Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 060

"Is it going to be scary?" Jenny Prezzioso whined for the five-hundredth time. "I hate scary things." "No," I said, pushing open the Arnolds' door. "And don't forget, I'll be with you the whole time. You'll be safe." "Andrea will, too?" "Andrea will, too." "Geeeeeeaaaaaa," was Andrea's contribution to the discussion.

Jenny is four, and quite . . . well, spoiled. It took me a long time to convince her to go to the Arnolds'. (Andrea was much easier. She's only a baby.) "Are you guys coming or what?" Marilyn shouted from the basement as we walked in.

"Yes!" I called back.

I took Andrea out of her stroller. Holding her in one arm and taking Jenny's hand, I descended with them both into the Realm of Warps and Wormholes.

"Everything is red!" Jenny exclaimed, shaking. The basement was dead silent. Even I was a little spooked out.

"That's because Carolyn switched light bulbs," I whispered, pointing to a red bulb.

"Welcome, fellow travelers!" Carolyn said, rushing to meet us at the bottom of the stairs. In the red light, with her goggles and earmuffs, plus a set of springy antennae, she looked like a refugee from the planet Pluto.

"Waaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Andrea wailed.

I buried her face in my shoulder. "Shhh . . . it's all right . . ." Fortunately Jenny was fascinated. "Is that you, Carolyn?" "Dr. Arnold to you, young lady!" Carolyn said. "The brilliant Dr. Arnold!" Jenny laughed. "Doctor? Are you going to give me a shot?" Ignoring her, Carolyn said, "Follow me." She led us to the back of the basement, which was hidden by a huge blanket suspended on a rope. Behind the blanket were four folding chairs. Kristy and Marilyn were sitting on two of them, "grinning.

Against the wall, the time machine (and the boiler) were covered with taped-together sheets. Jenny and I took our seats and .waited for the show to begin.

"This is a special day," Carolyn announced. "I shall demonstrate my time machine to you alone, before the masses arrive." She reached out and grabbed the sheet. "And now, the moment we have all been waiting for! Ladies and gentlemen - " Jenny giggled again. "Silly, there are just girls here!" " - and children of all ages!" Carolyn barged on. "The time machine!" She pulled off the sheet.

Jenny gasped. I almost did, too. The machine looked much different now. Carolyn had put tinfoil over the sides of the cartons, and all kinds of dials, bells, gauges, gears, and antennae had been attached. A huge lever stuck out of the side, made from a broom handle. Everything was connected with wires to a real generator on the floor (at least that was what it looked like).

The cartons actually formed four walls with an opening. There was just enough room for a chair inside. A curtain was draped across the front (something like those instant photo booths at amusement parks).

I almost jumped out of my seat when Carolyn reached inside to press a button and I heard these zapping and bubbling noises.

"It's a tape recorder," Marilyn said. "She got the tape at a - " "Silence!" Carolyn commanded. "Now, Miss Arnold, are you prepared to travel to your requested time - Paris, France, in the year nineteen hundred?" "Yeah!" Marilyn said. "Ooh, I can't wait! 'Bye, everybody!" She ran into the machine and plopped onto the seat. "Are you sure you can get me back in time for dinner, Carolyn?" "Uh, yes!" "And I don't need any, like, special money, or warm clothing, or anything?" Carolyn was beginning to look uncomfortable. "I don't think so . . ." "All right. Well, this better be worth that dollar I paid you." Marilyn pulled the curtain closed. "And I'll be really mad if you don't get me back!" Now Jenny looked frightened. "Is she really going away?" she asked.

"Just for a little while!" Marilyn called from behind the curtain.

Carolyn's eyes were darting all around. Her fingers seemed frozen around the broom handle. I recognized the look on her face. I had seen it on another of our charges, Charlotte Johannsen, when she had to recite a poem in front of an audience.

Carolyn had stage fright. And I thought I knew why.

I leaned over to Kristy. "Can you take Andrea for a minute?" Fortunately Andrea was on the way to a nap. She fussed as I took her off my shoulder, then nuzzled happily on Kristy's.

"Excuse me," I said aloud. "This is an emergency high-tech consultation about the, um, flux capacitator." "Hurry it up," Marilyn said.

I took Carolyn into the corner and knelt down. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Uh-huh." "A little nervous after spending all that time building the machine?" She nodded meekly.

"Carolyn, what do you really think will happen when you pull that lever?" I asked.

Carolyn squirmed. I could see the brilliant Dr. Arnold trying to break through. Finally her face fell and she sighed. "Nothing." I remembered when I was eight and I was convinced I was a fairy princess. I kind of figured if I said I was, then I was! I was sure I'd convinced some of my friends, too - until finally they asked me to wave my wand and fly onto the roof of the house. When I didn't, they laughed at me. I ran inside and cried the rest of the night. I threw away my costume, and I never had that fantasy again.

I could see something like that happening to Carolyn.

"Don't look so sad," I said to her. "You built something really amazing. Everyone will enjoy going in it." "But - but I thought maybe it would work," she said. "I mean, there could be a real time machine someday." "Sure. But meanwhile you can still have fun with your machine. Remember all those time travel books you told Jessi you read? Those are pretend adventures. You knew it, but it didn't matter that the stories didn't really, truly happen, right? You still loved reading them." Carolyn grinned. "Yeah! We can pretend to take trips to other times and places!" Her eyes were darting back to that lever again.

"There's just one thing, Carolyn," I went on. "When the kids come later on, maybe you should offer to give them back their money." "Okay," Carolyn said, nodding solemnly. She pulled a dollar out of her pocket and stuck it through the curtain to Marilyn. "Here." "What's this for?" Marilyn asked.

"To buy yourself a hot dog in ... Paris in nineteen hundred!" With a dramatic flourish, she pulled down the lever. A bell rang and some gears turned. We oohed and aahed.

Then, turning her back, Carolyn made eerie screeching noises and announced, "The years roll back . . . nineteen fifty, forty, twenty, zero! You're in Paris, the Feivel Tower!" "Eiffel!" Marilyn called.

Carolyn turned to face us. Her antennae wobbled back and forth. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, our traveler is in the wormhole of the space/time continual, light-years away - " "Wormhole?" Jenny said. "Ew!" "Now comes the most difficult part," Carolyn went on. "To bring her back, we must position the flux capacitator at exactly the spot of electronic, uh, flux." She turned her back and screamed, "Weeeee-oooooo, weeee-ooooo! Now you're coming back! Poof!" She paused solemnly by the curtain, then yanked it open. "And there she is! Living proof, ladies and gentlemen!" "Yeeeaa!" We clapped and cheered and stamped our feet. Andrea whimpered, then went back to sleep.

And Marilyn stood up, wide-eyed and ecstatic, like Dorothy seeing the Emerald City for the first time. "It was amazing! I had this big frilly dress, and the organ grinder's monkey danced for me, and I saw this incredible ballet dancer named Mickinsky ..." As she went on and on, I could see the happiness playing across Carolyn's face - even underneath the goggles.

"Can I go next?" Jenny whispered, tugging on my sleeve.

Somehow, I knew things were going to work out just fine.

For the rest of the afternoon, kids filed into the basement. Carolyn became more and more confident about her "trips." A couple of the kids felt cheated, but most enjoyed the game. And they all got their money back. Kristy and I made sure of that.