Poor Max He actually thought our parents would abandon us just like that Don’t be silly I told him They would never leave us alone What if we stayed with Grandma They’d say she’s too old to take care of us Then we could take care of her Max suggested When she loses her keys or her glasses or her shoes I could find them for her I sighed Then Max got another of his great ideas I know he said We could say we’re allergic to the food there We can’t eat krumpir What’s that Krumpir means potatoes in Croatian Everybody knows that Sure everybody But nobody’s allergic to potatoes Then I looked at him again Have you been reading that book Well kind of I started at the back There’s a list of things to eat That’s Max for you The human vacuum cleaner Couldn’t you learn to say something better than potatoes How about chocolate milkshake I didn’t see anything about milkshakes in the book Just great I thought I was going to a country where
there was nothing to eat but potatoes Since there didn’t seem to be any way out of this trip the next day after reading the first pages of the language book we decided to practice our extremely large vocabulary at the dinner table Ja sam Charlie I said to my mother Ja sam Max my brother said to Miro Ja sam gladan strange Then we burst out laughing The words sure sounded My mother was happy That’s great We were afraid you boys wouldn’t want to go on this trip Who says we want to go I asked But you’re learning the language That must mean you’re willing to go As if we had any choice I thought We’ll be able to count on you to talk to people over there my father added Kids learn languages faster than adults Sometimes it was better not to know too much I’d heard somewhere that a little knowledge could be a dangerous thing I turned to Max Hey what does gladan mean
Hungry he said Somehow I wasn’t surprised You can order all the krumpir you want What’s a krumpir my father wanted to know I can’t tell you I said It’s secret Croatian code On Saturday afternoon I came back from playing hockey on the rink in the park I was in a pretty bad mood I didn’t mind if our team lost but the man who took care of the heated shed where we changed decided he wanted to go home He put all our stuff outside and locked the door and it snowed into my boots My father was sitting at the kitchen table with his favorite toy which happened to be a map He looked up He was so excited that his glasses nearly slipped off his face Charlie Did you know that the closest airport to Rijeka in Croatia where Fred lives is Venice I felt like saying So what My feet were like two ice cubes I wanted to go to my room shut the door put my feet on the radiator and listen to some music I wasn’t in the mood to talk about next summer But my father was We can fly to Venice rent a car and drive the rest of the way Doesn’t that sound great
Sure Whatever you say Then Max bounded into the room with Miro sprinting after him Italy he yelled Can we go on a gondola Can we see the Leaning Tower of Pizza Max has a one-track stomach First of all it’s the Leaning Tower of Pisa I told him And it’s nowhere near Venice Max’s face fell I knew him He had pictured a giant tower of cardboard boxes full of steaming-hot pizzas with all the toppings Are we really going on this trip I asked my father Of course he said happily I’m buying the tickets tomorrow Ya-ay Max yelled as he and Miro galloped around
