A Big Box of Memories (3 page)

So many good things had happened, Molly thought. She wrote until her hand got tired, and then she got ready for bed. Her mom came up to brush her hair and tuck her in.

“No TV tonight?” her mom asked.

“I was too busy,” Molly answered. “Working on my project.”

“Good,” said her mom, giving her a good-night kiss.

In the morning before school, Molly wrote some more in the notebook. She had fun remembering Jody’s birthday party. The Pee Wees in 2100 would have fun reading about it, she thought.

After school she raced home and kept writing. She wished she could write with
her left hand, because her right hand ached. The next day she wrote more, and the next day more than that. Rat’s knees, she thought, this is a lot of work. She hoped Mrs. Peters would appreciate it. And the Pee Wees of 2100.

By the time the next Pee Wee Scout meeting came, she had only a few more weeks of her diary to copy. She was almost finished!

Some of the Pee Wees had things ready for the capsule.

Tim gave Mrs. Peters a rusty fishhook. “I caught my first fish with this,” he said proudly.

Kevin had his rare baseball card. “Think how valuable that will be in one hundred years!” he said. “It’s worth ten dollars even today!”

Mary Beth handed in her blue barrette.

Sonny had a bottle cap. “Bottles won’t have caps then,” he said. “This will be valuable too.”

“I doubt it,” said Mary Beth. “Who wants a dirty old bottle cap?”

Then the Pee Wees told their good deeds and ate their cupcakes. When they were done eating, Roger walked up to Molly and whispered, “Have you got it? Have you got something for me to put in the capsule?”

“You have to get your own!” said Molly. “I’m putting my diary in.”

“Oh,” said Roger eagerly. “Make a copy for me too.”

Molly stamped her foot. “It’s a lot of work to copy my diary,” she said. “It takes a long time!”

“I can wait,” said Roger.

“You don’t want
my
diary,” she went on, “with
my
name on it!”

“I’ll change the name,” said Roger. “Easy. I’ll just cross your name out and write mine on the cover.”

“What a dumb idea,” said Mary Beth when she heard. “He’s so lazy! Who’d want someone else’s diary? It would be like a lie.”

“Roger would do anything to keep from having to work,” said Rachel.

“Well, he’s not getting my diary,” said Molly. “Rat’s knees, it’s a lot of work.”

“But it’s a good idea,” said Rachel. “I think it’s the very best idea of all. It’s what kids would really like to read in 2100.”

Mary Beth agreed. Molly was glad to hear her friends say this. She was glad she had thought of it.

“I’ll have my capsule piece ready next Tuesday,” she told Mrs. Peters when the meeting was over.

“That’s the last day,” their leader warned her.

Mrs. Peters didn’t have to warn her. Molly was reliable. What could possibly keep her from having her diary ready on time?

M
olly decided not to take any chances. When she got home, she went to her room and finished copying her diary. Finally it was done! Her badge was a sure thing!

She closed the little notebook and tried to think of the safest place to put it until next Tuesday. She didn’t want any harm to come to it before then. And she didn’t want anyone to find it. Molly remembered seeing a TV show that said to hide
valuables in an unusual place, somewhere a burglar wouldn’t think to look.

A burglar would look in a desk first, she thought. Notebooks and diaries go in desks. Then she remembered that on the TV show, the person put her valuable jewels in a soup can and put it in the refrigerator. What a good idea! Molly had learned some valuable things from TV! She could take the soup can from her dad’s lunch, wash it out, and hide her notebook in it!

Molly dashed downstairs. No one was around. Perfect! She took the tomato soup can out of the recycling bin and washed and dried it. She tucked the notebook in it and put it on the top shelf of the refrigerator, near the back. Now she could relax, like the other Pee Wees. Her project was done, and it was a good one. The very best. She wished she could be
around in 2100 to see the expressions on the faces of the children who would open her diary and read it. They would say, “Oh, Molly sounds like such a great person! I wish she were still around so we could meet her!”

Molly could almost see those children. Instead of books they probably would carry little computers. Smaller than her dad’s laptop. Maybe they would never have seen a real notebook before till they saw Molly’s! Molly would be someone historical, like the children in the Little House books. Maybe somebody would even publish her diary as a book! Children would stand in line in bookstores when it came out! They would ask for it in libraries. Teachers in 2100 would read it to their classes. Molly would be famous! Maybe they would even make a movie of it. Very often, she knew, books
became movies. If Molly was in a movie, everyone would remember her. Like Cinderella or Tiny Tim.

This was more than a badge—this was a historical landmark!

Suddenly the front door slammed and Molly jumped. For a minute she had forgotten where she was and what year it was! Her imagination again!

“I’m home!” called Mrs. Duff.

Molly helped her mom get supper. Then she called Mary Beth to tell her the news.

“I’m glad you finished it,” said Mary Beth.

“It was worth all the work,” said Molly. “It could be a book, you know, or even a movie.”

“Really?” said her friend. “Isn’t it too short for that?”

“It’s long,” said Molly. “It looks short
because the writing is so small. Anyway, they get those screenwriter people to make it bigger. They put in lots of action and stuff. They’ll get some kid like Roger to play Roger. Some kid from 2100.”

“I don’t know …,” said Mary Beth. “No one could play Roger but Roger.”

When the weekend came, Molly was glad she didn’t have any badge worries. She rode her bike and went to Tracy’s house to play Monopoly. Her project was safe and sound, waiting for Tuesday.

On Sunday she got her library books together to take back on Monday. She decided to get her notebook out of the refrigerator and put it in the bag she always took to Pee Wee Scouts. Molly liked to be ready ahead of time.

She ran into the kitchen. The sun was shining through the window and sparkling on the clean floor. It was quiet.
The clock ticked and the refrigerator hummed.

Molly opened the refrigerator and reached in the back for the tomato can.

But there was no tomato can!

She decided not to panic. She looked on every shelf. Then she took everything out of the refrigerator so she could see better. She pulled open the vegetable crisper and the meat keeper. And even the freezer. No tomato can!

Where was it? Had a burglar found it, even though it was hidden so well? Had the burglar seen the same program on TV about hiding things? Had Roger come and taken the can from the refrigerator? But he didn’t know it was there. And he couldn’t have gotten into her house without a key!

Where was that tomato can?

Molly’s stomach began to ache the way
it did when she got a bad mark on her report card. Or when she had made up a little fib and knew she shouldn’t have.

Molly’s mother and dad came home from taking a walk.

“Have you seen my tomato soup can that was in the refrigerator?” Molly asked.

“Soup can?” said her father.

“I think I did see a soup can in the refrigerator,” said her mother. “I wondered how it got there. Your dad ate all the tomato soup.”

Her mother opened the refrigerator and looked. She moved things around.

“It’s gone now,” she said.

“Why do you want a soup can?” asked her dad.

Tears rolled down Molly’s face. “It was my project,” she said. “My diary to put in the time capsule was in that can.”

“Why was it in the refrigerator?” asked her mother.

“So it would be safe,” sobbed Molly. “From burglars.”

Her dad looked as if he might make a bad joke, but he changed his mind.

“I saw it on TV,” said Molly. “But they were wrong. It wasn’t safe. It’s gone.”

“I don’t know how it could have disappeared,” said Mr. Duff. “We’re the only ones using our refrigerator. Unless Skippy took it.” Skippy was Molly’s dog.

Molly could hardly smile even at the funny thought of Skippy opening the refrigerator door and taking the soup can out with his paw.

Suddenly Mrs. Duff snapped her fingers.

“I think I know what happened,” she said.

“M
rs. Noon!” she said. “She cleaned the kitchen for me when I was at work! I’ll call her.”

Mrs. Noon was Tim’s mother. She cleaned houses for a living. Molly liked her. But how could she have thrown out Molly’s important Scout project?

When Mrs. Duff came back into the kitchen, she was frowning.

“Mrs. Noon remembered it,” she said.
“She cleaned out the refrigerator. She thought the can was empty and she threw it out. The truck picked it up on Friday. I’m sorry, Molly.”

The trash. The truck had taken her precious diary for the space capsule to the recycling center. Maybe she could go to the center! But the center was big. Huge. Things were put into machines and scrunched up. Her notebook was absolutely, positively gone.

“Can you get another one?” asked her dad.

Molly shook her head. “It takes a long time to write so much in little tiny writing,” she said. “And it has to be little to fit into the time capsule.”

She showed her dad her regular diary. “It’s too big,” she said.

“We’ll help you copy it again,” said Mr. Duff.

But Molly did not want her parents reading her personal diary! Diaries were private! Especially from parents. They couldn’t copy it without reading it!

“It’s all right,” said Molly. “I’ll get something else.”

But what? Molly had to find something else to put into the time capsule, and she had to find it fast. What in the world would it be?

Molly ran to the phone and called Mary Beth. She needed help. This was no time to be proud. She needed other minds to work on this.

“I’ll call Rachel and the others,” said Mary Beth. “We can meet at my house in an hour and talk about what to do.”

Mary Beth and some of the other Pee Wees were on the Kellys’ front porch when Molly got there. Mrs. Kelly brought out a plate of fresh cookies.

“I’m so sorry to hear the bad news,” she said to Molly.

Rat’s knees, everyone knew about Molly’s problem. People felt sorry for her! Even parents.

But it was great to have friends. Friends cared about her. Friends would help her!

“It’s pretty late to start all over again,” said Rachel, biting into a chocolate chip cookie. “I’m glad I turned mine in early.”

This did not feel like help to Molly. It made her feel worse.

“We’ll think of something,” said Lisa. “There are lots of things that would be good.”

“None as good as that diary,” said Mary Beth. “That was really cool.”

“What’s your favorite food?” asked Jody.