Part 4 (2/2)
”Okay, let's get a move on,” said Mr. McGill.
The steps down to the subway entrance were dirty. They smelled.
”Fee-yew!” I exclaimed.
”Oh, grow up,” said Claudia.
”Is this the only way to the subway?” asked Dawn, who was standing by herself at the top of the stairs.
”No,” replied Stacey, ”there are lots of other entrances. But they all look like this. Come on, Dawn.”
”I think I'll make out a will tonight,” Dawn whispered as she rushed by me. ”If I live that long.”
We managed to reach the token booth, to buy tokens, and to find our platform safely. I felt like a mouse in an underground maze.
”I feel like an ant in an ant farm,” said Jessi just then. (Best friends often think alike. At least, Jessi and I do.) A subway train roared into the station. It stopped, the doors opened, and people poured out. Then my friends (well, my six friends and my one ex-friend) boarded the train and found seats. Dawn positioned herself between Mr. McGill and Kristy (who may be short, but she's fearless). Dawn looked amazed when Stacey's father finally called out, ”Okay, girls. The next stop is ours. Get ready for Chinatown!”
”I'm still alive,” said Dawn in awe.
We climbed another flight of dirty, smelly stairs and found ourselves in a different world.
”Whoa. Are you sure we're still in New York?” I murmured, ”Dweeb,” Claud murmured back.
”It does seem like a different world,” agreed Mr. McGill.
We really could have been in China. Or I guess we could have, since I haven't been to China. Anyway, this is how I thought it might look.
Around us were low buildings. The signs on some of them were in both English letters and Chinese characters. Others were only in Chinese.
”Hey, look at that phone booth!” cried Jessi.
We all turned to look. It was painted red and shaped like a paG.o.da.
Mr. McGill led us around a corner, and we found ourselves on a narrow street with narrow sidewalks.
”Cool!” exclaimed Claudia. (She actually sounded excited. She must have forgotten about McKenzie Clarke and the boxes.) ”I bet there's good shopping here.”
We were standing by a tiny store. Crowded into the window were all sorts of treasures - fans, chopsticks, embroidered shoes, small toys. Nearby stood several racks of T-s.h.i.+rts as well as two racks of postcards.
”Oh, we have to go in!” said Mary Anne.
So we did. We bought tons of souvenirs. (I bought a fan for myself and a toy for each of my brothers and sisters.) When we left the store we walked through the tangle of streets. We pa.s.sed markets and restaurants, the windows of which were actually aquariums with huge (weird) fish swimming through murky water. We pa.s.sed people selling fireworks. We pa.s.sed more of the shops like the one we'd bought souvenirs in. We began to yawn.
”Dinnertime,” announced Stacey's father, and he led us into a tiny restaurant with linoleum floors, hard plastic chairs, and tables with no cloths covering them. Almost no one was eating there.
”I don't think these empty tables are a very good sign, do you?” I whispered to Jessi. ”Why isn't anyone eating here?”
”Because it's a dive?” she suggested, making a face.
But it wasn't a dive. The food was fantastic and the people who waited on us were really nice. They didn't speak much English and we didn't speak any Chinese, but it turned out that the restaurant was run by two sisters and their husbands. Stacey tried to explain to them about the BSC. We ended up laughing, and our waiter gave us extra fortune cookies. My fortunes weren't exactly fortunes. They were advice -*- on how to get ahead in the world and how to get along with people. (I slipped that second fortune onto Claudia's plate.
When she noticed it, she read it, glanced at me, and simply muttered, ”Teacher's pet.”) We had to hail three cabs in order to get everyone back to Laine's and Stacey's. I was extra glad that Claudia and I were staying at different apartments. However, I would have to face her the next morning.
Kristy.
Chapter 9.
Tuesday morning, Stacey and Mary Anne headed for the Harringtons' again, Claud and Mal went to art school, Laine went shopping with her mother, and Dawn barricaded herself in Mr. McGill's apartment (for the third day in a row).
”Are you going to stay with Dawn again?” Jessi asked me after breakfast.
I shook my head. ”I feel guilty, but I just can't. I've spent two days with her. You know what she does over there now?”
”What?”
”She cleans the apartment while Mr. McGill is at his office. Did you notice how neat it was last night?”
”Neater than it was on Sat.u.r.day,” said Jessi.
”Yeah. Mr. McGill had a nice, half-sloppy bachelor pad. Now Dawn is playing housekeeper. I bet Stacey's father can't even find most of his stuff. Dawn keeps organizing things.”
”Poor Dawn.”
”Poor Mr. McGill!”
”So what are you going to do today?” Jessi wanted to know.
”I'm not sure. How about you?”
Jessi shrugged. ”I kind of want to go to Central Park, but - ”
”Let's go, then!” I exclaimed. ”The weather's beautiful.”
So we left for the park. The last time I'd been there I was with Stacey, Mary Anne, Dawn, Claud - and a pack of children we were taking care of. Now I could wander through the park like a regular person. No stopping every five minutes to buy a soda, tie a shoe, or look for a bathroom.
”Ooh,” said Jessi as we entered the park. ”This is just like last night in China to wn: I feel as if we've walked into another world.”
”I know what you mean. A forest right in the middle of the city.”
”It smells so good. What happened to the car exhaust?”
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