A Whirlwind Vacation (3 page)

A bead of sweat formed on Katie's head. The jacket was too heavy for this weather. The hat on her head wasn't helping, either. She reached up and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“Hey! I think I saw that guard move!”

Katie heard a familiar voice from the crowd. It was Annabelle's. And she was pointing right at Katie.

Oh, no!
Now Katie knew why she was wearing such a heavy jacket and a hat. She'd turned into one of the Queen's guards!

Annabelle leaped out in front of the guard box. “I'll bet I can make him laugh now,” she told her mother. She scrunched her lips and crossed her eyes.

It was a pretty funny face. But Katie didn't laugh. She didn't want to get the real guard in trouble. She didn't want to lose her bet with Annabelle, either.

“Annabelle, that's enough,” Mrs. Bridgeman said. “He's not going to laugh. Let's just watch.”

Annabelle didn't listen to her mother. Instead, she bent over and placed her hands on the ground. She rested her knees on her elbows, and then very, very slowly straightened her legs in the air.

“Everyone smiles when someone stands on her head,” Annabelle said.

“Stop that!” her mother scolded her.

Boom!
Annabelle wasn't very good at handstands. She flipped right over ... and landed on her bottom!

Now
that
was funny! Katie couldn't hold back her laughter.

“Hey! That guard laughed!” Katie heard a man say.

“I saw him, too,” a woman agreed. “They're not supposed to do that!”

“Lil! Get the camera!” Mr. McIntyre shouted. “We've got to get a shot of this!”

Katie gulped. She had to stop laughing. Right
away.

But that wasn't so easy. Once Katie got a case of the giggles, it was hard for her to hold them back.

Just then a marching band entered the yard. Immediately, the other guards switched positions. They turned, and began marching toward the palace.

A second group of guards lined up and began to march as well. The changing of the guard had begun.

Cameras began clicking wildly. All of the tourists who had gathered at the gates of the palace were taking pictures of the ceremony.

Katie gulped. She had no idea what to do. Where should she turn? Where could she go? She couldn't just run away. Not with all these people staring at her.

There was only one thing to do. She was going to have to try to follow what the other guards were doing.

One group of guards was marching toward the palace. The other was marching toward the gate. Katie wasn't sure which group she was supposed to march with. Finally, she clicked her heels together and joined the guards who were heading toward the front gate.

“What are you doing?” one of the guards whispered to Katie.

“I'm marching,” she whispered back.

“You're supposed to be over there,” the guard told her. “Your troop is leaving. We're the new ones coming in.”

Oops. Katie had made a big mistake. Quickly, she turned and marched over toward the other end of the yard.

But she wasn't fast enough. Before Katie could reach the other line, the guards disappeared through a small door in the building.

Katie was left all alone in the middle of the yard. Everyone was staring at her. A few people started to point and chuckle.

Katie hated it when people stared at her. She hated it even more when people laughed at her. She was so upset, she forgot she was supposed to be a dignified guard at Buckingham Palace. Instead, she did what any fourth-grader would do.

She ran off and hid behind one of the large stone walls of the palace.

Phew. Katie breathed a sigh of relief. It felt good to be away from all those people staring at her. She adjusted the big, black furry hat and wiped the sweat from her face. Boy, those guards sure had a tough job. It wasn't easy standing there, perfectly still. Especially not when you were sweating under a jacket and a hat.

Just then, a gentle breeze began to blow. Katie was glad to feel a little wind blowing. The magic wind had returned.

And that meant Katie was in for another change.

The wind grew stronger and stronger, circling around Katie wildly.

And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.

Slowly, Katie opened her eyes. She looked around. She wasn't inside the palace gates anymore. She was on the other side of the gate, looking in.

Katie glanced down at her feet. There were her red sneakers. She reached up to the top of her head. Her hands touched strands of her own red hair. The hat was gone.

“Katie, there you are!” Mrs. Carew shouted, rushing over to her daughter. “Did you get to see the changing of the guard?”

“I had a
really
close-up view,” Katie assured her mom.

“Did you see me make that guard laugh?” Annabelle asked.

Katie nodded. “I'll bet he was really embarrassed about it.”

Annabelle shrugged. “Whatever. I still won our bet.”

Katie sighed. She couldn't believe Annabelle wasn't the least bit sorry for making the guard laugh in front of everyone. She had no idea what it felt like.

Then again, why would she? It was Katie who had turned into the guard.

And it was Katie who felt just awful about it.

Katie stood in the lobby of her hotel and stared at the newspaper headline. Beneath the headline was a picture of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Even under his big hat you could see that he had a giant smile on his face.

Next to the picture was an article about how the guard had laughed at a little girl doing a handstand, and then had embarrassed the entire squad during the changing of the guard ceremony.

Except it wasn't really the guard who had done that. It was Katie. And there was nothing she could do to make things better for him.

“So, are we ready for a morning of shopping?” Mrs. Carew asked Katie.

Katie sighed. A morning of shopping with her parents didn't seem like a whole lot of fun.

“Hi there!” Vicki greeted the Carew family as she came bounding into the lobby. She glanced at Katie. “Why the long face, mate?”

“Katie doesn't feel like shopping,” Mr. Carew explained.

Vicki nodded. “Well, how about Katie and I go to Hyde Park today, while you go to Harrods Department Store?”

Katie brightened. Maybe being in the park would make her feel better about everything.

“I'm taking Annabelle, too,” Vicki continued.

“That's not a bad idea,” Katie's mother agreed.

“Super,” Vicki said. “It's settled. Annabelle should be down any minute. And then we're off to the park.”

“We have a park like this in Boston,” Annabelle boasted as she, Vicki, and Katie walked through the beautiful grassy gardens in Hyde Park.

“Really,” Vicki replied. She stopped for a minute so the girls could look out over a big lake.

“It's called the Boston Common and ...” Annabelle began.

“What's this lake called?” Katie interrupted as they stopped to watch people row boats across the water.

“Serpentine Lake,” Vicki told her. “People come from all over London to go boating. In the summer, people swim here.”

“I'm kind of tired,” Annabelle moaned. “Do you think we could rest?”

Katie frowned. Annabelle wasn't happy unless she was talking about Boston.

“Of course,” Vicki said. “You two go over to those benches. I'll get us some ice cream.”

“I like chocolate best,” Annabelle told her.

“How about you, Katie?” Vicki asked.

“I like strawberry,” Katie told her. “Thanks, Vicki.”

“Two ice-cream cones,” Vicki repeated. “Coming right up.”

As Vicki walked off, Katie and Annabelle wandered over toward the benches.

“So, do you like living in Cherrydale?” Annabelle asked Katie.

“Oh yeah,” Katie replied. “I have a lot of friends there.”

“Have you lived there your whole life?”

Katie nodded.

“That must be nice,” Annabelle said. “I haven't lived in any place for very long. My dad's job is always changing. So far I've lived in Chicago, Orlando, New York, and now Boston. I really like Boston. I have a lot of friends there.”

“That's good,” Katie replied.

“Not really,” Annabelle replied. “We're moving again. To Houston, Texas. I'm going to have to make all new friends.”

Suddenly Katie understood why Annabelle had been talking about Boston so much. She loved it there. And she didn't want to leave.

“Houston will be great,” Katie assured her, kindly. “You'll learn to talk with a southern accent.”

“It is a cool accent,” Annabelle agreed. She smiled at Katie. Then she turned her eyes toward a man on a bench a few feet away from them. He was wearing a black baseball cap and a red shirt. He was eating a sandwich from a brown paper bag. “I think I've seen that guy before,” she told Katie.

Katie looked over at the man. “Maybe he's staying at the same hotel.”

Annabelle shook her head. “No. That's not it.” She hopped off the bench.

“Where are you going?” Katie asked her.

“To find out who he is.”

Katie knew better than to talk to strangers. “That's a bad idea,” she said.

Annabelle didn't care. She got up and walked straight toward the mystery man.

Katie couldn't let her do that alone. It was too dangerous. “Annabelle, wait!” she cried out as she ran after her.