Authors: Laura Dower
“I love you, honey bear,” Mom said.
Madison felt like she might cry. She took a little breath. “I love you, too.”
As soon as she hung up the phone, Madison settled on the couch next to Gramma Helen to finish looking at the album.
Inside FRANCINE, there were pages of baby photos and ribbons and cards. One photograph showed Mom in a baby bathing suit standing on the edge of a dock like she was getting ready to dive. She wore a little float in the shape of a giraffe.
Gramma pointed out page after page of pictures from each summer Mom had spent up at the lake house during her childhood.
“When your mom was just seven,” Gramma said, turning a page, “she ran away. I thought my heart would stop. We had a neighborhood search party.”
Madison giggled. From all the stories she’d always heard, Mom was good at getting herself into trouble. “So what happened?” she asked.
Gramma sighed a deep, long sigh. “Turns out she was hiding under the porch.”
Madison imagined Mom on her hands and knees, hanging out with the worms and spiders under the porch. She’d changed a lot since then.
“And what’s
this
picture, Gramma?” Madison pointed to a candid shot of Mom with very short hair. It spiked around her forehead.
Gramma laughed out loud. “Oh, my, that’s the summer your mom’s hair caught fire,” she explained. “What a horror. Leaned into the stove. She cried for
weeks.
By the time she stopped crying, her old hair had practically all grown back.”
Madison couldn’t believe the wild things Mom had done at the lake house.
“Have you ever been fishing?” Gramma asked, turning another page. “Your grandfather used to take the kids out fishing every day of summer, I swear. See this photo here? The one with her inside the fishing boat?”
She pointed to a picture of Mom sitting in a canoe with her sister, Angie, and her father, Madison’s grandpa Joe. In her hands, Mom held an enormous fish that measured almost the same size that she was.
Angie was pouting. Grandpa was posing.
Gramma caught her breath and placed her hand over the center of her chest. “Just look at the three of them,” she said. “My dears.”
Madison noticed that Gramma’s eyes were getting a little wet.
“I miss him,” Gramma said. “Your grandfather was a good man. You remind me of him sometimes, do you know that?”
Madison didn’t remember much about the lake house, but she remembered lots about Grandpa Joe. It was like everything from the past blurred together a little, but he stood out. The way his scratchy beard felt when he hugged her. The way he always clicked his dentures. The way he’d play the guitar sometimes at night after they had supper. In her mind, Madison always liked to think of him as her “Pa” from
Little House on the Prairie.
He was nothing like Dad or Mom, and Grandpa Joe didn’t know anything about computers, but he was that kind of superspecial that only comes along once in a while.
Zzzzzzzzzzzing!
Gramma Helen jumped into the air when the phone rang. She leaned over the arm of the sofa and picked up the portable.
“Angie!” she said, her voice cheering right up again. “Well, I’m just sitting here with your niece, looking through some old albums… Yes, we are behaving ourselves. … Yes, she’s doing just fine…”
Gramma winked at Madison.
It sounded like they’d be talking on the telephone for a while, so Madison bopped into the guest room to give Gramma some privacy.
Plus she had to see if anyone had gotten her latest e-mails.
T
HE LAPTOP CONNECTED IMMEDIATELY
again and her e-mailbox appeared. This time, however, Madison was in for a big surprise.
Mailbox is full.
She blinked at the screen. Full? Scrolling down, Madison was amazed to discover more than twenty e-mails. A few of them were duplicates, which seemed to have been uploaded and downloaded more than once, but there was
three
days’ worth of mail here!
Right away, she deleted all the spams and advertisements, which left messages from friends and family.
Madison cruised through the rest of the list.
FROM
SUBJECT
FHAS
Newsletter Update
Wetwinz
Lake Party
GoGramma
Your Trip
TheEggMan
Computr Camp Adress
Bigwheels
You Have an E-Card
Dantheman
Pooches
BalletGrl
Sasha’s HERE!!
ff_BUDGEFILM
Safe & Sound
JeffFinn
Joke 4 You
Sk8ingboy
Vacation
BalletGrl
Re: WHERE R U GUYS???
Wetwinz
Re: WHERE R U GUYS???
Some of the mail had been sent
before
Madison had left for Chicago. She realized that the TweenBlurt.com server must have been down. Whenever it crashed, the nasty server ate e-mails and then spit them back out again a day or so later.
The animal clinic had sent along its latest newsletter. Madison saved it so she could read it more closely later.
Fiona sent news about plans for meeting at Lake Dora, which had obviously already happened. Madison hit DELETE.
Gramma Helen had written with wishes for a happy journey to her house. Another DELETE. She was already here!
Then there was a doofy e-mail from Egg about his extra summer e-mail address at camp for the end of July and August. Madison saved the name to her address book just in case. Even when he was at his most irritating, Egg was still one of Madison’s best friends.
Dan Ginsburg wrote about a grumpy bulldog that he and Madison liked to play with at the Far Hills clinic. Someone had adopted the dog and named her Pooches. He thought she’d want to know.
Bigwheels sent an e-card from another place in Oregon, Aimee announced the arrival of her ballet friend Sasha, Mom checked in from San Francisco, and Dad said “howdy” along with a dumb joke he had sent Madison at least twice before.
What do zombies put in their computers? Flesh drives! LOL
Love you, Dad
Madison rolled her eyes. Would Dad ever stop telling terrible jokes?
She scrolled down to the next e-mail … but blinked with surprise when she read the name at the top.
From: Sk8ingboy
This e-mail was from Hart Jones.
Hart Jones?
Madison pinched herself. Since Hart rarely sent her anything, she had trouble believing this was really
his
note up there on the screen. But there was no doubt. This was from the crush himself.
Even though she was still a little mad at him, Madison’s heart thumped to see Hart’s name flash on-screen.
From: Sk8ingboy
To: MadFinn
Subject: Vacation
Date: Sun 29 June 11:11 AM
Howz Chicago? Sorry about what happened at the lake. Was that ur hair clip? I hope so. BCNU, Hart
After staring numbly at the screen for a few moments longer, Madison hit SAVE. She would never delete that message.
Never.
Finally she moved on to a few of the other, more recent notes.
From: BalletGrl
To: MadFinn
Subject: Re: WHERE R U GUYS???
Date: Sun 29 June 5:12 PM
What r u talking about Maddie? I have written you at least 3 emails since u left! I thought u weren’t writing back to ME! Everyone MISSES YOU SOOOOO MUCH. It is so not the same without you here.
Sasha saw a picture of you on my wall and she said you were superpretty. Isn’t that nice? Well, we have a special ballet class today so I am up early for vacation. Then we’re going to Lake Dora again with Fiona and her friend Debbie. Wish you were here.
Love ya,
Aim
p.s. Blossom misses Phinnie, too.
After Aimee’s message, there was also a message from Fiona.
From: Wetwinz
To: MadFinn
Subject: Re: WHERE R U GUYS???
Date: Sun 29 June 5:15 PM
I have TOTALLY written back! Haven’t I? I think ur server is messed up or something BTW. That’s why u couldn’t get mail.
OF COURSE WE MISS U!
Life here is square. My brother, Chet, is being a loser, but Egg has been over visiting a lot this weekend, so he and I have been hanging out. Don’t SAY IT! You know what I mean. I can’t help liking Egg even if he is a weirdo. Besides, I am one too. :>)
My friend Debbie sez hello 2 you. She’s different than I remember from home though. She is a little stuck up or something. More on that l8r.
Sooooo you have 2 send news about ur Gramma’s house. Does she have a scanner? Can u send a picture of you and Phin? I can put it up like a screen saver while u r away. BYE FOR NOW!
xoxoxoxxoxox Fiona
Madison was just about to write to Bigwheels yet again when Gramma interrupted with a boom.
“Maddie!” she wailed from the other room. “Come get supper!”
It was already way after six o’clock. As usual, dinner smelled funny but tasted yummy. Only Gramma Helen could make a grilled cheese sandwich taste so good. And after the table was cleared off, Madison and Gramma played more games of crazy eights until almost ten o’clock. Madison was sure that after a week in Winnetka,
she’d
be addicted to card playing, too.
With bedtime approaching, the dishes washed, and the cards (finally) put away, Gramma sent Madison out to the front curb with one last task: taking out the bag of garbage. She said it was nice to have a helping hand around to lift the heavy things.
“Just drop it in the brown barrel, okay?” Gramma said. “The green container is Mabel’s.”
Madison hoisted the garbage over one shoulder and pushed open the screen door. All she could hear was crickets. All she could see was pale moonlight. She walked with the garbage to the end of the path and slowly lifted the brown lid.
But Madison wasn’t alone out there.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker… and then another person.
A boy was standing next to her, hands on the green barrel.
Mabel’s barrel.
The boy called out, “Whassup?” Then he tossed in his trash before disappearing without another word.
Madison rushed back inside.
“Who is that boy next door?” she squealed to Gramma Helen when she came back in. “You didn’t tell me your friend Mabel had a grandson!”
“Oh, you must have seen Mark,” Gramma said. “Silly me! I forgot that he’d be visiting this week. Guess I was just so excited to have you here all to myself that I forgot. …”
“How could you forget?” Madison asked. “Gramma, there is a cute boy next door. How could you forget
that
?”
Gramma chuckled. “He is cute, isn’t he?”
“How old is he? Where is he from?” Madison asked. “Is he nice?”
“One question at a time! Let’s see … I think he’s around fourteen. And his parents live right here in Chicago. He comes to visit quite often, actually. I thought he was coming
next
week. Must have gotten the dates swapped.”
Madison rushed over to the living room windows on the side of the house that directly faced Mabel’s house. She tugged back the curtain just a little bit and saw that there were still lights on next door. She could make out people moving inside the living room.
“Maddie! What are you doing?” Gramma asked.
Madison shut the curtains gently. “Oh. I was just looking …”
“Looking?” Gramma crossed her arms.
Madison knew she was turning three shades of violet. “For Mark,” she admitted. “I wanted to see what he looked like if I could … He seemed cute, but it was pretty dark out there … and …”
The strange new boy had left Madison tongue-tied.
“Maddie, I’m sure Mabel would love to introduce you to her grandson,” Gramma said. “Why don’t we meet up with them tomorrow, as I said?”
“Really?” Madison gulped. “Oh no, that would be way too embarrassing…”
“Nonsense!” Gramma said. “That’s exactly what we need to do. I’ll call Mabel first thing.”
Gramma plopped down onto the sofa and Phinnie jumped up and danced around her. He wanted his back rubbed. She leaned over to scratch.
On the other side of the room, Madison yawned and collapsed into an upholstered chair. It was odd to feel her heart racing so fast inside such a tired body.
“Let’s get to bed,” Gramma said. “We have a big day tomorrow … and now, apparently, it’s going to be even bigger.”
Madison nodded with a smile. “Yeah.”
She went to get herself ready for bed.
Lying there on top of the covers in her favorite Lisa Simpson nightshirt, Madison watched as bright moonlight cast shadows across her bed and walls. A giant fan in the window hummed while it sucked all the hot air out of the room.
Phinnie snuggled closer to Madison. Although his fur made her legs twitch, Madison was too preoccupied to let it bother her.
She closed her eyes again and thought about what it would be like to
really
meet the boy next door.
She’d be finding out soon enough.
B
Y THE TIME THE
next morning rolled around, Madison had mapped out how, when, and where she’d meet Mark. She even imagined what she’d say.