Sweet Dream Baby Read Online Free Page A

stomach wasn’t flopping anymore. I said, “Gorgeous? What does that mean?”
    I know what it means, but I wanted her to tell me. She laughed. “It means you’re gonna be a heartbreaker some day, Kid. Now go to sleep and dream about the Sugar Plum Fairy.”
    I said, “I’m too old for that.” I yawned.
    She said, “Then dream you’re Mickey Mantle.”
    Now Wendy shakes me and says, “Did you hit a home run, Gorgeous?” and I remember Mickey Mantle, and I’m going to be a heartbreaker, and that must be good because Wendy smiled when she said it. She leans down and says, “That pill really swacked you. Why don’t you look out the window? That’ll wake you up. We’re approaching Panama City.”
    Wendy has freckles on her nose and red hair pulled back in a bun, and she’s wearing a garrison cap. My dad has one. He says the Marines call it a pisscutter. She’s wearing a brown skirt that’s tight and a white blouse with a brown bow tie and an Eisenhower jacket. She’s got a pair of silver wings, and I want her to give them to me, but I know I can’t ask.
    The man in front of me asks her for a book of matches, and she winks at me and says, “Right away, sir,” and goes on up the aisle, and I pull aside the curtain and look out.
    I see the ocean for the first time. The land curves down there where it meets the sea, and there’s a wide beach the color of wheat, and I can see white waves breaking, and there’s even a car on the beach, and I can see people walking near the car, and they look like little bugs. I look back behind us and see how the land curves, and I know from geography class that’s what they call the Panhandle, and maybe I can see as far back as where Florida meets Alabama.
    I’m not so drowsy anymore. I’m getting excited about my new life. I’m going to live with my grandparents and my Aunt Delia for three months in Florida, and I’m going to get me a boat and go fishing out there in all that blue water and catch marlins and sharks, and maybe a creature. When I come back to the dock, I’m going to hang my big marlin up by his tail and stand next to him with my fishing rod and let people take pictures of me and put them in the newspaper, and I’m going to cut one out and send it to my dad, and he’ll be proud.
    When we land, it’s like my stomach tries to get out through my throat, but I’m ready for it now, and it’s kind of fun. We stop at the terminal, and I wait like Wendy told me and watch the passengers go up the aisle. I’m the only kid, and the women look at me, and some of them think it’s sad I’m traveling alone, so I look back and let my eyes say, “It’s only flying, for criminy sake. What’s the big deal?”
    When the plane is empty, the captain and the copilot come out of the cockpit door and stretch and smile and look around. Wendy comes back and says, “Time to go, Mr. Mantle.”
    She takes my hand, and I almost tell her I’m too big for that, but I like her hand. It’s soft and cool, and it smells good. We go up the aisle, and the captain bends down and says, “So, what did you think of your first flight, kid?”
    And I say, “Neato!” It’s all I can think of. I’m looking at the wings on his chest. They’re bigger than Wendy’s, and they’re gold. I can smell cigarettes on his breath, and he uses Mennen’s aftershave like my dad. My face is getting red. Wendy says, “What the heck, Bernie, I think ‘neato’ just about covers it.”
    The captain smiles and ruffles my hair, and it hurts where Jimmy Pultney’s arrow cut me. The captain says, “Yup, ‘neato’ does it for me, too.”
    Wendy walks me through the terminal, and we pick up my suitcase, and she takes me to the place where people meet people, and I don’t see my Grandma and