tugging at Kristy’s hand.

  “You can’t do somersaults without a diving board, and you’re too small to go in the diving pool,” Kristy said. Things were starting to get complicated.

  “I’m not too small!”

  “Yes, you are. They have a height requirement. How about if I take you to the wading pool?”

  “That’s for babies!” Archie wailed.

  Shea snickered, but Kristy stopped him with a look. “No, it’s not,” she said quickly. “There are a lot of big kids there. You’ll see. It’ll be fun. You can practice keeping your eyes open underwater.”

  Shea picked up his towel and headed for the diving pool while Kristy walked Archie to the wading pool. Jackie tagged along, humming to himself. It was a bright, sunny day, and for just a moment, Kristy let herself relax. Maybe things would be okay after all. Maybe there would be no new disasters.

  “Aughh! Ow! Ow! OW!” Jackie was shrieking like he had stepped on a piece of glass.

  “What is it?” Kristy made him sit on the concrete while she looked at his foot. “Did you step on something?”

  “O-o-o-o-o-w!” (a long drawn-out wail from Jackie). Kristy was puzzled. He had a small red spot on his foot, but outside of that, he looked okay.

  And then she saw the dead bee.

  “Look,” Archie said, turning it over with his toe. “Jackie squished it.”

  Jackie stopped howling long enough to follow the conversation. “A bee? Oh, no! I’ve been bitten by a bee!” Another high-pitched shriek.

  “It’s all right,” Kristy said soothingly. She had read up on bee stings and knew that if the wound was clean and there was no stinger inside, it was okay. Just to be on the safe side, though, she decided to march Jackie over to the first-aid station.

  The nurse took charge of the situation right away. Jackie stopped crying the minute he sat on the examining table, and ten minutes later, they were back out at the pool area. Jackie was fine.

  Now what? Kristy thought. It was only eleven-thirty, and she was exhausted.

  “Can we eat lunch, Kristy?” Archie was pulling on her arm, and she didn’t have the energy to resist. It was a little early to eat, but maybe it was safer to have everyone sitting down together. Surely nothing could happen over a plate of cheeseburgers. She rounded up Shea from the diving pool, and the two of them staked out a table, while Jackie and Archie went to the snack bar.

  Then Kristy and Shea waited. And waited. Shea shifted restlessly on the wooden bench, and Kristy checked her watch. What was keeping Jackie and Archie?

  “Hey, Kristy, what’s going on over there?” Shea pointed to a commotion at the snack bar. It looked like someone was holding up a long line of people.

  It had to be Jackie. Kristy was sure of it. “Stay here,” she ordered Shea, and took off for the snack bar. She spotted Jackie at the cashier, emptying his pockets while Archie nibbled on a candy bar.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, trying to keep cool.

  “Oh, Kristy, I’m glad you’re here.” Jackie gave her a winning smile. “I guess I bought too much, because I ran out of money.”

  She looked at his tray. It was overflowing with Mars Bars, M&M’s, Devil Dogs, and Cheez Doodles. Somewhere under the mess, she saw the cheeseburgers and fries she had told him to order. “I’ll say,” she muttered.

&nb
sp; Without another word, she took all the candy and junk food off the tray and then turned to the cashier. “Please just ring up the burgers and fries.”

  “Kristy!” Jackie howled. She ignored him, paid the cashier, and picked up the tray. Archie gulped down the last of his candy bar — probably afraid he would have to give it back — and hurried after her.

  It was much later in the afternoon when Kristy breathed a small sigh of relief. The day was almost over, and nothing else had gone wrong. Or had it? Suddenly she realized that someone was missing. Her heart hammered in her chest. There was Archie, kicking in the wading pool … and there was Shea, showing off in the diving pool, and Jackie … wait a minute … Jackie was missing!

  Frantically, Kristy scrambled to her feet and ran a few steps to the diving pool. The crowd had thinned out since lunchtime, and it was obvious that Jackie wasn’t there. She dashed to the edge of the Olympic-sized pool.

  “Jackie!” she called. A few kids stopped swimming to look at her, but she knew she was wasting her time. Don’t panic, don’t panic, she thought. She forced herself to slow down and take a deep breath. Racing around the pool complex was crazy. The right thing for a baby-sitter to do in a situation like this is to notify a lifeguard. Immediately.

  “Don’t worry, he’s around somewhere,” said the nearest lifeguard encouragingly. “We’ll page him over the loudspeaker.”

  “Thanks.” Kristy leaned against the lifeguard station, noticing for the first time that her legs were shaky. Will Jackie Rodowsky please report to the lifeguard station? The voice boomed over the address system every few seconds, with no results. Five minutes passed, then ten. Kristy felt like her heart was playing leapfrog in her chest. Where was Jackie? What would she tell Mrs. Rodowsky?

  In the end, it was Shea who found him. “Here he is!” Shea said triumphantly. He was leading a puzzled-looking Jackie to the lifeguard station. “Boy, are you gonna get it!” he said happily to his brother.

  “Where were you?” Kristy blurted out. Her voice was so quavery she barely recognized it. Even Jackie looked surprised.

  “I was taking a shower. I wanted to get some of that chlorine out of my hair.” He was looking at the lifeguard, who was going back to his post. “Were you guys actually worried about me?”

  “We were paging you. For ten whole minutes.”

  “I couldn’t hear you with the water running.”

  Kristy stared at him for a moment. There were a million things she could say to him, but what would be the point? Jackie was Jackie. A walking disaster!

  “Look, there’s Mom!” Shea yelled. “She’s parked outside.”

  Kristy ordered everyone to pack up their beach towels and head toward the car. Four-thirty. It was hard to believe that only a few hours had passed. She stifled a yawn and helped the kids pile into the backseat. Another day with Jackie Rodowsky was finally over.

  I reread my postcard and decided that it was extremely boring. It was also totally impersonal — if you knew what was really going on. It didn’t give a clue about the exciting something in my life. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe because I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on myself. I felt confused and happy at the same time, and it’s all because of what happened at the beach today….

  The day started out in a very ordinary way. Stacey and Mal and I had just spread out our blankets on the sand, and the younger Pike kids were getting ready to hurl themselves into the water. The Pikes may be a laid-back family, but there is one hard and fast rule — no one can go in the water before nine A.M. or after five P.M. That’s because those are the only hours the lifeguards are on duty.

  The moment the lifeguards climbed into their seats, the kids raced down to the ocean. I put another coating of zinc oxide on my nose and pulled my straw hat down over my face. Then I put sunblock on my arms and legs, and made sure my caftan covered my knees.

  While I was going through all these contortions, I noticed that Stacey and Mal were doing just the opposite. I was bundling up like an Eskimo settling in for the winter, and they were getting ready to soak up the sun. Stacey slipped out of her cover-up and stretched out in a skimpy blue bikini. I had to admit she looked great. Her skin was the color of maple sugar, and her sun-streaked hair tumbled halfway down her back. And Mal, in a bright two-piece suit (blue bottom and striped tank top), was turning a golden brown. Her skin was catching up to her freckles.

  Stacey was busily applying Sun-Lite to her hair (can you get any blonder than blonde?) when we heard the shout.

  “Mary Anne! Stacey!” It was definitely a masculine voice.

  “What in the world —” Stacey began.

  I turned around just in time to see two teenage boys and half a dozen little kids racing toward us. The kids looked young — even younger than Margo — and I couldn’t figure out who they were. Then I recognized the boy in the white cutoffs and the green-and-white-striped top. “Ohmigosh!” I cried. “It’s Alex.”

  “And Toby,” Stacey added, scrambling to her feet. “Wow,” she said softly. “Doesn’t he look gorgeous?”

  He did. Except I couldn’t really concentrate on anyone except Alex. I hadn’t thought of him a lot since we’d said good-bye, but I felt a jolt when I saw him now. He looked wonderful.

  “Mary Anne! How are you?” He was at my side then, a little out of breath. He was tall, with brown hair, and had a great smile. How could I have forgotten that smile?

  “I’m fine. How are you?” I smiled back. Alex took a step toward me, as if he wanted to sweep me into a big bear hug, and then he seemed to remember we were surrounded by kids. It was like the Munchkin scene in The Wizard of Oz.

  “Toby and I are working together for a whole month as mother’s helpers.”

  “Really?” I felt incredibly happy. A whole month! I’d be able to see Alex every single day.

  Alex nodded. “We found two families who were vacationing together, and they wanted two sitters for all the kids.” He glanced over at Toby, who was already deep in conversation with Stacey. I noticed she had tucked the Sun-Lite bottle out of sight and was trying to dry her hair with a towel.

  “Nice kids,” I said, eyeing a little red-haired girl who had wrapped her arms around Alex’s tanned leg.

  “This is Sheila,” he said, swinging her up on his shoulder. “She’s two years old, and those boys are her brothers. They’re twins. The other three kids are their cousins.”

  “And this is Mal,” I said. “You remember Mallory?” Mal and Alex smiled at each other.

  Claire came out of the water just then and glared at Sheila. “What’s that baby doing here?” she demanded.

  “Claire,” I said, “that’s not very nice.”

  Claire put her hands on her hips. “Silly-billy-goo-goo,” she said to Sheila, who stuck her thumb in her mouth.

  Alex laughed. “Is that some sort of code?”

  “No,” I said, embarrassed. “Claire just says that when she gets in one of her moods.”

  Alex didn’t seem the least bit annoyed and knelt down so he was on eye level with Claire. “I’ve got a great idea,” he said very seriously. “Want to hear it?” (Claire didn’t say anything and looked totally unimpressed.) “Why don’t we all build a sand castle?”

  Claire scuffed her big toe in the sand for a full thirty seconds before answering. “That’s a dumb idea,” she said flatly.

  “Claire!” I was shocked. Maybe Claire was feeling a little jealous of Sheila, but that was no excuse to be rude.

  I started to tell her so when the other Pike kids trooped curiously out of the water, and we introduced everybody.

  “Fourteen kids,” Alex said, counting heads. “Definitely enough to make a monster sand castle. Anybody interested?”

  “We are!” Jordan said, speaking for the triplets. “Come on, guys, let’s start on the base.” He turned to Sheila’s twin brothers. “You can be helpers,” he said generously.

  We all walked down to the water’s edge, and I noticed that Stacey and Toby never took the
ir eyes off each other. Stacey seemed thrilled to see Toby again, but I reminded myself that she had acted exactly the same way around Pierre, a boy we met at a ski lodge. And there’d been Scott, the Sea City lifeguard, too. Toby was at the top of the list for the moment, but who knew if it would last?

  I noticed that Sheila looked a little left out, so I took her by the hand. “I’ll show you how to decorate the sand castle,” I said, putting some wet sand in her hand. “Just let it dribble out slowly.”

  At first Sheila didn’t want to touch the sand, but then she tried it and shrieked with delight. “Birthday cake,” she said loudly, and Alex laughed.

  “That’s right. It’s just like the decorations on your birthday cake.”

  Everything went smoothly for the next few minutes, but then Sheila’s foot slipped and she accidentally kicked the castle. A portion of the wall fell away and Claire hooted.

  “Stupey-silly-billy-goo-goo,” she shouted, and Sheila began to cry.

  “Claire!” I said sharply. “It was an accident.” Then I bent down and handed Sheila a plastic shovel. “Here,” I said. “I’ve got a very special job for you to do.” She stopped crying and looked at me. “You can make a tunnel that will lead all the way to the castle.” I led her to a spot a few feet away, and she started digging happily. I watched her for a moment and then stood by Alex.

  “I’m really glad we ran into each other again,” he said quietly.

  “I’m glad, too.” The understatement of the year! There were a million things I wanted to say to Alex, but I knew the beach wasn’t the time or the place. Particularly with fourteen kids around. I wondered if he remembered the last night we spent together in Sea City, and if he still had the ring I gave him. (I know he wasn’t wearing it, because I looked.) I even found myself wondering if he had a girlfriend back home, and if he planned on seeing me when he was in Sea City. Of course we’d see each other at the beach, but I was already hoping for more than that.

  The sun was setting when Stacey and Mal and I finally rounded up all the beach towels and kids and equipment. Then Stace and I said good-bye to Alex and Toby.