Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-up (4 page)

I covered my eyes with my hands. That way I could not see everyone looking at me. There were tears all over my hands in about four seconds. I heard Ms. Campbell say, “Tiffany, that is enough” in a kind of voice that meant Tiffany better watch out. I didn’t hear anyone else laughing. Then Jean started talking about the different office buildings and how the members of Congress go to the Capitol to vote on new laws.

I tried to listen, but I kept my hands over my face because the tears were still coming out. Then I felt someone touch me on the shoulder. I almost yelled, “Get offa me!” because I was so mad and sad, but I peeked through my fingers first to see who it was.

IT WAS REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS OF CONGRESS!

He said, “Ms. Campbell, may I please speak to this student in my office for a moment?”

I moved my hands from my eyes to see what Ms. Campbell would say. She nodded her head. So then I followed Representative Thomas into his office. And now I will just call him Rep Thomas because “Representative” takes a very long time to spell. Anyway, his office had a very big chair and lots of picture frames on the walls. Some of the frames had pictures of people shaking hands, and some of the frames just had pieces of paper with writing on them.

“What’s your name?” is the first question that Rep Thomas asked me. “Um . . .” I said. I think I was kind of nervous, because I couldn’t remember at first. “Um, Keena Ford,” I finally said.

Then I started to get a tiny bit worried that maybe he was going to tell me that I could not go in the U.S. Capitol with only one real braid. “Keena,” he said in a serious voice, “watch very carefully.” I did not know what I was watching for, but I opened my eyes extra wide so he would know I was paying good attention. Then he reached up and touched his own hair. And he pulled on it right where his forehead ended and his hair started. AND IT LIFTED UP OFF HIS HEAD! One part of his hair just lifted straight up in one big clump. I was so confused. I think my mouth came open.

“This is not my real hair,” explained Rep Thomas.

“That looked just like the way the corner of the carpet looks when I lift it up to hide candy wrappers under it,” I said. Then I touched my yarn braid. “I cut off my braid by accident,” I said. “This is not my real hair either.”

“I figured,” said Rep Thomas. “I wanted to show you that not everyone’s hair is perfect. I think you were very creative to make a new braid for yourself.”

“Thank you very much,” I said. Then I told him that my dad has a bald head and lives in Maryland, which is the state that elected Rep Thomas. And I told him about our elections for student council. “I wanted to be the delegate, but I did not win,” I said. “I am just the runner-up.”

“I did not win my first election,” Rep Thomas told me. “You should try again next year.”

“I will,” I said. “I saved my poster.” Then I asked Rep Thomas if I could still go on the tour.

“Of course!” Rep Thomas said. Then do you know what he said? He said he would go on the tour too! With his new friend Keena Ford!

THAT IS ME. I was very excited that Rep Thomas called me his friend.

When we came back into the hallway, Jean was giving stickers to all the kids so that people would know we were there for a tour and not just sneaking around. Jean looked surprised and a little worried when Rep Thomas said he was going to go on the tour too. Since Rep Thomas knows the most about Congress, I don’t know why he didn’t just say the stuff on the tour instead of Jean. Maybe he made her say the tour for her own good. That is the same reason why grown-ups always make kids do stuff that the grown-ups could do by themselves.

The first place we went was UNDERGROUND. There is a hallway that goes from the reps’ offices to the Capitol, but it wasn’t shiny like the office hallway. It just had lots of pipes and other people with stickers. We stood in a line beside a big toy of the Capitol in a glass case. When you make a toy building that doesn’t do anything and no one can touch, it is called a “model.” I guess they had the model of the Capitol so that if you had to wait in line for a long time underground you wouldn’t forget what it looks like on the outside.

While we were waiting in line, Jean started explaining some stuff to us about Congress. She said there are two kinds of people in Congress: senators and representatives. They have different meeting spots, and only the senators get their own desks. And the senators can scratch their names into their desks without even getting punished.

After we got our stickers checked, we walked down another very long hallway and up some stairs into the real Capitol. We saw a big staircase on one side and some HUGE metal doors against the wall on the other side. The metal doors had tiny people carved into them. Jean told us that the doors were made of bronze and that they used to be in the circle part of the Capitol but that they were too heavy for people to open. So now they are on the lower floor of the Capitol, and if you opened the bronze doors you would just walk into the wall.

We walked up another bunch of stairs into the circle part of the Capitol called the rotunda. The ceiling had a very beautiful painting on it. It had angels and clouds and rainbows, which are my favorite things to have in a picture because they are on the cover of my new journal. The painting also had George Washington, the first president of the United States. George Washington is not on the cover of my journal, but I think I am going to draw him on there. Jean said it took the artist eleven months to paint the painting on the ceiling!

We walked around and looked at a bunch of paintings and statues. Jean showed us a painting of when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Declaration of Independence is a big yellowy piece of paper that we sent to England to tell them we did not want them to be the boss of the United States anymore. This was a LONG, LONG time ago. In the picture there were a bunch of guys. Two of the guys are George Washington and John Adams. And in the picture George Washington is stepping on the foot of John Adams! On purpose! I looked around for Rep Thomas to ask him if George Washington got in big trouble for that one, but he was talking to Tiffany.

I did not like it that Tiffany was trying to be friends with my new friend Rep Thomas.

“Okay, girls,” I heard Jean say. “It’s time to move to the next room.” We followed Jean into a place called the Statutory Hall. There are many statues in that room. My favorite statue is of the first king of Hawaii. The statue is very big, and the king is wrapped up in a kind of cape. And you know what? His cape is made of SOLID GOLD!! Jean said that the statue had to be in the corner of the room because it was so heavy, if they put it in the middle it would fall right through the floor.

I was going to ask Rep Thomas why they kept putting these heavy things in the Capitol that had to go against the wall, but this time he was talking to Addy and Royann.

Ms. Campbell said it was time to line up to go back downstairs so we could visit another part of the Capitol. Once again LIKE USUAL I was stuck in the middle of the line. We were lined up at the top of a staircase, in a narrow hallway between two columns. “Be VERY careful on this staircase,” Ms. Campbell warned.

“Uh-oh,” I heard Tiffany say behind me. “I need to tie my shoe.”

“Well, step out of line and tie it,” Ms. Campbell said to Tiffany. “Just don’t fall behind.”

Tiffany was going to be the caboose AGAIN! I just knew it!

We walked down about six more steps. I was trying to be very careful like Ms. Campbell said. Addy was in line right behind me. She said, “This is the best field trip ever! Representative Thomas said I was his new friend Addy Smith.”

“And I’m his new friend
Delegate
Jones!” Royann said.

When Royann and Addy said those things, it made me feel a little bit jealous. I felt like I was not Rep Thomas’s most special new friend. He probably did not even remember my name now that he had made so many other friends.

All of a sudden I really, really needed to be the caboose. I was so sick and tired of being in the stupid middle of the stupid line. I decided to move fast so Ms. Campbell wouldn’t notice. When we were about six steps from the bottom, I let go of the handrail and turned around super fast to run up the stairs.

The only problem was I didn’t know that someone seemed to be walking down the stairs right in the spot where I was trying to move. I stomped on a shiny shoe, just like George Washington. And I slammed into the person’s leg because I was trying to move so fast. And that person started to wobble and wobble.

And that person was Rep Thomas.

Before I knew what was happening, Rep Thomas had fallen on his backside. And I had fallen over too. I heard Rep Thomas say, “Oof!” and I said, “Whoa!!” And then I could feel that I was sliding. I felt my backside go bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump down those six steps. Then BOOM. Rep Thomas and I landed in a kind of a pile at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of the heavy bronze doors.

I turned my head and looked up. Beside the staircase was a sculpture of the head of George Washington. I felt like he was staring right at me. I felt like he was telling me that what I had done was way, way worse than stepping on someone’s foot.

I looked back at the staircase. The whole rest of the line had stopped. I looked at Ms. Campbell. She looked pretty shocked. My next thought was that I had hurt Rep Thomas. I think my heart almost stopped beating. I looked at him to see if he was okay. He was kind of sitting up. “Oh my,” he said.

All of a sudden I could see that some tall men in uniforms were standing around us. “Are you all right, sir?” they said to Rep Thomas.

“Oh, I’m just fine,” said Rep Thomas. “What about Keena Ford?” He and the tall men in uniforms were looking at me.

“I’m—I’m . . .” I started to say. Then I just started to cry again for a second time in one field trip. One of the tall men held out a hand to me. I just knew that he was going to take me right off to jail. I started crying harder.

“Don’t be afraid,” the uniform man said. “We just need to sit you down and make sure you are okay.” Then I realized Mr. Lemon was beside me. “Are you hurt, Miss Ford?” he asked. I was crying so many tears that I started making a gulping sound, and I couldn’t even answer, but I shook my head no. “Maybe we should sit down for a minute,” he said. “I will go with you if you want.” I nodded. Mr. Lemon told Ms. Campbell that we would meet them in the office building cafeteria later. She said okay. Mr. Lemon, the uniform men, Rep Thomas, and I walked away from the rest of the class.

Even though Mr. Lemon was with me, I felt very scared. And I felt very, very ashamed. I could not look at Rep Thomas. I could not believe that I had knocked over the representative. He probably thought I was the worst kid in the whole United States of America.

I followed the man in the uniform very quietly. He opened a door to a room with a long table and some chairs. Everyone sat down. The man in the uniform was talking to someone on a walkie-talkie. Then he pulled out a notepad and started writing some stuff with a pen.