Karen's Little Sister

  This book is for

  Ann and David,

  Laura and Johnny,

  Shortie the dachshund,

  and, of course,

  Blaze Midnight the rat.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 Rocky and Midgie

  2 Emily Michelle

  3 The Grumpy Morning

  4 Shannon, Boo-Boo, and Pat the Cat

  5 Emily’s Ears

  6 “Hey, Everybody! Look at Me!”

  7 A Pet for Karen

  8 The Baby Bird

  9 A Big Job

  10 Magic Tastee

  11 The Best Bird in the Whole World

  12 Show and Share

  13 Kristy’s Call

  14 Get Well Soon, Emily

  15 Big Sisters, Little Sisters, Middle Sisters

  16 In the Hospital

  17 Karen’s Little Sister

  18 Where Is Magic Tastee?

  19 Tastee Bird

  20 Emily Junior

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Rocky and Midgie

  Hello. Here I am again. It’s me, Karen Brewer. I am six, going on seven, years old. I have some freckles and a little brother who is four. I wear glasses. Once I broke my wrist. I had to wear a cast.

  Do you want to know the most interesting thing of all about me? I have two families. That’s because a long time ago, my mommy and daddy got divorced. Then they each got married again. Mommy married Seth. He is my stepfather. Daddy married Elizabeth. She is my stepmother. Most of the time, my brother Andrew and I live with Mommy and Seth.

  Mommy and Seth live in a little house. Seth has a dog and a cat. The dog’s name is Midgie. The cat’s name is Rocky. I like Seth because he likes animals and children.

  Daddy and Elizabeth live in a big house. That is a good thing because an awful lot of other people live there with them. To begin with, Elizabeth has four children. They are Sam and Charlie, who are in high school, and Kristy, who is thirteen. She is one of my favorite people in the world. The last one is David Michael. He is seven. He is a pain and a bother. Sam, Charlie, and David Michael are my stepbrothers. Kristy is my stepsister. Another person at the big house is Nannie. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother, so she is sort of my grandmother.

  Then there is Emily Michelle. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her. She came from a faraway country called Vietnam. Emily is two. She is my adopted sister. Mostly, I think of her as my little sister.

  I have special names for Andrew and me. I call us Karen and Andrew Two-Two. I got the names from the title of a book my teacher once read to us. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.

  Andrew and I are two-twos because we have two of almost everything. We have two families. We have two houses. (Andrew and I live at the big house every other weekend.) I have two stuffed cats, one at each house. I have two bikes, one at each house. Andrew and I have clothes and toys at each house. We also have two dogs and two cats — Rocky and Midgie are at the little house, and at the big house are Shannon the puppy and Boo-Boo, Daddy’s fat old cat.

  You know what I wish, though? I wish I had a pet of my own. Rocky and Midgie and Shannon and Boo-Boo belong mostly to other people. Rocky and Midgie are Seth’s, Shannon is David Michael’s, and Boo-Boo is Daddy’s. Sometimes I pretend they are mine, though.

  One night, Rocky and Midgie were in my room at the little house. We were playing a game. I had closed the door to keep them in.

  I was the mother. Rocky and Midgie were my children.

  “Come here, Rocky,” I said. “It’s time for you to get dressed.”

  I pulled Rocky into my lap. I tied a doll’s bonnet on his head. This was not easy. “Mrow!” said Rocky.

  “Hold still,” I told him. “I have to put your — Midgie, get back in bed!” Midgie was supposed to be napping in my doll’s bed.

  He jumped out.

  Rocky pawed at his bonnet until it came off.

  Then they both ran to the door.

  “Oh, darn!” I cried.

  “Karen, what’s going on in there?” called Mommy.

  “Nothing,” I answered.

  I opened my door. Rocky and Midgie flew into the hall. They darted down the stairs.

  “I wish,” I said out loud, “that I had a pet of my own.”

  Emily Michelle

  “Karen! Andrew! Are you ready to go to Daddy’s?” asked Mommy.

  It was a special Friday evening. It was a going-to-Daddy’s Friday.

  Andrew and I ran to Mommy in the kitchen. Our knapsacks were packed. One nice thing about being a two-two is that you hardly have to remember to take anything with you when you go from one house to the other. Just a few things that fit into a knapsack.

  “We’re all set!” I said.

  Mommy had put her coat on. Her car keys were in one hand. Her pocketbook was in the other.

  Mommy and I look alike. We both have blond hair and freckles and wear glasses. Andrew looks a little like us. He has blond hair, too, but not as many freckles, and no glasses.

  “Let’s go!” said Andrew.

  Mommy drove us to the big house. “Good-bye!” she called as Daddy let us in the front door. “Have fun! See you on Sunday! I love you!”

  “Love you, too!” said Andrew and I.

  And suddenly we were in the big house. We were surrounded by people and noise and excitement.

  “Hi, Professor,” David Michael said to me.

  That’s what he started calling me when I got glasses. It is not a mean nickname. It is a nice one.

  Daddy walked into the hallway carrying Emily. Emily was fussing and crying and rubbing one of her ears. She does that a lot. It is a pain.

  “What’s wrong with Emily?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Why is she crying?” asked Andrew.

  “We don’t think she’s feeling too well,” Daddy answered. “We think she might have another earache.”

  Daddy leaned over and kissed Andrew and me. He couldn’t hug us, though, because his arms were full of Emily. Daddy always used to hug us when we came for the weekend.

  Emily didn’t stop crying. She cried while the rest of us kids ate supper. Daddy and Elizabeth and Nannie had been invited to a dinner party, but now they could not decide whether to go. Daddy kept feeling Emily’s forehead and saying, “I think she has a fever. Maybe we shouldn’t leave.”

  Finally Elizabeth took Emily’s temperature. No fever.

  Nobody paid a speck of attention to Andrew and me. I was gigundo mad. We don’t see the big-house people very often. It wasn’t fair that Emily got all the attention.

  I looked at Andrew. He looked at me. We were not happy. Andrew used to be the youngest at the big house. I used to be the youngest girl. Now Emily is the baby. She has ruined everything.

  Anyway, Daddy and Elizabeth and Nannie finally went to their dinner party. Charlie and Sam went to a basketball game at their school. Kristy was left baby-sitting.

  Usually, I love having Kristy for my sitter. She is a good sitter. She and her friends even started a group called the Baby-sitters Club. But that night was no fun. Emily fussed and fussed. Kristy rocked her and read to her and spent an hour trying to get her to go to sleep.

  She did not even have time to read me a bedtime story.

  I decided that I did not like having a little sister.

  The Grumpy Morning

  When I woke up the next morning, I was cranky. I was in a bad mood. I felt grumpy all over.

  “I hope Emily behaves herself today,” I said crossly to Moosie. Moosie is my stuffed cat. I always sleep with him and with Tickly, which is half of my special blue blanket. (The other half is at Mommy’s.) “If Emi
ly does not behave herself, maybe I will just go back to Mommy’s. At Mommy’s, I don’t have a little sister.”

  I had not slept well the night before. Who can sleep with so much noise? All night, at least once every hour, Emily had woken up and cried. Then some adult had had to wake up, too, and go into her room and rock her or sing to her or give her some milk.

  I decided that if anyone said to me, “Goodness, you’re grumpy today, Karen,” I would answer, “That is because I could not sleep last night, thanks to Emily. She made too much noise.”

  I rolled out of bed and got dressed. Sometimes I like to wear skirts, even on Saturdays. So I put on a blue-jean skirt and a pink-and-white-striped top. Then I pulled on pink socks and my white sneakers.

  I brushed my hair.

  I made my bed.

  I put Moosie and Tickly on top of my bed.

  I thought about Goosie (my other stuffed cat) and the other half of Tickly over at Mommy’s house. Maybe I would be sleeping with them that night.

  Finally I went downstairs. In the kitchen I found Daddy, Elizabeth, Nannie, Kristy, and Emily. All the boys were still asleep.

  Emily was in her high chair and she was fussing. As usual.

  Nannie put her hand on Emily’s forehead and said, “Now I think she does have a fever.”

  Elizabeth said, “I think she should definitely go to the doctor. Her ear is still bothering her. I’m sure she has another ear infection.”

  Daddy said, “I’ll call the doctor right now.”

  No one noticed me, so finally I said in a gigundo loud voice, “GOOD MORNING!”

  Emily cried harder.

  Daddy said, “Karen, keep your voice down, please. Emily isn’t feeling well.”

  I sat down at the table in a huff.

  I crossed my arms and stared at Emily Michelle. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, I thought. But Emily would not stop crying.

  “Poor baby,” said Elizabeth. She lifted Emily out of her high chair and gave her a hug.

  Daddy called the doctor. “Okay,” he said when he had hung up the phone. “Doctor Dellenkamp can see Emily at eleven.”

  “That’s great,” replied Elizabeth. “I’ll take her.”

  “And I’ll go with you,” said Kristy.

  Boo. I wanted to play with Kristy that morning.

  Elizabeth put Emily back in her high chair and gave her a bowl of Krispy Krunchy cereal.

  “May I have some Krispy Krunchies, too, please?” I asked.

  “Oh, Karen, I’m sorry,” said Elizabeth. “I didn’t know you wanted any. I gave Emily the last of the box.”

  Double boo. I stuck my tongue out at Emily.

  Just then, Emily knocked over her bowl of cereal. The milk splashed on my blouse.

  “Emily!” I cried. “Bad girl!”

  Emily burst into tears.

  Daddy scolded me.

  I could not wait for Emily to leave for her doctor’s visit.

  Shannon, Boo-Boo, and Pat the Cat

  It was not a good day.

  Emily was ruining the weekend.

  When the clock said twenty to eleven, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. That was because Elizabeth, Emily, and Kristy left the house then. They were on their way to Dr. Dellenkamp’s.

  I didn’t understand one thing, though. Why did Kristy have to go? She gets to see Emily every day. She lives with her. But she only gets to see me two weekends out of every month. What was so special about Emily and her ear? She was always getting earaches.

  I waved sadly to Kristy as Elizabeth drove down the street.

  Then I sat on our front steps. It was nice and peaceful without Emily and her squawking and crying. But I wanted to do something. I walked around to our backyard. I found David Michael, Andrew, Shannon, and Boo-Boo there.

  Goody! I thought. I can play with one of the pets.

  Shannon was busy chasing sticks that the boys were throwing, so I would have to play with Boo-Boo. Boo-Boo was in Daddy’s herb garden.

  He was asleep.

  “Boo-Boo,” I whispered. “Boo-Boo … Boo-Boo … BOO-BOO!”

  Boo-Boo stirred, but he did not even open an eye.

  I shook him gently. “Wake up! Wake up!”

  “Grrr,” growled Boo-Boo. That was cat talk for, “Go away and let me sleep.” See? Emily had even kept Boo-Boo awake during the night.

  I left Boo-Boo alone. Who wants to play with someone who doesn’t want to play with you? Boy. Now I really, really, really wished for a pet of my own.

  Then I got an idea. I ran inside and called Hannie Papadakis. Hannie is my big-house best friend. She lives across the street and one house down. (I have a little-house best friend, too. Her name is Nancy Dawes and she lives next door to Mommy. Hannie and Nancy and I are in the same class at school.)

  “Hannie?” I said. “Want to come over? … You do? Oh, good. Can you bring Pat? I promise that Boo-Boo won’t bother her.” Pat is Hannie’s kitten. I love Pat. She is a very good kitten. She is nice, unlike other cats I can think of who won’t wake up or won’t wear dolls’ bonnets.

  So Hannie came over, carrying Pat in her arms.

  We sat in my front yard.

  “Hi, Pat,” I said, “Hi, Pitty-Pat.”

  Pat purred and purred.

  “What shall we play?” Hannie asked me.

  I thought for a moment. “Let’s play house. I’ll be the mother, you be the father, and Pat will be our baby.”

  “Okay,” said Hannie.

  But Pat was frisking around the yard. She did not look like she was going to want to be our baby.

  “Wait,” I said. “I have a better idea. Look at those dandelions growing by our walk. Let’s make Pat some fancy dandelion jewelry.”

  So we did. We made her four little bracelets and a necklace.

  Just as we were finishing the necklace, Elizabeth’s car pulled into the drive.

  “There are Kristy and Emily and Elizabeth!” I cried, jumping up. “I have to go find out what the doctor said about Emily’s ear.”

  Emily’s Ears

  When I asked Elizabeth about Emily’s ear, she just said, “At lunchtime I’ll tell everybody what the doctor said.”

  It was almost lunchtime anyway, so Hannie took Pat home. Pat looked so, so lovely in her dandelion jewelry.

  My brothers and Kristy and I helped make lunch. We took everything out of the refrigerator, put it on the counter, and fixed our own lunches. When we sat down to eat, the whole family was at the long kitchen table. Daddy sat at one end and Elizabeth sat at the other. Kristy, Andrew, Nannie, and I were squeezed onto one side, and Sam, Charlie, and David Michael sat across from us. Emily was in her high chair, next to Elizabeth.

  “Well,” said Elizabeth, “I have an announcement to make.”

  Everybody stopped eating and looked at her.

  “Is the announcement about Emily?” I asked.

  “Yes,” replied Elizabeth. “The doctor said she does have another ear infection. Then she said that Emily has had too many ear infections. She wants to put some special tubes in her ears.”

  “Tubes in her ears!” exclaimed David Michael.

  “Yes. They will help drain fluid when she gets a cold, so that it won’t infect her ears. When she’s a little older, the tubes will be taken out.”

  “Ew,” I said.

  “How do they put the tubes in her ears?” asked Andrew.

  “Emily will have to go into the hospital,” Elizabeth replied. “Just overnight. She’ll have an operation in the morning and the surgeon will put the tubes in. It’s actually pretty simple. Emily can come home later that day. Doctor Dellenkamp wants to do this in two weeks, when Emily’s earache has cleared up.”

  Oh, that is great, I thought. That is just great. Guess when two weeks would be? It would be Andrew’s and my next visit to the big house. Everyone would be fussing over Emily then. Some of the adults would probably want to stay at the hospital with her. Maybe all of the adults would want to stay at the hospital. Maybe even K
risty would want to.

  What a fun weekend that would be.

  I put my fork down. I was mad. How come Emily got all the attention? She was going to get to stay in the hospital. I didn’t even have to stay in the hospital when I broke my wrist. I just went to the emergency room for awhile.

  Boo, boo, boo.

  “Hey, Everybody! Look at Me!”

  There was only one good thing about the rest of the weekend. That was that Emily stopped crying and rubbing her ear. Dr. Dellenkamp had given her some medicine and she started to feel better right away.

  But nobody could stop talking about Emily.

  On Saturday afternoon, I walked into the den. Daddy and Charlie and Emily were there. A baseball game was on TV, but Daddy and Charlie were not watching it. Daddy was holding Emily in his lap and saying, “Maybe Emily’s speech will get better after the tubes are in her ears.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Charlie.

  “Well, she doesn’t talk much for a two-year-old,” said Daddy. “Maybe that’s because she doesn’t hear well.”

  Nobody had noticed me yet, so I turned a somersault into the den and landed at Daddy’s feet.

  “Look at me!” I cried.

  Daddy said, “Very nice, Karen…. Poor Emily. How awful to have ears full of fluid.”

  I left the room.

  At dinner that night, Elizabeth said, “I wonder how Emily will feel when she’s in the hospital. I’m worried. She’ll probably be scared to death.”

  “Maybe one of us can spend the night with her,” suggested Nannie.

  I hoped it would be Nannie or Elizabeth, not Daddy.

  “I was scared when I had my tonsils out,” said Charlie. “Remember?”

  I stood up and announced, “We learned a new song in music class last week. Want to hear it?” Before anyone could answer, I began singing, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.”

  But Sam ruined it by joining in with, “Ay, ay, ay-ay. I am the Frito Bandito. I like Fritos corn chips. I like them, I do — ”

  I sang louder so my family could hear me, but Elizabeth said, “Quiet down, both of you. Let’s have a peaceful meal.”