"Good Lord!" my aunt exclaimed as she looked at my arms and listened to my story. "How many days is it? Not even four days as a girl, and your life is an adventure!"

By the time we got back to the Little Train Station, answered questions, and exchanged contact info with the mother, it was time to head to the front gate. I'd been massaging my arms the whole time, and the pain had finally gone.

When we climbed into the Auburn's car, I looked and felt like a wreck. Jerry put his arm around me and I rested my head against his chest. It felt good for someone else to be strong for me.

Nina, on the other hand, was supercharged. "You should have seen it!" she shouted. "Marcie caught this boy in the air! She saved his life!"

"What happened to that doll?" Cassie asked, bewildered.

"It fell off the train!" Nina shouted. "You should have seen it!"

"Nina, you're breaking my eardrums," Cassie cautioned her. "Maybe Marcie should tell the story."

"No, Nina can tell it," I quietly said, and so she did.

The family looked tired when we first got into the car, but Nina's story woke them up. Mrs. Auburn invited me to dinner, but I begged off. I wanted my aunt to look at my arms.

"We could take you to the emergency room," Mr. Auburn offered.

"No, I think my aunt will be good enough," I said. "She's a nurse."

"I'm sorry you had such an awful experience," Mrs. Auburn said. "I never thought..."

"No, no," I said. "It was great. Even with the train thing, it was fine. I had a good time, and I think Nina did, too."

"Let's go do it again!" Nina shouted.

"Next year, maybe," I said, laughing.

Cassie didn't tease me once all the way home. Jerry just smiled. He really couldn't talk or even whisper to me. Nina would have drowned him out. He just held me and hugged me, and somehow I wasn't surprised at how much better it made me feel.

"Good Lord!" my aunt exclaimed as she looked at my arms and listened to my story. "How many days is it? Not even four days as a girl, and your life is an adventure!

"Seriously, though," she added, "As a boy you were kind of colorless, you know? You were a nice kid, but you were just kind of there. Not much personality. No offense."

"None taken."

"But as a girl, you've blossomed! You draw people in, you develop relationships, things happen to you. It's amazing."

"I guess." I was exhausted.

"Your arms look okay. Do they hurt anymore? No? If they do, let me know right away. If I'm not around, you can get Denise or Alice to take you to the emergency room. If you're at school, go right to the office. Especially if they start hurting suddenly. And take it easy in gym class this week."

She gave them some more diagnostic squeezes and prods, then asked if I was hungry.

"I guess," I said. "Mostly I'm beat. I still have to write all this stuff in my notebook."

"Hmm," she said, picking up the baby. "Has this thing cried since it fell off the train?"

"No," I said. "Oh, no! Those things are expensive."

"Don't worry about that yet," Aunt Jane said. "Listen, I'm going to make you a nice hot bath. I have some salts that should relax you. While you do that, I'll try to clean this crazy doll, and then I'll make some dinner. When that's all done, you can write in your notebook. How's that sound?"

"Like heaven," I said.

The next day I was at school an hour early. If Ms. Tandy wasn't there, I'd wait, but if she was, I could dump the little monster and be free of it. Almost free, anyway. I was pretty nervous about the state of the doll. Aunt Jane had cleaned it up pretty well, and it had cried a couple of times in the night, but the fall from the train would look like the worst child abuse imaginable to the recorder. And what if I had to pay to replace it?

Still, I didn't think the doll looked too bad until I ran into Eden.

"Holy cow!" she exclaimed. "What did you do to that poor thing? Throw it off a train?"

"You're a good guesser," I replied. I told her a quick version of the train story. First she did goggle eyes, then she said, "No way!", and finally she bent over laughing so hard that I had to stop and wait for her to straighten up and start walking again.

"What did you really do to the doll?" she asked, as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"That's what really happened!" I cried, which set her off laughing again.

I huffed impatiently and pulled on her arm. "Come on," I said. "I have to get rid of this awful thing."

Ms. Tandy was in her office. We were the first ones there. "Couldn't wait to give them back, could you? Would you like some extra credit? Keep it another week?"

"No way — I mean, no thank you," Eden said, handing hers in, along with her notebook. Ms. Tandy cut the bracelet from her wrist. Then Eden stepped back so she could watch Ms. Tandy's face as I handed my doll in.

"Oh, Marcie," she said, astonished. "What the hell did you do to your baby?"

Eden couldn't control herself. She shouted, "She threw it off a train!" and erupted in a fit of giggles.

"Thanks, Eden," I said. To Ms. Tandy I said, "It fell off a train."

"How did it do that?"

"I was catching a baby who jumped off the train. The doll slid off my lap and rolled down a hill. I didn't notice because at the time I was trying to keep the real-life baby from falling."

Eden's body was wracked with silent laughter. Ms. Tandy took a look at her, and opened her mouth to say something, but then she, too, succumbed. She let out some high-pitched peals of laughter. At last, with some effort she got a grip on herself.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that story, Marcie? Are you out of your mind? Eden! If you can't stop laughing, go wait in the hall."

"Sorry." Eden stopped laughing, but she made some pretty weird faces as she struggled to keep silent.

I handed Ms. Tandy a sheet of paper. "This is the phone number of the baby's mother. The second one is for the little girl I was babysitting. The last number is the train conductor's."

I handed her my notebook. "I wrote down everything that happened in here."

"Oh," Ms. Tandy said, "I'm sure this will make interesting reading!"

At that, Eden let out a screaming laugh, and ran into the hall.

"Please don't give me an F, Ms. Tandy," I begged. "I swear, that baby — the real baby — could have died if I hadn't caught him, and there was no way I could catch that heavy boy and watch the doll at the same time." Eden sobbed out a laugh in the hallway. I wanted to smack her.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Ms. Tandy said.

"Yes! I am! You can look at the recording inside. I was really good with that baby. Nothing bad happened to it until then. And it still works. It was crying last night."

"You're the girl who wanted to take out the batteries and jam the key inside, Marcie."

"Oh, no," I cried, "Oh, no! I wouldn't have done those things! I was just curious! Please, call the conductor or the mother or even the little girl — they'll tell you."

"Do you think I'm that gullible?" Ms. Tandy asked, "Do you think I'd take the word of a little girl?"

"She's Jerry Auburn's little sister." I don't know why I said that; it somehow seemed relevant.

Ms. Tandy shook her head at me in disbelief. "Your boyfriend's little sister? You expect me to..." She sighed.

She studied my face and after a few moments said, "I will call this conductor and then we'll see. And I'll check the doll to see how badly it's damaged. We can talk later in the day. Try to not have a nervous breakdown in the meantime, okay?

"And Marcie, the next time you have a wild story to tell me, don't bring Eden. Her giggling undermines your credibility."

Eden and I still had almost an hour before school began. I could see she was fighting to keep the giggles down.

"I'm sorry, Marcie. Listen, let me buy you breakfast. Are you hungry?"

As if in answer, my stomach growled, which set her giggling again. I grabbed her arm again and pulled her toward the stairs, away from Ms. Tandy's office. "Where could we possibly have breakfast?" I asked her, more than a little irritated.

"In the cafeteria, duh!" she replied. Her giggles finally subsided. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to 'undermine your credibility'."

"That's okay," I said.

"Did that stuff really happen?" she asked me, as she stifled one last giggle.

"YES!" I said. "Yes, it really happened! I really hurt my arms! I thought I broke something!"

"Okay," Eden said.

"Oh, listen, I met your mother this weekend, too."

"My mother?" Eden was puzzled.

"Before you ask, no, she was not on the train. It was at the hospital." I told her about my adventure there.

"Wow, Marcie. Does stuff like this happen to you all the time?"

"I don't know," I said. "Only lately."

"Maybe you should keep that doll," she giggled. "You could do a reality TV show."

I gave a wry smile and told her, "If I kept that doll, I'd shoot myself on the first episode."

© 2006, 2007 by Kaleigh Way