Babysitter of the Daleks, part 1
The author gratefully acknowledges
Peter Laryngitis
Ellen Kilometers
and Hilda Beechgartner
for their help in
preparing this manuscript.
Chapter 1
Mallory
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Dear Granny and Grandpa Pike,
How are you? I hope you’re both well! I’m having a great holiday, doing lots of sitting for my brothers and sisters! I made a new friend, too. He’s foreign, and very exotic! I’ll tell you more when I next see you.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
Love, Mallory
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Whoooosh, whoooosh, whoooosh! The odd noise echoed across the park.
"Adam! Jordan! What are you doing!?" I yelled, looking around to find where the triplets had gotten to. I had left them to their own devices and they had run some way off to conduct a snowball fight (they are ten years old and don't need to be supervised all the time) while I looked after the younger kids, who were building a snowperson.
"What kind of trouble do you think they've got themselves into now?" said my friend Stacey, laughing and flipping her curly blonde hair over her shoulders. She was wearing it loose that snowy day, under a red woolly hat which matched her scarf and gloves. She looked quite grown up, like she belonged strutting down the sophisticated streets in New York City (which is where she is originally from) rather than here in this childrens’ playground in the small town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut.
But here she was, helping me to babysit my younger brothers and sisters! We are both very experienced sitters, and belong to a club called the Baby-sitters Club together (more about that later!), but even so, the triplets, Adam, Byron and Jordan, can be quite a handful!
I looked around, trying to figure out where the strange noise had come from. I could see all three triplets, though, not too far away, throwing handfuls of snow at each other.
Hmm. It was a mystery!
“Maybe we should think about heading back soon,” said Stacey, rubbing her mitten-clad hands together. It was really very cold. Besides, it was almost five o'clock, which meant that because it was a Wednesday it was almost time for our club meeting! Stacey and I were sitting for Claire (she's 5), Margo (7), Nicky (8), Vanessa (9), and the triplets (10) while my parents attended a Wintermas carol concert at the local retirement home. (Some of the residents there are Jewish, and Christmas carols should be for everyone, which is why they decided that Wintermas was a better name for the festival) But they were due back just after five, leaving Stacey and I plenty of time to make it to our meeting. Kristy, our president and friend, gets very angry if anyone is late and gives them a Look. Eek! I live in fear of getting that Look!
I nodded. “Adam! Jordan! Byron!” I called the boys back over. They came running, red faced and damp from the snow they'd been pelting each other with.
“No, silly-billy-goo-goo!” screamed Claire (she's going through a silly phase). “I want to play in the snow more!”
“You can play in the snow more tomorrow,” Stacey told her.
“But I want to play more NOW!”
I rolled my eyes at Stacey. Kids! Luckily, we both knew exactly what we needed to do. Stacey took Claire by the hand, and I took Vanessa and Margo's mittens in mine. The triplets were now chasing after Nicky, trying to put handfuls of snow down the back of his parka, so this time Stacey yelled for them. Sometimes they're more likely to listen to her than to me, since she isn't their sister.
I took one last look around for the source of that whooshing noise. Perhaps there might be a monster in the trees that would follows us home! When you're responsible for the lives of children, it pays to be safe.
But it was starting to get dark, and I didn't notice anything unusual. Although... was that a man standing by the gate? It didn't look like anybody I knew. I tried to exchange looks with Stacey, but she was walking ahead of me, and didn't notice me eyeballing the back of her head. The man seemed to be shaking something in his hand and muttering to himself, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.
“Hello!” called Stacey. She'd spotted him as well. Normally, we're not supposed to talk to strangers, and I would definitely never be that brave myself, but Stacey's from New York. Plus, she's a little boy crazy, and the man looked young and quite attractive. He was tall and skinny, with cute floppy hair hanging over his eyes. He was wearing a tweed jacket and a bow tie that would have made my friend Claudia very jealous. (She's artsy and very fashionable and Japanese-American. She likes to express herself through how she dresses, and frequently makes her own clothes. They're amazing! But more about that a bit later, too)
The man looked up. “Hello!” he said. “Do you live here, then?” He raised his arm to point towards us.
“Auuugh!” cried Stacey, jumping back, as a light flashed and a strange noise sounded from whatever the man was holding. “Is that a gun!?”
“What, my screwdriver?” the man looked down at his instrument and back up at Stacey. “It looks nothing like a gun! I thought I was in Americaland. Don't you all carry guns here? Maybe I took a wrong turn...” He frowned, and shook his instrument.
I stepped forward. For once around a boy, Stacey didn't seem to know what to do. But if he was lost, then maybe I could help. I'm good at giving directions. “You're in Stoneybrook,” I informed him.
“Is that in America?”
“Yes...”
Now I was a bit confused. But then a light came on in my head, and I understood! “Oh, you must be visiting from Europe! Is that right? Are you a friend of the Papadakises? They're from Greece, and that's in Europe!” I was very proud of myself for figuring it out.
“Europe! Yes, right!” the man seemed relieved that I'd understood his problem, too. “Lovely place, Europe. Good mayonnaise. I never could get the hang of mayonnaise this side of the pond... You say this place is Stoneybrook?”
Stacey must have composed herself, because she answered quickly. “Yes! We live here! Do you maybe need someone to show you around?” She tilted her head and smiled at the man. She must have noticed his bow tie as well. (Being very fashion-conscious herself, Stacey likes well-dressed men.)
“Actually,” said the man, “that is exactly what I need. Have you by any chance been noticing anything strange happening around here?”
I thought about that. Nothing sprang to mind. Maybe the hat Claudia wore last week, with all those crushed drinks cans hanging off the brim, to signify the importance of recycling. (It had looked amazing on Claudia, but perhaps someone who didn't know her might have thought it was a bit odd) But if this man had only just arrived, then he couldn't have seen it yet...
It was really starting to get dark now. I glanced at my wristwatch. It was almost twenty past five! I clapped my hand to my forehead. “Oh my goodness!” I gasped. “Stacey, we have to run, or we'll be late for the meeting!”
Stacey glanced at me sharply, then turned back to the man. “Oh, we should probably go...” she told him. “There's somewhere important we have to be...” She seemed reluctant to leave.
“Important meeting?” said the man. “Well, that sounds promising! Is it like a town committee thing?”
“Sort of,” I replied. There wasn't time to explain just now. Stacey and I were in mortal danger of a Look. I grabbed Stacey's sleeve and started walking quickly. My brothers and sisters had returned to their snowy fun, but they knew the way home. They would be fine. Anyway, this was more important.
Stacey dragged a little, but she understood too. Halfway down the street, we heard footsteps running to catch up with us. The man appeared at my shoulder. “I think I might just tag along, if you don't mind.” I shook my head. Stacey giggled.
“Kristy'll have a fit!” she whispered to me. She turned to the man. “That's fine!” she told him. “But we have to hurry, or we'll be late.”
“Okey-dokey,” he said, opening his jacket as he walked to put the thing he had called his screwdriver into an inside pocket. He then looked back up at us. “By the way, I'm the Doctor.”
Here be the obligatory ambiguous picture of a pair of mittens holding a snowball. Every winter super special needs one.
Chapter 2
Mary Anne
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Dear Pop-pop,
Merry Christmas! This has been a great year, especially because we got a new member of the BSC! He’s older, and he’s originally from Europe or something, I think. I’m still not clear on how he joined; it all happened so quickly. Can’t wait to see you at Easter!
Love,
Mary Anne
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“Okay,” barked Kristy, “This meeting is about to come to order!”
“I’ll have a ham on rye,” said my boyfriend Logan, nuzzling me behind the ear.
Maybe I should start at the beginning. My name is Mary Anne, and I’m a member of the Babysitters’ Club. The Babysitters’ Club was started by my best friend Kristy a long time ago when we were in the seventh grade. One afternoon, she was eating pizza and listening to her mother call several different numbers to find a sitter for Kristy’s little brother, David Michael (I’ll say more about Kristy’s family later). Kristy got the Great Idea that there should be one number a parent could call and reach several experienced babysitters. The club was born! We meet from five-thirty to six on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so that our clients can reach all of us at once. Our clients know to call us at those times. Otherwise, they just can’t have a sitter. Also, they can’t request any one babysitter specifically or Kristy throws a fit. We all have to share the jobs evenly. (My friend Kristy is VERY strict about club rules. People around here have learned to humor her.)
Just then, Stacey, Mallory and a strange man came pounding up the stairs into the room.
“We’re not late, are we?” said Stacey.
As Kristy shook her head, the clock changed from 5:29 to 5:30.
Stacey sighed and plopped down on Claudia’s bed (the club meets in Claudia’s room because she has her own phone line). Mallory took her usual place on the floor next to her best friend Jessi.
Kristy pounded the arms of her director’s chair. “Order!” she said. “This meeting of the Babysitters’ Club will now come to order!”
“You’re babysitters?” the strange man said in a British accent. He looked relieved. “From the decor I was afraid I walked into another meeting of the cult of the Flotsam-Jim. Wouldn’t want to do that again.”
“Who are you?” Kristy asked.
“I’m the Doctor.”
“We met him in the park,” explained Mallory, raising her hand. “He wanted to come to our meeting.”
Kristy glared at the Doctor as if sizing him up. It’s not surprising that Kristy’s so suspicious of strangers, since she’s had so many changes in her life lately. You see, Kristy was my first best friend. We’ve known each other since grade school. Kristy used to live right next door to me with her little brother David Michael and her older brothers, Sam and Charlie. But then her mom got remarried (her father walked out on them when Kristy was little) to a man named Watson Brewer and moved the family across town. Watson turned out to be a Real Live millionaire! So now Kristy’s family lives in a mansion and everyone has their own bedroom. Watson has two children, Karen and Andrew, from a previous marriage, that live with Kristy at the mansion every other weekend and on some holidays, and Kristy loves them. Watson and Kristy’s mother also adopted an orphan from Vietnam and named her Emily Michelle. As if that wasn’t too many changes, then they invited Kristy’s grandma, Nannie, to stay with them and raise Emily Michelle. They sure are an exciting bunch!
Kristy is the shortest girl in our class, and she can’t fill a bra-- but she sure has a big mouth! Besides her big mouth, she also has brown hair that she wears in a ponytail. She couldn’t care less about clothes or boys, and she always wears a turtleneck, jeans, and a baseball cap with a picture of a collie stitched on it. It’s kind of fitting that she always wears a baseball cap, since Kristy adores sports and has even started her own children’s softball team, Kristy’s Krushers!
Kristy will always be my friend, but my new best friend’s name is Dawn Schafer, and she’s also my stepsister! Dawn was born in California, but when she was in seventh grade her parents divorced and her mother, Sharon, moved back to her hometown of Stoneybrook, with Dawn and her ten-year-old brother Jeff, which is when Dawn met me! Soon after we met, we discovered that our parents were high school sweethearts, so we decided to meddle with their relationships and set them up together. Pretty soon, they were married! (My mother died when I was little. It’s very tragic and I don’t talk about it much except to tell people that it happened at awkward times.) The four of us (Dawn, Dawn’s mother, me and my father who used to be strict and isn’t anymore, plus my kitten Tigger) moved into Dawn’s new house, an old (1790) farmhouse near Claudia’s house where the club meets. Recently, Dawn missed her old life in California and moved back to be with her father and brother for awhile. But she comes to live with us when her school is on breaks.
Dawn and I care about each other, but we sure are different. She’s from California so she loves the sun and warm weather. I actually like broody cloudy weather like this because it matches my mood. Dawn also hates normal food and only eats gross organic things like tofu and bean sprouts all the time. She’s a real individual and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, except for the times when she does-- oh, the stories I could tell you! But I’m more sensitive and shy. When Dawn’s in town she’s an Alternate Officer for the Babysitters’ Club, which means she has to do the job of anyone who can’t make it. I’m the club’s secretary. It’s my job to answer the phone and write down appointments. It’s very important stuff and I’m very good at it. I don’t mean to sound conceited. It’s just true. I also have a boyfriend, Logan, who looks just like Cam Geary and has a hot Southern accent, and is an associate member of the club (which means he doesn’t have to come to meetings) but Dawn doesn’t have a boyfriend.
Of course, just because Dawn doesn’t even live around here anymore, doesn’t mean she’s excused from coming to BSC meetings when she’s in town! So she was at the meeting that day, eating an organic tofu candy cane and complaining, as usual. None of us wanted to tell Kristy what a stupid idea it was to have her there.
Besides Dawn, Kristy and me, the club also has a Vice-president, Claudia Kishi, and a treasurer, Stacey McGill. I’ve mentioned that we meet in Claudia’s room because she has her own phone line. Claudia is our club’s Vice President. She’s Japanese-American and very beautiful, with almond-shaped eyes and light brown skin. She’s also a brilliant artist but horrible at school work. It’s not that she’s dumb or anything-- she just would rather concentrate on her artwork, which is really good. She even likes to make her clothing artistic, mixing up patterns and colors that some people wouldn’t think would go together! Right now, for example, she was wearing a bright yellow men’s shirt with black horizontal stripes, one black legging and one yellow legging with pink polka-dots, and black and gold striped push-down socks. Her hair was pulled into a side ponytail with two gold chopsticks sticking out of it, and she wore earrings made of actual tea bags. On anyone but Claudia it would have looked over the top, but she really pulled it off. Claudia loves to read Nancy Drew mysteries and eat junk food, both of which are against her parents’ rules, so she has to hide them around her room. Right now, for example, she was trying to dislodge a melted Twix bar from between the pages of her Nancy Drew book that she’d hidden under her pillow.
Stacey is the club’s treasurer because she’s good at math. I sometimes wonder if she got her knack for Math from paying cab fare in New York, because that’s where she’s from! And you can tell she’s from New York because of how grown-up and sophisticated she is. She loves clothing and even has a perm! She also has diabetes, which is a scary disease that makes you go into a coma if you don’t avoid all sugar and inject yourself every day with insulin (yikes!). But she doesn’t let that get her down. She’s also not down about the fact that her parents are divorced. They divorced just last year. Stacey had to choose between staying in her father’s exciting New York apartment and coming back to Stoneybrook to live with her mother, and we’re all glad that she chose to come here!
The club also has two junior officers, who are eleven years old (the rest of us are thirteen). We let them take most of the daytime jobs since they can’t go out late at night. One of our junior officers, Jessi Ramsey, is black, but we don’t mention this too much because we don’t want to embarrass her. Her family comes from a place where lots of black people live, but when they moved here there were almost no black people in Stoneybrook. Still, they managed to make friends and we treat them just like everybody else. Jessi is also a great ballet dancer. She has a younger sister named Becca, a baby brother named Squirt and a crabby old Aunt Cecilia. She also has a mom and dad. The other junior officer is Mallory Pike. Mallory is the oldest of eight brothers and sisters! She loves books and horses. She’s also kind of fugly looking. I mean, she’s got glasses and braces, and she desperately needs a haircut and a nose job. But she doesn’t let that get her down any more than Jessi’s blackness. The two of them are best friends.
There’s also Shannon, another associate member, but she doesn’t really have a personality.
So that’s our club! We’re quite a handful.
Anyway, the Doctor stared back at Kristy as if he wasn’t at all scared of her. “I guess you’re in charge here?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Kristy a little angrily. “And if you want to come to meetings, you have to be a babysitter. Are you a babysitter?”
“Of course I’m a babysitter!” the Doctor replied. “Love a good babysit. Here’s my Babysitter Certification Card!” he flashed his wallet at Kristy, who squinted at the piece of paper inside.
“Hmmph,” Kristy said. “Okay, we’ll let you in for a trial run, Mr... Doctor. But don’t answer the phone. Parents get nervous when a male voice answers the phone.”
“Very good. I’ll just have a ...look round then.”
“No chitchat until we’ve discussed Club Business!” bellowed Kristy.
The Doctor took out some kind of brass wand with a glowing green light at the end. I thought it was a flashlight. Something told me that the Doctor was a detective, and all detectives carry flashlights, after all.
“Now,” he said as he twirled around the room, pointing the flashlight at the various paintings Claud had up. He stopped on one of a Snickers bar and looked at the wand. “It seems like this is... your.... sixth.... Christmas in this year. Definitely strange. Time was flowing properly until you showed up.”
He turned to Stacey and pointed the flashlight at her. She tensed slightly and twirled her hair around her finger. Stacey is boy crazy and this English gentleman had appeared in Claudia’s room faster than we could say Yipee! She clearly had a crush.
The Doctor got a very strange expression on his face; then he turned the flashlight to Claudia. “Did you know,” he said, “That your metabolism has been altered to burn eight thousand calories a day?” He looked at the wand again and frowned. The wand made an even stranger noise. “And that’s not counting basal functions and physical activity! Interesting process... would have to lower the IQ by at least 70 per cent. Have you been having trouble at school lately, love?”
Claudia looked confused.
“I said,” Kristy began.
Just then, the phone rang.
Mary Anne answered in her most businesslike voice. “Hello! The Babysitters’ Club!” She listened for a few seconds. “Yes, Mrs. Thomas. You need two babysitters over at the Brewer house tomorrow at three o’clock? We’ll get right back to you.” She hung up, and looked at Kristy.
“I’ll sit,” said Kristy, “And this... Doctor... can come with me. Just so I can see how good a sitter you really are.”
Chapter 3
Kristy
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Dear Dad,
You really suck. It’s Christmas and we still haven’t heard from you. I guess you weren’t so big on that whole family thing huh? Oh wait, you started a new one out in Dawnifornia. Either way, we have a new friend here. He calls himself The Doctor. I don’t really think he’s a Doctor though. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, you suck.
Your daughter,
Kristy
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“It’s 2:59, where is he?” I said as I sat on the couch, tapping my finger on the arm of the chair. The kids were upstairs playing, and Hannie and Nancy hadn’t arrived yet so I didn’t need to watch them.
The day after the club meeting found me at home waiting for that strange man Mal and Stacey had brought over. I don’t know why they had brought a stranger into Claudia’s room without asking me. I am the president after all. I’m also a good president, which may sound conceited but I’m just telling the truth.
Today I was in my favorite pair of jeans and a dark green turtleneck. I had my hair in a ponytail that I pulled out the back of my baseball cap and was in my lucky sneakers. I may have looked like I was getting ready for a Krusher’s practice, but it’s just my usual outfit and I’m perfectly comfortable in it. Though I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see one of my friends in their cute skirts or blousey tops today. (I like it when they get dressed up.)
The doorbell rang and I looked around the room. Watson’s mansion was always so full of people but the adults are always so busy. My mom was at an estate sale and Watson was in his office working. Even Nannie was in her office to handle a new client from her catering agency. Since they weren’t able to open the door, I went over and pulled it open. When I did I was surprised!
“Well hello! Kristy wasn’t it? Hope I’m on time,” said that odd man from before. He was on our porch with Hannie and Nancy each holding one of his hands. “Found these two out here waiting. They seemed apprehensive about coming in, but a good babysitter always makes the kids feel at ease right?”
I was a little confused, but nodded anyway, “Yeah, well, come in. Karen is in the playroom with David Michael.”
“Two names? My, what a lucky fellow. Wish I had two names,” the man said as he walked Hannie and Nancy into the house.
I led everyone up the stairs and into the playroom where Karen was getting the dressing up clothes ready and David Michael was playing Legos with Carver Ensign. Carver looked up from the Legos and had a strange look on his face, but I assumed he probably just needed to vomit. (He looked like Margo Pike and she throws up a lot.) Though there was certainly something strange going on. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt that something just wasn’t right. I showed the Doctor around the room so he knew where the toys were, but couldn’t stop glancing back at Carver. His eyes followed the Doctor’s movements, but he snapped back to attention with the Legos as Karen shrieked out a, “Hi-hi!”
“Two names, two hellos, I feel like I’m back on Viscolari-2. Everyone there has two of everything. Not unusual really, but they have two mouths which can make understanding them a bit difficult, you know,” the Doctor said as Hannie and Nancy went to pick out dresses.
Karen’s eyes perked up behind her glasses. “They have two of everything! I also have two of everything! I am a Two-Two which is a name I got from a book my lovely teacher Ms. Coleman read to us! I have two families and two houses and even two pairs of glasses! I wear one to read and the other for everything else but I do not sleep in them or take a bath in them.”
The Doctor was still smiling as he stood there listening to Karen. He nodded along and turned to me, chuckling. People do tend to take to Karen rather easily because she is a very outspoken and charismatic little girl. She’s even skipped a grade in school.
“My goodness, is she always like that? She’s a font of information this one!” the Doctor said, leaning down to get closer to Karen. “Now why don’t you tell me your name, oh great Two-Two? I’m the Doctor!”
Karen smiled and shrieked, “I am Karen! It is nice to meet you Doctor! What kind of doctor are you? I hope you are not a dentist because I do not like the dentist.”
“Oh no, no. Not a dentist, just a Doctor. Now, I’m going to be your babysitter today!” the Doctor said as he undid his jacket and reached into the pocket for that flashlight.
“I thought Kristy was going to watch us. But anyway, you will be a good babysitter just like you are a gigundoly great not-dentist!” Karen said as she went back to get her dressup clothes on.
She pulled on a big, over-sized Laura Ashley dress with lots of pastel flowers on it, a big floppy garden hat, and a strand of costume pearls. Hannie and Nancy were dressed similarly and were sitting at the play table with little plastic tea cups and saucers out. The Doctor even went to the dressup box and started to rifle through it for something. He made a big, flourishing motion as he pulled out another floppy hat from the box and popped it onto his head.
“Mind if I wear a hat too? I wear hats now, hats are cool,” he said adjusting the hat on his head. It pushed his wavy hair down a bit more and all I could think of was, blech!
Karen sat at the table and began to pour iced tea out of the plastic tea pot into each of the little cups. The Doctor also sat at the table, his knees pushed up over the top as it and the chair were too small for him. I went over to David Michael and Carver, but stayed within eyesight of him. I had to evaluate his skills after all.
David Michael was talking about what they would build next and would ask Carver for the next piece. He was still acting strangely by giving David Michael one word answers or ignoring him completely. Finally, I decided to step in as he sat there staring at a tower David Michael had made.
“Carver, are you feeling okay? If you aren’t well, we can get Charlie to drive you home. He isn’t doing much today,” I told him.
“No,” was all he replied with.
“No, you’re not feeling okay or no you don’t want Charlie to take you home?” I asked.
“Playing,” he replied.
I sighed, knowing that children could be difficult. Part of being a good babysitter is knowing how to handle a wide variety of children and I know a lot about them. What I do not know a lot about is strange men from Europe and I don’t want to know about them. I even started to think about playing baseball with my friends instead of watching the kids. (They look very nice when they wear short tops and cutoff baseball pants after all.)
Across the room I could hear Karen talking, which forced me to focus again. “We are very lovely ladies.”
“Yes, very lovely my dearest Karen,” said Hannie.
“Lovely Ladies? Isn’t that precious, it’s precious,” the Doctor said to Nancy, leaning in to talk to her. “You all look the part. Very British.”
Karen looked at him as he interrupted, “Do you know any British people? You seem to be from Europe which is where my gigundoly beautiful doll Hyacynthia is from.”
“I do know many British people. Many, many. As for me, I’m definitely,” he paused and adjusted the hat before looking down at his flashlight that he had set on the table. “Foreign. A foreign body in this very room. Hadn’t noticed when we walked in, but...”
He trailed off as he stood up and looked around the room. Ignoring the kids was one thing, but doing personal business while babysitting is an offense. I had to assume it was personal business as he started to point his flashlight around the room. I stood up and was about to tell him off, but he tossed his hat off and it landed on my head!
“Auuugh!” I cried out.
“Dalek technology,” he said quietly.
“What are you doing Doctor?” asked Hannie from the table.
The Doctor twirled in place, holding out the flashlight like he had done in Claudia’s room. I was starting to get worried. Who knew what that flashlight really was! (Stacey had told me it wasn’t a gun, but I wasn’t so sure.) He then stopped while facing David Michael, Carver, and me, looking up at us through his hair with his head still pointed down. With a flick of his wrist, the flashlight folded back up into itself and he started to walk over slowly. I jumped in front of the boys.
“Dalek technology disguised as a little boy. Clever! Yes, very clever,” said the Doctor, staring at me.
“Leave them alone!” I said to him. I felt like I wanted to scream.
I felt Carver squirm out from behind me, coming to stand in front of me. He stared up at the Doctor and started to speak in a funny voice. It was like a toy robot speaking through Carver!
“We have located our device and the Doctor. We will come collect what is ours and we will eliminate the doctor,” Carver said, sounding rather like a robot Karen.
“What device, what do you mean? What have you planted here in this town?” the Doctor asked with a stern look on his face.
“It was not us who left the device. it was stolen from us and used without our permission. We will collect it and exterminate the Doctor and all who try to prevent us.”
There was a strange hum coming from from Carver and he began to shake. The Doctor yelled for me to get David Michael away and dashed over to the play table. He yanked it away from the girls and shoved it onto its side before ushering us all behind it. The girls were shrieking and David Michael was crying, but the Doctor was peering over the table. He pulled the flashlight out and pointed it at Carver, causing a weird buzzing sound to emit.
I was going to peek out as well, but the Doctor suddenly whirled around and ducked down, pushing me down with him. A loud explosion went off suddenly and chunks of metal went flying over the table and hit the wall. A lot of smoke filled the room and we all slowly peeked around the table.
All that was left of Carver was a scorched area much like a bunch of fireworks had gone off. There were metal pieces all over the playroom and one had broken the TV screen. We heard footsteps and went to duck again, but it was only Watson. He came into the room looking a little miffed.
“I told you kids to keep it down when I’m trying to work!” he said before turning to leave.
Something told me that this Christmas was going to be a strange one.
The Doctor faces off with Carver Ensign. To the right we see the hateful ponytail of Karen, and the ubiquitous baseball cap of Kristy, as well as the top of some other random child’s head. A Lovely Lady Hat hovers ominously (intentional- nothing in BSC illustrations should have shadows, they take place in a white vacuum) and the Doctor holds an oversized sonic screwdriver in a two-fingered lobster claw (unintentional- I’m not very good at hands). Carver has an overgrown bowl cut. In the style of SS1: Babysitters on Board, as few faces as possible are visible.
Chapter 4
Dawn
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Dear Dad and Jeff,
Christmas in Stoneybrook is as adventure-filled as ever! There’s a new member in the Baby-sitters club, and he’s a boy! He seems quite well travelled, so we have a lot in common. I think we will become fast friends. Do you think he could come and visit us when I’m back in good old sunny Cali?
Love and sunshine,
Dawn
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There was a strange man in my kitchen. Stacey and Mallory had picked him up at the park, and for some reason brought him to the club meeting. I wasn't sure why. He had a cute English accent, though, so probably Stacey had insisted.
“What did you do for Christmas last year, then?” the man- the Doctor, as he had called himself- asked Mary Anne, as he sifted flour. (They were making cookies. How Mary Anne had convinced him to help was a mystery to me.)
“I don't really remember!” said Mary Anne happily. She was in her element. She loves to bake and sew. She will make a good housewife someday.
“I was in California last Christmas,” I volunteered. “I live there most of the time with my dad and my little brother, Jeff. We have a big house very close to the beach. I love the sun, and I love to sunbathe and surf, and my dad's special nickname for me is 'Sunshine'! I'm a real California girl!” I smiled and flicked my long, cornsilk hair. There was no reason for Mary Anne to get all the attention.
The Doctor glanced at me... And turned right back to his mixing bowl! He was ignoring me! Just like Alan Gray does when he wants to get on my nerves! The cheek of it! Well, I was having none of it.
“How about the Christmas before that?” he asked Mary Anne.
“I'm not sure... Maybe we went to my grandma's?” Mary Anne seemed fully absorbed in her mixing.
“My dad took my brother and me on a trip to Disney World!” I interjected.
“Where does your grandma live, love?”
He was still doing it! It was like he found Mary Anne so much more interesting than me! Well, I never! She had barely left Stoneybrook in her life. Well, she'd lived with her grandparents in Iowa when she was little... And there was the time we went on a cruise with the Pikes, and the trips to Sea City and the time we all went out to my dad's in Cali and... Well, she definitely wasn't a seasoned, bicoastal traveller, like me, anyway. Probably this Doctor had never been to California, and that's why he wasn't interested in my stories.
The Doctor had now moved on to asking Mary Anne about school.
“I'm in the eighth grade, now, and it's been really hard work, much harder than seventh was! The teachers give us sooooo much homework!” Mary Anne rolled her eyes.
“I just bet they do,” the Doctor grimaced. “Never trust teachers, they usually turn out to be bats.. or robots... Dinner ladies, too, have to watch out for them, they're big trouble.”
I frowned. What was he talking about?
“Bats?”
Again, the Doctor glanced round and went back to his mixing bowl without answering me. Mary Anne backed me up on this one, though.
“What do you mean, bats?” she asked, frowning into her chocolate chips.
“Trust me,” said the Doctor, raising his eyebrows at her (not at me!), and stealing a chocolate chip from the bag, “you do not want to know...”
I sighed, exasperated.
“Look!” I was losing my patience. “You show up here, at our meeting, at my house, and I don't even know who you are! You call yourself 'Doctor', but what are you a doctor of?” I raised my eyebrows in his direction. (He still had his back to me) “You have no right to be here without telling us anything about yourself. Have you even babysat before you did the job at Kristy's?”. He couldn't get away without answering that! “Well, I'll know anyway, once I read the club notebook!” I sniffed. If he'd done a bad job, then Kristy would have reported it for sure, and he would never babysit in Stoneybrook again!
“Believe me,” I head the Doctor mutter. “I do more than my fair share of babysitting...”
“What?” I had no idea what he meant.
“Tell me about your school, Mary Anne,” said the Doctor, clearly ignoring me again. “Loads of homework, yeah, horrible! But how about the other stuff, do you have...” he paused to twirl around, licking cookie mix off his spoon as he did so, “dances!?”. He grinned, holding up the wooden spoon. “Parties? What do you do with your holidays, eh?”. He smiled encouragingly at my step-sister.
Mary Anne considered this, dropping the cookie mix in big 'glumps' onto a baking sheet. “We have a Halloween dance every year, which is always amazing!”. She rolled her eyes in delight. “Last year, some crazy girl showed up at the dance, she was still in love with one of our teachers from way back when they were both in school. It was so scary! And the year before that, this awful girl at our school, Cokie, played loads of tricks on me, trying to convince me that I was cursed!” Mary Anne shuddered at this.
Wait a minute... I thought... Was that really two years ago now...?
“...And then there was that time Kristy and Claudia were getting all those scary phone calls, but it turned out to just be guys that were too shy to ask them to the dance!” Mary Anne giggled. “Halloween is always special!”
“How long ago was that, then, the phone calls? Can you remember?”
The Doctor was focusing all of his attention on Mary Anne, now, leaning back against the counter, his arms folded in front of him, looking serious. I tried to think back myself. That had been back when I was still living in Stoneybrook full-time with my mom... But Halloween had only been a few weeks ago... And I was sure the last Halloween I'd had had been in California... hadn't it? I shook my head. None of this made sense!
“Doctor!” I finally shouted. “Why do you want to know? What is this all about?”
For the first time, the Doctor looked at me properly.
“You don't need to know.”
He sounded serious.
“You got away. You're not a part of it any more. You can leave... and be safe. In fact, you should do that. Leave. You should leave, now. What's going to happen will happen, but you don't need to be involved. Okay?”
His eyes were gentle. Suddenly, I felt afraid. What was happening?
“I won't leave my friends!” I cried. Mary Anne was my sister, after all, and she didn't seem to have a clue. Kristy and the rest of them? Well.. It was true, I didn't really care about them, but Mary Anne had been there for me when the others hadn't. She was a sap, and her constant crying got my nerves sometimes, but she was family, now. That counted for something. Suddenly, I felt short of breath.
“What's going on, Doctor?” I whispered, my eyes wide.
The man calling himself 'the Doctor' tilted his head down. Who was he? Where had he come from? I glanced at Mary Anne, who was humming happily as she put the cookie tray in the oven. She seemed unaware of the sudden tension in the kitchen of our renovated farmhouse.
The Doctor looked back up at me, his arms still folded, his eyes looking... sad. He shook his head slowly.
“Dawn... I'm sorry...”
This was the first time he'd used my name. It sounded strange in his accent.
Suddenly, there was an almighty pounding at the door, before Mallory and Jessi came rushing through into the kitchen, followed by my mom, Sharon.
“Your friends are here to see you!” she trilled... Unnecessarily, seeing as Mal and Jessi were making their presence fully felt.
“We thought you should-!”
“We wanted to tell you-!”
“The Doctor said he'd be here-!”
Between the two of them yelling, I had no idea what they were trying to say.
Eventually, both of the Junior Sitters ran out of breath.
“Hi, Doctor!” gasped Mal, gazing at the man in the bow-tie adoringly. “I know you said you would be at the Schafer-Spier house, and when my parents got back from... Well, I just think you should come with us!”
The Doctor glanced back at me. I thought I saw something like a warning in his eyes. Then, it was as though I had imagined it.
“Danger and excitement! And the possibility of pudding!” he cried, pushing himself away from the counter, his eyes bright and his smile wide. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out that instrument he'd called his 'screwdriver'. “Let's have some fun!” he grinned.
Before I knew it, he'd swept out of the room after Jessi and Mal.
I couldn't forget the look I'd seen in his eyes, though. I swallowed.
“Mom?” I cleared my throat. My mom looked round at me, smiling.
“Hmm?” she had brought a pair of shoes out of the refrigerator, along with a tub of butter. My mom is really scatterbrained. She's always leaving things in the oddest places, and then forgetting about them! Sometimes, she...
I shook my head. My thoughts felt... foggy. All of a sudden, I was all too aware of Mary Anne singing to herself as she wiped the same plate dry, over and over again.
“I think... I think I want to go home early,” I sighed, and wrapped my arms around myself. Everything felt strange.