“When we see her at breakfast, let’s tell her we want to go with her,” George said.
The girls dressed and headed to the restaurant. When they got there, only the Lowes were seated at the table.
“Where’s Laura?” Bess said. “We thought we’d go to the candy factories with her when we get to Lake Erie Beach.”
“We haven’t seen her,” Mrs. Lowe said.
Over breakfast everyone at the table talked about storms: the one they had just gone through the evening before and several that had hit the Texas Panhandle.
“Mr. Lowe and I aren’t getting off the ship here. We don’t dock very long—just a couple of hours,” Mrs. Lowe said. “We’re going to get our luggage ready for Toronto. Once we get through the Welland Canal, we’re almost there.”
On the way back to their suite Nancy said, “Bess, why don’t you call Laura and ask her if we can go with her to the candy factories?”
“Okay,” Bess said.
But when Bess tried Laura’s room, no one answered. “That’s strange,” she said as she hung up the receiver. “I wonder if we should check on her.”
“Maybe she had another upsetting telephone conversation with her husband and doesn’t want to be bothered,” George said.
Nancy and Bess agreed that might be the case.
“We won’t have time to go to all of the candy factories,” Bess said, “but I want to make sure that we go to the one that Laura thinks is the best.”
“Well, we could ask some of the people in town to see if there’s one that most tourists seem to like the best,” George suggested.
“We could do that,” Nancy said, “or we could just follow the crowds.”
Bess and George looked at each other.
“Leave it to Nancy to come up with the most sensible solution,” Bess said.
Within an hour, the ship had docked at Lake Erie Beach. The passengers were once again reminded that the ship would be there only for a couple of hours.
“That’s not really a lot of time,” Bess complained as she, Nancy, and George headed for the gangway on deck 3.
“Well, it’s a small place compared to the other ports of call,” Nancy told her.
Just as they reached the top of the gangway Bess spotted Laura at the bottom. She started to shout to her, but Nancy stopped her.
“Let’s not press our luck, Bess. She may not want company. But now we don’t have to follow the crowds—we can just follow Laura and see which candy factory she goes to,” Nancy said. “Once we’re inside, if we happen to bump into her, we can gauge her mood.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” George said. “Maybe she doesn’t want any company. I don’t want to make a nuisance of myself.”
Lake Erie Beach had a few more streets than Nancy had thought it would. George and Nancy—with Bess limping just a little behind them—had to hurry to keep from losing sight of Laura Houston. She quickly turned a corner.
Suddenly, the girls heard, “Hey! Wait for me!”
They stopped and looked around. Amber was running toward them.
“I wonder what this is all about,” Nancy said.
Just as Amber had almost reached them she stumbled and slid on the sidewalk, scraping a layer of skin from her knee.
“Ow!” Amber cried. “That hurts.”
The girls rushed to her side and managed to get Amber into a sitting position. Nancy took a medicated wipe from the alternate purse she had packed and began cleaning the wound.
“You’ll need to have this bandaged when we get back to the ship,” Nancy said. “Can you stand up?”
Amber managed to stand, but it was obvious that walking on the leg would be difficult for her if she didn’t have some help.
“There’s a café just up the street,” Bess said. “Why don’t we get a table there so we can sit down?”
“Oh, thank you so much,” Amber said. “Where were you going?”
“We heard that the candy here is very good,” George said. “We were thinking about buying some of it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Amber said. “If you want to go on, I’ll be all right.”
“That’s okay. You’re going to need some help getting back on the ship,” Nancy said. “Besides, Bess shouldn’t be putting too much weight on her leg.” She knew that they’d probably never find Laura now—she would be too far gone. “It wasn’t really all that important, just something to do.”
When the waitress came, they ordered flavored sodas. They soon learned that this was another specialty of Lake Erie Beach—the waitress told the girls the story.
“Delicious!” Bess pronounced after taking a sip.
Nancy, George, and Amber agreed.
“We probably need to head back to the ship,” Nancy said. She looked at Amber. “Do you think you can make it?”
