"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club - Super Special 01 - Baby-sitters on Board!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

"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 shirt.)
"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 Ч 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 glasses?"
"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 Spaceship 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 Spaceship 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 hellos 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 Ч 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 Ч 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?"