I was lugging a bag of popcorn kernels onto a desk, when I heard a shriek in the hallway. Then Danielle bounded into the room.
"Danielle? What"s going on?" I asked her.
Danielle tried to sober up. "Nothing much," she replied.
"You were shrieking over nothing?"
"Shrieking? Oh, that wasn"t me. That was my friend Susanna. I was just telling her the news that Mommy and Daddy told Greg and me at breakfast this morning."
"What news?" I asked.
"Last night Mommy got a phone call. It was from someone at this place called Your Wish Is My Command. They"re granting my wish. We"re going to Disney World! Oh, thank you, Jessi! Mommy told me what you did." Danielle gave me a hug.
"You"re going to Disney World?" asked Nicky Pike incredulously.
"Yup," said Danielle. "Mommy and Daddy and Greg and I are going next week for three whole days! We"re going to fly to Florida and everything!"
The other kids were arriving.
"Next week? During school?" squeaked Va-nessa.
"Lucky duck," said my sister, smiling. Then she ran across the room and threw her arms around Danielle. "You got your wish!" she exclaimed.
"Yup, I really did."
"What"s all this?" Mr. Katz asked me.
I explained about YWIMC, and the people I"d talked to there.
"And her wish is being granted?" said Mr. Katz. "Fantastic. Jessi, I hope you"re feeling particularly proud of yourself right now."
"I - I don"t know," I stammered. "I"m just glad the Robertses can go on their vacation. Danielle and Greg will have so much fun."
I looked across the room at Danielle. She was in the center of a crowd of kids who were leaning over her, peering at something. I wondered what they were looking at. At the same time I noticed something important.
"Mr. Katz!" I exclaimed. "Look! The kids are touching Danielle. They"ve forgotten she"s sick, I think."
"Finally," murmured Mr. Katz, which was the way I felt.
Danielle stood up then, and I saw what she was holding. A book about Disney World. A guide to the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT Center.
"Do you like roller coasters?" Nicky asked Danielle, who nodded. "Then you have to go on s.p.a.ce Mountain. It"s the best ride."
Danielle was holding a pad of paper. She scribbled something on it.
"Are you going during school?" Vanessa asked again.
"Yup."
"Why?"
Danielle shrugged. "Because we just are."
Wendy Jervis, who had been leaning over Danielle"s shoulder for a look at the book, suddenly gasped. "Danielle!" she cried.
"What?" Danielle looked alarmed.
"Your - your hair is growing back!" Wendy was staring at the blue plaid scarf covering Danielle"s head.
Danielle bit her lip. "I know. It just started to."
"Mm-hm," said Wendy. "I can see under the scarf in the back. Right here." Wendy pointed to a spot, and the crowd of kids shifted so that they were behind Danielle.
"Hey, your hair"s reddish!" exclaimed Peter Tiegreen.
"It wasn"t that color before," added Wendy.
"Well, I told you my hair might change." Danielle looked uncomfortable.
Mr. Katz must have noticed, too, because he said, "Okay, kids. Enough."
But Danielle interrupted him. "No," she said. She stood up. Then, slowly, she removed her scarf. Underneath was a stubble of red-brown hair.
What would the kids say?
At first, not much.
Then, they spoke up tentatively.
"I like the color," said Charlotte.
"I wish my hair had red in it," added Wendy.
And Peter, moving around to look at Danielle from the front, said, "Oh, cool! I just realized that you"ve got the haircut I wanted. Mom wouldn"t let me get it, though."
Everyone laughed.
"It really is nice hair," said Vanessa.
"Yeah. Why"re you still wearing the scarf?" asked Wendy. "Leave it off."
Mr. Katz and I glanced at each other.
"Really?" said Danielle in a small voice.
"Definitely," said Becca. "Hey, can I brush your hair?"
"No, let me." Wendy was waving around a brush. "I have a styling idea."
While Wendy worked on Danielle"s hair, the other kids continued to bombard her with questions about Disney World.
"Would you get me a pair of mouse ears - if I give you the money?"
"Are you going to stay in a hotel with a pool?"
"Do you think your parents will let you ride s.p.a.ce Mountain twice?"
"Are you going to go to the park with the water rides?"
Danielle attempted to answer the questions. Finally, she said, "I"ve never been to Disney World! I can"t tell you that much. How about if I write you guys a postcard while I"m in Florida?"
"And take lots of pictures," suggested Peter.
"Yeah, get someone to take a picture of you and Goofy," said Nicky.
At that point Mr. Katz wandered over to the members of the Kids Club and said, "Maybe the hair salon ought to close down for awhile. We have goody baskets to put together. The popcorn is waiting to be popped."
"Right," said Danielle agreeably. "Can I just see how I look first?"
Seven kids dove for mirrors and handed them to Danielle.
She chose one, held it before her face, and admired herself. "Thanks, Wendy," she said after a moment. "I like that hairstyle. I don"t look the way I used to, but - "
"You look really nice," Peter supplied. "You look cool."
"Ready, kids?" said Mr. Katz.
"Ready!" they chorused.
"All right. We have three poppers. Please divide yourselves into three groups."
The kids did so quickly. Then Mr. Katz explained how the poppers operated, and he and I hovered around the kids as they set to work.
"What else are we going to put in the goody baskets?" asked Mr. Katz, as the kids made batches of popcorn and filled small bags, tying each one with a red ribbon. They worked industriously, concentrating on making perfect popcorn (no burned kernels) and perfect bows on the bags.
"What do old people like?" asked Wendy.
"Wendy!" cried Danielle. "Old people are just the same as any other people. They like all sorts of things."
"But some of them don"t have many teeth," Wendy objected.
"And some of them have all their teeth," replied Danielle. "Come on. Let"s think about what we"d want if we were stuck in ... oh, a hospital."
"What did you want when you were in the hospital?" asked Charlotte.
"I wanted to go home." Danielle giggled.
"What did you -want to eat?" pressed Charlotte.
"Mmm. Treats. Popcorn is a good choice. Maybe some peppermint candies."
"Grown-ups like disgusting stuff, like caviar," announced Nicky.
"Do the goody baskets have to be full of food?" asked Danielle. "I got bored in the hospital. Maybe the people at Stoneybrook Manor would want things to keep them busy. We could put crossword puzzles in the baskets."
"Paperback books," added my sister.
"Pens for writing letters, or maybe poems," suggested Vanessa.
"How about pictures of us?" said Bruce, who liked using the Polaroid.
"Yeah, pictures!" exclaimed Danielle.
Half the kids had abandoned the poppers. Once again they were crowded around Danielle, talking eagerly.
"Are you kids paying attention to the - " Mr. Katz began to say.
BANG! The lid exploded off of one of the poppers. It sailed across the room and crashed into a bookshelf. From the popper erupted a shower of popcorn.
"Poppers?" Mr. Katz finished.
"No?" suggested Danielle.
Mr. Katz smiled. So did I. The kids began to laugh. Then Danielle and her friends flopped onto the floor and began to clean up the popcorn.
Chapter 14.
"Please, please, please? Can we leave, leave, leave?" sang Becca.
"Too bad, "please" and "leave" don"t rhyme," said Charlotte.
"Oh, it doesn"t matter." Becca was hopping around our kitchen. "If you must know, it"s time to go!" she continued.
"Becca, can you come here for a sec?" I asked. I pulled my sister into the living room. "You are annoying Aunt Cecelia," I hissed.
"But I"m ready to go to Danielle"s."
"I know. So am I. So is Charlotte. But Squirt isn"t. Just let Aunt Cecelia finish dressing him, okay? He got all sticky."
My sister was excited beyond reason. She had run in the door from school about twenty minutes earlier. Now she was ready to spend the afternoon at the Robertses" house. Early the next morning, Danielle and her family would leave for Florida. Becca and Charlotte and I had been invited over to help Danielle pack and get ready for the trip.
And to say good-bye.