14 The Kinston Trio

Chapter 14 THE KINSTON TRIO Dr. McDonald was pushing the speed limit. It was still a long way to the Birthplace of Pepsi in New Bern. He liked driving fast, but an RV is not exactly built for speed. The dishes were rattling in the cabinets. "Do you ever wonder where your food goes after you eat it?" Mrs. McDonald asked the twins as she passed out the tuna sandwiches she had made for lunch. "I don't want to know," Pep said. "I'm sure it's gross." "Well, you're going to find out," her mother told her, "because we're going to continue on our theme of the human body. We're going to stop off and visit a giant digestive system at a

hospital in Kinston." "Yuck," Pep moaned. "Well, it's good that we're going to a hospital," Coke remarked, "just in case something else falls on Pep's head." "Very funny, jerk," said Pep as she punched him. Pep had quickly recovered from the gratitude she had been feeling for her brother after he had saved her life twice. "Don't call your brother a jerk," said Dr. McDonald. Kinston is a natural stopping point along Route 70 between Raleigh and New Bern. It's a small town, originally named Kingston after England's King George III. After the Revolution, the G was dropped in hopes that people would forget about the king. Go ahead and look it up if you don't believe me. Dr. McDonald pulled off the highway, and it was only a few blocks to the Lenoir Memorial Hospital Health & Science Museum. The McDonalds piled out of the RV. Or I should

say, most of the McDonalds piled out of the RV. "Let's go, Pep," called Mrs. McDonald. "I think you're really going to like this." "You guys go ahead," Pep replied. "I'll stay here." "Don't be silly," said her father. "We do things as a family." Slowly, reluctantly, Pep emerged from the safety of the RV. She looked up in the air and around her nervously, convinced that an enormous intestine was going to fall out of the sky and on her head at any moment. There was nothing dangling above that could do her harm. As advertised, the hospital had a room with a replica of a digestive system that visitors could go through. The whole family entered through the mouth—naturally—and had to get down on their hands and knees to crawl through the throat, esophagus, stomach, and intestines. Along the way, they activated sensors that triggered audio descriptions of the functions of various parts of the digestive system. At the end,

well, they crawled out the exit. They didn't spend a lot of time at the hospital, which also featured a crawl-through model of a blood vessel, a planetarium, and other exhibits. Pep was on her guard the whole time, still convinced that something else would fall on her head. As they walked back to the RV, Pep was cautiously looking up in the sky when— "Watch out!" Coke yelled. Pep hadn't noticed, but directly in front of her was a pit, camouflaged by a thin layer of leaves. She tumbled into it with a shriek, landing on her face. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The pit was about six feet deep and appeared to have been constructed like a trap that would be used by a survivalist to catch animals. Fortunately there were no pointed sticks poking up from the bottom. "Get me outta here!" Pep yelled. "Are you okay?" Dr. McDonald asked as he

helped Pep climb out of the hole. "I think so." "Why is there a hole in the ground here?" Mrs. McDonald complained. "It serves no purpose." "They should at least put a sheet of plywood over this," Dr. McDonald said. "Somebody could get hurt, and the hospital would have a big lawsuit on their hands. Maybe we should go back and issue a formal complaint." "Forget about it, Dad," Pep said. "Let's just blow this pop stand." She seemed to be okay, except for the humiliation that comes from falling into a hole. Coke stifled a laugh, and Pep slapped him. "This isn't funny!" she whispered to him. "Somebody's out to get me. It's probably Mrs. Higgins or those bowler dudes." "You're just paranoid," Coke said. "All you did was fall into a hole." "I fell into a hole after a chest of drawers and a giant brain fell on me," Pep told him. "Three

things like that don't just happen to anybody. Those weren't coincidences." Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions. In the A box, type Kinston NC. In the B box, type New Bern NC. Click Get Directions.