Tianna the Terrible (Anika Scott Series) (3 page)

Later, when the stewardess brought our supper, Mom leaned forward and asked us to say grace for ourselves.

I said, "You pray," to Sandy.

"You—you're the oldest," she insisted.

I sighed, ducked my head, and muttered, "Thank you for the food. Amen."

The meal was neat. The main plate was about twice as big as a postcard. There was a bun, butter, jam, a tiny salad, dessert, salt, pepper, and a piece of cheese, each in its own separate container. The silverware was about half the usual size and freezing cold.

I tried to eat very properly, sure that the woman across the aisle was watching me. I snuck a look at her, but she had all her attention focused on the man sitting next to her. They were talking in French and laughing.

By the time we finished eating, the plane was starting its descent to land at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, Holland. The stewardesses rushed to get all the trays cleared in time for landing.

It was dark, and the plane's lights tipped and swung as we circled the airport. If I leaned forward and Sandy leaned back, I could see the wing in the glow of the flashing red light on its tip. More and more flaps lifted up. The engines quieted, then there was a bump, and the runway lights were tearing past the window.

We were down.

A second later the plane shuddered with the noise of the reverse thrusters. We slowed, stopped, and started taxiing back to the terminal.

"Girls, stay in your seats 'til most of the people are off the plane," Daddy said. "That way we'll miss the rush."

The second the plane stopped, people were on their feet getting their luggage down. I stood up to get ours out of the overhead compartment.

The woman across the aisle touched my shoulder again and said softly, "I have liked to watch you so much, can you permit me giving you an advice?"

I nodded dumbly.

"I have seen so many—how you call it—adolescents are feeling bad, feeling embarrass by family. You will never make this mistake please. Your family is most nice. To pray is not embarrass. I wish I knew to pray better."

She patted my shoulder, smiled, and followed the man she'd been sitting with down the aisle. I stood there with my mouth open, watching her elegant form until I couldn't see her anymore.

"What did she say?" Sandy asked.

"Nothing," I said and pulled down Sandy's bag.

"Tell me!" she insisted, grabbing her bag.

"It was private," I said and turned my back on her.

"OK, girls, let's go," Daddy said, and I sighed with relief.

We jostled slowly down the aisle, past the stewardesses, who were smiling and shaking everyone's hand. The woman's last phrase kept sticking in my head, "I wish I knew to pray better."

Schiphol airport was so huge and strange that I forgot all about the woman. Sandy didn't even remember to bug me any more about it. All the signs were in about seven languages and had big pictures over them.

We followed Daddy, who seemed to know where he was going, and came to a huge hallway that looked miles long. People were walking along between solid waist-high railings, but they were going as fast as if they were running. Daddy walked straight toward the end of one section and stepped on. It was a moving sidewalk, like an escalator only flat. I grinned and followed.

"You should rest, Kevin," Mom said. "I've heard that there's a lounge here reserved for missionaries. I'd like to find that."

Daddy nodded like he was thinking something over. Then he said, "You're right. I am tired, but we've only got a three-hour layover between flights. I'll rest on one of the couches in the duty-free area so the kids can look around."

"What's he mean, 'duty free'?" Sandy asked me.

I shrugged and said, "It has something to do with taxes. I think we're sort of in between countries, so we don't have to pay any taxes. That makes things cheaper."

Then we were there. The duty-free area was a wide, bright area with very fancy shops. Mom and Daddy sat down on a big, shiny black couch.

"You girls can look around," Daddy said. "Just make sure you're back in an hour."

We nodded and started to take off.

"Don't forget to get something for each of you to give your aunt and uncle," Mom called after us.

Sandy and I walked into the nearest shop. It was full of odd kinds of sausages, cheeses, smoked meat, and fish.

"Hey, Anika," Sandy said, "look at this. Smoked octopus."

I squinched up my nose trying to imagine what that would be like to eat. I kind of liked the octopus we'd eaten at the coast in Kenya, but smoked? Maybe it would turn out to be great, like green eggs and ham in that Dr. Seuss book. For a second I even thought about buying it to see. I giggled and said, "We ought to buy some for Uncle Kurt."

"Gross!" Sandy said. "Mom would probably make us eat it."

"At least we'd find out what it tastes like," I answered. "It costs enough that it ought to be good.

"You're weird," Sandy said.

"Sophisticated people eat all kinds of things," I said, turning my back on her, my nose in the air. Just then I almost collided with the most handsome man I've ever seen. He dodged, a disgusted look on his face, and swept past.

Sandy laughed out loud. I would have kicked her, but she was out of range.

We looked in the other shops and saw raw and cut diamonds, camera and video gear, expensive sports clothes, fancy chocolates, and all kinds of neat things.

"We've only got fifteen minutes left," I said, looking up at a big clock. "We'd better find something for Uncle Kurt and Aunt Doreen."

Sandy made a face, but we started to look. She chose a net bag of tiny round cheeses. I couldn't find anything.

We passed a shop that sold flower bulbs packaged in cardboard boxes. I grabbed the nearest box I could afford and bought it. Then we ran to meet Mom and Daddy.

When we were standing in line to go through security to board our next fight, I took out the box of tulip bulbs and looked at it.

On the bottom was a list of countries with little pictures of flags. Underneath the flags was written, "It is illegal to import these bulbs into countries not on this list."

Canada wasn't on the list.
Oh no,
I thought.
It's against the law to take these tulips into Canada.
I stared at them a second, then stuffed the box into the very bottom of my bag.

The next airplane we were on was almost empty. As soon as the seatbelt sign went off Daddy said, "Let's each find a row of seats and get some sleep. It's already midnight by Kenya time."

I lay on my back across three seats with my knees doubled up so they wouldn't stick into the aisle. Airplane noise filled my head, and the blanket over me was scratchy. I kept worrying about the tulips and thought I'd never go to sleep, but I must have. When I opened my eyes, the window in my row of seats had sunshine in it.

My face felt all squashed and itchy where it had been against the seat. I rubbed it and sat up. Mom saw me and said, "Hi, sleepyhead."

"What time is it?" I asked. My voice was all croaky.

"It's past noon in Toronto, but it's still the middle of the night in Kenya. My watch says 4:30 a.m.," Daddy said, grinning. "You slept a little more than four hours."

I nodded and sat there with my eyes half-open. It looked like morning, but it sure didn't feel like morning. Being out of time with the sun felt very weird. We switched airplanes in Toronto, and by the time we were getting close to Calgary I felt numb all over. I looked over at Daddy and felt even worse. There were huge circles under his eyes, and his skin looked almost gray.

"Anika, go and wash your face and brush your hair so you'll look nice when we land," Mom said.

In the tiny, noisy bathroom, I pulled the brush through my hair, which was sticking out every which way from sleeping. My bangs were sticking up so that the red scar from the cut and all of my forehead showed. I glared at myself. My forehead wasn't really too green and purple anymore. With a sigh, I got the brush wet and tried to make my bangs lie down. Then I jerked at my too-small dress, which was completely wrinkled. I stuck my tongue out at my reflection and went back to my seat.

Sandy was glued to the window. "Look, mountains!"

"Mom said you have to go brush your hair," I said, holding out the brush.

"I did already."

"When, yesterday?" I asked. She made a face, then grabbed the brush and pushed past me.

I sat in the window seat and looked out. Straight below us the ground looked like a dusty quilt. It was mostly square fields. Some were so dark brown they were almost black, others were kind of gray-brown, and a few were bright green. If you looked way out, there were mountains like a row of broken teeth. I could see the snow on them. The mountains I was used to stood alone, each one by itself: Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, Longonot. These mountains weren't like that. They all ran together, making a jagged wall all along the edge of the land. I stared at them with interest.

Even after the plane landed, I could still see the mountains along the edge of the world. They made me feel better. Exciting things could happen in a place with mountains like that.

In fact, the mountains made me feel so good that I forgot all about the tulips.

Walking into the airport, I felt like I was made of wood. My eyes would hardly stay open. We found our suitcases, then waited in line at customs. Mom kept anxiously watching the people through the windows. Just before it was our turn, Mom started waving madly.

"Look, Kevin! There's Kurt."

Daddy smiled and waved, too. I was still trying to figure out who Mom was waving at.

"Is that him?" Sandy asked me. "That tall man?"

I shrugged, but Mom said without looking back, "Yes. Look, Anika, there's Tianna."

I glanced up and saw a tall man who looked vaguely familiar. I stared, and he grinned at me and waved. I sort of half waved back. He was holding on to the shoulder of a kid who was smaller than me. Whew! At least Tianna didn't look way older than me.

I waved at her, but she just glared at me, then turned her back. Her clothes were even nicer than Lisa's—whose clothes were outstanding—but her hair wasn't even brushed.

Sandy poked me, and I realized we were at the customs desk. The man was holding out his hand for my bag. Without thinking I handed it over and turned back to look at Tianna.

"Could you explain this?" the customs man said curtly.

I whipped around to see him holding the box of tulips.

"Um," I said and stopped.

With a frown, he turned to Daddy and said, "You realize it's illegal to bring these into Canada."

My stomach sank. He thought Daddy had tried to get them in by putting them in my bag where maybe customs wouldn't look as hard.

"I bought them!" I blurted. "They were for my aunt, only I didn't see that we couldn't bring them here 'til we were already on the plane."
Well, almost on the plane,
I thought to myself.

"Anika!" Mom said, frowning. "You should have told us!"

My ears felt hot, but I kept on looking at the customs man. He wasn't looking at me, though. He was frowning at Daddy.

"Take your suitcases and go over to that office, please," he said.

Chapter Three

I swallowed. Those tulips I'd bought were really getting us into trouble. Daddy picked up a suitcase and followed the customs man. You could tell by the way Daddy moved that he was very tired. Mom and Sandy followed him, but I hung back.

"It was only me," I called to the customs man. "Mom and Dad didn't do anything. Daddy's sick; please let us go through."

He didn't even turn around.

"Anika!" Daddy called, and I could tell it was an order. In the other room a fat woman with short blonde hair that stuck out all over went through every tiny part of our luggage, like we were smugglers or something. They even looked in Daddy's medicine bottle and asked about the prescriptions. Sandy kept glaring at me, and Mom and Daddy ignored me.

I wished I was dead.

After a lecture, the fat lady let us go, and we walked out to where Uncle Kurt was waiting. He came over and hugged Mom. I was afraid he'd hug me, too, so I stayed way back. Daddy was beside me because he'd been walking slowly. I'd tried to get him to let me carry the suitcase, but he wouldn't.

Uncle Kurt came over and took the suitcase from Daddy. "Hazel wants us to go straight home so you can rest," he said. "You sure look like you could use it."

Then he looked at me and said, "So
you're
the smuggler in the family. I thought Christians weren't into smuggling." He laughed.

I just stared at my feet. This was terrible.

"Just kidding, just kidding," he said. "Smuggle all you want. Why should you be different from anyone else?" He looked up and raised his voice. "Tianna, come here and meet your smuggling cousin."

She came over and stood about five feet away.

"Tianna, this is Anika. Say hi," Uncle Kurt said, and then he left with Daddy.