Karen's Lucky Penny Read online

  “Hi, Bobby!” said Nancy and I.

  “Want to go to the brook with me?” he asked.

  There is a little brook not far from Bobby’s house. I had almost forgotten about it. It is pretty boring in the wintertime. But now that summer was almost here, that brook would be full of minnows. And we would probably see dragonflies and water spiders and newts and maybe frogs.

  “Yes!” I exclaimed. “Okay, Nancy?”

  “Okay.”

  Nancy and I took off our skates. We put on our shoes. Then we followed Bobby down the street. My hand was in my pocket, and I rubbed the lucky penny. I was thinking about earning money.

  So were Nancy and Bobby. “We should start a business,” Nancy was saying.

  I was not looking at her. My eyes were on the ground. I was hoping to find another lucky penny. I would give it to Andrew.

  I found something else instead.

  It was brown and leathery, and it was sticking out from under a bush that grew close to the sidewalk.

  “Hey, you guys! Wait a second,” I said. I stopped. I reached under the bush. And I pulled out a wallet.

  The wallet was very fat.

  “Whoa,” said Nancy as she peered over my shoulder.

  I stuck my hand in my pocket and gave the penny one more rub for good luck. Then I opened the wallet. It was stuffed with money.

  I thought Bobby was going to have a heart attack. “Count it! Count it! Count it!” he cried, jumping up and down.

  Slowly and carefully, Nancy and I counted the bills. This took a long time. When we finally finished, we just stared at each other.

  “Almost eight hundred dollars,” I whispered. “A fortune.”

  “I wonder who it belongs to,” said Nancy.

  We checked everything in the wallet. We could not find a name or an address anywhere. Just a couple of kids’ school pictures and a little calendar.

  Bobby whistled. “It’s yours then. The money is all yours.”

  “It is?” I could not believe that.

  “Sure. Finders keepers. How would you know who to return the wallet to?”

  “Well … I don’t know.” I looked at the photos again. On the back of one was written “To Daddy.” On the back of the other was written “For Dad.” But no names. “I just — ” I started to say.

  “Karen, think what you could buy with all that money,” said Bobby.

  “Think what you could do at Funland,” added Nancy.

  “Are you sure it’s okay to keep this?” I asked.

  “Sure I’m sure,” replied Bobby. “It is almost a rule: If you do not see a name, then finders keepers.” Bobby sounded awfully sure of himself.

  And I wanted to spend eight hundred dollars at Funland. I could buy every souvenir I saw. I could eat all the cotton candy I wanted. I could play the midway games until I won ten teddy bears.

  “Okay, then. I guess the money is mine,” I said.

  “You could split it with Nancy and me,” suggested Bobby. “Since we were with you when you found the wallet.”

  “Oh, no. I found it all by myself,” I replied. But I felt a little greedy. So I opened the wallet and took out two five-dollar bills. I gave one to Bobby and one to Nancy.

  “Thanks!” they said.

  Then I stuffed the wallet into my pocket. I began to walk home. I decided not to go to the brook. I did not think I should go wading around with eight hundred dollars. That did not seem safe. Besides, I needed to think. I had already decided not to tell Mommy and Seth about finding the wallet. But what would I tell them when they asked how I had gotten so rich?

  Jail

  I had found the wallet on Thursday afternoon. I had hidden it in my room. I had not told anyone I had found it. I made Nancy and Bobby promise not to tell anyone either. The trouble was that now I could not spend it. If I bought anything big, Mommy and Seth would want to know where I got the money for it. They thought I had only a few dollars.

  By Friday, I began to feel funny about the hidden wallet. Was it really okay to keep it? If it was, then why was I hiding it? I did not think keeping the wallet was exactly wrong. But I did not think it was quite right either. On the other hand, I wanted to be able to spend that money at Funland. One of the Funland TV commercials showed a girl wearing a Funland visor, T-shirt, sunglasses, socks, belt bag, and backpack, and carrying a Funland teddy bear, drinking cup, pennant, bank, doll, sleeping bag, and so many other things she could hardly move. I wanted to look just like that girl. And when I thought about it, I wanted a few other things that I would be able to buy now that I had eight hundred dollars.

  I looked at the spot where I had hidden the wallet. The wallet was stuffed behind some books on my shelf. Then I thought, what would happen if Mommy and Seth found the wallet all hidden away in my room? Maybe they would think I had stolen it. And if they did maybe I would have to go to jail. Jail. How could I go to jail when I also had to go to second grade? What would Mommy say to Ms. Colman? “I am sorry, Ms. Colman, but Karen cannot come to school today because she is in the pokey.”

  I sighed. I took the wallet out of its hiding place. I stared at it for a few moments. Then I opened it. I counted the money again. I thought about Funland. Then I thought about being behind bars.

  On Friday night I did not sleep well. I kept waking up, and imagining myself in one of those striped jail outfits.

  By Saturday morning I had made a decision. I knew what I had to do. I took the wallet out of its new hiding place. (I had been moving the wallet around my room because I was never sure the hiding places were good enough. I kept changing them.)

  Then I carried it through the hallway.

  I started down the stairs. “Mommy! Seth!” I called. “Can I talk to you? I have to tell you something important.”

  The Police

  Mommy and Seth and I sat at the kitchen table. The wallet lay on the table in front of me. For a moment, Mommy and Seth just stared at it.

  Finally Seth said, “Imagine carrying around all that cash with no identification.” He shook his head.

  “Where did you say you found it?” Mommy asked me.

  “Kind of under a bush, right by the sidewalk. We were near Bobby’s house.”

  “And this was on Thursday?” said Seth.

  I nodded. “Yes. And Bobby said I could keep the money. He said that was okay, since we do not know who the wallet belongs to.” I could tell that Mommy and Seth were about to say something like, “But, Karen, don’t you think whoever lost this wallet will want all his money?” So before that could happen I said quickly, “If I did anything wrong, I am really, really sorry. Really. Bobby said it was okay. But now I am not sure he was right. Anyway, all of the money is still in the wallet. Except for ten dollars. I gave five dollars each to Nancy and Bobby. I did not want them to feel bad because I had so much money and they were broke.”

  “Well,” said Mommy, “I guess you know what we have to do now, Karen.”

  “Try to find the owner,” I replied. “But how are we going to do that?”

  “We will take the wallet to the police. They will know what to do.”

  “Right,” agreed Seth. “Someone may already have asked the police if anyone turned in a lost wallet. And that person could identify the wallet by saying how much money was in it, and describing the wallet and the school pictures.”

  “And,” said Mommy, “if the owner does show up, he will want all of his money. You were nice to give some to your friends, Karen, but we have to replace it.” Mommy took ten dollars out of her own purse and put it in the wallet.

  Then we drove to the police station. Andrew came with us. He says he likes police stations. He thinks the police live there. (He also thinks his teacher lives in her classroom.)

  At the police station, Mommy told my story to an officer. Then I handed over the wallet. The officer looked inside it. She counted the money.

  “My,” she said. “You would think someone would have called to ask about the wallet. This is an awful lot
of money.”

  “Maybe the person does not know where he lost it,” suggested Seth. “He might not even live in Stoneybrook.”

  “Do you mean that no one has called to say he lost a wallet?” I asked the officer hopefully. (I rubbed my lucky penny.)

  “Not that I know of, but I better check,” she replied. “I just came on duty. Someone might have called last night.”

  The officer disappeared. When she came back she was shaking her head. “No one called. None of the officers knows anything about a missing wallet or missing money. When did you find this?”

  “On Thursday.”

  I was about to apologize again for keeping it, but the officer was scratching her head. She was not looking at me. “Thursday,” she repeated. “And we do not know how long the wallet had been lying under the bush before you found it. Hmm. Well, let’s say the wallet has been lost for three days already. That’s a long time. But as you said, Mr. Engle, the owner may not know where he lost it, so he may not know which police station to call. We should give him some more time to claim the wallet.”

  “What if he does not claim it?” I asked. “How long do we wait?”

  The officer thought for a moment. Then she gave me a date.

  “That does not sound too bad,” I said.

  “I will keep you posted. And feel free to call me whenever you want. Just ask for Officer Benitez. That’s me.”

  “Okay. Thanks!” I rubbed the lucky penny and crossed all my fingers.

  Money Trouble

  When we arrived home from the police station, the kids were playing outside as usual — Kathryn and Willie, Bobby and Alicia and Nancy. Andrew and I jumped out of the car and ran to them. Andrew ran straight to Alicia. He calls Alicia his best friend now. I ran to Nancy and Bobby. They were standing apart from the other kids. They were talking about something. And they looked very serious. At first they did not even see me.

  “Hi! Hi, Nancy! Hi, Bobby!” I said.

  “Oh, hi, Karen.”

  “What are you guys doing?”

  “We are still thinking of ways to earn money.”

  “Goody, let me help you. I love thinking up plans.”

  Nancy gave me a funny look. “Why do you need to plan ways to earn money?” she asked me. “You have plenty of money.”

  I shook my head. “Not anymore.”

  “What happened?” exclaimed Bobby. “Where is the money?”

  “At the police station. Mommy and Seth made me give the wallet back. I just could not keep it a secret. When I told them about it, they said we had to go to the police. They said whoever lost all that money would want it back badly.”

  “What did the police say?” asked Nancy.

  “They said no one has called about a lost wallet yet. But they are going to hold onto the wallet for awhile. If the owner calls, they will give him the wallet. If no one calls, then I get to keep the money.”

  “So you still might be loaded,” said Bobby.

  “And I might not be. Right now I have hardly any money for Funland. Oh, and by the way, you guys each owe Mommy five dollars. She said if I was going to give the wallet back, all the money should be in it. So she put back the ten dollars I gave you. She took it out of her wallet.”

  Nancy’s mouth dropped open.

  Bobby cried, “But that isn’t fair! You gave us that money.”

  “Plus, I already spent my five dollars,” said Nancy. “I meant to save it for Funland but, well, I didn’t.”

  “Same here,” said Bobby. “Nancy and I are both almost broke. That is why we have to think up a business to go into. We have to earn a lot of money fast.”

  “If you are going to earn a lot of money, then you can pay back Mommy,” I said.

  “But Karen, you did not tell us we would have to give back the money,” said Nancy.

  “I did not know I would have to give back the wallet,” I replied.

  “Anyway, we are probably not going to earn a lot of money,” said Bobby. “Just enough for Funland.”

  I looked at Bobby and Nancy. They stared back at me. We did not know how to solve our problem. But I really thought my friends should fork over the ten dollars.

  I left Bobby and Nancy. I needed to earn money, but I had a feeling they did not want to plan businesses with me just then. I decided to see what the other kids were doing. Guess what. They were talking about money, too.

  “My birthday is next week,” said Willie. “I am going to save my birthday money for Funland. I bet I will have a lot.”

  “Lucky duck,” said Alicia.

  “I am going to earn money watering Mr. Drucker’s plants,” said Kathryn.

  “I do not know how I will earn money,” said Alicia.

  “I have already earned money doing chores for Mommy,” said Andrew. “But I need to earn more. I am thinking of having a lemonade stand.”

  “A lemonade stand?” I repeated.

  “Yes,” replied Andrew.

  “Do you know how to run one?” I asked him.

  “You — you just pour the lemonade in the cups and when someone says he wants to buy some you say, ‘That will be twenty-five cents, please.’ Don’t you?”

  “Well, not exactly,” I said. “Listen, Andrew, be sure to let me help you if you start a lemonade stand.”

  Mr. Beadle

  I was counting off the days I had to wait until the wallet might be mine. Only two were left. Nobody had called the police station. I imagined myself taking all that money home. Seven years old — with eight hundred dollars to spend. Well, Mommy and Seth would probably make me put some of it in the bank. But even if I put half in the bank I would still have four hundred. I tried to figure out how many Funland souvenirs I could buy with four hundred dollars.

  That afternoon the phone rang. Mommy answered it. She spoke to the caller for a minute or two. Then she hung up. “Karen!” she called. “Can you come to the kitchen, please? I need to talk to you.”

  I wondered if I was in trouble. What had I done? I could not think of a thing. “Yes?” I said when I reached Mommy.

  “Honey, someone claimed the wallet a little while ago. The police are sure he is the owner. He described the school pictures and the wallet and everything.”

  “Darn!” I cried. I stamped my foot. “I don’t believe it. That money was mine.”

  “Karen,” said Mommy. “No, it was not. It belongs to Mr. Beadle. He is the owner. And he worked very hard to earn it.”

  “I guess,” I replied.

  “Also, he would like to meet you,” Mommy went on.

  “He would?”

  “Yes. And he is at the police station right now.”

  Mommy and Andrew and I piled into the car and drove to the station. Officer Benitez met us there. “Come say hi to Mr. Beadle, Karen,” she said. “He wants to meet the person who was honest enough to turn in his wallet.”

  We went into a small room. A man was sitting at a table. He looked like he might be just a little older than Daddy. And he was dressed in very plain clothes — a worn-out shirt and faded jeans. He grinned when I walked into the room.

  “Mr. Beadle, this is Karen Brewer,” said Officer Benitez.

  Mr. Beadle jumped to his feet. “Karen,” he said, “I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you turned in my wallet. Not everyone would have been as honest as you were. That money means a lot to my family and me. Thank you so much.”

  “You’re welcome,” I replied.

  “I’d — I’d like to give you a reward, Karen,” Mr. Beadle went on.

  I almost said, “Really? How much?” Instead I said, “Oh. Thank you.”

  At the very same time, Mommy said, “We cannot take any money.”

  “But I insist,” said Mr. Beadle. “A reward is in order.”

  I looked at Mommy. I looked at Mr. Beadle. Maybe Mr. Beadle would split his money with me. Four hundred dollars for each of us.

  Mr. Beadle was reaching into the wallet. He pulled out some bills and counted them. Then he
placed them in my hand. “There you go, Karen,” he said. “One hundred dollars. And thank you again.”

  “One hundred dollars!” I cried. One hundred? What had happened to four hundred?

  “One hundred dollars!” Mommy cried. “Oh, no. That is far too much!”

  “Once again, I insist,” said Mr. Beadle. And with that he stood up and walked out of the room. The rest of us followed him.

  “Thank him,” Mommy whispered to me.

  “Thank you, Mr. Beadle,” I said. Then I added, “Thank you very much.”

  “My goodness,” Mommy said a few moments later as we climbed into our car. “One hundred dollars, Karen. That is a lot of money.”

  “I know. It isn’t as much as eight hundred, though. Mommy? Could I keep all the money? I mean, do I have to put some of it in the bank? Just this once, couldn’t I keep it all? Please?”

  “Oh, honey, I don’t know. What are you going to do with it?”

  “Spend it, I guess. On Funland and maybe some other things.”

  “That might be harder than it sounds,” said Mommy. (I did not see how. I love to spend money.) “But all right. This one time you do not have to put anything in the bank. I just hope you learn something from spending the money, Karen. Spend it wisely.”

  Toys

  I could not believe my good luck. Okay, so Mr. Beadle had shown up and I had not been able to keep the eight hundred dollars. I did not even have four hundred dollars. But I had one hundred dollars. And Mommy had said I could do whatever I wanted with it. I was all set for Funland. I could buy plenty of souvenirs.

  When Mommy and Andrew and I arrived home from the police station, Andrew and I ran outside to play. I was still holding my reward money. I waved the bills around.

  “Guess what I have here!” I cried.

  Bobby and Nancy stopped talking and looked at me.

  Alicia and Kathryn and Willie stopped making their chalk drawings and looked at me.

  “She has a hun — ” Andrew started to say.

  “No!” I cried. “Let me tell. I have a hundred dollars! And it is all mine to spend. The guy who lost the wallet called the police. They gave the wallet back to him, but he gave me one hundred dollars for a reward.”