“Pardon me,” he said with an accent.
The boys looked up at him.
“You are from Holland, yes?” said the man.
All five boys shook their heads.
“American?” asked the man in surprise.
“Yup,” said Adam.
“Oh. My mistake. I saw the copy machine diagram. With words in Dutch. I think you are from Holland, too. I am Dutch.”
“Copy machine diagram?” repeated Byron. “Dutch?”
“Yes,” said the man. He pointed to the paper. “My company, it manufactures copiers. That is picture of — how do you say? — the insides of a machine.”
“Oh, brother,” muttered David Michael as the man went on his way.
“What was that all about?” I asked Claudia and Dawn.
They shrugged.
The rest of the flight was pretty quiet.
We landed on time and Margo barfed again.
“Well,” I said to Mom and Watson as we filed slowly off the plane, “it’s over. I can’t believe it. Back to boring old life.”
Mom laughed. “Not quite yet,” she said. We had entered the waiting area and she pointed straight ahead.
At first all I could see was a gigantic WELCOME HOME sign. Then I began to recognize faces: Dawn’s mother and brother; Mary Anne’s dad; Claudia’s parents, her sister, and her grandmother, Mimi; Stacey’s parents; and last but not least — Nannie.
“Nannie!” I cried. I broke away from my family and ran to her. I threw my arms around her. “Oh, Nannie! It was the most wonderful trip. You won’t believe everything that happened! And guess what. I’ve got a boyfriend for you!”
Nannie linked her arm through mine. “Tell, tell,” she said eagerly. “The trip, this boyfriend, everything.”
And I began to tell her the story of our trip.
Two months after our trip was over, Stacey received this card in the mail:
Saturday
Dear Stacey,
It’s been a long time since we said good-bye at the airport. I hope you haven’t been too worried. We wanted to wait until we had definite news before we wrote to you.
Marc’s surgery was difficult. He was very brave, but he kept suffering infections after the operation. The doctors had warned us about that. Still, Mr. Kubacki and I weren’t prepared for how frightening it would be.
Happily, Marc was allowed to come home a week ago. His recovery is expected to be slow but steady — and complete. By this time next year, he should be a normal, active boy. He wants a bicycle for his birthday!
Please drop us a line when you have time.
All the best
The
Kubackis
Marc wants to add something here:
And that is the end of our trip. The very end. Stacey insisted it wasn’t over until we knew how Marc’s operation turned out. So now we know — successful and happy and wonderful.
Thank you, everyone, for the trip. It was the greatest trip we could imagine. And you are the greatest parents and friends we could imagine.
About the Author
ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.
There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.)In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.
Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.
Copyright © 1988 by Ann M. Martin.
Cover art by Hodges Soileau
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, July 1988
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-62809-9
Ann M. Martin, Baby-Sitters on Board!
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