Katy Kelly_Lucy Rose 04 (10 page)

Today was fun but not the most successful because Mrs. Hennessy forgot all the Words to Remember.

“We'll just keep doing it until they stick,” I said and we started up again with cat.

Later, when Jonique and I were leaving, Mr. Woods asked us, “How did it go today?”

“I figured out the words probably won't stay for long,” I said. “But she has interest in looking at the book and saying the words. It's like an activity.”

“She likes the baby and the apple pictures best,” Jonique said.

“You've been good friends to her,” Mr. Woods said.

“She's a good friend too,” I said.

“Would you girls care for a Life Saver?” he said.

“Would we ever,” Jonique said.

He took a ½ roll out of his sweater pocket and peeled 2 off and gave Jonique a red one and I got green, which I put right in my mouth.

“Mmm,” I said. “Linty but refreshing.”

May 20

I almost collapsed out of my desk chair when Mrs. Timony said, “Now, representing the great state of Hawaii, I present: Ashley!”

I clapped because that's just polite.

Then Ashley said, “Instead I'm representing the great state of Maryland.”

Mrs. Timony looked like she was feeling surprise galore over that but Ashley kept telling the class, “Maryland is an interesting state because it has crab cakes, the Orioles, the Baltimore Aquarium and White Flint Mall and farms and a beach that leads to the Atlantic Ocean.”

She talked her head off for minutes and she showed a picture of the state flower, which is called Black-eyed Susan and a post card of a restaurant in Annapolis. Then she said, “Does anyone have a question?”

I raised my hand but she skipped me until there was no one else left and Mrs. Timony had to make the recommendation of calling on me.

“How come you didn't do your report on Hawaii, Ashley?” I asked and I looked at her right in the eyeballs.

She looked right back in my eyeballs and gave me a stare and the thing I noticed was that her hands were shaking and she was looking altogether twitchy. That made me remember the impromptu concert and my queasiness and sweating from nerves and embarrassment and how everybody was watching me and Jonique and how Ms. Bazoo saved us.

“I picked Maryland since I was born there so it's the most important. To me, I mean,” Ashley said, and her eyeballs got squinty like she was scared somebody was going to throw something at her.

“That's a good reason,” I said.

May 21—8:11 AM in the morning

When the doorknocker knocked my mom was ironing her skirt for work so she said, “Can you get it, Lucy Rose? That Adam comes earlier and earlier.”

I multi-tasked like mad and slid down the banister while I was brushing my teeth and when I opened the door I had Crest foam on my lips.

It was Ashley.

Here's what she said: “Hi, Lucy Rose.”

That's when I remembered the Melons went to Florida for 3 days.

“Hi,” I said.

“You knew I didn't go to Hawaii with my dad,” Ashley said.

“I didn't know that you knew that I knew,” I said.

“I just found out last night when my mom told me that she told you about my dad getting married a long time ago,” Ashley said.

“In January,” I said.

“How come you didn't tell everyone I didn't go to Hawaii?” she asked me.

“I really wanted to tell,” I said.

“Why didn't you?” she asked.

I did not want to say about every grown-up telling me not to do it, or that I'm glad in the extreme that my dad didn't go to Hawaii and marry some girlfriend. And I didn't think I should say that when Ashley was in front of our class looking scared and lonely and unbeloved, I felt sorry for her.

What I said was, “Probably it was because of my maturity.”

Then I thought what if I sound like I'm showing off so I thought fast and remembered how Madam says most things have some good in them, and I said, “If the circumstance was opposite and I was the one who told the lie, you would do the same thing I did.”

“No, I wouldn't,” Ashley said. “I would have told.”

That made my face feel like it was red and steaming and my hands turn into fists on my hips. “Why on earth would you want me to feel like I was embarrassed to shreds?” I said.

Ashley just rolled her eyes at that and started clomping down the steps. When she got to our flowerbed that's made of yellow pansies, she turned around and said, “You have everything, Lucy Rose.” It was in her ultra-snarkiest voice.

I did not get that at all.

So I called out, “I don't have a TV in my room.”

I went back inside and started telling my mom the whole shocking story and all of a sudden, I had one of the biggest thoughts of my life and I turned around and ran after that girl.

When I finally caught up, which was not until East Capitol Street, I hardly had a breath left in me. I asked her my question.

“The answer is yes,” she said. “But if you tell, I'll say you're lying.”

May 22

I got a package from Next Day Mail and inside was a book called
Tom Swift
that used to be my dad's when he was in 4th and inside were 4 cards and they were all aces and a note from my dad was with them and it said: “You're aces in my book.” That is the same as being great.

May 23

The Divas are rich in flour. Also sugar. The shelves are full of cinnamon, and baking powder and vanilla and lemon extracts, and Dutch cocoa. To help out I wrote NEEDS SUGAR on that box. The walk-in fridge is jammed with 50 pounds of butter and piles of chocolate chips and umpteen gallons of cream and 290 eggs. When the Divas looked at it, Mrs. McBee said, “Let the baking begin.”

It's for practice to see how the oven works.

May 23—6:03 PM at night

When Melonhead got back from Florida, Jonique and I raced over and Mrs. Melon answered and I was nervous because what if she still remembered the haircutting incident?

Luckily, Melonhead answered the door. Mrs. Melon was watching the news with Mr. Melon and they were not paying 1 dot of attention to Melonhead because that Congressman boss might be telling his opinions on TV.

I hollered out, “Ashley did it!”

“Did what?” Melonhead said.

“Wrote Melonhead in the cement,” I said. “First thing in the morning, I'm going to tell Mr. Pitt on her so you'll be out of trouble.”

“Don't!” Melonhead said. “Please, Lucy Rose.”

“What on earth?” I asked him.

“I LOVE having my name in cement,” he said. “Now I'm famous in the 5th grade. Melonhead will last forever, like Ichabod. I have the glory!”

“But you had to do her punishment,” Jonique said.

“I know,” he said. “Mr. Johnson let me squeeze his mop in the automatic wringer. I had the time of my life.”

May 24

At 4 PM in the afternoon, the Divas and Madam took a latte break and Jonique and I took it with them only Madam got us All Natural Boysenberry juice. Mrs. McBee and Aunt Frankie had to have double espressos on account of they were about to fall over from being exhausted.

“My get-up-and-go got up and went,” Aunt Frankie said. Then she laughed her head off.

“I've got bags under my eyes,” Mrs. McBee said.

“You most certainly do not,” I said. “I don't even know why you would say such an impossible thing.”

“Thank you, Lucy Rose,” she said.

“The only thing you have under your eyes are those dark smudges from not getting your sleep.”

Aunt Frankie laughed so hard her coffee sloshed.

“You are one jolly lady,” I said and Jonique agreed about that.

May 25

Mrs. Zuckerman telephoned the Divas and invited them to the Home for a visit. Since they are not ladies who like to say no to the retired, they had to get cheerful fast, which is not the easiest when people are feeling utterly overwhelmed, which they were completely.

When we got there, a lot of the retired were in the lobby and Mrs. Zuckerman and Mr. Woods were sitting by a tray of flowers. “These Sweet Williams are for the store front,” she said. “Emanuel and I grew them from seeds.”

“Why, thank you,” Mrs. McBee said.

“Flowers give customers a good 1st impression,” Mr. Woods said.

“Yes, sir. They do,” Aunt Frankie told him.

Now those Williams are planted in window boxes.

That is thanks to Melonhead and Sam.

May 26

At morning greetings Mrs. Timony said, “Does anyone have anything they want to share?”

Jonique told about the Grand Opening that's in 4 days and when she was done, everybody clapped and Bart Bigelow said, “Jonique, since we're in your class do we get stuff for free?”

“No,” I told him. “It certainly does not.”

May 28

Madam cooked all the livelong day and everybody came over to help themselves to chicken and corn on the cob and salad.

But before we ate, Mr. McBee clinked a spoon on his iced tea and when everybody paid attention Mrs. McBee said, “I have always known you all were good people and good friends. But I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be this good. Lucy Rose, I thank you for your original thinking that led you to come up with the Save the Day Plan.”

“Now I call it my Salvage the Day Plan,” I said.

Mrs. McBee smiled and said, “I'll be forever grateful to you and Jonique and Adam. I never saw children work as hard as you 3 did.”

Then she said, “Madam, Pop, and Lily, I hope that 1 day I am given the chance to help someone else as much as you've helped us. I don't know how we would have done it without your faith and hard work, the swooping chandeliers, the incredible mural, the pep talks and great ideas, and your taking good care of my precious lamb while I worked on the store.”

Jonique is the precious lamb.

Aunt Frankie said, “Mr. Nathaniel, Hank, Chester and the McBee men, thank you for your expert help. The City Inspector said he had never watched over a building where everything passed the 1st time.”

“This is truly a community bakery,” Mr. McBee said.

Then we had to eat in a rush because the Divas and Mr. McBee and Pop and Hank and Chester and Harold and Zeke, who came back yesterday, and Mr. Nathaniel had to go back to the store to fix up a few more things before the Grand Opening.

May 28—9:37 still at night

Jonique and I are in my room, lying under my red and pink sheets that have little dots of Redrazzle fingernail polish on the fold-down part and eating raisins. We can't get to sleep on account of having too much enthusiasm over the Grand Opening.

“I'm so happy my mom got an employee so she'll be at home more,” Jonique said.

“Ditto,” I said.

“But I feel sorry that our moneymaking plans were flops,” Jonique said.

“We made money,” I said. “We just had to keep giving it back to the original owners and Mrs. Melon.”

“We truly were a help with the fixing up,” Jonique said.

“Huge helps,” I said. “I feel proud of us.”

“Me too,” Jonique said.

I am stopping this report this second because I hear my mom's legs coming up the stairs.

May 29—Grand Opening Day
6:02 AM in the morning

My eyes are popping out of their lids from the thrill of today. I am up and dressed in my blue plaid shorts and orange shirt and my magnet earrings because this is the greatest occasion. Even my hands are looking festive because of having purple and green ink on them from yesterday when we were helping stamp Baking Divas on 536 white bags and 207 white boxes.

Now I'm standing on my bed, writing in this book, singing, “I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas” and making dents in the mattress with my boots in case it might wake up Jonique and it just did.

The Grand Night of Grand Opening Day

When we got to 7th Street we felt stuffed with joy. That's because the street was utterly clogged with so many people and the only reason they were holding their horses at all was that Melonhead and Sam were giving samples.

“They LOVE the Fudgalicious,” Sam said.

“They LOVE the Glory Bars,” Melonhead said.

“They LOVE everything,” Sam said.

“Lucky we know how to get in the back way,” I said.

When we did get in I could not believe the beauty of that store. It had the divine smells of cooked butter and squeezed oranges and cinnamon and chocolate and coffee. My mom's mural was dazzling the customers. The racks were full of cooling muffins and the white marble counters had cakes and pies and baskets that were full to their brims of brownies and blondies and cheese straws. On the back counter all the boxes we folded were stacked up taller than Mr. McBee and the employee, who has the name of Jean, was filling up a cellophane bag with Aunt Frankie's Famous Sesame-Cranberry-Coconut-Almond Granola and all the workers were wearing aprons that say “Real Vanilla! Real Butter! Real Good!” They were made by my mom. The glass fronts of the display cases were clean like a whistle so customers could get a view of everything on the inside. When I looked at that store, it made me feel like we were great.

“Hello, friends!” Mrs. McBee called to us but she couldn't stop because she was selling at top speed.

“You look completely beautiful, my Divas!” I said. “Your eyes are full of glitter!”

“That's because we haven't been to bed,” Aunt Frankie said and put 12 Snickerdoodles in a bag for a man who was not the most patient.

Mr. McBee packed a box for a lady with a newish-looking baby strapped on the front of her, who said, “We'll have 1 Big Dream Bar and a piece of Humble Pie.”