“We’re baby-sitting,” I reminded them crossly.
“Touchy, touchy,” said Dawn, who’s the only one I would have let get away with saying something like that just then.
“Sit down,” said Kristy. “Rest your feet. You want a soda or something?”
“Definitely,” I answered.
Claudia looked longingly at a refrigerator and a cabinet that was full of potato chips and candy. “If only we could get in there,” she said, touching her finger to the keyhole of the cabinet.
“Well, you know what Watson said,” Kristy told her.
“Yeah,” replied Claudia. “It’s just …” She peered into the cabinet. “Oh, my lord, there’s a Mounds bar way in the back! I haven’t seen Mounds bars anywhere in the hotel. They’re not in the store in the lobby.”
“Claudia, that thing probably costs about twelve dollars. Come on. I’ve got Fritos and pretzels here. And I got some sodas out of the machine. Now let’s start the meeting.” Kristy was growing impatient.
She passed around sodas and opened the bags of pretzels and Fritos. We talked about the kids for awhile, but there wasn’t much to say. They were all having a ball. Kristy mentioned that Karen thought she had a ghostly companion, but none of us knew what to do about that.
Dawn told us how she’d lost her bracelet, and grew teary-eyed.
Claudia showed Stacey and me a pair of barrettes her Secret Admirer had sent her at dinner.
Then I said that Claire and Margo were upset because we’d missed both the afternoon and the evening parades that day.
“You too?” said Kristy. “So did we. And Karen and Andrew missed them, too. They really wanted to see them. Or at least one of them. Did anyone see one?”
We all shook our heads.
“Well, we’ll remember tomorrow,” said Kristy. “Now. Who has an idea for gifts for Mom and Watson and the Pikes?”
There were a few red faces among us. I knew we hadn’t been thinking about the gifts at all.
Dawn cleared her throat. “I saw some really nice cement planters in the gift shop. They were shaped like turtles and —”
“Those huge things?!” cried Kristy. “They weigh a ton! How would we ever get them on the plane?”
Dawn shrugged, embarrassed.
“I saw some keychains in the shop,” I said. “They were personalized. You could get them with almost any name. I found most of our names down there. I bet we could find —”
“Those keychains had Mickey Mouse on them, for heaven’s sake!” said Kristy. “Get real, you baby-sitters. We want to do something special.”
“Well, what ideas have you come up with?” I asked.
“No good ones,” said Kristy. “But they were better than cement planters and Mickey Mouse keychains.”
“There’s a nice clothing store in the lobby,” Claudia began.
“You guys are missing the point,” interrupted Kristy. “We don’t want to give just any gift. We don’t even want to give just an expensive gift. We have to give meaningful gifts.”
“Like what?” asked Stacey.
Kristy shrugged. “I don’t know. Yet. Well, keep thinking.”
We turned our attention to the Fritos. Then we found a Michael J. Fox movie on TV and tuned in.
I fell asleep.
I didn’t wake up until I became aware that Stacey was shaking me gently and saying, “Mary Anne, Mary Anne, get up. Our break is over.”
Stacey and I dragged ourselves back to our rooms.
As soon as I opened the door to mine, Mallory bounced over to me. (Where did she get all that energy?)
“Perfect timing!” she said. “Vanessa just went into the bathroom. I figure we have, oh, fifteen, twenty minutes.”
“Okay.” I lowered myself onto my bed. (Mallory and Vanessa were sharing the other bed.)
Mallory plunked herself down next to me. “I have some very important information,” she began.
“Important information?” I said. “You sound like a spy, Mal.”
For just a moment, I thought Mallory was blushing. But it was hard to tell. She’d gotten a lot of sun that day.
Mallory cleared her throat. “Well, anyway, guess who I just happened to be standing behind on the line for Peter Pan’s Flight today?”
“I can’t guess. Who?”
“Alexandra Carmody. And she was on line with her mother, her father, and her brother. I couldn’t help overhearing what they were saying. And get this — her parents are, like, celebrities. Have you ever heard of Viv and Vernon Carmody? They’re a singing team. They’re for older people.”
The names sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t think about names just then. All I could think was that Alex had parents.
“Are you sure about all this?” I asked Mallory.
“Positive. We were on line for half an hour. And I was right behind them.”
“What a liar!” I cried. “Oh — I don’t mean you, Mal. I mean Alex. She told me she was an orphan. And a whole bunch of other things. I wonder if any of it is true. Oh, who cares? But why did she tell me her parents are dead instead of celebrities? People shouldn’t joke about things like that.”
Mallory shook her head. “I thought you should know.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I am glad to know.”
* * *
Even though I was tired, I didn’t sleep well that night. I kept waking up and thinking about Alex. By morning, I had made one decision. The next time I saw her, I would confront Alex with what I knew.
Which happened to be during breakfast. Vanessa forgot to bring her vitamin pills to the dining room so I said I’d get them. I’d gotten as far as the lobby when I ran into Alex. I didn’t bother to smile or say good morning to her. Instead, I greeted her with, “You … are … a … liar.” I proceeded to tell her everything Mallory had told me.
“But … but …” Alex kept saying. Her face crumpled up as if she were going to cry.
Usually I can’t stand to see someone cry. I get all mushy and sympathetic. But that time, I turned my back and walked away. Alex had lied, and I’d opened up and told her about my mother, and now I felt like a fool. Worse, I felt hurt.
I hadn’t seen the last of Alex, though. The Pikes and Stacey and I went back to the Magic Kingdom that morning and split into groups again. I wound up with Margo and Claire.
“Snow White! Snow White!” cried Claire. “Let’s go on that ride again. I want to see the wicked witch.”
So we went to Fantasyland and found Snow White’s Adventure. And who should get on line behind us but Alex.
“Hi, there,” she said.
I didn’t answer her. My hurt had turned to anger.
“Can’t I even talk to you?” asked Alex. “I have to tell you something.”
“What was your favorite part of this ride?” I asked Margo, ignoring Alex.
“Oh, easy. When the witch looks like she’s going to push the big rock on you.”
Alex stopped talking.
She came on the ride with us, though. I mean, climbed right into our little Dopey car, as if she were the fourth person in our party!
After the ride I tried to lose her in the crowd. When I thought I’d succeeded I said to the girls, “Have you guys been on Cinderella’s Golden Carousel?”
“Nope,” they replied.
So we stood on line, and then ran onto the merry-go-round and chose our horses. The music started. The horses began to move. As my horse rose up, the one next to me sank down. I found myself looking into Alex’s face.
“Hi!” she said.
I whipped my head around and wouldn’t pay attention to her.
A few minutes later, when the merry-go-round had slowed to a stop, Claire began begging for ice cream. I knew from experience that she wouldn’t stop until she’d had some. We walked to The Round Table and each got a cone piled high with swirls of soft vanilla ice cream.
Alex stood on line behind us.
P
urely to escape her, I walked the girls all the way over to Tomorrowland after we’d finished our cones. The first thing I noticed was a sign at Space Mountain announcing that the line was only ten minutes long. The second thing I noticed was that we’d finally lost Alexandra.
“This is the time to ride Space Mountain,” I told the girls. “Hardly any wait.”
“Goody!” they cried.
So we rode the roller coaster.
When we came out, Alex was waiting for us.
“There you are!” she said.
And at that moment, Margo threw up her entire ice-cream cone and probably all of her breakfast, too. Most of it went on Alex’s shoes.
That was the last we saw of Alexandra Carmody that day.
I couldn’t have been happier.
Disney World is awesome! And today is even better than yesterday was. That’s because me and my brothers asked if David Michael could spend the day with us, and if we could be on our own again — us five boys — like we were at Treasure Cay.
Mom and Dad said no to being on our own, but yes to David Michael. That was good enough for me. I didn’t care if Stacey had to follow us around. She’s pretty cool. And she said we could do whatever we wanted as long as it was legal.
Well, we knew exactly what we wanted to do. The question was, would there be enough time for everything? We wanted to go on Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and the rides in Frontierland. We wanted to look for hidden treasure again, too. (We still had our map.) And we wanted to eat as much food as possible.
“In that case,” said Stacey, “there’s just one thing I insist on.”
“What?” I asked.
“That you ride Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before you eat a thing. Got it?”
“Got it,” we said.
That was a great excuse to go right to Space Mountain. It was early in the day and the line wasn’t too long, so as soon as we came out of the ride, we went back in again.
“Oh,” groaned Stacey. “Twice in a row? I don’t think my poor old stomach is up to this.”
“Well, you don’t have to come with us. You could wait outside,” I said hopefully.
“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 west. 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 Stoneybrook 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 Nicky’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 Frontierland? 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-rai
ded 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.
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.