On Sunday night when we were back at the little house, more snow fell. It fell softly in the darkness. When I looked out my window on Monday morning, there was a new layer of snow on the bushes and the roof and the sidewalk and the street.
I felt very excited, but I knew better than to scream, “Snow day! Snow day!” We needed more than a few inches for a snow day. Instead, I turned on my radio. I listened to Dr. G. while I got dressed.
Suddenly I thought of something. The Thomas Brothers. They should be shoveling Hannie’s driveway and sidewalk, and the witch’s driveway and sidewalk. It didn’t matter whether we had a snow day. Sam and Charlie had to shovel out their customers each time it snowed.
As soon as breakfast was over, I called the big house.
Sam answered the phone. “Hello, Thomas Brothers,” he said.
“Hi, it’s me, Karen. Did you and Charlie do your job this morning?”
“Yup. No problem,” Sam replied. “We shoveled everyone out before breakfast. Mrs. Porter said we were prompt and tidy.”
“Did you get paid?”
“Yes. And we have your money. Fifty cents from each customer. So that’s a dollar for you and Hannie and Nancy. I don’t know how you are going to split it.”
“We will figure it out,” I said.
I could not wait to tell Hannie and Nancy the news. When I did, Nancy said, “Yes!” and Hannie said, “Awesome!”
“Let’s tell everyone about our new job at Show and Share today,” I suggested. “This is a very good story.”
I had trouble waiting for Show and Share. During reading, Ms. Colman had to say, “Karen, please do not talk to your neighbors.” During math, Ricky Torres had to say, “Quit poking me, Karen.” And twice I talked in class without raising my hand.
But finally Ms. Colman said, “Who has something for Show and Share?”
The Three Musketeers shot their hands in the air.
“Nancy?” said Ms. Colman.
“Hannie and Karen and I have something to share together,” said Nancy.
Ms. Colman let us stand in front of the room. We stood in a row. I smiled at our audience. Then I said, “We have joined a business. Hannie and Nancy and I are, um …” (I was not sure what to call ourselves.)
“We are salespeople,” said Hannie.
“That’s right,” said Nancy. “Salespeople. We sell snow shoveling.”
“My brothers bought a snowblower,” I explained. “We find customers for them and they shovel their driveways after it snows.”
“They were shoveling this morning,” added Hannie. “They pay us part of the money they earn. Today we earned a dollar.”
“That is very creative, girls,” said Ms. Colman.
I beamed. My teacher liked my idea! I almost said, “I thought of it all by myself.” But I did not want to sound like a show-off. Instead I said, “This afternoon we are going to find some more customers.”
“We are?” said Hannie.
“We are?” said Nancy.
“Sure,” I replied. “Sam and Charlie finished their work easily today. They could shovel more driveways. And the more snow they shovel, the more money we earn.”
“You sound like a good businesswoman, Karen,” said Ms. Colman.
“Thank you,” I replied.
An Invitation for Ms. Colman
All day long I felt so, so happy. Ms. Colman had said my snow shoveling idea was creative. And she had told me I was a good businesswoman. I could not wait to return to the little house that afternoon.
When I did, I ran straight to Mommy. She was in the kitchen with Andrew. “Mommy,” I said. “I have to ask you — ”
“Just a sec,” she said. “Hold on.” Mommy was sitting at the table. She was reading a booklet. A box was on the floor. Pieces to something were spread across the table.
“What is she doing?” I whispered to Andrew.
“She bought a special calculator today. She has to figure it out. She said the instructions are from Mars.”
“What?” I said.
Mommy looked up then. “It’s an electronic calculator and address book, honey. And I said the instructions sound like they were written by a Martian. They are impossible to follow.”
“Oh. But Mommy, can — ”
“In a minute, sweetie.”
I left the kitchen then. When I went back later, the calculator and the booklet were still on the table. Mommy was trying to read the booklet and start dinner at the same time. Plus, Andrew was asking if he could fingerpaint. Mommy looked like she needed a nap.
Even so, I said, “Mommy, please may I ask you something?”
“Sure. What is it?” Mommy let out a sigh.
“Did you think about asking Ms. Colman over for dinner? You said you would think about it. I know she would want to come.”
“Mommy, are there really Martians?” asked Andrew at the same time.
The phone began to ring. Mommy reached for it.
“Please answer my question!” I yelped.
“Yes, you may invite Ms. Colman to dinner,” said Mommy in a rush. Then she picked up the phone.
“All right!” I cried. “Thank you!” But Mommy was too busy to listen.
What a great day. I could invite my teacher over. My wonderful teacher who said I was a smart businesswoman with a creative idea.
“Oh!” I exclaimed. That reminded me.
As soon as Mommy had hung up the phone, I called Nancy. Then I called Hannie. “We have to get more customers.”
Nancy had an idea. “How about the Kilbournes?” she suggested. The Kilbournes live next to Hannie and across from Daddy.
“Good idea,” I replied. I called Mr. Kilbourne and he said he would be happy to hire the Thomas Brothers.
Then Hannie called the Kormans. They live on the other side of the Kilbournes. Melody Korman is our friend. Hannie told Mrs. Korman about the Thomas Brothers. And Mrs. Korman said, “Oh, what a life-saver. Just what we need. Will they come every time it snows?”
“Each and every time,” Hannie told her. Then she phoned me with the news. She was very proud of herself.
“Excellent!” I said. “Four customers all together. Now you and Nancy and I will split two dollars every time it snows. I better call Sam and Charlie.” So I did.
“Two more customers?” said Charlie. “That is great. I did not know you were lining up more business. But, hey! We can handle it. Thank you, Karen.”
I did not know why Charlie was so surprised. I was just doing my job.
That night I went to bed thinking, More snow, more snow, please more snow!
Karen’s Calendar
When I arrived at school the next day, I hung my coat in my cubby. Then I went straight to my desk and sat down. I did not fool around in the back of the room. I did not talk to Hannie or Nancy or Ricky or Natalie. I wanted to be on my best behavior when Ms. Colman came into the room.
“Good morning, Ms. Colman,” I said politely as she put her things on her desk. “How are you today?”
“Just fine, thanks.” My teacher smiled at me.
“Ms. Colman? Can you come over for dinner tonight?”
Ms. Colman paused. “Come over for dinner? Tonight?” she repeated. “Well, thank you. I would like to, but I am busy tonight.”
“How about tomorrow night?” I asked.
“Karen, have you talked to your mother about this?” said Ms. Colman. “Does she know you are inviting me over for dinner?”
“Oh, yes,” I replied. “She said I could ask you. She said so yesterday.”
“Well, maybe you need to talk to her again. Then we can decide on a date. I need to plan ahead. My schedule is very busy right now.”
“Okay.”
Grown-ups always do things the hard way. When I want Nancy to come over, I call her and say, “Hey, Nancy, can you come over?” And most of the time she comes right over. Same with Hannie. But not with adults. Adults have to make Big Plans.
* * *
That afterno
on I said to Mommy, “I hope you are not cooking anything extra. Ms. Colman cannot eat dinner with us tonight.”
“Ms. Colman? You invited her over tonight?”
“Yes, but she cannot come. She cannot come tomorrow night, either. She said I should talk to you about a date.”
“She’s right. Karen, I’m sorry. I should have told you that yesterday. But I was so busy. I did not know you were going to invite Ms. Colman before we talked about it again. Let’s look at my datebook right now.”
Mommy got out her datebook. She kept flipping the pages back and forth. She and Seth are very busy people. Mommy had a hard time finding a free evening. But finally she chose a date. It was two weeks away.
“Two weeks!” I exclaimed. That seemed like forever. But it was worth waiting for.
I drew a red circle around that day on my own calendar.
Working Hard
The next morning Andrew woke me up. He stood by my bed in the dark and whispered, “Karen. It snowed again, Karen. Karen, look out the window.”
More snow? I leaped out of bed. Andrew was right.
“I bet we got three inches!” I exclaimed.
“Is today a snow day?” asked Andrew.
“I do not think so. This is not enough snow.” (Still, I turned on the radio to listen to Dr. G.) “But Sam and Charlie will be at work today,” I told Andrew. “Now they have to shovel out four houses. I hope they got up early. I hope they know it snowed last night.”
I almost telephoned the big house to make sure my brothers knew about the snow. Then I decided not to. Sometimes people tell me I am bossy. I did not want anyone to tell me that now. Also, I did not want to wake anyone up.
I waited until it was nearly time to leave for school. Then I called my brothers at the last minute.
“Did you finish all your work?” I asked Sam.
“Just barely,” he replied. “We just barely made it. We will get to school on time if we skip breakfast. We worked hard this morning. I was not sure we were going to finish the Kormans’ driveway.”
Maybe you should get up earlier, I thought. But I did not say so. Sam and Charlie had done their job. That was all that mattered.
In school that morning I said to Nancy and Hannie, “The Thomas Brothers owe us two more dollars today.”
“I know,” said Hannie. “I watched them working at our house. Charlie used the snowblower on the driveway and the sidewalk. Sam shoveled the path to our front door. Daddy says they are good workers.”
“And we are good salespeople,” I reminded my friends.
“Maybe we should get some more customers,” said Nancy.
“Maybe,” I replied.
When Ms. Colman entered our room, I left my friends. I ran to my teacher. “Guess what, Ms. Colman,” I said. “I talked to Mommy and you can come to dinner two weeks from yesterday. Mommy looked in her datebook.”
“Why, thank you, Karen,” replied Ms. Colman. “Let me check my datebook.”
Ms. Colman opened her purse. She pulled out a small book. She looked through the pages. “Uh-oh,” she said a moment later. “I’m afraid I cannot make it that night, Karen. I’m … busy.”
I think Ms. Colman blushed when she said that. But I hardly noticed.
“You cannot come?” I said. “But Mommy checked in her datebook. And I already marked my calendar. I drew a red circle around that day.”
“Karen, I’m sorry. I think maybe your mother and I should look at our datebooks at the same time. We will find an evening that is good for everybody. These days I am a bit busier than usual.”
She was? I wanted to know why, but I had a feeling I better not ask. This sounded like one of those grown-up things I am not supposed to ask a lot of questions about. So I just said, “Okay.”
That afternoon, Mommy called Ms. Colman at school. She looked in her datebook while she talked to my teacher. Guess what. They found another evening when Mommy and Seth were free and so was Ms. Colman. And it was only two weeks from Thursday. I would not have to wait too much longer.
I ran to my room and looked at my calendar again. I tried to erase the red circle I had made the day before. It would not come off. So I painted over it with Mommy’s white-out. Then I drew a new red circle around two weeks from Thursday. Inside the circle I wrote Dinner with Ms. Colman! I hoped I could be patient about waiting for the big day.
Big News
I began a countdown to the big day. The countdown started with fifteen. Fifteen days until dinner with Ms. Colman. Fourteen days until dinner with Ms. Colman. Thirteen days, twelve days … eight days … five days. One Monday morning there were just three days left.
“Three days, three days!” I sang during breakfast. “Mommy, what are we going to eat for dinner on Thursday night?”
“What do you think Ms. Colman would like?” asked Mommy.
“Something special,” I replied.
“Grilled monkey knuckles?” asked Seth.
“Not for my teacher!” I cried.
“Karen, I’m teasing.”
“Let’s have fish and salad. A salad with artichoke hearts in it,” I suggested.
“That sounds delicious,” said Mommy.
* * *
When school was over on Monday, I went straight to my room at the little house. I turned on my sound box to listen to Dr. G. I was getting to know Dr. G. pretty well. I listened to him every day.
“Big news!” announced Dr. G.
I sat up straight. I stared at the sound box, even though there was nothing to see. Dr. G. had never said, “Big news!” before.
“Something is brewing over the Great Lakes,” Dr. G. went on. “It is heading our way. It should be a major snowstorm by the time it reaches us. Maybe not a blizzard, but one powerful storm. Watch for it in two or three days. And stayed tuned to WSTO for more details.”
“Yes!” I cried. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
I was so excited that I invited Hannie and Nancy over. When the Three Musketeers were together in my room I said, “I just know we are going to have a snow day. And I think we should make a snow day schedule. That way we will not forget to do a single fun snow thing.”
We wrote out a schedule for an entire day. It started at 9:00 with “Build a snowman.” It ended at 5:00 with “Ask Mommy for hot chocolate.”
“There,” I said. “We will have the best snow day ever.”
Later, when my friends had gone home, I tuned into Dr. G. again. He was still predicting a gigundo snowstorm.
Big Storm
As soon as I woke up on Tuesday morning I turned on the radio. I waited for Dr. G. with the weather report.
“We are really going to get walloped,” he said. “The storm is growing bigger and stronger. It will hit sometime tomorrow.”
When Mommy came into my room, the first thing I said was, “What does ‘walloped’ mean?”
“Good morning, Karen,” she replied.
“Good morning. What does ‘walloped’ mean?”
“It means ‘hit hard.’ Why?”
“Doctor G. said we will get walloped by the storm. Ooh, I cannot wait.”
At school, everyone was talking about the storm.
“We might get a foot of snow,” said Ricky.
“Remember the blizzard we had?” said Natalie. “Maybe the storm will turn into another blizzard.”
We had a blizzard before Christmas. It was not even winter yet. It was still late autumn. But the snow did not know that. It came down hard, and the wind blew, and people got stranded. (Kristy’s boyfriend got stranded at the big house. He spent the night in the guest room. Kristy was embarrassed.) We had a snow day then. I would have to remind Andrew about that, so he could figure out snow days.
The Three Musketeers huddled in the back of the classroom.
“A real storm! This is exciting,” said Nancy.
“You know what?” said Hannie. “Now would be a good time to get some more customers for Sam and Charlie. Everyone will want their driveways shoveled after a
huge storm.”
“Hannie, that is a great idea!” I exclaimed. “Let’s call some more people this afternoon. Can you guys come over to my house again?”
Hannie and Nancy both came to the little house after school. We sat at the table in the kitchen. I found a piece of paper and a pencil.
“Who should we call?” asked Nancy.
“People in my neighborhood,” Hannie replied. “We should find jobs for Sam and Charlie that are nearby. We do not want them to waste time traveling all over town. Let’s call other people on my street.”
I made a list of neighbors to call. Hannie and Nancy and I took turns dialing the numbers. Each time we got a customer, I wrote down the address and phone number to give to my brothers. After we had lined up five new customers we decided we better stop.
“Sam and Charlie will be pretty busy,” Nancy pointed out.
“Boy, it sure was easy to get more customers,” I said.
“Nobody wants to shovel their driveway after a huge storm,” added Hannie.
When Hannie and Nancy had gone home, I called the big house. I had to tell Sam and Charlie what the Three Musketeers had done that afternoon.
But no one answered the telephone.
I decided to go to my room and listen to Dr. G. Maybe he had more news. Maybe the storm had turned into a blizzard. While I waited for Dr. G.’s report I listened to four songs. I danced around the room with the microphone. When the last song ended, I bowed to Emily Junior and Goosie. “Thank you. Thank you, lady and gentleman,” I said.
Then I heard Dr. G.’s voice on the radio. “The storm is on its way. It should hit our area sometime tomorrow. Expect anywhere from eight to twelve inches of snow, folks.”
Ooh, I was ready for the storm. I could not wait for tomorrow.
Leaving School
When I woke up on Wednesday morning, light snow was already falling. It was so light and fine it was hard to see. But it was falling, all right. In a flash I turned on my sound box. I had not expected snow so early. Maybe school would be closed today and tomorrow. It would be a shame if we were snowed in while we were at school. That would not be any fun. It would probably not even count as a snow day.