The Girdwood Gaffe

Still, the morning felt too bright for worry. Randall waved them toward a side entrance near the tram building. A group of guests stepped through at the same time, and Randall and his friends blended into the crowd.

For three steps, everything went smoothly.

Then the lanyard slipped loose.

“Wait,” said Randall. “Your pass!”

His friend turned, but a family carrying skis moved between them. The lanyard swung once, caught on the edge of a sign, and popped free. It landed on the floor with a soft slap.

Before Randall could reach it, a gust of air from the opening doors pushed it across the smooth floor.

“There it goes!” he said.

The lanyard slid beneath a bench. A child’s mitten brushed it aside. Then a rolling basket of folded maps passed over it, and the lanyard disappeared from sight.

Randall crouched beside the bench. “I can see the blue strap.”

“Can you reach it?”

“Almost.”

He stretched his arm under the bench. His glove touched the lanyard, but at that moment someone opened the door again. Cold air rushed in. The strap slipped farther away and bumped against a stack of empty paper cups.

The cups wobbled.

Randall’s eyes grew wide. “Nobody move.”

His friend froze. “That never means something good.”

The top cup tipped. It nudged the next cup. Soon the whole stack leaned like a little white tower.

Randall reached out to steady it, but his elbow brushed a nearby tray. The tray slid from the counter and bumped a box of paper napkins.

The box tipped.

Napkins fluttered into the air.

One landed on Randall’s hat. Another floated onto the bench. A third sailed toward the tram entrance and stuck to the glass.

A guest pointed. “Look at that!”

Randall pulled the napkin from his hat. “We should fix this.”

They hurried after the loose cups and napkins. Their first attempt only made things busier. One friend grabbed the cups, but the cups rolled under a table. The other friend chased the napkins, which had begun to skate across the floor.

Randall caught three napkins at once. He felt proud for half a second. Then he noticed a small paper sign leaning beside the tram door.

The sign said, PLEASE KEEP THIS AREA CLEAR.

His shoulder had bumped it. It began to fall.

Randall caught the sign before it touched the floor. “I have it!”

“Then I have the cups!” called his friend.

“No, you have the napkins!”

“I thought you had the napkins!”

Randall looked down. The three napkins had blown from his hand. One rested on a bench. One sat on a guest’s boot. The last had landed on the floor beside the tram gate.

A soft bell rang as the tram doors opened.

People began to line up.

Randall tucked the sign under his arm and hurried toward the gate. He wanted to help, but the crowd made the entrance feel like a puzzle. Everyone was moving carefully, and no one wanted to step on the scattered cups.

A small child pointed at the napkin on the boot. The guest laughed and picked it up.

“Thank you,” Randall said.

The child picked up another napkin and handed it to him. “This one too.”

“Thank you again.”

For a moment, Randall saw the mess clearly. It was not a great prank anymore. It was simply a mess that other people had to walk around.

His cheeks felt warm, even in the cold building.

“We need to stop trying to be sneaky,” he said.

His friend looked at him. “But we wanted to start the day with a surprise.”

“We did,” Randall said. “The surprise is paper flying everywhere.”

The friend sighed. “That was not the surprise I imagined.”

Randall set the sign safely against the wall. “Let’s work together. You look under the benches. I’ll gather the cups. Then we find the lanyard.”

They began again, this time slowly. Randall collected cups and stacked them on the counter. His friends gathered napkins from the floor and benches. A few guests helped, too, passing over napkins and pointing out cups that had rolled beneath chairs.

The noise of the resort filled the room. Skis clicked. The tram bell sounded again. Outside, snow slid from a roof in a soft, powdery sweep.

Randall bent near the gate and spotted a blue glimmer beneath the edge of a rubber mat.

“There!” he said.

He lifted the mat carefully. The lanyard had caught on a small hook beneath it. Randall pulled it free and held it up.

His friend hurried over. “You found it!”

“Yes, but it was almost part of the floor.”

The friend put the lanyard around their neck and held it tight. “I will not let it slip again.”

A voice behind Randall said, “That would be helpful.”

Randall turned.

A resort staff member stood near the tram entrance. The staff member held the box of napkins in one hand and the paper sign in the other. Their expression was calm, but their eyes moved from the stacked cups to the scattered guests and then to Randall’s group.

Randall straightened. “We’re sorry. We were trying to get inside without being noticed.”

His friend whispered, “That part did not work.”

Randall gave a small nod. “Clearly.”

The staff member set the box on the counter. “The tram area needs to stay clear. People need room to enter and exit safely.”

“We understand,” Randall said.

“Good. Since you helped make the mess, you can help finish cleaning it.”

Randall looked at the floor. A few napkins still clung to the corners of the room. One cup had rolled beneath a bench. The paper sign needed to be placed back where guests could see it.

His first feeling was disappointment. He had wanted a free morning of exploring. He had wanted to laugh with his friends and ride the tram without anyone knowing how they arrived.

Then he noticed the child who had handed him a napkin. The child was watching with a hopeful smile.

Randall picked up the last cup. “We’ll clean everything.”

The staff member nodded. “After that, you may stay nearby. But no sneaking through the entrances, and no more surprises in the tram area.”

Randall glanced at his friends. Their shoulders drooped, but they were smiling a little.

“Nearby sounds fair,” Randall said.

They worked until the floor was clear. Randall returned the sign to its place. His friends gathered the final napkins and straightened the cup stack. The busy entrance soon looked neat again, with only the soft marks of boots on the mats.

Outside, the Alyeska Tram glided down from the mountain. Sunlight flashed across its windows. Randall watched it come to a gentle stop.

His friend touched the lanyard. “We still got what we were after.”

Randall smiled. “A tram ride?”

“And a fun start.”

Randall looked at the clean floor, the tidy sign, and the staff member checking the entrance. “A very different kind of fun start.”

The staff member handed him a small cloth for the last bit of melting snow near the door. “You can begin by wiping that.”

Randall took the cloth. “All right.”

He stayed close to the tram building while his friends waited beside him. The mountain air smelled fresh, and warm cocoa drifted from the nearby café. The morning had not gone as planned, but no one was hurt, the mess was gone, and the tram was ready for its next ride.

Randall wiped the last wet mark from the floor and looked up at the shining cabin.

He had come to Alyeska hoping not to get caught, but now he had a new job: keep his friends close, keep the resort tidy, and think before turning a small idea into a big mess.

The warmest adventures begin when everyone takes care of the place they share.

End of chapter one. 27 more chapters in the full book.