“Aren’t we going to eat breakfast?” Benny asked. “I’m hungry!”
“Well, that’s no surprise,” Henry said with a laugh.
“Let’s go on in,” Grandfather said, leading the way into the coffee shop. The hostess brought the Aldens to a large round table in the center of the room and gave each of them a menu.
“Everything looks good!” Jessie said as she read the list of delicious breakfast specials.
When the waitress came and took their orders she said, “I’m Jane. I’ll be as fast as I can.”
But the wait for their food seemed endless. Each time Jane came from the kitchen with a tray of food, Benny said, “Is that ours?”
At last, Jane came to their table, carrying an extra-large tray loaded with food.
“Benny, your blueberry pancakes look delicious,” Grandfather said. He stirred sugar into his steaming cup of coffee.
“I’ll give you a taste if you’d like, Grandfather,” Benny said, pouring a thick stream of syrup over the top of his stack of blue-flecked pancakes. “Want some syrup, Jessie?” he asked.
“No, thanks. I’m going to put sugar on my waffles and fruit,” Jessie said.
Violet had already started eating her cereal. “What’s wrong?” Grandfather asked when he noticed the strange look on her face.
“This tastes awful,” Violet said.
“Is the milk sour?” Grandfather asked.
“No,” Violet said, “it’s not that. The cereal tastes funny … sort of salty.”
“Yuck!” Jessie said after taking a big bite of waffle. “My waffle tastes salty, too!”
“My pancakes are great!” Benny said, munching happily.
“How about you, Henry. How are your scrambled eggs?” Grandfather asked.
Henry took a bite of his eggs and made a face. “My eggs taste sweet!”
“I wonder …” Jessie said thoughtfully. “Hand me the salt and sugar, please.” Henry passed them to her, and Jessie sprinkled a little from the saltshaker onto a finger. She took a taste. “This tastes sweet.” Then she spooned out a little from the sugar bowl and took a taste of that. “Salty!” she cried. “The salt and sugar are mixed up!”
“That’s why all of our food tastes funny!” Henry said.
“Not mine,” Benny said. He had already eaten half of his pancakes. “Mine tastes good! I’m glad I only used syrup!”
“I’ll speak to Jane and see if we can get this straightened out,” Grandfather said. But try as he might, he couldn’t get her attention. Suddenly, it seemed as if everyone in the coffee shop needed something, and all the waiters and waitresses were running from table to table.
“Yes, I’ll get you a fresh omelette,” the Aldens heard Jane saying to one table. “Certainly I can bring you another bowl of oatmeal,” she said to another. “I just can’t understand what’s happening this morning,” she muttered to herself.
At last she came to the Aldens’ table. “I believe the salt and sugar have gotten mixed up,” Grandfather told her.
“What?” the weary-looking waitress said.
“We noticed that all our food tasted funny,” Jessie explained, “and so I checked the salt and sugar. They’ve been switched.”
“Really! How did that happen?” Jane said. “I’ll bring you a new order right away. But I wonder …” She paused.
“What are you wondering?” Henry asked.
“Well, everyone’s had some kind of complaint this morning about their food,” she explained.
“Not me!” said Benny, gobbling up the last bite of his pancakes.
Jane smiled at Benny. “I wonder if the salt and sugar were switched at other tables, too.” She walked over to the table next to the Aldens’. “Could I borrow your salt and sugar?” she asked.
“Sure,” the man sitting there said gruffly. “I’m not eating another thing until you bring me some fresh coffee. This tastes terrible! I keep putting more sugar in it, and it just gets worse.”
“Right away, sir,” she said. But first she did the same test Jessie had done earlier. “The salt and sugar on this table were mixed up, too,” she said after tasting each one. “I’m so sorry. I’ll bring you some fresh breakfast immediately.”
“Thank you,” Grandfather said. The Aldens watched as Jane motioned to the other waitresses and waiters. They stood talking in a corner for a moment, and then all of them disappeared into the kitchen. After a few minutes they came out carrying empty trays, and went from table to table, removing the saltshakers and sugar bowls.
People were beginning to grow impatient. They complained loudly as they waited for fresh food to replace their salty cereal and sugary eggs. A number of guests got up, angrily muttering about “being too busy to wait.”
“It’s a good thing my meeting isn’t until eleven o’clock this morning,” Grandfather said. “I’ve got plenty of time to wait. But some people don’t.”
“Some people are very angry,” Violet said.
“Look, there’s Karen Walsh,” Benny said. “I thought she said she wasn’t hungry.”
Karen Walsh was sitting at a table in the corner. Strangely enough, she seemed to be the only person in the restaurant, besides the Aldens, who looked calm. She was watching all the action with a small smile on her face. There was no food on her table, just a cup of coffee and a notebook, in which she was writing.
A few moments later Don Parker came in, looking very worried. His red hair was a mess, and his shirt and tie were rumpled. It seemed that some of the guests had complained angrily at the front desk. Mr. Parker spoke briefly to the hostess of the coffee shop, and then went from table to table, apologizing and encouraging everyone to be patient. Their breakfasts would be served as soon as possible.
The Aldens overheard one angry woman say, “Are you the manager of this hotel?”
“Well, I’m the assistant manager,” Mr. Parker explained. “I couldn’t find the manager anywhere. But don’t worry, we’ll give you all a free breakfast to make up for this inconvenience.”
“Won’t it be expensive for the restaurant to give everyone a free breakfast?” Henry asked Mr. Alden.
“Yes, it will,” Grandfather said. “But when you run a hotel, it’s important to keep your guests happy.”
“Isn’t that the manager’s job?” Violet asked.
“I wonder where Ms. Ames is,” Jessie said.
At last Jane brought food for all the Aldens except Benny. While they were eating, he began to grow restless. “I think I’ll go say hello to Karen Walsh.” Benny headed to her table. She was still writing in her notebook, but when Benny came over she slammed the notebook shut and began stuffing it into the large leather bag on the seat beside her. She didn’t look at all happy to see Benny.
“Hello,” Benny said.
“What do you want?” Karen asked.
“I just thought I’d come say hi, but if you’re busy — ” Benny started.
“Yes, I am,” Karen said. “I’ve no time to talk. I have work to do.”
Benny returned to the Aldens’ table. “She’s still not very friendly,” he said glumly. “She said she was working.”
“What kind of work?” Jessie asked.
“I don’t know — she was writing in that notebook, and she definitely didn’t want me to see it,” Benny said. “She hid it away as soon as I got there.”
“What could she be writing that’s such a secret?” Violet asked.
They watched as Jane approached Karen’s table to refill her coffee cup. Again, Karen hid the notebook in her bag.
“I’ve been wondering about the salt and sugar mix-up,” Jessie said, changing the subject. “At first I thought it was just an accident. But it looks like they were switched at every table.”
“Then it couldn’t have been an accident,” Henry said.
“Why would anyone want to do that?” Violet asked. “I mean, it would take a long time, so you’d have to have a really good reason.”
“It must have taken a long time to dye the pool purple, too,” Jessie pointed out.
“I think it’s a mystery!” Benny said excitedly. “It’s a good thing we’re here to solve it!”
After breakfast, Grandfather left for his meeting, and the children decided to take a walk and see some of the nearby sights. Henry carried the map, and Jessie carried the guidebook, and they all stayed close together on the crowded sidewalks. They walked down Fifth Avenue, amazed at how much there was to look at. Everywhere they turned, there were big buildings, store windows filled with all sorts of things arranged in imaginative displays, and crowds of people walking quickly, dressed in different kinds of clothes.
On one corner, the Aldens stopped to watch two men and a woman singing in perfect harmony. There was a hat on the ground in front of them, and some people walking by stopped to listen and then threw a few coins in the hat.
The Aldens reached St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was the biggest church they’d ever seen. It filled an entire city block, and its tall spires reached up toward the sky. The children walked up the steps and went inside, where it was quiet and peaceful compared to the noise and bustle outside. There were long aisles with rows and rows of pews, and beautiful stained-glass windows.
After leaving St. Patrick’s, the children crossed the street. “Look at that!” cried Benny, running over to a huge bronze statue. It was a man struggling to hold a giant globe on his shoulders.
“That’s Atlas,” Henry explained. “He was a character in Greek mythology who held the whole world on his shoulders. That’s where the word atlas — you know, a book of maps — comes from.”
“According to our guidebook,” Jessie said, “this area is called Rockefeller Center.”
The Aldens walked to a large ice-skating rink set below street level. The rink was surrounded by flagpoles with flags from many different countries flapping in the breeze.
“Wow,” said Violet as the children stood above the rink, looking down at the skaters. On the opposite side of the rink was a large golden statue of Prometheus, another character from Greek mythology, that shone brightly in the sun.
Jessie looked in the guidebook and said, “The book says that at Christmastime they have a huge tree here, over sixty feet tall and covered with lights.”
The children stood watching the skaters. There was a woman in a short pink skirt who was doing jumps and turns in the middle of the ice. “She’s wonderful,” Jessie said. “I wish I could skate like that.”
A bunch of teenaged boys skated rapidly around the ice. There were some couples holding hands, and a young girl who couldn’t take a step without falling down.
“I wish we had brought our skates,” Violet said.
“I bet we could rent some,” Henry pointed out. “Let’s go see.”
There was a place to rent skates, and the children put them on and headed out to the ice. They whizzed around and around to the music.
Jessie was a very good skater, always eager to learn something new. Shyly, she approached the woman in the pink skirt and asked if she would mind showing her how to do some of the turns and jumps. The woman smiled and said, “I’d love to. Just watch me.” In no time, Jessie was able to perform a new jump.
After a little while, the children began to get tired, and of course Benny was hungry. They returned the skates, and Jessie said, “Isn’t it wonderful? That woman taught me a new jump. And I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be unfriendly.”
“I guess that’s just not true,” said Henry.
It was lunchtime now, and the sidewalks were filled with people leaving their offices and going out to eat or shop. As the Aldens approached their hotel, they found themselves walking in front of a couple who were talking very loudly. Although they didn’t mean to eavesdrop, the Aldens couldn’t help overhearing what the couple were saying.
“Lucille,” the man said, “I know you’re very angry that The Plymouth fired me, and I am, too. But don’t worry, I’m handling it. I’ve already started to do some things — ”
“The Plymouth?” Violet said. “That’s our hotel.” She peeked over her shoulder and saw a pretty woman with chin-length dark hair and a man who looked like her but was a little older. Violet quickly nudged her sister. “It’s a maid from our hotel,” she whispered. “The one we saw in our hallway last night.”
“What are you doing about it, Malcolm?” Lucille demanded.
“I said I was taking care of it,” Malcolm said. “Calm down.”
“They should never have fired you,” Lucille insisted. “And I don’t care what you have in mind — I’m doing something about it myself.”
“Don’t, Lucille. I know how you handle things. Just be careful,” Malcolm said. “Don’t you get fired, too.”
By now the Aldens were very curious. They strained to hear what Lucille and Malcolm were saying. But at the next corner, the couple turned and disappeared into the crowd.
“They certainly sounded angry,” Violet said.
“I wonder what he meant when he said he was taking care of it,” Jessie said.
“And I wonder what she meant by ‘I’m doing something about it,’ ” Henry said.
“What do you think she’d do that might get her fired?” Violet asked.
Jessie said, “This hotel is getting more and more mysterious.”
“That’s just the way I like it!” said Benny. |