"BSC034 - Mary Anne and Too Many Boys - Martin, Ann M" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

"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.
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 Ч probably afraid he would have to give it back Ч 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."