A Whirlwind Vacation Read online

  The magic wind, on the other hand, could blow anywhere!

  And, boy, was it blowing! Katie shut her eyes and tried not to cry as the tornado raged.

  Katie really didn’t want to switcheroo into someone else. Especially not when she was about to go on her first gondola ride. But the magic wind didn’t care what Katie wanted.

  Suddenly, the tornado stopped blowing. Just like that.

  The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie.

  Chapter 20

  Katie opened her eyes slowly and looked around. She was outside the hotel near the water. There were gondolas all around.

  “Vincenzo, will you help me into the boat?” Mrs. Bridgeman asked. “I’m not very steady on my feet.”

  Vincenzo? Katie looked around, hoping her friend was standing behind her. But no luck. Mrs. Bridgeman was staring right at Katie.

  That was because Katie had turned into Vincenzo! She was wearing his red-and-white striped shirt and his big hat. Katie was going to have to take Vincenzo’s gondola test for him. And she knew nothing about gondolas! What was she going to do?

  At first, Katie thought about canceling the ride. But she couldn’t do that. Vincenzo’s father would never let him take the gondola out after that.

  This whole test had been Katie’s idea. She would have to steer the boat. Otherwise she would ruin everything.

  “Of course I’ll help you,” Katie said as she took Mrs. Bridgeman’s hand and led her into the boat. Annabelle and her father followed close behind.

  Katie stood there in the back of the boat for a moment, watching as the other gondoliers steered their boats down the canal. It didn’t look very hard. If Katie could just follow them, she’d be fine.

  BONG!

  Just then, the bell from the big church in the square rang out. It was one o‘clock. The gondola cruise was supposed to start.

  “I hope Katie gets here soon,” Mrs. Bridgeman said. “We have reservations for lunch at three o‘clock. We need to be back in time to change.”

  Katie gulped. She knew Katie wasn’t coming back. At least not for a while.

  “We’ll go without her,” she told Mrs. Bridgeman. “A tour with three people is as nice as a tour with four people.”

  “But we can’t leave a little girl alone in Venice,” Annabelle’s mother said.

  “She isn’t alone,” Katie said. “I saw your tour guide Vicki in your hotel lobby. She can take care of Katie for the day.”

  “I don’t know ...” Mrs. Bridgeman began.

  But Katie didn’t wait for her to finish her thought. With one hard push of her gondolier’s pole, she forced the boat down the canal. They were off!

  “Hey, aren’t gondoliers supposed to sing while they work?” Annabelle asked after they had been traveling a while.

  “Yes, let’s hear a nice Italian song,” Mr. Bridgeman urged.

  Uh-oh! Katie didn’t know how to sing anything in Italian. In fact the only song she knew that was even about something Italian was something she’d learned in kindergarten.

  That was going to have to do.

  “On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese,” she began to sing. “I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.”

  “Oh. I know that one!” Annabelle shouted. She began to sing along. “It rolled off the table, and under a bush ...”

  Soon the Bridgemans joined in as well. And they kept on singing the song all the way down the big canal.

  Katie began to relax. Annabelle and her parents were having a good time. Everything was going to be all right.

  After a while, though, Katie grew tired. Steering a gondola was not as easy as it looked. Even with Vincenzo’s strong arms to help her, Katie was really achy. It was getting harder and harder to move the big pole through the water.

  “Why aren’t we going any faster?” Annabelle asked. “All the other gondolas are way ahead.”

  “It’s not a race, honey,” her father told her.

  “Exactly,” Katie said. “I’m giving you a chance to get a good look at our beautiful city.”

  Annabelle seemed happy with that answer. Which was a good thing, since Katie wasn’t paddling anymore. Her arms were too tired. The gondola was floating all on its own.

  The Bridgemans seemed to enjoy floating through Venice, though. They were staring at the beautiful houses that lined the narrow canal. The brick and cement houses were painted pretty colors like pink, red, and yellow. There were balconies outside the windows, most of which had been decorated with beautiful flowers.

  Katie thought Venice was the most magical city she’d even seen. For a little while, she forgot she was supposed to be Vincenzo. She felt like any other tourist looking at the city, floating like the people in the other gondolas.

  Katie glanced ahead at the other boats ...

  UH-OH! The other gondolas were gone!

  Katie gulped. They must have continued down the big canal. But Katie’s gondola wasn’t in the big canal anymore. Somehow they’d drifted into a tiny little canal. Now Katie had no idea where they were.

  Even worse, she had no idea how to get back.

  Chapter 21

  “Vincenzo, don’t you think we should be turning back now?” Mr. Bridgeman asked a few moments later. “It’s already been more than an hour.”

  Katie nodded. She wanted to turn back. More than anything. She just didn’t know how.

  “I ... um ...” she started, feeling very sad and frightened. This was going so wrong. Not only was she lost in Venice, but she was going to ruin everything for Vincenzo. When his father found out that the gondola had gotten lost ...

  Katie shook her head. She didn’t want to think about it.

  Instead, she forced herself to think of a way she could fix this mess. She had been lost before, with her parents. There was that time they’d driven to the Grand Canyon. Her father had refused to stop and ask for directions. But her mother had insisted. So they’d stopped at a coffee shop to ask for help. While her mother found out how to get to the highway, Katie had ordered a milkshake. They’d gotten to the Grand Canyon just fine.

  That was it! Katie would stop somewhere and ask for directions back to the hotel.

  But it wasn’t that easy here. She was in Italy, not America. And Katie didn’t speak Italian. She could never understand the directions.

  Tears began to form in Katie’s eyes. They were never getting back to the hotel. They would be floating around Venice forever and ever. She would never see Pepper or her parents again!

  Just then, the gondola floated by a small pastry shop. A sign in the window caught Katie’s eye. It said:English spoken here.

  Phew! Talk about luck.

  “We’ll go back to the hotel,” Katie assured the Bridgemans. “But first, we’ll stop for delicious Italian pastry. Venice is famous for its sweets!”

  Quickly, she steered the gondola up to dock outside the shop.

  As Annabelle and her parents ate their sweet, creamy cakes, Katie went to speak to the owner of the pastry shop. At first, the woman behind the counter didn’t believe Katie’s story.

  “What do you mean, you’re a gondolier and you’re lost?” she asked. “Gondoliers know this city better than anyone.”

  “I’m not really a gondolier,” Katie whispered.

  The woman looked at Katie’s red-and-white striped shirt. “You’re not?” she asked.

  “Well, I ... um ... the thing is ... it’s my first trip,” Katie stammered. “My father is giving me a test. I’m not doing very well.”

  The woman nodded. “I understand that. The first time my father let me make the cream puffs, I left the cream out too long. Cream puffs don’t taste very good when the cream is spoiled.” She smiled kindly at Katie. “I’ll help you.”

  Katie gave the woman the name and address of her hotel. The woman drew her a map, showing which canals would lead her back home.

  “Thank you,” Katie told her.

  “You’re welcome,” the woman replied. “You’re g
oing to be a very good gondolier someday. Your English is perfect. You sound almost like an American.”

  Katie grinned. If she only knew.

  After the gondola pushed off from the pastry shop, Katie followed the map. She pushed the big boat around turns and curves, moving through several small canals, before reaching the wide Grand Canal.

  Several other gondolas came into view. They would be back at the hotel soon. Happily, Katie began to hum a familiar song under her breath.

  “I know that one!” Annabelle shouted out. “That’s by the Bayside Boys. How do you know about them?”

  Oops. Katie had forgotten she was supposed to be an Italian teenager instead of an American fourth-grader. “Um, we have a lot of American music here,” she said quickly. “The tourists bring their CDs.”

  “Hey, your English is getting pretty good,” Annabelle remarked. “You sounded almost like one of us that time.”

  Oops.

  “Do you know this song?” Annabelle continued. She began to sing another Bayside Boys tune.

  Katie and Annabelle kept on singing all the way back to the hotel. When they reached the dock, Katie pulled the boat between two of the red-and-white striped poles. Then she expertly hopped out and helped Mr. and Mrs. Bridgeman to shore. Annabelle climbed out by herself.

  Katie smiled broadly. She’d brought everyone back safe and sound. Everything had turned out just fine.

  Or ... maybe not! At that moment, Vincenzo’s father came running over. He began screaming in Italian. As he yelled, he pointed to a group of people standing nearby. They were obviously waiting for their gondola ride. Katie had been very late bringing back the boat.

  Mr. and Mrs. Bridgeman weren’t very happy either. “Oh, no. Look at the time. We missed our reservation in the restaurant,” Mr. Bridgeman said angrily. “This was only supposed to be a one-hour ride. It’s been over two hours.”

  Katie wanted to cry. But she figured the real Vincenzo wouldn’t do that. So she just stood there, listening to everyone screaming at her. It was awful. But eventually, Vincenzo’s father went off to give his customers their ride. And the Bridgemans went back into the hotel.

  Katie was alone. She was also tired and hungry. She walked over to Vincenzo’s gelato stand. No one was around, because the stand was closed. Katie crouched down behind the stand and sat down. It was the perfect place to hide. No one could find her there.

  Well maybe no person could find her. But something else did. All of a sudden, Katie felt a familiar breeze blowing around her. She knew immediately that the magic wind was back.

  Katie wasn’t entirely sorry to have the wind come back. It had caused a real mess this time. She was anxious to become Katie Carew again.

  And then the wind stopped. Just like that. Katie Carew was as good as new! Well, almost as good as new. She still felt pretty awful about what she’d done to Vincenzo.

  Chapter 22

  All the next day, Katie tried hard to avoid Vincenzo. She didn’t know what to say to him. She wished she could apologize. But how could she explain what the magic wind had done? It was just easier to stay away

  But that night, as she and Annabelle walked out of the hotel with their parents and Vicki, she bumped right into him. He was unloading ice cream into his freezer. He looked very sad.

  “Hi, Vincenzo,” Katie said quietly.

  “Hello, Katie,” he replied sadly. “Have you heard about what happened?”

  Katie nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  Vincenzo shrugged. “It is strange. I do not understand it. One minute I am near the boat ready to go, and the next ... well, I am not sure what happened. All I know is I ruined everything.”

  “Ruined?” Annabelle piped up. “Are you crazy? That was the best gondola ride ever!”

  Vicki and the Bridgemans looked at her strangely.

  “The best?” Vicki asked. “I thought it went on too long, and you wound up stopping for pastry on some little canal instead of coming straight back to the hotel.”

  Annabelle nodded. “We did. And we sang Bayside Boys songs.”

  “We did?” Vincenzo asked.

  “Sure,” Annabelle said. “Don’t you remember?”

  “I guess so. I mean no. I mean ...” Vincenzo sighed. “I do not know ...”

  “It was the first fun thing I’ve done since we got to Venice,” Annabelle continued. “It wasn’t a museum or a fancy restaurant or some old church. It was the perfect ride for a kid!”

  “I wish you could tell my father that,” Vincenzo moaned.

  Katie looked over toward the canal, where Vincenzo’s father was busy cleaning the gondola. “Why can’t she?” she asked.

  “Huh?” Vincenzo and Annabelle asked together.

  “Annabelle should tell your father about all the fun she had,” Katie said excitedly. “It would be a great activity for kids to go on while their parents shop for crystal or go to a fancy restaurant.”

  “You know, that’s not a bad idea,” Vicki said. “I’m always looking for things kids can do in Europe. And I know parents like some time alone on vacation.”

  “That’s true,” Mr. Carew agreed. “Katie would definitely have hated going shopping today.”

  “Do you really think my father would like this idea?” Vincenzo asked.

  Katie smiled. “We won’t know until we ask him!”

  The very next morning, Katie happily took a seat on Vincenzo’s very first official Kids’ Cruise. She was so excited ... especially when Vincenzo handed each kid on the cruise a yummy gelato.

  There were five kids on the gondola. With a hard push of his pole, Vincenzo steered the gondola down the canal. As they traveled past the colorful houses, Annabelle shouted out, “Vincenzo, will you sing ‘On Top of Spaghetti’ again?”

  Vincenzo looked at her. “I do not know that song,” he said.

  “Sure, you do,” Annabelle told him. “We sang it yesterday, remember?”

  Uh-oh. Katie knew Vincenzo wasn’t going to remember that. But she sure did. “I’ll sing it with you, Annabelle,” Katie said, quickly. “On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese ...”

  “I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed,” Annabelle added. Before long, all the kids had joined in.

  Katie smiled as they cruised down the canal. This time the trip was going really well. Vincenzo was going to be a gondolier!

  The magic wind hadn’t ruined his career after all. So there!

  Chapter 23

  The next evening, Katie and Annabelle sat beside each other in the back room of a restaurant near Venice’s Grand Canal. Katie giggled as Annabelle placed three strands of spaghetti in her mouth and quickly slurped them up.

  “Good one.” Katie laughed. She was having a great time. Too bad it was all about to end. This was her last night in Europe. The people in her tour group were having one final meal together.

  The Garcias and the McIntyres were passing around some pictures they’d taken during the trip.

  “Oh, look,” Mrs. Garcia said. “That’s me being a gargoyle at Notre Dame!”

  “And here we are at Buckingham Palace,” Mrs. McIntyre said. “We were pretending to be guards, remember?”

  Katie frowned. She’d been a guard there, too. Only she hadn’t been pretending.

  “Here’s Katie and Annabelle acting like penguins at Faunia,” Mr. McIntyre said as he pulled another photo from the pile.

  “That was a fun day,” Annabelle exclaimed. “Wasn’t it, Katie?”

  Katie nodded. They had all been fun days. She looked around the table. The grown-ups were exchanging addresses and phone numbers so they could stay in touch. Even the adults didn’t want to say good-bye.

  But they had to. It was time to go home.

  “Good-bye, Europe,” Katie whispered quietly to herself. “Au revoir, adiós, arrivederci.”

 

 

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