Thanks for Nothing (From the Files of Madison Finn, 5)
Read Thanks for Nothing (From the Files of Madison Finn, 5) Online
Authors: Laura Dower
From the Files of Madison Finn, Vol. 5
Laura Dower
For Crawford with thanks for
everything
In memory of CB and Bogie …
And you.
Chapter 1
“N
OOOOOOO!” MADISON COVERED HER
face with her hands and peeked through her fingers.
This e-mail was bad news.
From: GoGramma
To: MadFinn
Subject: Thanksgiving
Date: Sat 11 Nov 7:56 AM
I am so very sorry, Maddie, but I won’t be coming to your house for Thanksgiving. My hip problem is back, and I’m not traveling anywhere. Your aunt Angie is spending the holiday with your uncle Bob’s family, so our traditional visit is on hold until next year. Don’t be sad. I will miss you and Phin very much. At least we can talk online now. I finally have the hang of this e-mail.
How did your report card go? How is your friend Aimee? Write me another letter.
Love, Gramma
Madison groaned as she reread the message for the third time. When Gramma Helen didn’t like something, she would say, “Maddie, that is for the birds.” That was exactly how Madison felt right now. Only this Thanksgiving was going to be “for the turkeys.”
How could Gramma not come to Far Hills? Madison deleted the yucky message.
For the past twelve years, Madison’s parents had hosted a major feast every Thanksgiving. Mom’s mom, Gramma Helen, and Mom’s sister, Aunt Angie, and her husband, Uncle Bob, would travel on the plane from Chicago to New York. Dad’s brother, Uncle Rick, would even come from Canada with his wife, Violet, even though Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving in October.
The Finn house had been the epicenter of everyone’s Thanksgiving universe for as long as Madison could remember.
Mom always decorated the house with paper turkeys and gourds and pumpkins and spice candles. All of the town guests slept on sleeper sofas around the house—except for Gramma. Madison gave up her bedroom for Gramma. But she didn’t mind. Madison loved having the house full of people … and so did Phin, Madison’s pug. He loved all the extra attention.
Thanksgiving morning meant sleeping in, watching the Macy’s parade on TV, and eating way too much good food. Dad wore an extra-large poofy white hat and called himself the house superchef. Madison was his unofficial chef-ette. She got up at five in the morning to help him make the best cornbread stuffing on the planet.
But not this year.
This year Dad wouldn’t be in the Finn kitchen, thanks to the big D—D for divorce. And thanks to Gramma’s bad hip and Aunt Angie and Uncle Bob’s changed plans, there would be no out-of-town visitors. There wouldn’t even be turkey on Madison’s dinner table. Unfortunately, Mom was a vegetarian who wanted to save the turkeys, not baste them.
Madison had visions of eating a Thanksgiving bean burrito and tofu stuffing with cranberry sauce this year.
Phin was curled up in a ball on the floor, snoring, oblivious to the change in holiday plans. Would he miss the Thanksgiving attention even more than Madison would? He’d surely miss turkey scraps tossed under the table.
“Maddie, did you call me? Do you need something?” Mom rushed upstairs and found Madison curled up on her plastic purple chair in the center of her room. “I heard you scream and … hey! What’s that look on your face?”
Madison pouted. “Gramma can’t come to Thanksgiving.” She leaned over to pet Phin’s ears. He made a snuffling noise.
“She e-mailed you, huh?” Mom frowned. “She said she would.”
Madison could tell from Mom’s tone of voice that she knew about the change in plans already.
“I’m sorry, honey bear,” Mom added. “Gramma wanted to tell you herself. I know how disappointed you must—”
“Thanksgiving STINKS.” Madison crossed her arms. “Can’t we go to Chicago to see everyone?”
“I told you I have work commitments that week. I’m so sorry, Maddie. Really I am. Next year we can—”
“Next year?” Madison said. “What about this year?”
“This year will be just the two of us. Is that so bad?” Mom chuckled, trying to make light of the situation. But Madison wasn’t laughing back.
“I knew everything would be ruined when I saw a black cat yesterday,” Madison moaned. She believed that it was terrible luck for a person to walk under ladders or cross a black cat’s path. Bad Thanksgiving luck had definitely found her.
“But we’ll have fun together!” Mom said with a big smile. “Won’t we?”
“I guess.” Madison shrugged.
Mom took a deep breath.
“What’s Aimee doing for Thanksgiving?”
“Having a normal day. Her family isn’t divorced,” Madison snapped.
The moment she’d said the words, Madison knew how hurtful they sounded. She reached for Mom’s arm.
“I didn’t mean that.” Madison gulped. “I am so sorry. Mom.”
Mom threw her arms around Madison’s shoulders and squeezed. “I’m sorry, too. I know our new arrangements take some getting used to. But Angie and Bob will come next year. So will Gramma.”
As Mom hugged, Madison felt all her feelings swell up inside like she would burst. But she held back from crying.
“Let’s just make the best of it, okay, Maddie?” Mom said, gently smoothing the top of Madison’s head.
Madison nodded. She didn’t really have a choice. Whether she liked it or not, certain rules about holidays had been set up in the Finns’ divorce arrangements. The judge had ruled that Mom and Dad swap Madison from holiday to holiday. This year, Mom got Thanksgiving. Next year, Dad would.
The back-and-forth between Mom and Dad made Madison dizzier than dizzy on a regular basis. Holidays, however, were proving to be the worst. In this family tug-of-war, Madison Finn was
definitely
all pulled out.
The doorbell zinged. Madison leaped up and dashed downstairs to get the door.
Aimee was standing on the back porch, arms waving in the air, her dog Blossom’s tail thwacking against the sliding doors. From inside, Phin started panting, he was so happy to see his doggy girlfriend through the glass.
“What are you doing here, Aim? I was just gonna call you!” Madison said as she opened the doors. Blossom dashed inside and ran off with Phin.
Aimee struck a pose with her hands up in the air. She was wearing a brand-new yellow winter parka.
“Whaddya think?” she asked. “I ordered it online from Boop-Dee-Doop. Well, my mother did. We ordered it on her credit card. My first Internet purchase ever.”
Madison shook her head. “Cool color.”
“It’s called Lemon Drop,” Aimee said.
“It’s nice. But in case you hadn’t noticed, Aimee, it’s like fifty degrees outside.”
Aimee pulled the jacket off. “I know. I know. But I just couldn’t wait to show you. That’s why I came over.”
Madison decided to make it a special occasion. She took out the blender to make yellow fruit smoothies in honor of the jacket. Making smoothies was one of Madison’s favorite things to do.
“Put extra banana in mine,” Aimee requested.
They watched the blender go.
“I just found out my gramma isn’t coming for Thanksgiving,” Madison said, adding ice into the machine.
“Bummer.” Aimee sighed.
“Yeah.” Madison sighed back. She poured the smoothie into a glass. “So what’s happening at your house for the holiday?”
Aimee shrugged and took a big slurp. “Mom is making some kind of health food dinner, as usual. My brothers begged for turkey, so we’re having one of those, too. You know the drill.”
“Uh-huh. The drill.”
Aimee looked at Madison sideways. “Is something wrong, Maddie?”
“I wish that I had the usual drill for Thanksgiving.”
“Yeah, you have to spend Thanksgiving without your dad,” Aimee said. “That’s stinky.”
“Without my dad. Without my gramma,” Madison said. “Without everyone. It’s just gonna be Mom and me. And two people can’t have a real Thanksgiving alone together.”
“Why don’t you guys go to Chicago?” Aimee asked.
“Mom’s work.” Madison sighed again. “Some project she has to do. I wish I were you or Fiona. She gets to go all the way to California for Thanksgiving.”
Fiona Waters was Madison and Aimee’s brand-new seventh-grade best friend. She’d moved to Far Hills from California over the summer with her twin brother, Chet.
“Fiona said her gramps has a great big swimming pool out there.” Aimee giggled. “They’ll be swimming on Thanksgiving! Now
that’s
weird.”
Aimee twirled around. She danced when she wanted to cheer her friends up, and Madison looked like she could use some cheering.
Madison cracked a smile.
“So are you gonna do that extra-credit project in social studies?” Aimee asked, waving her arms in a circle over her head.
Social studies was the one class Madison, Aimee, and Fiona had together. Their teacher, Mrs. Belden, had a reputation for being one of the toughest teachers in junior high—but she always gave kids a chance to do extra-credit projects. She said hard work was good, but it was just as important to have fun.
“I don’t get why she calls it extra credit when
everyone
has to do it,” Madison moaned. “And why do we all have to pair up?”
“I don’t know. But we could do our project together. We can make a turkey or something.”
“A turkey?” Madison exclaimed. “Like what? A turkey sandwich?”
Aimee laughed. “Sure. Let’s make a mini-replica of the first Thanksgiving dinner with little drumsticks and corn on the cobs. …”
“Hey, what time is it?” Madison asked all of a sudden.
Outside, the sun was dipping down in the sky. It cast the entire room in an orange glow.
Aimee looked at her yellow wristwatch. She had watch bands to color-coordinate with each outfit, including her new parka. “Wow, it’s almost five o’clock. Already four-thirty.”
“It’s getting late. Let’s take the dogs out,” Madison squealed. “Blossom! Phin!”
Blossom came running with Phin. They were panting like crazy.
“Wanna go OUT?” Madison said. Aimee laughed and grabbed the leashes.
It was fun to walk the dogs together. Madison and Aimee liked to think that their dogs were best friends, just like them.
When Madison returned home. Mom was perched on the sofa, watching edited reels from one of her documentary films.
“I’m going up to my room,” Madison announced.
Mom didn’t flinch.
“I’m going up to my room,” Madison announced again, louder this time.
“Okay. Dinner’s in an hour,” Mom said, waving her off. “And clean that mess. And finish your homework.”
Madison made a face, only Mom didn’t see it. Mom sounded like a recorded message: do this, clean that.
Once upstairs, Madison consciously decided not to pick
anything
up. She crawled over her enormous pile of clothes and pile of files and collapsed into her purple chair. There were much better things to do than clean her room! She powered up her laptop.
Madison had only intended to log on, send an e-mail back to Gramma, and log off. But once online, she got
way
distracted from those tasks. She surfed around and went to the home page for TweenBlurt.com. There was a new feature advertised on a flashing yellow banner across the top.
Just Fishing Around! The Ultimate Search Engine!
Madison typed in the word
dog
for fun, just to see what a search on her favorite subject might turn up. Madison was overwhelmed to see more than 1 billion possible matches. Links were underlined.
Dog
Owner’s Guide: Welcome to
Dog
Owner’s Guide
If you have a
dog
, want a
dog
, or love
dog
s, you’ve come to the right place for all kinds of information about living with and loving
dog
s. Includes
Dog
Screen Saver, more.
Dog
Emporium Online
Flea collars, heartworm pills, soft beds, chew toys, rawhide … everything discounted for your family
dog
.
Dog of the Day—Sign Yours Up Now
Tell us about your special
dog
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