A Whirlwind Vacation (11 page)

“Mom! Dad! Can we go? Please?” Katie pleaded.

Mrs. Carew shook her head. “I'm sorry, Katie. We already made plans to shop today. I hired a water taxi to take us around to the stores. We'll go on a gondola ride tomorrow.”

Katie didn't want to shop all day. She wanted to take
this
gondola ride. With Vincenzo.

“We can go, can't we?” Annabelle asked her parents.

Mrs. Bridgeman shrugged. “I guess we can. We did want to take a gondola ride at some point.” She turned to Mrs. Carew. “We'll take Katie if you'd like.”

Katie looked up at her parents hopefully.

Mrs. Carew laughed. “Oh, dear. I can't refuse that face. Okay, you can go.”

“Wonderful!” Vincenzo cheered. “The gondola ride will begin at one o‘clock. I will see you there!”

Sure enough, at one o‘clock, Vincenzo was standing right near his gondola at the dock near the hotel. He looked very professional in his red-and-white striped shirt and big hat.

“Buongiorno,”
he greeted Katie and the Bridgemans. “It is very nice to see you.”

“Buongiorno,”
Katie replied.

Katie squinted into the bright sunlight. She could barely see. “Do I have time to run back to my hotel room and get my sunglasses?” she asked Vincenzo.

“Of course, Katie,” Vincenzo answered.

Katie turned and ran back to the hotel. She hurried into the elevator and pushed the button for her floor.

As the elevator door shut, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She looked around for an air conditioning vent. But she couldn't find one. There were no windows, either. In fact, there was no way for wind to be blowing in the elevator ... at least not a normal wind.

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.

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.

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.

“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.