Ann Martin: Baby-Sitters Club 059

Jamie grinned at me guiltily. "Making rockets." "What?" To demonstrate, Jamie picked up one of the broken crayons. "Fire rocket!" he shouted as he hurled the crayon against Lucy's closed door.

"Don't do that/' I told him, picking my way through the crayons. "You're going to wake Lucy and you're marking up her door. Besides that, you're going to ruin all your crayons." "I don't care," he replied.

"Sure you do," I said as I began to gather up the crayons.

Suddenly, Jamie scooped up a handful of crayons and sprang to his feet. "No, I don't care!" he insisted. With that, he hurled an entire handful of crayons at Lucy's door.

My jaw dropped. I had never seen Jamie act this way. "Jamie! What's the matter?" "I want to call up my friend, Roger," said Jamie stubbornly. "He's my best friend in school. He's five!" "First we're picking up all these crayons," I said firmly.

"I want to call Roger!" Jamie bellowed.

At that moment, a piercing cry told me he'd awakened Lucy. "Now look what you've done," I scolded, pushing open Lucy's door.

In the darkened nursery, Lucy sat up in her crib wearing a yellow one-piece stretchy. Her big eyes were sleepy and wet with tears. And when she saw me, she began to wail even harder. Babies prefer to see their mothers when they wake from a nap. But 1 lifted her out of her crib and walked around with her. In about three minutes she had calmed down. After another three minutes, she gave me a big smile.

"Hey, Jamie!" I cried. "She has four teeth. She only had two the last time I was here." "Big deal," said Jamie, who had come into the room with me.

1 studied him a minute and decided Mrs. Newton had been right. He did seem to resent Lucy. And maybe Roger had something to do with his attitude, too. I've noticed that when Nicky wants the triplets to hang around with him, he acts tough so they won't think he's a baby. Possibly Jamie was trying to act like Roger.

As 1 supported Lucy on my shoulder, with one hand under her bottom, 1 realized that her diaper was leaking at the sides. "Time for a fresh diaper, kiddo," 1 said, laying her on her changing table.

At least Lucy's temperament was the same. She kicked and laughed as I changed her diaper. "She's gotten so big," 1 commented to Jamie while I fished in Lucy's drawer for a fresh romper. "You'll see. The older she gets, the more fun she'll be to play with. Right now she probably seems like a pain to you sometimes." There was no answer. I looked around and saw that Jamie had left the room. Considering the mood he was in, I didn't want to let him out of my sight for too long. I quickly snapped Lucy into her outfit and took her from the table. "Let's go find your grouchy big brother," I whispered to her as we left her nursery.

The first place I checked was Jamie's room. He wasn't there. Then I tried the den and the kitchen. "Jamie!" I called out. "Jamie!" With Lucy still in my arms, I checked the basement. "Jamie!" I looked behind the washer and dryer, around the boiler. Everywhere.

Finally I returned to the living room. "Jamie! This isn't funny!" I hollered. Still no response.

Now I was starting to panic. I went to the front door and looked out. He wasn't in the front yard. Next I tried the backyard. No Jamie.

Lucy must have sensed my growing unhap-piness because she began to whimper. "It's okay," I consoled her.

My arms were getting tired from carrying her, so 1 put her in her high chair in the kitchen. Luckily she became interested in some plastic toys that were on the tray, which freed me to look around for Roger's phone number or address. All 1 could think of was that Jamie had gone to his house.

1 did find the'number of a Roger Friedman tacked to the bulletin board. 1 called it, but the line was busy. "Get off the phone," I mumbled as I banged down the receiver. If the line didn't clear in the next few minutes, I planned to call the operator for an emergency break-in.

"Stay calm, Mallory," 1 told myself. "He's got to be here somewhere." But all the horrible possibilities occurred to me. What if he'd headed for Roger's house and gotten lost? Or hit by a car? Or kidnapped?

I decided to dress Lucy more warmly and go outside to look for him. 1 picked her up from the seat and carried her back upstairs. Then 1 dressed her in her warm, fleecy sack suit, put on her hat, and carried her downstairs again.

Before we left, 1 decided to try the Roger Friedman number one more time. 1 wasn't even sure this was the right Roger, but it was worth a try. With Lucy propped against my hip, the phone receiver cradled between my shoulder and cheek, I punched in the number. The line was still busy.

"All right, Lucy, let's go," I said.

At that moment I smelled the distinctive aroma of a dirty diaper. "What next?" I sighed. Normally, I don't mind changing a dirty diaper, but this diaper change presented a real dilemma. Should I waste precious time unbundling her, or, should I take her as she was and risk her getting a rash?

It was a decision I didn't have to make.

"Boo!" shouted Jamie, sneaking up behind me.

I nearly jumped to the ceiling. I hadn't heard him approaching at all. "Ohmigosh!" I breathed, clutching Lucy.

Jamie doubled over with laughter. "Got ya! Got ya good!" "You scared me to death!" I cried angrily. "I didn't know where you were!" "I know. I was hiding," Jamie told me proudly.

"That's not a funny trick," I told him. "Don't do it again." "It is so funny," Jamie said, pouting. "You're just an old grouch-head!" "Well, you're a hider-head," I replied. This may have been a very immature response, and it made no sense, but there was no reason to stay mad at him.

"Then you're a spider-head," he replied.

"You're a fighter-head," I shot back. That was a bad choice.

"No, I'm a fighter pilot!" Jamie shouted. He spread his arms and, with loud engine noises, began to zoom around the house.

Lucy laughed at the noise as I unbundled her. But in seconds, a loud crash came from the living room.

"Uh-oh," I heard Jamie say.

With Lucy in my arms, I ran into the room and found a glass vase smashed across the floor. Tiny slivers of glass glistened everywhere. "The wing of my jet accidentally knocked it over," Jamie said sheepishly.

"I hope it wasn't an expensive vase," I replied.

Jamie shrugged. The way my luck was running today, it was probably priceless.

"Hey, pew, she stinks," Jamie observed, pointing to Lucy.

"I know," I replied. "Let's go upstairs and change her. Then we'll come down and clean up this glass." "No way! I'm not getting near that diaper," said Jamie, backing away. He spotted a jagged piece of glass on the floor and bent over it.

"Hey, this one looks like a little glass - " "Don't touch that," I said. He didn't listen.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouuwwww!" he howled, clutching his hand. A ribbon of blood flowed from his thumb.

I rushed him into the kitchen and put Lucy back in her high chair. I could see that the cut wasn't that deep, it was just bleeding a lot. I put pressure on his thumb to help stop the bleeding and pretty soon it was only a trickle. There was no need to call a doctor or the hospital. All I had to do was clean the cut and put on a bandage.

Unfortunately, Jamie wasn't nearly as calm as I was. He screeched hysterically and struggled with me as I tried to hold his hand under cold running water at the sink. With all the commotion, Lucy started screaming.

Glancing at the kitchen clock, I saw that I had only been at the Newtons' for a half hour! It felt like years.

In fact, this was turning out to be one of the longest - and worst - days I could remember.

Chapter 5.

Usually Jessi doesn't have to sit for Becca and Squirt. Aunt Cecelia is almost always there to look after them. But last Sunday Aunt Cecelia needed to go to the hospital to visit a friend of hers who was a patient. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey had volunteered to work at a PTA-sponsored craft show. So Jessi was babysitting.