The author gratefully acknowledges
Stephanie Calmenson
for her help
with this book.
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
1 A Perfect Summer Day
2 Did You Guess?
3 Bad News
4 Thoughtful Gifts
5 Eureka!
6 Princess Gigglepuss
7 Casting Call
8 The Phone Call
9 Dress Rehearsal Number One
10 Lights! Camera! Action!
11 We Quit!
12 Bossy
13 Nebraska, Here I Come!
14 We Made It!
15 The Farm
16 Visiting Tia
17 Welcome Home, Grandad!
18 The Gift
19 Making Plans
20 The Party
About the Author
Also Available
Copyright
A Perfect Summer Day
Gurgle. Gurgle. Gurgle. That was my tummy talking. I knew just what it was saying, too. It was saying, “Feed me! Feed me!”
I was lying in my bed looking out the window. It was a perfect summer morning. The sun was shining. The sky was blue. There was nothing I had to do except have fun. And feed my stomach. These were two good reasons to get up. So I did.
I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a bunch of freckles. (In the summer I have a bunch and a half.) Oh, yes. I wear glasses. I have two pairs. I have a blue pair for reading. I have a pink pair for the rest of the time.
I also have a little brother. His name is Andrew. He is four going on five. He walked by my room on his way downstairs.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” said Andrew.
“Sleepyhead? Not me!” I said. I was dressed and downstairs in a flash.
Mommy had put out Krispy Krunchy cereal (my favorite), blueberries, milk, juice, and a basket of tiny rolls. My tummy was going to be gigundoly happy.
“These berries are delicious,” said my stepfather, Seth. “They are as sweet as the berries on the farm.”
Granny and Grandad, Seth’s mother and father, live on a farm in Nebraska. I went there once to visit them all by myself.
“I have not talked to Granny and Grandad in a long time,” I said. “I miss them.”
“I am sure they miss you, too,” said Seth. “We will call them later to say hello.”
When we finished breakfast, Andrew and I went outside to play. One by one the other kids on our street came out to play, too.
“Hi, Karen. Hi, Andrew,” called Nancy. Nancy Dawes lives next door to Mommy’s house. She is one of my two best friends. My other best friend is Hannie Papadakis. She lives next door to Daddy’s house. (Can you guess why I have two houses? I will tell you about that soon.)
Hannie, Nancy, and I call ourselves the Three Musketeers. That is because we like to do everything together. We are even in the same second-grade class at school.
Bobby and Alicia Gianelli came out next. Bobby is in our class at school, too. He used to be a bully. But he is not such a bully anymore. Alicia is Andrew’s age. They are good friends.
Then Kathryn and Willie Barnes came out. Kathryn is six and Willie is five.
There were eight of us all together. We always have a good time.
“Who wants to play Red Light, Green Light?” I asked.
Everyone wanted to play. Everyone wanted to be the traffic light, too. It is fun to be the traffic light. You get to call out “Red Light!” or “Green Light!” If you catch anyone moving when the light is red, you send them back to the starting line.
When we chose to see who would be the traffic light first, I was picked. Yes!
This was definitely turning out to be the perfect summer day.
Did You Guess?
If you guessed that I have two houses because my parents are divorced, you are right. Mommy and Daddy got divorced a long time ago.
When I was little we all lived together in one big house. It is here in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. Then Mommy and Daddy started feeling unhappy and fighting a lot. That made Andrew and me unhappy, too. Mommy and Daddy explained to Andrew and me that they loved us very much, but they did not love each other enough to stay married.
After the divorce, Mommy moved with Andrew and me to a little house not too far from the big house. Then she met Seth and they got married. That is how he became my stepfather.
Aside from the people at the little house, there are some pets. They are Midgie and Rocky, Seth’s dog and cat; Emily Junior, my pet rat; and Bob, Andrew’s hermit crab.
Daddy stayed at the big house after the divorce because it is the house he grew up in. He met someone new, too. Her name is Elizabeth. Daddy and Elizabeth got married and that is how Elizabeth became my stepmother. Elizabeth was married once before and has four kids. They are my stepsister and stepbrothers. They are Kristy, who is thirteen and the best stepsister in the world; David Michael, who is a little older than me; and Sam and Charlie, who are so old they are in high school.
I have one other sister named Emily Michelle. She is two and a half. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a faraway country called Vietnam. I love Emily. That is why I named my rat after her.
Nannie lives at the big house, too. She is Elizabeth’s mother. That makes her my stepgrandmother. Nannie is wonderful. She came to take care of Emily Michelle. But really she helps take care of everyone.
Here are the pets who live at the big house: Shannon, David Michael’s Bernese mountain dog puppy; Boo-Boo, Daddy’s cranky old tabby cat; Crystal Light the Second, my goldfish; and Goldfishie, Andrew’s can-you-guess-what? (If you guessed a fish, you are right.) Emily Junior and Bob live at the big house whenever Andrew and I are there. We are there every other month.
Switching houses every month can be a problem if you are not organized. But we do not have too much trouble. I have a special name for Andrew and me. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I thought of that name after my teacher read a book to our class. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) I call us that because we have two of so many things. We have two sets of clothes and toys and books, one set at each house. I have two bicycles and Andrew has two tricycles. I have two stuffed cats. Goosie lives at the little house. Moosie lives at the big house. And you already know about my two best friends, Nancy and Hannie. Plus, I have two mommies and two daddies, two cats and two dogs, two houses, and of course, two families.
Can you guess how I feel about being a two-two? Well, sometimes I am happy because it is fun to have two great families. But sometimes I feel a little sad because I miss one family when I am with the other. So if you guessed happy and sad, you are right.
You are very good at guessing.
Bad News
It was dinnertime on Tuesday. Seth had brought home watermelon for dessert. It was sweet and cold and very drippy. When I finished, I had pink juice on my white T-shirt, and a big pile of seeds on my plate. I moved them around until I had made a gigundoly wonderful picture. It was a watermelon seed dog with lots of spots.
“Taa-daa! This is my Dalmatian named Dotty,” I said.
“She is terrific,” said Mommy.
Ring, ring. Seth jumped up to answer the phone. I hoped he would not talk for too long. We had tried to call Granny and Grandad the other day, but there was no answer. Seth promised we would try them again after dinner tonight.
I heard Seth say hello. He was quiet for a minute, then he said, “How is he? Is he going to be all right?”
Uh-oh. Something was wrong. Seth looked very worried. He was pacing back and forth. I started to worry, too. Who could he be talking about? Whom was he talking to?
Seth had turned the other way an
d was talking very softly, so I could not hear him anymore. When he hung up he came back to the table and sat down slowly.
“Everything is going to be all right,” he said. “But I do have some bad news. That was Granny. She wanted us to know that Grandad is in the hospital.”
“I am so sorry,” said Mommy. “What happened?”
“Did he fall down and hurt himself?” asked Andrew.
“Did he break his wrist? I could tell him everything about broken wrists,” I said.
I once broke my wrist roller skating. I had to go to the hospital. It was scary at first. But then it was not so bad.
“Grandad did not break his wrist,” said Seth. “He had a heart attack. An ambulance came right away to help him and now he is out of danger. But it was a serious heart attack. He will be having bypass surgery on Friday.”
An operation? This was very, very bad news. I love Grandad and I did not want him to be sick. I felt like crying.
“How is Granny doing?” asked Mommy.
“She is tired, but holding up okay. I told her I would come as soon as I can,” said Seth. “I had better call the airline right away.”
Seth picked up the phone again. He made a reservation to fly to Nebraska on Thursday.
Then he called the hospital and asked to talk to the doctor who was taking care of Grandad.
After that he called Tia’s family. Tia is the friend I made in Nebraska. She and her family are Granny’s and Grandad’s neighbors. Seth asked them please to look in on Granny until he arrived.
While Seth was on the phone, Mommy, Andrew, and I huddled together on the couch.
“I do not want Grandad to be in the hospital,” said Andrew. “I am scared.”
“The people in the hospital will take very good care of him,” said Mommy.
I felt scared, too. I knew I would feel better if I did something helpful.
“We should make get well cards for Grandad,” I said. “He can hang them in his hospital room.”
“That is an excellent idea,” said Mommy. “Why don’t you bring your things in here? I will clear the table. That way we can be together.”
You know what? When Seth got off the phone we all made get well cards. We talked about Granny and Grandad and hospitals and operations and being sick.
By bedtime I was not so scared anymore. Everything was going to be all right. It just had to be.
Thoughtful Gifts
When I woke up on Wednesday, Seth was already on the phone.
“I am sure you are doing everything you can to make my father comfortable, Doctor Lerner. Please call me if there are any changes.”
“How is Grandad?” I asked.
“The doctor says he is stable,” Seth replied.
After breakfast we held a family meeting. Mommy and Seth decided that three weeks from Thursday Mommy would fly with Andrew and me to Nebraska. We would meet Seth there and visit with Granny and Grandad. The four of us would come back to Connecticut together on Sunday.
This was very exciting news. I hoped Grandad would be feeling much, much better by then.
“Will we see cows on the farm? And pigs and monkeys?” asked Andrew.
“Andrew. For heaven’s sake. There are no monkeys on a farm,” I replied. “Monkeys live in the jungle.”
“I forgot. But will the other animals be there?” he asked.
Andrew was so excited. He had never been to visit Granny and Grandad in Nebraska. I told him about all the animals he would see.
“I will make some food to take along so Granny will not have to cook so much,” said Mommy.
“I thought of a gift I would like to give my parents,” said Seth. “I decided they might enjoy having a TV and VCR.”
Oh, boy. I was not so sure. Grandad once told me they did not have a TV because they thought it was a waste of money. When I first arrived at the farm I was very unhappy without TV. Then I found other things to do. Fun things. I did not miss TV one bit.
“Do you really think they would like one? They never wanted one before,” I said.
“I think that Grandad might be happy to have it while he is recovering from his surgery. He will not be able to get around and do the things he usually does,” said Seth.
Then I remembered something important. Grandad told me they did not have cable on the farm. So he would not be able to see anything on TV even if he had one. I told Seth.
“You are right,” Seth replied. “That is why I am getting the VCR. They can see movies on tape even if they do not have cable.”
The next thing I knew, Seth was on the phone again. “Hello, Howard. Can you deliver a TV and VCR to me today? I need them wrapped up and ready to ship to Nebraska tomorrow,” said Seth.
Howard is Seth’s good friend. He runs an appliance store. Whenever we need anything, we get it from Howard. Seth says Howard gives him a good discount.
Hmm. Seth’s gift was very thoughtful. So was Mommy’s. I wanted to take a thoughtful gift to Granny and Grandad, too. But what could it be? I thought and thought, but could not decide on anything.
Andrew and I went outside to play. When we came in for lunch, we were just in time to see the TV and VCR being delivered. Well, we saw the cartons anyway. Seth did not want to unpack them until he reached Nebraska.
All day I tried to think of a gift for Granny and Grandad. But I was stumped.
By bedtime, Seth was packed and ready to leave in the morning. I still had not thought of a gift. But I was not worried. I had three weeks to think about it.
I closed my eyes and thought hard about Granny and Grandad. Maybe if I thought hard enough, an idea would pop into my head while I was dreaming.
Eureka!
It was early Thursday morning. Mommy was getting ready to drive Seth to the airport. This was the day he was flying to Nebraska.
Ding-dong. I looked out the window. I saw Kristy on our front stoop. Yippee! Kristy was going to watch Andrew and me until Mommy returned from the airport. Kristy is an excellent baby-sitter. She is even president of a baby-sitting club she has with her friends.
“Hi, everybody,” said Kristy.
I gave Kristy a big hug. Then it was time to say good-bye to Seth.
“See you in three weeks,” said Seth. “Take care of each other while I am gone.”
The first thing Kristy and Andrew and I did after Mommy and Seth left was make a big pitcher of lemonade. It always takes us a little while to get it just right. We squeezed lemons into a pitcher. We added water and sugar. Then we mixed it up and tasted it.
“Eww! Sour!” said Andrew, puckering his lips.
We added sugar, then tasted again.
“Pfooey. Sweet,” I said.
Another lemon.
“Sour,” said Kristy.
A pinch of sugar.
“Sweet,” said Andrew.
A little water.
“Perfect!” we all said at once.
We cleaned up, then Andrew ran upstairs to play with his trucks. Kristy and I stayed in the kitchen and talked. I told Kristy all about my gift-for-Granny-and-Grandad problem.
“I want to take them something special. But I do not know what it should be,” I said.
“How about something for their garden?” asked Kristy.
“They have so many things already. I do not know if they need anything else,” I replied.
“What about a cookbook?” said Kristy.
“Granny and Grandad do not use cookbooks too much. They like to make up their own recipes.”
“What are Seth and your mom giving them?” asked Kristy.
“They are giving them very thoughtful gifts. Mommy is making food so Granny will not have to cook. Seth is giving them a TV and VCR so they can watch movies while Grandad is recovering from his operation.”
“Those really are thoughtful gifts,” said Kristy.
Hmm. An idea was coming to me. If Seth was giving them a VCR to watch movies, they would need movies to watch.
“Eureka!” I cried.
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br /> “What? What did you think of?” asked Kristy.
“I thought of a perfect gift,” I replied. “Daddy has a video camera. If he will let me borrow it, I can make a movie for Granny and Grandad to watch on their new VCR.”
“That sounds great,” said Kristy. “Sam could probably help you make the movie. He knows a little about filmmaking.”
“I will be right back,” I said. “I want to call Hannie and Nancy to tell them my idea. Maybe they will help me with the movie.”
I called Nancy first.
“Guess what!” I said. “I am going to make a movie for my granny and grandad. Do you want to help?”
Nancy was excited. She said she would come over right away. I called Hannie next. She was excited, too. Her mom said she would drive her to my house.
I was gigundoly happy. I was about to begin my movie career.
Princess Gigglepuss
“What is the movie going to be about?” asked Hannie.
The Three Musketeers were in my room. We were holding our first movie meeting.
“I do not know yet,” I replied. “But I think it should be funny. I saw a show on TV that said laughing is good for your health. That is just what Grandad needs.”
“We could tell jokes,” said Nancy.
“We could even act them out,” said Hannie.
“Great idea!” I said.
I jumped up from the bed and started flapping my arms. I walked back and forth across my room like a chicken.
Hannie and Nancy were laughing.
“What are you doing?” asked Nancy.
“You mean you cannot tell? I am acting out a joke. Cluck, cluck, cluck!”
“I know, I know!” shouted Hannie. “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
“To get to the other side!” replied Nancy.
“Right,” I said.
We took turns acting out jokes. But we decided that a good movie needs more than jokes. It needs a story.
“Let’s put a princess in our story,” said Nancy.
“She could be a funny princess who tells jokes,” I said.
“We could have three funny princesses,” said Hannie. “The funniest one gets to marry the prince.”