A Whirlwind Vacation (4 page)

Annabelle was quick. By the time Katie caught up to her, she was already seated next to the man on the bench.

“Do I know you?” Annabelle asked.

The man pulled his baseball hat farther down his face. “I doubt it,” he said in a thick English accent.

Annabelle stared even harder. “You're that guard from Buckingham Palace!” she exclaimed. “The one
I
made laugh.”

The man sat up suddenly. He glared at Annabelle. “That was
you
?”

Annabelle nodded proudly. “Don't you remember me?”

The man frowned. “I guess so. It's all kind of foggy.”

“What was it about me that made you laugh when no one else could?” Annabelle asked him.

“I don't know. I didn't ...” he began.

“Yes, you did,” Annabelle told him. “Everyone saw you.”

“Don't remind me,” the man answered her.

“Did you get in trouble?” Katie asked nervously.

“You can't make mistakes when you're guarding the Queen,” he answered with a sigh. “I'm on desk duty from now on. No more fancy uniforms. No more marching. It's not the way I wanted to go out.”

“Go out?” Katie asked.

“I'm almost finished with my time in the guard,” he explained.

“Oh,” Katie said. “So what are you going to do next?”

“I don't know,” the guard told her. “I don't think anyone would hire me. I'm a real laughingstock.”

At that moment, Vicki came over. “Girls, you shouldn't just disappear like that,” she scolded them. “I think you know better than to talk to strangers. Come on, girls. Let's go.” She handed the girls their ice-cream cones.

“He's not a stranger,” Annabelle told her. “This is the guard from the palace. The one I made laugh.”

“Oh. I see.” The tour guide held out her hand. “I'm Vicki.”

“Tim Becker,” the guard replied.

“He's going to leave the guard soon,” Katie told Vicki. “We're talking about the jobs he could have.”

“Girls,” Vicki said. “I don't think ...”

But Katie really wanted to help Tim. She
had
to. “Wasn't there something you wanted to do before this all happened?”

Tim thought for a moment. “Well, there was one thing. But ... oh, never mind. You'll think I've gone bonkers.”

“No, we won‘t,” Katie insisted.

“Well,” Tim said slowly, “I've always wanted to be a stand-up comic. All my mates say I'm the funniest bloke they know.”

“Have you ever tried doing stand-up comedy?” Vicki asked him.

“Not really,” Tim answered. “Although everyone's laughing at me now, anyway.”

Katie frowned. She felt just awful about that.

Then, suddenly she got one of her great ideas. “If everyone's laughing anyway, why don't you do an act in a club?”

“It's not that easy,” Tim told her. “You can't just walk into a club and say you want to go onstage.”

“Actually you can,” Vicki told him. “There's a place right near Piccadilly Circus that has amateur night. Anyone can try to be a comic there.”

“But I don't have an act,” Tim said.

“Sure you do,” Katie told him. She was getting excited now. “You could talk about all the funny things people do to make the guards laugh at Buckingham Palace.”

Tim thought for a moment. “You tourists do look pretty funny from our point of view,” he said with a chuckle.

“You can use my joke about the umbrella if you want,” Annabelle suggested.

Katie sighed. Annabelle would never change. But maybe Tim's life would.

Two nights later, Katie sat in the small, dark comedy club. Her parents were there. So was the Bridgeman family. Vicki had brought a few other members of the tour group, too, just to be sure that Tim had an audience.

But they didn't really need to do that. One of the local radio stations had found out that the “Laughing Guard” was going to try to make other people laugh for a change. They had announced the time and place for the show. The club was mobbed. And not just with customers. There were a few news crews there, too.

Katie was scared. What if Tim wasn't funny? He'd be all over the news making a fool out of himself. And it would all be Katie's fault ...
again!

Suddenly, a loud booming voice announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen ... here he is ... Tim Becker!”

Tim walked onto the stage. But he didn't say anything. Instead, he started making really weird faces. He stuck his tongue out, crossed his eyes, and did a goofy dance.

The audience laughed really hard.

Tim grinned. “That's what the world looks like to me,” he told them. “Just a bunch of people making faces.
You
try not laughing at that.”

He made a few more faces. The audience laughed even harder. It was impossible not to. Tim was really funny. Even the reporters were laughing!

Katie smiled proudly. Tim was a hit! His dream was coming true. And he had Katie to thank for it. Well, actually, Katie
and
the magic wind. But there was no way Katie was giving any credit to that wind!

“Oh my goodness!” Katie gasped. She was looking down from the observation deck high up in the Eiffel Tower. Her tour group had had to wait in line a long time until they got into the elevator at the bottom of the tower. Now they were squished together with lots and lots of other tourists on the deck. But it was all worth it. “I can see all of Paris from here. We're up so high!” she exclaimed.

Vicki nodded. “It's 1,652 stairs to the top!”

“I'm sure glad we didn't have to
walk
up all those stairs!” Annabelle said.

“Me too,” Katie said. “I just can't believe how beautiful Paris looks from up here!”

“It really is an amazing view,” Mrs. Penderbottom agreed. “But not as incredible as the Louvre art museum. I just loved seeing the
Mona Lisa
.”

“I thought the
Mona Lisa
was really small,” Annabelle said. “We have paintings in the art museum in Boston that are much larger.”

Katie rolled her eyes.

“There are paintings in the Louvre that are larger, too,” Vicki reminded her. “But none more famous.”

“It's not about the size of the painting,” Mr. Penderbottom explained. “It's about the talent and skill in the work.”

“I loved Mona Lisa's smile,” Mr. Fishman said. “It reminded me of my wife's.” He gave his bride a peck on the cheek.

Ew
! Katie and Annabelle both looked away.

“I'm hungry,” Annabelle said suddenly. She turned to Vicki. “Didn't you say there was a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower?”

Vicki nodded. “There is. But I think you'd have more fun eating the way real Parisians do. They can spend a whole afternoon sitting at a café watching people go by.”

“That sounds like fun,” Katie said.

“
It
is
fun,” Annabelle agreed. “We have a really cool outdoor café near my house in Boston. I go there all the time for lunch.”

Katie rolled her eyes again.

“You know, I could go for one of those ham and cheese sandwiches I saw people eating yesterday,” Mr. Carew suggested.

Annabelle's father nodded. “Me too.” He turned to Vicki. “Can you recommend a good café?”

“There's one right near the Cathedral of Notre Dame,” Vicki said. “That's the next stop on our tour of Paris.”

“Notre Dame,” Katie squealed excitedly. “Do you think we'll see the Hunchback?”

“That's only in the movies,” Annabelle told her.

Katie frowned. Annabelle was such a know-it-all.

“That's true,” Vicki agreed. She smiled at Katie. “But I think you'll like Notre Dame anyway. There's no other place like it.”

Annabelle opened her mouth to speak, but Katie beat her to it.

“Not even in Boston?” Katie asked Vicki.

Annabelle blushed.

Vicki laughed. “Not in the whole world,” she assured Katie.

Vicki wasn't kidding. The Cathedral of Notre Dame was amazing! It was also kind of scary. The old church was decorated with huge, creepy stone monsters called gargoyles. They stuck out from the outer walls of the building, glaring angrily at the people on the street below.

The grown-up tourists seemed really interested in the gargoyles. The Garcias and the McIntyres were even taking pictures of one another making creepy faces. But Katie thought the stone creatures were really scary.

“I don't like those things,” Katie said with a shiver. She turned away from the monsters' rock-hard stares.